Quality of service differentiation in wireless networks

• US 6,937,591 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2003
• Issued: 08/30/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zhao, Jun, Guo, Zihua, Zhang, Qian, Zhu, Wenwu
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Ajit
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHAH, CHIRAG G
• Application Number:
  US10/377,451
• Publication Number:
  US 20040170150A1
• Time in Patent Office: 915 Days
• Field of Search: 370/445, 370/442, 370/447, 370/345, 370/465, 370/400, 370/461, 370/232, 370/235, 370/347, 370/337, 370/401, 370/395.21, 370242-246, 370/252, 370/254, 370/321, 370/338, 370/328, 370/455
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/24 Negotiating SLA [Service Level Agreement]; Negotiating QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/006 in the downlink, i.e. towards the terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0816 with collision avoidance
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0833 Random access procedures, e.g. with 4-step access

Abstract

A method provides differentiated quality of service (QoS) by providing adaptive updates to media access control (MAC) layer parameters on a distributed basis. The method includes calculating a failure probability for a transmission over the network, determining a target value for determining a contention window according to a mapped function of the failure probability, and altering the contention window according to a scaling function of the target value. The mapped function and the scaling can provide QoS differentiation. A wireless device ensures fairness in a wireless time slotted network and includes a network interface card (NIC), a network driver interface, a network monitor, a statistics engine, and an adaptive parameter engine for determining a target value for determining a contention window according to a mapped function of the one or more probabilities to enable an alteration of the contention window and provide new parameters for the MAC layer.

Claims

1. A wireless device capable of ensuring fairness in a wireless time slotted network, the wireless device comprising:

a network interface card (NIC) configured to transmit and receive signals to the wireless time slotted network;

a network driver interface coupled to the NIC, the network driver interface configured to provide statistical parameters concerning the wireless time slotted network;

a network monitor coupled to the network driver interface, the network monitor configured to monitor network statistics;

a statistics engine coupled to at least the network monitor, the statistics engine configured to receive the statistical parameters and perform operations on the statistical parameters to determine one or more probabilities; and

an adaptive parameter engine coupled to one or more of the statistic engine and the network driver interface, the adaptive parameter engine configured to determine a target value for determining a contention window according to a mapped function of the one or more probabilities to enable an alteration of the backoff period.

2. The wireless device of claim 1 wherein the adaptive parameter engine is further configured to apply a scaling function of the target value, the scaling according to a differentiated quality of service (QoS) for transmitting across the network.

3. The wireless device of claim 1 wherein the network monitor is part of an operating system, the network monitor configured to run in kernel mode.

4. The wireless device of claim 1 wherein the network monitor is configured to operate as a class based module that receives the statistical parameters as objects according to operating system requirements.

5. The wireless device of claim 1 wherein the adaptive parameter engine is further configured to determine new parameters for a media access control (MAC) layer as maintained by the network driver interface to provide quality of service (QoS) differentiation.

6. A computer system capable of ensuring fairness in a wireless time slotted network, the computer system comprising:

a processor,

a memory coupled to the processor;

a network interface card (NIC) coupled to the processor, the NIC configured to transmit and receive signals to the wireless time slotted network;

a network driver interface coupled to the NIC, the network driver interface configured to provide statistical parameters concerning the wireless time slotted network;

a network monitor coupled to the network driver interface, the network monitor configured to monitor network statistics;

a statistics engine coupled to at least the network monitor, the statistics engine configured to receive the statistical parameters and perform operations on the statistical parameters to determine one or more probabilities; and

an adaptive parameter engine coupled to one or more of the statistics engine and the network driver interface, the adaptive parameter engine configured to determine a target value for determining a contention window according to a mapped function of the one or more probabilities to enable an alteration of the contention window.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the adaptive parameter engine is further configured to apply a scaling function of the target value, the scaling according to a differentiated quality of service (QoS) for transmitting across the network.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the network monitor is part of an operating system, the network monitor configured to run in kernel mode.

9. The system of claim 6 wherein the network monitor is configured to operate as a class based module that receives the statistical parameters as objects according to operating system requirements.

10. The system of claim 6 wherein the adaptive parameter engine is further configured to determine new parameters for a media access control (MAC) layer as maintained by the network driver interface to provide quality of service (QoS) differentiation.