Quality of service for network connected clients

• US 7,519,717 B2
• Filed: 12/02/2004
• Issued: 04/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Todd, Stephen, Stanford-Clark, Andrew J, Blake, Philip R
• Primary Examiner(s): Abdullahi; Salad
• Assistant Examiner(s): WOOLCOCK, MADHU
• Application Number:
  US10/596,220
• Publication Number:
  US 20070100974A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,594 Days
• Field of Search: 709/230, 709/221, 709/203, 709/220, 709/228, 709/223, 709/227
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A network server for communicating with a network client over a network comprising: a client configuration detector for detecting a configuration of the network client; a server configurator for changing the configuration of the network server; a comparator for determining if the configuration of the network client is compatible with the configuration of the network server; and a server communications component for connecting with the network client using a connection-oriented protocol, wherein the server communications component is operable to disconnect the network client responsive to said comparator.

Claims

1. A method, in a network server, for network communication, the method comprising:

establishing connections between the network server and a plurality of network clients, wherein each connection is established using a connection-oriented protocol, wherein the network server has a first server configuration stored in a memory of the network server, wherein the first server configuration comprises a set of server parameters specific to a network application that the network server provides to the plurality of network clients, wherein each of the plurality of network clients has a corresponding client configuration stored in a memory of the corresponding network client, and wherein each client configuration comprises a set of client parameters specific to the network application for the corresponding network client;

storing a copy of each client configuration in a memory of the network server;

replacing the first server configuration with a second server configuration in the memory of the network server, wherein the second server configuration changes at least one server parameter specific to the network application;

responsive to replacing the first server configuration with the second server configuration, determining whether the client configuration of each of the plurality of network clients is incompatible with the second server configuration;

identifying a subset of the plurality of network clients that have a corresponding client configuration that is incompatible with the second server configuration;

disconnecting the subset of the plurality of network clients from the network server; and

providing the network application to remaining network clients that are still connected to the network server using the connection-oriented protocol.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the connection-oriented protocol is provided using a connectionless protocol.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the client configuration, the first server configuration and the second server configuration include data compression parameters.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the client configuration, the first server configuration and the second server configuration include data encryption parameters.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the client configuration, the first server configuration and the second server configuration include signal strength parameters.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the client configuration, the first server configuration and the second server configuration include data communication speed parameters.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the client configuration, the first server configuration and the second server configuration include media encoding parameters.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the client configuration, the first server configuration and the second server configuration include business application parameters.

9. A method, in a network server, for providing a streaming video application, the method comprising:

establishing connections between the network server and a plurality of network clients, wherein each connection is established using a connection-oriented protocol, wherein the network server has a first server configuration stored in a memory of the network server, wherein the first server configuration comprises a frame rate parameter specific to a streaming video application that the network server provides to the plurality of network clients;

detecting a corresponding client configuration for each of the plurality of network clients, wherein each client configuration comprises a maximum frame rate parameter specific to the streaming video application for the corresponding network client;

storing a copy of each client configuration in a memory of the network server;

replacing the first server configuration with a second server configuration in the memory of the network server, wherein the second server configuration changes the frame rate parameter specific to the streaming video application;

responsive to replacing the first server configuration with the second server configuration, determining whether the client configuration of each of the plurality of network clients is incompatible with the second server configuration;

identifying a subset of the plurality of network clients that have a corresponding client configuration that is incompatible with the second server configuration;

disconnecting the subset of the plurality of network clients from the network server; and

providing the streaming video application to remaining network clients that are still connected to the network server using the connection-oriented protocol.