Communication quality management and apparatus

• US 7,639,682 B2
• Filed: 11/19/2004
• Issued: 12/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Suzuki, Kazuya, Jibiki, Masahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh; Ayaz R
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEE, ANDREW CHUNG CHEUNG
• Application Number:
  US10/591,245
• Publication Number:
  US 20080095159A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,866 Days
• Field of Search: 370/395.42, 370/395.51, 370/395.52, 370/397, 370/412, 370/465, 709/200, 709/203, 709/219, 709/220, 709/231, 709/249
• US Class Current: 370/390
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/15 in relation to multipoint traffic arrangements for broadcast or multicast in data networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS

Abstract

A server proxy (12), which is arranged between a distribution server (11) and a router (13a), adds quality information to a packet (19a) from the distribution server (11) to output a packet (19b). A plurality of reception terminal proxies (17a-17n), which are arranged immediately before respective reception terminals (18a-18n), remove the quality information from the packet (19b) distributed via a network (14) and routers (13b-13m), and distribute only necessary information to the respective reception terminals (18). Each reception terminal proxy (17) which includes a quality information acquisition unit (17A) acquires the quality information to transmit, from a quality information calculation/transmission unit (17B), the quality information (51) to an accumulation server (15). The accumulation server (15) saves, in a quality information database, packet quality information (52) for each reception terminal (18).

Claims

1. A communication quality management method of multicasting data from a distribution server to reception terminals via a router connected to a network, the method comprising:

receiving a multicast packet from the distribution server;

adding quality information to the multicast packet;

retransmitting the multicast packet with the added quality information via the router;

removing the quality information from the multicast packet by a reception terminal proxy coupled between each corresponding reception terminal and the router;

performing quality information calculations and data processing by the reception terminal proxy;

transferring the processed quality information from each reception terminal proxy to an accumulation server coupled to the router;

accumulating the transferred quality information in a database; and

distributing, to the reception terminal, the multicast packet from which the quality information is removed.

2. The communication quality management method according to claim 1, wherein adding quality information comprises:

adding the quality information as a quality information header between a user datagram protocol (UDP) header and stream data of the multicast packet, which is distributed from the distribution server.

3. The communication quality management method according to claim 1, wherein adding quality information comprises:

adding the quality information before the multicast packet, which is distributed from the distribution server, as an IP header, a UDP header, and a quality information header.

4. The communication quality management method according to claim 1, wherein the quality information comprises packet loss information, distribution delay information, and fluctuation information.

5. The communication quality management method according to claim 1, further comprising:

saving, for each reception terminal, the quality information acquired from the multicast packet in a database.

6. A communication quality management apparatus for multicasting data from a distribution server to reception terminals via a router connected to a network, the apparatus comprising:

a server proxy arranged between the distribution server and the router to add quality information to a multicast packet received from the distribution server and retransmit the multicast packet with the added quality information via the router;

a reception terminal proxy arranged between the router and the reception terminal and including

a quality information acquisition unit which acquires, from the multicast packet, the quality information added by said server proxy and

a quality information calculation/transmission unit, said reception terminal proxy distributing, to the reception terminal, the multicast packet from which the quality information is removed; and

an accumulation server which receives and accumulates the quality information from said reception terminal proxy.

7. The communication quality management apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

a quality information database which stores, for each reception terminal, the quality information processed by the quality information calculation/transmission unit and received by said accumulation server, the database being connected to said accumulation server.

8. The communication quality management apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

a quality management server which receives packet quality information from said accumulation server and sets QoS of the router, the quality management server being connected to said accumulation server.

9. A communication quality management apparatus for multicasting data from a distribution server to reception terminals via a router connected to a network, the apparatus comprising:

a server proxy arranged between the distribution server and the router to add quality information as a quality information header to a multicast packet received from the distribution server and retransmit the multicast packet with the added quality information via the router;

reception terminal proxies arranged between the router and corresponding reception terminals, which reception terminal proxies distribute the multicast packet to the reception terminals, the reception terminal proxies including;

a quality information acquisition unit, which removes the quality information header from the multicast packet, acquires the quality information from the quality information header, and distributes the multicast packet, from

which the quality information header is removed, to the corresponding reception terminal, and

a quality information calculation/transmission unit, which processes the acquired quality information and calculates results based on the processed quality information; and

an accumulation server which receives and accumulates the quality information and the calculation results from each reception terminal proxy for each of the reception terminals.