Systems and methods for dynamic bandwidth management on a per subscriber basis in a communications network

• US 7,739,383 B1
• Filed: 10/20/2000
• Issued: 06/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nomadix, Inc. (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nomadix, Inc. (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Logan, Mark F., Toomey, Daniel, Short, Joel E., Delley, Frederic
• Primary Examiner(s): WANG, LIANG CHE A
• Application Number:
  US09/693,481
• Time in Patent Office: 3,525 Days
• Field of Search: 709/232, 709/240, 709/227, 709/226, 370/352, 370/348
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1403 Architecture for metering, charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1439 time-based
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0809 Plug-and-play configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0886 Fully automatic configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate
• 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 47/20 Traffic policing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/30 in combination with information about buffer occupancy at either end or at transit nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/32 by discarding or delaying data units, e.g. packets or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/765 triggered by the end-points
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/808 User-type aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/824 Applicable to portable or mobile terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0892 by using authentication-authorization-accounting [AAA] servers or protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 : User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 : in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 : Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

A subscriber bandwidth management process and device that allows users/subscribers in a communications network to dynamically alter bandwidth limits independently in both the uplink and downlink data transmission paths. This is accomplished by providing for a single queue in the uplink transmission path and a single queue in the downlink transmission path. Thus, the user/subscriber can efficiently manage their network access according to the specific activity on the network. The network manager benefits from being able structure bandwidth allocation on a per subscriber basis so that overall data transmission is made more efficient. In addition, the bandwidth manager provides active management of the delivery of data (also known as and referred to herein as traffic shaping) to increase throughput from a gateway device onto the network.

Claims

1. A method for dynamic control of data transfer by a subscriber during an on-going network session, comprising:

receiving a data packet at a gateway device;

identifying, at the gateway device, a subscriber associated with the data packet;

retrieving from memory a subscriber profile that includes subscriber-selected bandwidth;

determining if a transfer rate for data packet transmission to a network should be adjusted based on the subscriber-selected bandwidth; and

dynamically adjusting the transfer rate for data packet transmission based on the outcome of the determination process and without changing a communication path and without hardware reconfiguration of any component in the network,

wherein the transfer rate for data packet transmission is adjustable by a subscriber at any time during the on-going network session based on adjustment of the subscriber-selected bandwidth during the on-going network session, and

wherein retrieving from memory a subscriber profile that includes subscriber-selected bandwidth further comprises retrieving from memory a subscriber profile that includes a first subscriber-selected bandwidth for information being sent to a network and a second subscriber-selected bandwidth for information being retrieved from a network, the first and second subscriber-selected bandwidths being separate.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying, at the gateway device, a subscriber associated with the data packet further comprises identifying, at the gateway device, a subscriber associated with the data packet by the media access control (MAC) address within the data packet.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of retrieving from memory a subscriber profile that includes subscriber-selected bandwidth further comprises retrieving from an Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) subscriber management interface a subscriber profile that includes subscriber-selected bandwidth.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining if a transfer rate for data packet transmission should be adjusted based on the subscriber-selected bandwidth further comprises the step of determining a delay period, if any, for transmitting the packet and wherein the step of adjusting the transfer rate for data packet transmission based on the outcome of the determination process further comprises the step of queuing the data packet for the delay period before transmitting the packet.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of determining a delay period further comprises determining a delay period based upon a byte size of the data packet.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of determining a delay period further comprises determining a delay period based upon a byte size and a time lapse of a most recently transmitted data packet that was associated with the subscriber.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of queuing the data packet for the delay period before transmitting the packet further comprises queuing the data packet for a maximum delay period of 2 seconds.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of queuing the data packet for the delay period before transmitting the packet further comprises queuing the data packet using a ring buffer.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the subscriber network session is a wireless network session.

10. A method for dynamic control of data transfer by a subscriber during an on-going network session, comprising:

receiving a data packet at a gateway device;

identifying, at the gateway device, a subscriber associated with the data packet;

retrieving from memory a subscriber profile that includes subscriber-selected bandwidth;

determining if a transfer rate for data packet transmission to a network should be adjusted based on the subscriber-selected bandwidth;

determining if the transfer rate for data packet transmission should be adjusted based on a priority of the data packet; and

dynamically adjusting the transfer rate for data packet transmission based on the outcome of the determination process and without changing a communication path and without hardware reconfiguration of any component in the network,

wherein the transfer rate for data packet transmission is adjustable by a subscriber at any time during the on-going network session based on adjustment of the subscriber-selected bandwidth during the on-going network session.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein determining if a transfer rate for data packet transmission should be adjusted based on the subscriber-selected bandwidth and the priority of the data packet further comprises determining a delay period for transmitting the data packet and wherein adjusting the transfer rate for data packet transmission based on the outcome of the determination process further comprises queuing the data packet for the delay period before transmitting the packet.

12. The method of claim 11, the priority of the data packet is based on a content of the information in the data packet.

13. The method of claim 11, the priority of the data packet is based on a subscriber selected class of service.

14. The method of claim 11, the priority of the data packet is based on a subscriber selected reservation of a bandwidth block.

15. A method for dynamic control of data transfer by a subscriber during an on-going network session comprising:

receiving a data packet at a gateway device;

identifying, at the gateway device, a subscriber associated with the data packet;

performing a packet translation function to enable the subscriber to access a network without re-configuration of a device of the subscriber;

retrieving from memory a subscriber profile that includes subscriber-selected bandwidth;

determining if a transfer rate for data packet transmission to the network should be adjusted based on the subscriber-selected bandwidth; and

dynamically adjusting the transfer rate for data packet transmission based on the outcome of the determination process and without hardware reconfiguration of any component in the network,

wherein the transfer rate for data packet transmission is adjustable by a subscriber at any time during the on-going network session based on adjustment of the subscriber-selected bandwidth during the on-going network session.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein determining if a transfer rate for data packet transmission should be adjusted based on the subscriber-selected bandwidth and the priority of the data packet further comprises determining a delay period for transmitting the data packet and wherein adjusting the transfer rate for data packet transmission based on the outcome of the determination process further comprises queuing the data packet for the delay period before transmitting the packet.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein retrieving from memory a subscriber profile that includes subscriber-selected bandwidth further comprises retrieving from memory a subscriber profile that includes a first subscriber-selected bandwidth for information being sent to a network and a second subscriber-selected bandwidth for information being retrieved from a network.