Adaptive selection of bandwidth parameters to meet a service provider pricing model

• US 7,873,074 B1
• Filed: 06/01/2006
• Issued: 01/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arlington Technologies, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Boland, Simon
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham; Chi H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Faroul; Farah
• Application Number:
  US11/446,061
• Time in Patent Office: 1,692 Days
• Field of Search: 370/230, 370/233, 370/234, 370/235, 370/252, 370/468
• US Class Current: 370/468
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1485 Tariff-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5029 Service quality level-based billing, e.g. dependent on measured service level customer is charged more or less
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/38 by adapting coding or compression rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/745 Reaction in network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/808 User-type aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/823 Prediction of resource usage
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/83 based on usage prediction
• 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: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/56 for VoIP communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/80 Rating or billing plans; Tariff determination aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8005 Flat-fee
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8016 based on quality of service [QoS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8027 based on network load situation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/82 : Criteria or parameters used for performing billing operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8214 : Data or packet based
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/83 : Notification aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/85 : characterised by the type of condition triggering a notification
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/852 : Low balance or limit reached
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/88 : Provision for limiting connection, or expenditure
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/887 : limit per user or user related number

Abstract

The present invention provides methods and systems for managing bandwidth use in a VoIP network. More specifically, a user or enterprise may monitor the amount of voice bandwidth that is utilized throughout a period along with the total amount of bandwidth utilization. Based on a determined likelihood of exceeding a predetermined bandwidth allocation for a given period, the amount of voice bandwidth utilized on a per call basis is adjusted.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

(a) predicting, by a processor, that a bandwidth utilization threshold will likely be one of met and exceeded by a first user, wherein, in the predicting step, the processor determines that at least one of (i) a historic bandwidth usage in a selected billing period and (ii) a projected bandwidth usage in the selected billing period is above the bandwidth utilization threshold;

(b) in response, selecting, by the processor, a lower quality codec to be used by a plurality of selected future communications of the first user during the selected billing period; and

(c) thereafter applying the lower quality codec to the selected future communications.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected future communications comprise streaming media and wherein, in step (b), the processor switches from a first type of codec that utilizes a first amount of bandwidth per packet to a second type of codec that utilizes a second amount of bandwidth per packet, wherein the second amount of bandwidth per packet is less than the first amount of bandwidth per packet, and wherein the processor at least one of compresses a real-time transfer protocol (RTP) header and suppresses packets of silence.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the processor determines that the historic bandwidth usage in the selected billing period is above the bandwidth utilization threshold and wherein the historical bandwidth usage in the selected billing period comprises at least one of (i) the amount of total bandwidth utilized in the selected billing period up to a time of prediction and (ii) the amount of voice bandwidth utilized and the amount of data bandwidth utilized in the selected billing period up to the time of prediction.

4. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising processor executable instructions to perform the method of claim 1.

5. A method comprising:

predicting, by a processor, that a bandwidth utilization threshold will likely be one of met and exceeded by a first user;

in response, selecting, by the processor, a lower quality codec to be used by selected communications of the first user;

thereafter applying the lower quality codec to the selected communications, wherein the processor determines that the historic bandwidth usage in the selected period is above the bandwidth utilization threshold and the historic bandwidth usage comprises at least one of total bandwidth utilization, voice bandwidth utilization, and non-voice bandwidth utilization;

identifying a line of best fit for at least one of the previous total bandwidth utilization, previous voice bandwidth utilization, and previous non-voice bandwidth utilization;

determining a gradient for the identified line of best fit; and

comparing at least one of;

(i) the gradient of a previous total bandwidth utilization and the gradient of the previous voice bandwidth utilization;

(ii) the gradient of a previous total bandwidth utilization and the gradient of the previous non-voice bandwidth utilization; and

(iii) the gradient of a previous voice bandwidth utilization and the gradient of the previous non-voice bandwidth utilization.

6. A method comprising:

predicting, by a processor, that a bandwidth utilization threshold will likely be one of met and exceeded by a first user;

in response, selecting, by the processor, a lower quality codec to be used by a plurality of selected future communications of the first user;

thereafter applying the lower quality codec to the plurality of selected future communications, wherein the processor determines that the historic bandwidth usage in the selected period is above the bandwidth utilization threshold and further comprising;

obtaining historic bandwidth usage from an Internet service provider (ISP);

monitoring streaming media bandwidth utilization; and

storing the monitored streaming media bandwidth utilization and obtained historic bandwidth usage.

7. A system for controlling bandwidth utilization, comprising:

a processor configured to

(a) predict that a bandwidth utilization threshold will likely be one of met and exceeded by a first user;

(b) in response, select a lower quality codec to be used during a plurality of selected future communications of the first user; and

(c) thereafter apply the lower quality codec to the plurality of selected future communications, wherein the processor predicts that the bandwidth utilization threshold is likely one of met and exceeded by a first user by determining, at a time during a selected billing period, that at least one of (i) a historic bandwidth usage in the selected billing period, (ii) a projected bandwidth in the selected billing period, and (iii) a degree of network congestion over a selected link is above the bandwidth utilization threshold, and cause at least one communication device to use a decreased amount of bandwidth for the selected period in response to determining that at least one of (i), (ii), and (iii) is true.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of selected future communications comprise streaming media bandwidth and wherein the processor causes at least one communication device to decrease streaming media bandwidth utilization by causing the following to occur:

(i) the at least one communication device to switch from a first type of codec that utilizes a first amount of bandwidth per packet to a second type of codec that utilizes a second amount of bandwidth per packet, wherein the second amount of bandwidth per packet is less than the first amount of bandwidth per packet.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor is configured to perform at least one of the following:

(i) a real-time transfer protocol (RTP) header to be compressed; and

(ii) packets of silence to be suppressed.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor predicts that the bandwidth utilization threshold is likely one of met and exceeded by a first user by determining that a historic bandwidth usage exceeds the bandwidth utilization threshold and wherein the historic bandwidth usage comprises at least one of (i) the amount of total bandwidth utilized in the selected period up to a time of the prediction and (ii) the amount of voice bandwidth utilized and the amount of data bandwidth utilized in the selected period up to the time of the prediction.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to determine that decreasing streaming media bandwidth utilization will decrease total bandwidth utilization.

12. A system for controlling bandwidth utilization, comprising:

a processor configured to

(a) predict that a bandwidth utilization threshold will likely be one of met and exceeded by a first user;

(b) in response, select a lower quality codec to be used by selected communications of the first user; and

(c) thereafter apply the lower quality codec to the selected communications, wherein the processor predicts that the bandwidth utilization threshold is likely one of met and exceeded by a first user by determining that a historic bandwidth usage exceeds the bandwidth utilization threshold, wherein historic bandwidth usage comprises at least one of total bandwidth utilization, voice bandwidth utilization, and non-voice bandwidth utilization, and wherein the server is further configured to identify a line of best fit for at least one of the previous total bandwidth utilization, previous voice bandwidth utilization, and previous non-voice bandwidth utilization, determine a gradient for the identified line of best fit, and compare at least one of;

(i) the gradient of the previous total bandwidth utilization and the gradient of the previous voice bandwidth utilization;

(ii) the gradient of the previous total bandwidth utilization and the gradient of the previous non-voice bandwidth utilization; and

(iii) the gradient of the previous voice bandwidth utilization and the gradient of the previous non-voice bandwidth utilization.

13. A system for controlling bandwidth utilization, comprising:

a processor configured to

(a) predict that a bandwidth utilization threshold will likely be one of met and exceeded by a first user;

(b) in response, select a lower quality codec to be used by selected communications of the first user; and

(c) thereafter apply the lower quality codec to the selected communications, wherein the processor is further configured to obtain an amount of historic bandwidth usage from an Internet service provider (ISP), monitor streaming media bandwidth utilization, and store the monitored streaming media bandwidth utilization and obtained historic bandwidth usage.

14. A method of controlling bandwidth utilization, comprising:

determining that at least one of (i) a historic bandwidth usage in a selected period, (ii) a projected bandwidth in a selected time period, and (iii) a degree of network congestion over a selected link is below a selected threshold; and

in response to determining that at least one of (i), (ii), and (iii) is true, increasing bandwidth utilization for a particular type of bandwidth.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the type of bandwidth comprises at least one of streaming media bandwidth and data transfer bandwidth, wherein increasing streaming media bandwidth utilization comprises switching from a first type of codec that utilizes a first amount of bandwidth per packet to a second type of codec that utilizes a second amount of bandwidth per packet, wherein the second amount of bandwidth per packet is greater than the first amount of bandwidth per packet.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the historical bandwidth usage in the selected period comprises at least one of (i) the amount of total bandwidth utilized in the selected period up to a time of the prediction and (ii) the amount of voice bandwidth utilized and the amount of data bandwidth utilized in the selected period up to a time of the prediction.

17. A method of controlling bandwidth utilization, comprising:

predicting, by a processor, that a bandwidth utilization threshold will likely be one of met and exceeded by a first user;

in response, reducing, by the processor, a signal quality to reduce a likely bandwidth usage by the first user, wherein historic bandwidth usage comprises at least one of total bandwidth utilization, voice bandwidth utilization, and non-voice bandwidth utilization;

identifying a line of best fit for at least one of the previous total bandwidth utilization, previous voice bandwidth utilization, and previous non-voice bandwidth utilization;

determining a gradient for the identified line of best fit; and

comparing at least one of;

(i) the gradient of a previous total bandwidth utilization and the gradient of the previous voice bandwidth utilization;

(ii) the gradient of a previous total bandwidth utilization and the gradient of the previous non-voice bandwidth utilization; and

(iii) the gradient of a previous voice bandwidth utilization and the gradient of the previous non-voice bandwidth utilization.

18. A method of controlling bandwidth utilization, comprising:

predicting, by a processor, that a bandwidth utilization threshold will likely be one of met and exceeded by a first user;

in response, reducing, by the processor, a signal quality to reduce a likely bandwidth usage by the first user;

obtaining historic bandwidth usage from an Internet service provider (ISP);

monitoring streaming media bandwidth utilization; and

storing the monitored streaming media bandwidth utilization and obtained historic bandwidth usage.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising processor executable instructions to perform the method of claim 18.