Supporting effectiveness of applications in a network environment

• US 7,929,542 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2006
• Issued: 04/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Purpura, William J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Moe; Aung S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mered; Habte
• Application Number:
  US11/367,240
• Publication Number:
  US 20070206506A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,873 Days
• Field of Search: 370/464, 370/465, 370/468, 370/431, 370/437, 370/462, 370216-235, 370351-356, 370/395.2, 370/395.21, 370/401, 709225-229, 709201-203, 455/450, 455/452.1, 455/452.2, 718/104
• US Class Current: 370/395.21
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• 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

Abstract

A method of managing resources in a network. For each application executing on a host device, data transfer requirements are determined based on a capability level currently acceptable for the application. Methods of data transfer currently available to the host device for applying toward the data transfer requirements of the applications are determined. The method includes arbitrating allocation of network resources to a gateway and allocation of resources of the gateway to the host device based on probability of application effectiveness and network bandwidth management priorities, and arbitrating allocation of host device resources to the applications based on current acceptable capability level and probability of application effectiveness.

Claims

1. A communication network comprising:

a host device on which a plurality of different data input/output modes are supported;

an application capable of executing on the host device at a plurality of capability levels requiring use of at least some of the different data input/output modes;

an application control module of the host device configured to determine data transfer requirements for the application at a current capability level acceptable for the application;

a device control module of the host device configured to negotiate with the application control module for allocation of one or more data streams by the host device to the application, the negotiating including negotiation as to types of data input/output modes for the one or more data streams;

at least one gateway node configured to support the application capability levels by controlling location of and access to a plurality of data sources provided in the network for satisfying data transfer requirements for the application capability levels; and

a module of the at least one gateway node configured to negotiate with the device control module for location by the at least one gateway node of one or more of the data sources in the network and for allocation of one or more data streams of the one or more located data sources to the host device for the application, the negotiating including negotiation as to types of data input/output modes for the one or more data streams;

all of the modules configured to collectively perform the negotiating until, based on one or more probabilities of effectiveness of the application at one or more of the capability levels, the application is provided with one or more data streams of the data sources to satisfy data transfer requirements of the application at the current capability level or at another acceptable capability level for which one of the one or more data sources located in the network by the at least one gateway node provides a data stream alternative to a data stream associated with the current capability level, the host device being provided access to the alternative data stream using a data input/output mode different from a data input/output mode associated with the current capability level.

2. The network of claim 1, wherein the probability of effectiveness is dynamically assigned to the application via the network.

3. The network of claim 1, wherein the data transfer requirements comprise transfer rate, data format and data quality requirements.

4. The network of claim 1, wherein the gateway node module is configured to negotiate based on bandwidth priorities of the network.

5. The network of claim 1, wherein the other acceptable capability level is determined for the application based on capability level degradation priority.

6. The network of claim 1, wherein a node that includes the host device is an ad-hoc node.

7. The network of claim 1, wherein the negotiating is collectively performed by all of the modules using resource arbitration parameters dynamically applied to the network.

8. The network of claim 1, wherein the gateway node includes a router.

9. The network of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more host devices is comprised by an ad-hoc node.

10. The network of claim 1, wherein the alternative data stream provides backup data for the application.

11. The network of claim 1, wherein the different data input/output modes comprise two or more of the following:

streaming video, streaming video with concurrent live digital text stream, non-real-time graphics with concurrent live digital text stream, non-real-time graphics, and live digital text stream.

12. A processor-performed method of managing resources in a communication network, comprising:

for an application configured to execute at a plurality of capability levels on a host device of the network, an application control module of the host device determining data transfer requirements for the application at a first capability level currently acceptable for the application, the first capability level associated with a first of a plurality of different data input/output modes supported on the host device;

controlling location of and access to a plurality of data sources for possible use by the application to meet data transfer requirements at one or more of the capability levels, the controlling performed by at least one network gateway router configured to support the plurality of capability levels;

a plurality of devices of the network arbitrating allocation of one or more data streams of the data sources through the at least one network gateway router to the host device based on network bandwidth priority and one or more probabilities of effectiveness of the application, the arbitrating including arbitrating as to types of data input/output modes for the one or more data streams;

the application control module and a device control module of the host device arbitrating allocation of the one or more data streams to the application at one or more of the capability levels based on one or more probabilities of effectiveness of the application, the arbitrating including arbitrating as to types of data input/output modes for the one or more data streams; and

as a result of the arbitrating, the device control module allocating one of the data streams to the application, the allocated data stream being provided at a second capability level acceptable for the application and provided using a second data input/output mode of the host device different from the first data input/output mode.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein arbitrating allocation of data streams is further based on degradation priorities of the application.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the application data transfer requirements include transfer rate, data format, and data quality requirements.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising, based on the arbitrating, the application control module determining data transfer requirements for the application based on another capability level for the application.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the allocated data stream is provided to the application to replace data provided using the first data input/output mode.

17. A system for resource management in a network, the system comprising:

one or more host devices of the network;

a plurality of applications configured to execute on the one or more host devices at a plurality of capability levels associated with a plurality of different data input/output modes supported on the one or more host devices;

one or more gateway nodes of the network configured to support the application capability levels by controlling location of and access to a plurality of data sources provided in the network for satisfying data transfer requirements of the applications;

for each of the applications, a corresponding application control module of the host device of the application, the application control module configured to

determine data transfer requirements of the corresponding application for a current capability level of the application;

on each host device, a corresponding device control module configured to;

arbitrate allocation of resources of the host device to the one or more applications executing on the host device based on the one or more current capability levels and one or more probabilities of effectiveness and degradation priorities of the one or more applications, the arbitrating including arbitrating as to types of data input/output modes of the resources, and

negotiate allocation of at least one data stream of the data sources by one of the one or more gateway nodes to the host device, the negotiating including negotiating as to types of data input/output modes for the at least one data stream; and

on each gateway node, a network control module configured to arbitrate allocation of at least one data stream of the data sources to one of the one or more host devices based on priorities of probability of effectiveness and bandwidth management;

the gateway nodes and host devices configured to provide a first data stream to a given application at a first capability level of the given application and to provide a second data stream at a second capability level of the given application to compensate for a loss of the first data stream, the first and second data streams provided using different data input/output modes of the host device of the application.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein at least one of the one or more applications is configured to accept a capability level different from its current capability level.