Quality of service in a home network

• US 7,933,274 B2
• Filed: 10/15/2008
• Issued: 04/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Verma, Sanjeev, Messer, Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo; Ricky
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, CHANDRAHAS B
• Application Number:
  US12/252,143
• Publication Number:
  US 20090231999A1
• Time in Patent Office: 923 Days
• Field of Search: 370/395.21, 370/235, 370/230, 709/223, 709/224, 709/240
• US Class Current: 370/395.21
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• 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 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method for establishing Quality of Service (QoS) in a home network is provided. The method comprises: receiving a request for bandwidth in a virtual private network (VPN); receiving a traffic specification of an application on a control point retrieving a traffic policy; retrieving path characteristics of the VPN; and reserving resources in the VPN based on the path characteristics, the traffic policy, and the traffic specification.

Claims

1. A method for establishing Quality of Service (QoS) in a home network, the method comprising:

receiving, from a remote home network device, a request for bandwidth for a virtual private network (VPN);

establishing a VPN between an Internet gateway device in the home network and the remote home network device based upon the request for bandwidth;

receiving, from the remote home network device, a traffic specification of an application running on the remote home network device;

determining a control point in the home network to which the application running on the remote home network device needs to connect;

establishing a non-VPN connection path between the Internet gateway device and the determined control point;

retrieving a traffic policy;

retrieving path characteristics of the VPN; and

reserving resources in both the VPN and the non-VPN connection path based on the path characteristics, the traffic policy, and the traffic specification.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is executed on a QoS manager in the home network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the home network is a network operating using the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) standard.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the traffic specification is received via a UPnP standard Remote Access Transport Agent (RATA) service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the traffic specification is received through a customized Application Programming Interface (API).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the path characteristics include available bandwidth.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the path characteristics include path latency.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requesting, from the control point, a specification of an application on the control point.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requesting a traffic policy from a policy holder.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requesting QoS devices along a path corresponding to the VPN for QoS Capabilities of the QoS devices.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the QoS Manager is located on an Internet Gateway Device (IGD).

11. A system for establishing Quality of Service (QoS) in a home network, the system comprising:

an Internet gateway device configured to establish a VPN between the Internet gateway device and a remote home network device;

one or more control points, connected to the Internet gateway device via the home network without a VPN;

one or more QoS devices;

a QoS manager coupled to the Internet Gateway device, the one or more control points and the one or more QoS devices, the QoS manager configured to;

receive, from the remote home network device, a traffic specification of an application running on the remote home network device;

determine a control point in the home network to which the application running on the remote home network device needs to connect;

retrieve a traffic policy;

retrieve path characteristics of the VPN; and

reserve resources in the VPN and on the non-VPN connection between the Internet gateway device and the control point based on the path characteristics, the traffic policy, and the traffic specification.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a policy holder coupled to the QoS manager.

14. A system for establishing Quality of Service (QoS) in a home network, the system comprising:

means for receiving, from a remote home network device, a request for bandwidth for a virtual private network (VPN);

means for establishing a VPN between an Internet gateway device in the home network and the remote home network device based upon the request for bandwidth;

means for receiving, from the remote home network device, a traffic specification of an application running on the remote home network device;

means for determining a control point in the home network to which the application running on the remote home network device needs to connect;

means for establishing a non-VPN connection path between the Internet gateway device and the determined control point;

means for retrieving a traffic policy;

means for retrieving path characteristics of the VPN; and

means for reserving resources in both the VPN and the non-VPN connection path based on the path characteristics, the traffic policy, and the traffic specification.

15. A non-transitory program storage device readable by a machine tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for establishing Quality of Service (QoS) in a home network, the method comprising:

receiving, from a remote home network device, a request for bandwidth for a virtual private network (VPN);

establishing a VPN between an Internet gateway device in the home network and the remote home network device based upon the request for bandwidth;

receiving, from the remote home network device, a traffic specification of an application running on the remote home network device;

determining a control point in the home network to which the application running on the remote home network device needs to connect;

establishing a non-VPN connection path between the Internet gateway device and the determined control point;

retrieving a traffic policy;

retrieving path characteristics of the VPN; and

reserving resources in both the VPN and the non-VPN connection path based on the path characteristics, the traffic policy, and the traffic specification.