Wireless data packet classification of an identified flow of data packets

• US 8,305,916 B2
• Filed: 10/05/2007
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Energy Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Tropos Networks Incorporated (ABB Limited)
• Inventors: Chari, Amalavoyal
• Primary Examiner(s): Yao, Kwang B
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, ANH NGOC M
• Application Number:
  US11/973,027
• Publication Number:
  US 20080192629A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,859 Days
• Field of Search: 370/230, 370/238, 370/229, 370/389, 370/235, 370/310, 370/392, 370/252, 370/351
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2408 for supporting different services, e.g. a differentiated services [DiffServ] type of service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2416 Real-time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2458 Modification of priorities while in transit
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/28 in relation to timing considerations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/29 using a combination of thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/31 by tagging of packets, e.g. using discard eligibility [DE] bits
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/50 Queue scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/566 of the information or information source or recipient
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

An apparatus and method of classifying data packets is disclosed. One method includes a wireless access node identifying a flow of data packets based on source and destination addresses of the data packets. The wireless access node classifies the data packets of the identified flow of data packets as requiring a predetermined quality of service by determining if the identified flow of data packets comprise an inter-arrival time less than a first inter-arrival threshold.

Claims

1. A method of classifying data packets comprising:

identifying, by a wireless access node, a flow of data packets based on source and destination addresses of the data packets, the wireless access node comprising a plurality of flows of data packets;

classifying, by the wireless access node, data packets of the identified flow of data packets as requiring a predetermined quality of service, comprising;

determining if the identified flow of data packets comprise an inter-arrival time less than a first inter-arrival threshold;

wherein

if the wireless access node classifies the data packets of the identified flow of data packets as requiring the predetermined quality of service, then selecting, by the wireless access node, at least one of a plurality of node interfaces based on the classification of the data packets of the identified flow of data packets, and performance characteristics of the node interfaces, and forwarding, by the wireless access node, the classified data packets over the at least one selected node interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein classifying data packets of the identified flow of data packets as requiring the predetermined quality of service further comprises:

determining if the identified flow of data packets comprise an inter-arrival time greater than a second inter-arrival threshold.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein classifying data packets of the identified flow of data packets as requiring the predetermined quality of service further comprises:

determining if the identified flow of data packets comprises data packets having a size greater than a first packet size threshold, and less than a second packet size threshold.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a flow of data packets based on source and destination addresses of the data packets comprises inspecting source and destination addresses of the data packets and identifying a continual flow of data packets between inspected source and destination addresses.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a flow of data packets based on source and destination addresses of the data packets further comprises the wireless access node verifying the flow of data packets is bi-directional between source and destination addresses.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the verifying the flow of data packets is bi-directional comprises identifying the bi-directional flow of data packets based on source and destination addresses of the data packets.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein identifying the bi-directional flow comprises inspecting source and destination addresses of the data packets and identifying a bi-directional continual flow of data packets between inspected source and destination addresses.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising reclassifying the flow of data packets if the inter-arrival time is greater than the first inter-arrival threshold.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising reclassifying the flow of data packets if the data packets comprise at least one of data packets having a size less than a first packet size threshold, and data packets have a size greater than a second packet size threshold.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein if the wireless access node classifies the data packets of the identified flow of data packets as requiring the predetermined quality of service, then the wireless access node tags the classified data packets of the identified flow with Quality of Service tags.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the wireless access node is part of a wireless mesh network, and neighboring wireless access nodes classify the data packets based on the Quality of Service tags.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting at least one of a plurality of node interfaces based on the classification of the data packet comprises:

determining performance characteristics of the node interfaces; and

matching the performance characteristics of the node interfaces with the classification of the data packet.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance characteristics comprise at least one of whether the interface is alive, a security associated with the interface, latency associated with the interface, a capacity of the interface, throughput of the interface, reliability of the interface, cost of the interface, a frequency band of the interface, whether the interface includes a licensed frequency band or an unlicensed frequency band, traffic load of the interface, air-time noise of the interface.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein data packets classified as having a higher predetermined quality of service are given higher priority in forwarding to a next node over the at least one selected interface.

15. A method of classifying data packets comprising:

identifying, by a wireless access node, a flow of data packets based on source and destination addresses of the data packets, the wireless access node comprising a plurality of flows of data packets;

classifying, by the wireless access node, data packets of the identified flow of data packets as requiring a predetermined quality of service, comprising;

determining if the identified flow of data packets comprises data packets having a size less than a first packet size threshold;

wherein

if the wireless access node classifies the data packets of the identified flow of data packets as requiring the predetermined quality of service, then the selecting, by the wireless access node, at least one of a plurality of node interfaces based on the classification of the data packets of the identified flow of data packets, and performance characteristics of the node interfaces, and forwarding, by the wireless access node, the classified data packets over the at least one selected node interface.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein-classifying data packets of the identified flow of data packets as requiring the predetermined quality of service further comprises:

determining if the identified flow of data packets comprises data packets having a size greater than a second packet size threshold.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein classifying data packets of the identified flow of data packets as requiring the predetermined quality of service further comprises:

determining if the identified flow of data packets comprises an inter-arrival time less than a first inter-arrival threshold, and an inter-arrival time greater than a second inter-arrival threshold.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the wireless access node identifying a flow of data packets based on source and destination addresses of the data packets comprises the wireless access node inspecting source and destination addresses of the data packets and identifying a continual flow of data packets between inspected source and destination addresses.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising reclassifying the flow of data packets if the identified flow of data packets comprises data packets having a size greater than the first packet size threshold.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein if the wireless access node classifies the data packets of the identified flow of data packets as requiring the predetermined quality of service, then the wireless access node tags the classified data packets of the identified flow with Quality of Service tags.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the wireless access node is part of a wireless mesh network, and neighboring wireless access node classify the data packets based on the Quality of Service tags.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein data packets classified as having a higher predetermined quality of service are given higher priority in forwarding to a next node over the at least one selected interface.

23. A wireless access node that classifies data packets, comprising:

means for identifying a flow of data packets based on source and destination addresses of the data packets, the wireless access node comprising a plurality of flows of data packets;

means for classifying data packets of the identified flow of data packets as requiring a predetermined quality of service, comprising;

means for determining if the identified flow of data packets comprise an inter-arrival time less than a first inter-arrival threshold;

wherein

if the data packets of the identified flow of data packets are classified as requiring the predetermined quality of service, then the wireless access node is operative to select at least one of a plurality of node interfaces based on the classification of the data packets of the identified flow of data packets, and performance characteristics of the node interfaces, and the wireless access node is operative to forward the classified data packets over the at least one selected node interface.