Datacasting system with hierarchical delivery quality of service management capability

• US 8,423,660 B2
• Filed: 05/11/2012
• Issued: 04/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DIRECTV, LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Roundbox, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Leung, Yiu Man, Liu, Xiaofeng, Mataga, Peter Andrew, Slepchin, Igor
• Primary Examiner(s): JACOBS, LASHONDA T
• Application Number:
  US13/470,129
• Publication Number:
  US 20120226816A1
• Time in Patent Office: 340 Days
• Field of Search: 709/231, 709/232, 709/217, 709/219, 709/235, 709/223, 709/224, 370/270, 370/252, 370/312, 370/328, 370/401, 370/469, 725/25, 725/32, 725/37, 725/78, 725/100, 725/116, 725/131
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/16 Arrangements for broadcast or for distribution of identical information repeatedly
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• 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 41/5025 by proactively reacting to service quality change, e.g. by reconfiguration after service quality degradation or upgrade
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/43 Assembling or disassembling of packets, e.g. segmentation and reassembly [SAR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]

Abstract

Datacasting systems may include one or more compound carousels each managing one or more elementary carousels, and managed by a bandwidth manager. Subsets of compounds carousels may be identified, for example, according to priority levels. Bandwidth allocations may be determined for the compound carousels. For example, the bandwidth manager may utilize multiple bandwidth allocation cycles to determine the bandwidth allocations. The multiple bandwidth allocation cycles may form a sequence. Each bandwidth allocation cycle may at least partially allocate an available datacasting bandwidth resource to at least one of the identified subsets of the compound carousels. The allocations may be based at least in part on desired bandwidths determined by the compound carousels and/or one or more bandwidth guidelines of datacast sessions associated with the compound carousels.

Claims

1. A datacasting apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of compound carousels associated with a plurality of datacast sessions, each datacast session having session parameters comprising a priority level and at least one bandwidth guideline;

a bandwidth manager configured to, at least;

receive a bandwidth allocation request specifying at least a desired bandwidth from each of the plurality of compound carousels;

identify a plurality of subsets of the plurality of compound carousels based at least on the priority levels of the plurality of datacast sessions;

determine a bandwidth allocation for each of the plurality of compound carousels based at least on a plurality of bandwidth allocation cycles, each bandwidth allocation cycle comprising an at least partial allocation of an available bandwidth among each compound carousel in one of the plurality of identified subsets of the plurality of compound carousels, each at least partial allocation based at least on corresponding subsets of desired bandwidths and bandwidth guidelines; and

notify each of the plurality of compound carousels of its determined bandwidth allocation; and

one or more processors collectively facilitating at least the plurality of compound carousels and the bandwidth manager.

2. A datacasting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

each compound carousel comprises at least one elementary carousel; and

each compound carousel is configured at least to allocate the determined bandwidth allocation to said at least one elementary carousel independent of interaction with the bandwidth manager.

3. A datacasting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

each compound carousel comprises at least one elementary carousel; and

the bandwidth manager is further configured at least to allocate the determined bandwidth allocation for each compound carousel among said at least one elementary carousel of the compound carousel.

4. A computer-implemented method for datacasting, comprising:

receiving, with at least one computing apparatus, a bandwidth allocation request specifying at least a desired bandwidth from each of a plurality of compound carousels associated with a plurality of datacast sessions each having session parameters comprising a priority level and at least one bandwidth guideline;

identifying, with said at least one computing apparatus, a plurality of subsets of the plurality of compound carousels based at least on the priority levels of the plurality of datacast sessions;

determining, with said at least one computing apparatus, a bandwidth allocation for each of the plurality of compound carousels based at least on a plurality of bandwidth allocation cycles, each bandwidth allocation cycle comprising an at least partial allocation of an available bandwidth among each compound carousel in one of the plurality of identified subsets of the plurality of compound carousels, each at least partial allocation based at least on corresponding subsets of desired bandwidths and bandwidth guidelines; and

notifying, with said at least one computing apparatus, each of the plurality of compound carousels of its determined bandwidth allocation.

5. A computer-implemented method according to claim 4, wherein:

the plurality of subsets of the plurality of compound carousels comprises a highest priority subset in which each compound carousel is associated with one of the plurality of datacast sessions having a highest priority level; and

the plurality of bandwidth allocation cycles comprises a highest priority bandwidth allocation cycle in which, at least, each compound carousel in the highest priority subset is allocated at least a portion of the available bandwidth in accordance with at least said at least one bandwidth guideline of the associated datacast session.

6. A computer-implemented method according to claim 5, wherein:

said at least one bandwidth guideline comprises;

a normal bandwidth;

a minimum bandwidth; and

a maximum bandwidth; and

the highest priority bandwidth allocation cycle comprises;

allocating at least a portion of the available bandwidth to each compound carousel in the highest priority subset based at least on the desired bandwidth for the compound carousel and the normal bandwidth parameter of the associated datacast session;

allocating at least a portion of the available bandwidth to each of the plurality of compound carousels not in the highest priority subset based at least on the desired bandwidth for the compound carousel and the minimum bandwidth parameter of the associated datacast session; and

determining whether an unallocated portion of the available bandwidth is sufficient to increase the bandwidth allocation for each compound carousel in the highest priority subset in accordance with the maximum bandwidth parameter of the associated datacast session.

7. A computer-implemented method according to claim 4, wherein:

the plurality of subsets of the plurality of compound carousels comprises a plurality of lower priority subsets each corresponding to one of a plurality of datacast sessions each having a distinct priority level less than a highest priority level; and

the plurality of bandwidth allocation cycles comprises a normal bandwidth allocation cycle that comprises determining whether an unallocated portion of the available bandwidth is sufficient to increase a current bandwidth allocation for each compound carousel in at least one of the plurality of lower priority subsets in accordance with a normal bandwidth parameter of the associated datacast session.

8. A computer-implemented method according to claim 7, wherein determining whether the unallocated portion of the available bandwidth is sufficient comprises determining an allocation delta for each compound carousel in said at least one of the plurality of lower priority subsets based on, at least:

the desired bandwidth specified for the compound carousel;

the normal bandwidth parameter of the associated datacast session; and

the current bandwidth allocation for the compound carousel as determined by at least one previous bandwidth allocation cycle.

9. A computer-implemented method according to claim 8, wherein the method further comprises, responsive to determining that the unallocated portion of the available bandwidth is insufficient, allocating the unallocated portion of the available bandwidth to each compound carousel in said at least one of the plurality of lower priority subsets in proportion to the allocation delta determined for the compound carousel.

10. A computer-implemented method according to claim 4, wherein:

the plurality of subsets of the plurality of compound carousels comprises a plurality of lower priority subsets each corresponding to one of a plurality of datacast sessions each having a distinct priority level less than a highest priority level; and

the plurality of bandwidth allocation cycles comprises a desired bandwidth allocation cycle that comprises determining whether an unallocated portion of the available bandwidth is sufficient to increase a bandwidth allocation for each compound carousel in at least one of the plurality of lower priority subsets in accordance with the desired bandwidth specified for the compound carousel.

11. A computer-implemented method according to claim 10, wherein determining whether the unallocated portion of the available bandwidth is sufficient comprises determining an allocation delta for each compound carousel in said at least one of the plurality of lower priority subsets based on, at least:

the desired bandwidth specified for the compound carousel;

a maximum bandwidth parameter of the associated datacast session; and

the current bandwidth allocation for the compound carousel as determined by at least one previous bandwidth allocation cycle.

12. A computer-implemented method according to claim 4, wherein the plurality of bandwidth allocation cycles comprises a maximum bandwidth allocation cycle that comprises determining whether an unallocated portion of the available bandwidth is sufficient to increase a bandwidth allocation for each compound carousel in the plurality of subsets in accordance with a maximum bandwidth parameter of the associated datacast session.

13. A computer-implemented method according to claim 12, wherein determining whether the unallocated portion of the available bandwidth is sufficient comprises determining an allocation delta for each compound carousel in the plurality of subsets based at least on a difference between the maximum bandwidth parameter of the associated datacast session and the current bandwidth allocation for the compound carousel as determined by at least one previous bandwidth allocation cycle.

14. A computer-implemented method for datacasting, comprising:

determining, with at least one computing apparatus, a desired bandwidth for a compound carousel comprising a plurality of elementary carousels based at least on at least a subset of desired bandwidths for the plurality of elementary carousels;

requesting, with said at least one computing apparatus, a bandwidth allocation from a bandwidth manager for a plurality of compound carousels associated with a plurality of datacast sessions each having session parameters comprising a priority level;

receiving, with said at least one computing apparatus, a bandwidth allocation notification specifying at least the requested bandwidth allocation determined based at least on a plurality of bandwidth allocation cycles, each bandwidth allocation cycle comprising an at least partial allocation of an available bandwidth among each compound carousel in one of a plurality of subsets of the plurality of compound carousels, each subset of the plurality of compound carousels identified based at least on the priority levels of the plurality of datacast sessions; and

determining, with said at least one computing apparatus, a bandwidth allocation for each of the plurality of elementary carousels based at least on said at least a subset of desired bandwidths for the plurality of elementary carousels.

15. A computer-implemented method according to claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a request to add a data object to the compound carousel;

for each of at least a subset of the plurality of elementary carousels, determining an estimated acquisition time with the data object added;

determining whether each estimated acquisition time is less than an acquisition time threshold for the elementary carousel; and

if so, adding the data object to each of said at least a subset of the plurality of elementary carousels.

16. A computer-implemented method according to claim 14, wherein:

the session parameters for the datacast session associated with the compound carousel further comprise a datacast session type; and

the method further comprises determining at least one bandwidth guideline for each elementary carousel of the compound carousel based at least on the datacast session type.

17. A computer-implemented method according to claim 16, wherein:

the datacast session type comprises a rapid update datacast session type; and

the method further comprises;

determining an acquisition time estimate for a base elementary carousel of the compound carousel based at least on a base maximum data size, an average update size, and an update interval; and

determining an acquisition time estimate for an update elementary carousel of the compound carousel based at least on the acquisition time estimate for the base elementary carousel of the compound carousel.

18. A computer-implemented method according to claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:

determining a normal bandwidth guideline for the base elementary carousel based at least on the acquisition time estimate for the base elementary carousel and a worst case load assumption; and

determining a normal bandwidth guideline for the update elementary carousel based at least on the acquisition time estimate for the update elementary carousel and the worst case load assumption.

19. A computer-implemented method according to claim 16, wherein:

the datacast session type comprises an outage victim datacast session type; and

the method further comprises;

determining an acquisition time estimate for an event elementary carousel of the compound carousel based at least on an average event size, an event interval, and an outage coverage time; and

determining an acquisition time estimate for an outage elementary carousel of the compound carousel based at least on the acquisition time estimate for the event elementary carousel of the compound carousel.

20. A computer-implemented method according to claim 16, wherein:

the datacast session type comprises a hybrid datacast session type; and

the method further comprises;

determining an acquisition time estimate for a base elementary carousel of the compound carousel based at least on a base maximum data size, an average update size, an update interval, and an outage coverage time;

determining an acquisition time estimate for an update elementary carousel of the compound carousel based at least on the acquisition time estimate for the base elementary carousel of the compound carousel; and

determining an acquisition time estimate for an outage elementary carousel of the compound carousel based at least on the acquisition time estimate for the base elementary carousel of the compound carousel.