Priority packet processing

• US 8,582,579 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2011
• Issued: 11/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yousefi, Nariman, Kim, Yongbum, Walley, John, Chen, Sherman (Xuemin), Diab, Wael William, Ilyadis, Nicholas
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Brenda H
• Application Number:
  US13/171,628
• Publication Number:
  US 20120106447A1
• Time in Patent Office: 867 Days
• Field of Search: 370/389, 370/349, 370/230, 370/235, 370/395.42, 370/412, 370/428, 370/429
• US Class Current: 370/395.42
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/00 Electric propulsion with power supplied within the vehicle with power supply from force of nature, e.g. sun or wind, B60L8/00; for monorail vehicles, suspension vehicles or rack railways B60L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/023 for transmission of signals between vehicle parts or subsystems
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/03 for supply of electrical power to vehicle subsystems or for circuit arrangements for charging batteries H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0315 using multiplexing techniques multiplexing for transmission of signals G08C15/00; multiplexing for electrical communication in general H04J
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 19/03 characterised by material, e.g. composite B60R19/18 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4022 using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network G06F13/4009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/76 Arrangements for rearranging, permuting or selecting data according to predetermined rules, independently of the content of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0866 the electronic data carrier being a digital video recorder in combination with video camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/16 Anti-collision systems road vehicle drive control systems for predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision otherwise than by control of a particular sub-unit B60W30/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3822 specially adapted for use in vehicles H04B1/3827 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/10 Current supply arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/46 Interconnection of networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/56 Packet switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6275 : based on priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/76 : using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation requested by the user or requested by the network in response to changing network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/821 : Prioritising resource allocation or reservation requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 : Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 : Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 : Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/102 : characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 : for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 : for receiving images from a single remote source
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 : Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/08 : Load balancing or load distribution transferring a connection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 : for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/46 : for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 : Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 : using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/56 : based on priority criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 : Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A network node in a vehicular network processes packets based on a prioritization scheme. The prioritization scheme uses packet type, priority, source, destination, or other information to determine a priority of the packets. Packets can be stored in one of multiple queues organized according to packet type, or other criteria. In some cases, only one queue is used. The packets are time stamped when put into a queue, and a time to live is calculated based on the timestamp. The time to live, as well as other factors such as packet type, packet priority, packet source, and packet destination can be used to adjust a packet'"'"'s priority within the queue. Packets are transmitted from the queues in priority order. In some cases, the network node can identify a top-priority packet, and transmit the top priority packet without first storing the packet in the queue.

Claims

1. A network module comprises:

a network interface configured to couple the network module to a vehicle communication network;

memory; and

a processing module operably coupled to the memory and to the network interface module, wherein the processing module is configured to;

interpret a vehicle network field of a first packet received from the vehicle communication network to determine whether the first packet is a top-priority packet based upon a timestamp of the first packet; and

in response to a favorable determination, alter the priority of the first packet based, at least in part, on the timestamp and transmit the first packet using a top-priority bypass mechanism.

2. The network module of claim 1, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

determine whether a second packet, currently being transmitted, has a lower priority than the first packet; and

in response to determining that the second packet has a lower priority than the first packet, interrupting transmission of the second packet.

3. The network module of claim 2, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

in response to determining that the second packet does not have a lower priority than the first packet, waiting to transmit the first packet until the second packet has been transmitted.

4. The network module of claim 1, wherein:

the vehicle network field includes information identifying a packet type of the first packet; and

the processing module further configured to determine whether the first packet is a top-priority packet based, at least in part, on the packet type of the first packet.

5. The network module of claim 1, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

determine a time to live of the first packet based, at least in part, on the timestamp of the packet; and

alter the priority of the first packet based on the time to live of the packet.

6. The network module of claim 1, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

determine, based on content of the first packet, a source of the packet and a destination of the packet; and

alter the priority of the first packet based on the source of the packet and the destination of the packet.

7. A network module comprising:

a network interface configured to coupling the network module to receive packets from a vehicle communication network;

memory; and

a processing module operably coupled to the memory and to the network interface module, wherein the processing module is configured to;

interpret a vehicle network field of a packet received from the vehicle communication network for a prioritization indication and a packet type;

timestamp the packet; and

place the packet in a queue in accordance with the prioritization indication, the packet type, and the timestamp.

8. The network module of claim 7, wherein:

the prioritization indication includes a packet type of the packet; and

the processing module is further configured to place the packet in a selected queue of a plurality of queues based on the packet type.

9. The network module of claim 7, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

determine, based on content of the packet, a source of the packet and a destination of the packet; and

position the packet within the queue based, at least in part, on the source of the packet and the destination of the packet.

10. The network module of claim 7, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

determine, based on content of the packet, a source of the packet and a destination of the packet; and

select a packet for transmission from the queue based, at least in part on a source of the packet and a destination of the packet.

11. The network module of claim 7, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

determine a time to live of the packet based, at least in part, on the timestamp of the packet; and

reprioritize the packet within the queue based, at least in part, on the time to live of the packet.

12. The network module of claim 7, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

identify a top-priority packet based on content of the vehicle network field; and

transmit the top-priority packet via a path that bypasses the queue.

13. The network module of claim 7, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

determine a time to live of the packet based, at least in part, on the timestamp of the packet; and

reprioritize the packet within the queue based, at least in part, on the time to live of the packet.

14. A network module comprising:

a network fabric interface to receive communication packets from a vehicular network fabric;

memory; and

a processing module operably coupled to the memory and to the network interface module, wherein the processing module is configured to;

interpret a vehicle network field of a packet received from the vehicle communication network to determine a packet type of the packet;

determine, based on content of the packet, a source of the packet and a destination of the packet; and

place the packet into a queue selected from a plurality of queues based on the packet type;

determine a prioritization of the packet based, at least in part, on the vehicle network field of the packet; and

position the packet within the selected queue in accordance with the prioritization indication, the source and destination of the packet, and a timestamp.

15. The network module of claim 14, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

select a packet for transmission from the selected queue based, at least in part on a source of the packet and a destination of the packet.

16. The network module of claim 14, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

determine a time to live of the packet based, at least in part, on the timestamp of the packet; and

reprioritize the packet within the selected queue based, at least in part, on the time to live of the packet.

17. The network module of claim 14, wherein:

the selected queue is used to store packets having a priority higher than a non-selected queue of the plurality of queues; and

the processing module is further configured to transmit all packets stored in the selected queue prior to transmitting any packets stored in the non-selected queue.

18. The network module of claim 14, wherein:

the selected queue includes a queue address associated with the packet, the queue address indicating a priority of the packet.

19. The network module of claim 14, wherein the processing module is configured to:

identify a top-priority packet based on content of the vehicle network field; and

transmit the top-priority packet via a path that bypasses the selected queue.

20. The network module of claim 14, wherein the processing module is further configured to select a packet for transmission from the queue based, at least in part on a source of the packet and a destination of the packet.