Video conference service with multiple service tiers

• US 8,872,880 B1
• Filed: 12/30/2011
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Kamisetty, Vijay, Sidebottom, Gregory A., Matselyukh, Taras, Stevens, Scott, Gogia, Darpan, Udoshi, Naveen
• Primary Examiner(s): Gauthier, Gerald
• Application Number:
  US13/341,342
• Time in Patent Office: 1,033 Days
• Field of Search: 348/14.02, 348/14.08, 348/14.09, 348/14.01, 348/14.04, 370/218, 370/260, 370/329, 370/352, 370/389, 370/392, 370/412, 379/90.01, 379/93.07, 379/201.01, 379/257, 379/265.11, 455/405, 455/404.1, 705/2, 709/204, 709/218, 709/227, 709/229, 709/206
• US Class Current: 348/14.08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/148 Interfacing a video terminal to a particular transmission medium, e.g. ISDN
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

A system may include a device that receives requests to initiate a videoconference call. The requests may include an indication of a service priority tier that should be applied to the call and first and second client devices for the call. The system may determining bandwidth availability in a network and determine, based on the bandwidth availability and based on the indication of the service priority tier of the call, whether to admit the videoconference call to the network. The device may provision, when it is determined to admit the call to the network, traffic policies corresponding to one or more network devices, where the policies are determined based on the service priority tier of the videoconference call.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by one or more devices, a request, from a video call control device, to initiate a videoconference call,

the request including an indication of a service priority tier that should be applied to the videoconference call, an indication of a first device, and an indication of a second devices for the call device,

the service priority tier being one of;

a first tier in which videoconference calls are guaranteed a particular quality of service and are always admitted to a network,

a second tier in which videoconference calls are admitted to the network based on bandwidth availability of the network, or

a third tier in which videoconference calls are always admitted to network and not guaranteed a quality of service;

determining, by the one or more devices, the bandwidth availability of the network;

determining, by the one or more devices and based on the indication of the service priority tier for the videoconference call, whether to admit the videoconference call to the network;

provisioning, by the one or more devices and when it is determined to admit the videoconference call to the network, traffic policies corresponding to one or more network devices of the network,

the traffic policies being determined based on the service priority tier for the videoconference call; and

the traffic policies relating to traffic quality of service (QoS) for the videoconference call; and

transmitting, by the one or more devices and to the video call control device, an indication of whether the videoconference call was admitted to the network.

2. The method of claim 1, where

when the videoconference call is a point-to-point call, the first device and the second device include client endpoint devices, and

when the videoconference call is a multipoint conference call, the first device and the second device include endpoints of a leg of the videoconference call.

3. The method of claim 1, where

the first tier is associated with a priority that is greater than a priority associated with the second tier, and

the priority of the second tier is greater than a priority associated with the third tier.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing an interface to the video call control device as an open standard interface.

5. The method of claim 1, where the first device and the second device are specified as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

6. The method of claim 1, where

the request additionally includes a timeout value, and

the method further includes:

terminating the videoconference call based on the timeout value.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reversing, when the videoconference call terminates, the provisioning of the traffic policies corresponding to the one or more network devices to remove the provisioned traffic policies.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the one or more devices in the network as devices that are at an edge of the network with respect to the first device and the second device.

9. The method of claim 1, where, when provisioning the traffic policies, the method includes:

provisioning a router to queue traffic for the videoconference call using a queue that implements a random early detection (RED) queue management technique in which a probability of dropping packets from a head of the queue is set to zero until the queue reaches a particular depth, at which point packets are dropped from the head of the queue.

10. A system comprising:

one or more devices to;

receive a request, from a video call control device, to initiate a videoconference call in a network,

the request including an indication of a service priority tier that should be applied to the videoconference call, an indication of a first device, and an indication of a second device,

the service priority tier being one of;

 

a first tier in which videoconference calls are guaranteed a particular quality of service and are always admitted to a network,

 

a second tier in which videoconference calls are admitted to the network based on bandwidth availability of the network, or

 

a third tier in which videoconference calls are always admitted to network and not guaranteed a quality of service;

determine bandwidth availability of the network;

determine, based on the indication of the service priority tier of the videoconference call, that the videoconference call is to be admitted to the network;

provision, when the videoconference call is to be admitted to the network, traffic policies corresponding to one or more network devices in the network,

the traffic policies being determined based on the service priority tier of the videoconference call; and

transmit, to the video call control device, an indication of whether the videoconference call was admitted to the network.

11. The system of claim 10, where the traffic policies relate to quality of service (QoS) of traffic,

the traffic relating to the videoconference call, and

the traffic being processed by the one or more network devices.

12. The system of claim 10, where the one or more network devices include edge routers of the network.

13. The system of claim 10, where

the first tier is associated with a priority that is greater than a priority associated with the second tier, and

the priority of the second tier is greater than a priority associated with the third tier.

14. The system of claim 10, where the one or more devices are further to:

reverse, when the videoconference call terminates, the provisioning of the traffic policies corresponding to the one or more network devices to remove the provisioned traffic policies.

15. The system of claim 10, where the one or more devices, when provisioning the traffic policies, are further to:

provision a router to queue traffic for the videoconference call using a queue that implements a random early detection (RED) queue management technique in which a probability of dropping packets from a head of the queue is set to zero until the queue reaches a particular depth, at which point packets are dropped from the head of the queue.

16. A system comprising:

a first device to;

receive a request, from a client device, to initiate a videoconference call,

determine a service priority tier associated with the videoconference call request, the service priority tier being one of;

a first tier in which videoconference calls are guaranteed a particular quality of service and are always admitted to a network,

a second tier in which videoconference calls are admitted to the network based on bandwidth availability of the network, or

a third tier in which videoconference calls are always admitted to network and not guaranteed a quality of service, and

transmit information, including the associated service priority tier, for the videoconference call request; and

a second device to;

receive the information for the videoconference call request from the first device,

determine the bandwidth availability of the network,

determine, based on the service priority tier of the videoconference call, that the videoconference call is to be admitted to the network, and

provision, when the videoconference call is to be admitted to the network, traffic handling policies of one or more network devices in the network,

the traffic handling policies for the one or more network devices being determined based on the service priority tier of the videoconference call, and

the traffic handling policies relating to quality of service (QoS) for traffic in the videoconference call.

17. The system of claim 16, where the second device is further to:

transmit, to the first device, information, of whether the videoconference call was admitted to the network.

18. The system of claim 16, where the second device is further to:

provide an interface to communicate with the first device.

19. The system of claim 16, where

the first device is further to:

determine that the service priority tier is the first tier associated with each of a plurality of parties of the video conference call, and

the second device, when determining that the videoconference call is to be admitted to the network, is further to;

determine that the videoconference call is to be admitted to the network based on the service priority tier being the first tier.

20. The system of claim 16, where

the first device is further to:

determine that the service priority tier is associated with a priority tier associated with an initiator of the video conference call, and

the second device, when determining that the videoconference call is to be admitted to the network, is further to;

determine that the videoconference call is to be admitted to the network based on the service priority tier being associated with the priority tier associated with the initiator of the video conference call.

21. The system of claim 16, where

the first tier is associated with a priority that is greater than a priority associated with the second tier, and

the priority of the second tier is greater than a priority associated with the third tier.

22. The system of claim 16, where the second device is further to:

reverse, when the videoconference call terminates, the provisioning of the one or more network devices to remove the provisioned traffic handling policies.