System and method for using distributed network performance information tables to manage network communications

• US 9,344,906 B2
• Filed: 12/24/2014
• Issued: 05/17/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Morrill, Robert J., Wiley, William L., Bugenhagen, Michael K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Yuen, Kan
• Application Number:
  US14/582,467
• Publication Number:
  US 20150110097A1
• Time in Patent Office: 510 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0847 Transmission error
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/087 Jitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition

Abstract

A system, method and network communications device including a processing unit configured to communicate data packets with one or more network communications devices. The data packets include network performance information generated by the one or more network communications devices in response to receiving a portion of the data packets. The network communications device further includes a memory in communication with the processing unit. The memory is configured to store a table containing network performance information associated with the node segments through which the data packets are communicated with the one or more network communications devices. The processing unit is further configured to process the data packets to store the network performance information in the table. The network performance information is utilized to alter future communications of the data packets through the node segments.

Claims

1. A wireless access point, comprising:

a processing unit configured to communicate data packets with one or more end-user communications devices; and

a memory in communication with the processing unit and configured to store network performance information associated with the wireless access point, wherein the network performance information includes available bandwidth at the wireless access point;

wherein the processing unit is further configured to;

extract network performance information for each communication path from the wireless access point to each respective end-user communications device of the one or more end-user communications devices;

determine at least one node segment in a communication path from the wireless access point to a first end-user communications device of the one or more end-user communications devices;

provide a node segment network performance information for each of the at least one node segment to the first end-user communications device, wherein the network performance information includes the node segment network performance information;

assign a rating to the communication path based on a second rating assigned to the at least one node segment, wherein the second rating is based on the node segment network performance information; and

routing communications, over the communication path including the at least one node segment, to the first end-user communications device based on at least one network performance information criteria, wherein the communication path traverses different networks operated by different network service providers.

2. The wireless access point according to claim 1, wherein the network performance information includes a number of end-user communications devices currently connected to the wireless access point.

3. The wireless access point according to claim 2, wherein the network performance information includes real-time bandwidth usage for each of the end-user communications devices currently connected to the wireless access point.

4. The wireless access point according to claim 1, wherein the network performance information includes information representative of transmission performance of (i) data packets including real-time content and (ii) total data packets communicated over the wireless access point.

5. The wireless access point according to claim 1, wherein the network performance information includes performance information of network nodes and node segments in communication with the wireless access point, and an indicia representative of the network nodes and node segments.

6. The wireless access point according to claim 1, wherein the at least one network performance information criteria includes latency, jitter, packet loss, percentage of real-time traffic, and real-time bandwidth.

7. The wireless access point of claim 1, wherein the processing unit is further configured to store and update the second rating and the rating assigned to each of the node segments in the communication path on the wireless access point at a predetermined interval.

8. The wireless access point of claim 1, wherein the communication path traverses different types of networks.

9. A method, comprising:

communicating, using a wireless access point, data packets with one or more end-user communications devices;

storing, with the wireless access point, network performance information associated with the wireless access point, wherein the network performance information includes available bandwidth at the wireless access point;

extracting, via the wireless access point, network performance information for each communication path from the wireless access point to each respective end-user communications device of the one or more end-user communications devices;

determining, with the wireless access point, at least one node segment in a communication path from the wireless access point to a first end-user communications device of the one or more end-user communications devices;

providing, with the wireless access point, a node segment network performance information for each of the at least one node segment to the first end-user communications device, wherein the network performance information includes the node segment network performance information;

assigning, with the wireless access point, a rating to the communication path based on a second rating assigned to the at least one node segment, wherein the second rating is based on the node segment network performance information; and

routing, via the wireless access point, communications, over the communication path including the at least one node segment, to the first end-user communications device based on at least one network performance information criteria, wherein the communication path traverses different networks operated by different network service providers.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the network performance information includes a number of end-user communications devices currently connected to the wireless access point.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the network performance information includes real-time bandwidth usage for each of the end-user communications devices currently connected to the wireless access point.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the network performance information includes information representative of transmission performance of (i) data packets including real-time content and (ii) total data packets communicated over the wireless access point.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the network performance information includes performance information of network nodes and node segments in communication with the wireless access point, and an indicia representative of the network nodes and node segments.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one criteria includes latency, jitter, packet loss, percentage of real-time traffic, and real-time bandwidth.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising storing and updating the second rating and the rating assigned to each of the node segments in the communication path on the wireless access point at a predetermined interval.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the communication path traverses different types of networks.