Managing alternative networks for high quality of service communications

• US 9,521,069 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2015
• Issued: 12/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ooma Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Ooma Incorporated
• Inventors: Gillon, William M., Lei, Hai, Farrand, Tobin E., Bryan, David A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Orgad, Edan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ko, Sithu
• Application Number:
  US14/708,132
• Publication Number:
  US 20160330108A1
• Time in Patent Office: 585 Days
• Field of Search: 370/245
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2801 Broadband local area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2838 Distribution of signals within a home automation network, e.g. involving splitting/multiplexing signals to/from different paths adaptations of television systems for transmission by electric cable for domestic distribution H04N7/106; hybrid transport H04L12/6418; home network arrangements specially adapted for distribution of digital video signals H04N7/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2898 Subscriber equipments DSL modems H04M11/062; cable modems H04L12/2801
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0835 One way packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0858 One way delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/557 Error correction, e.g. fault recovery or fault tolerance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/106 across networks, e.g. mapping telephone numbers to data network addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 : Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 : for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 : in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/00 : Systems for electrical power generation, transmission, distribution or end-user application management characterised by the use of communication or information technologies, or communication or information technology specific aspects supporting them

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided. Exemplary methods may include: providing a first data packet to a first interface, the first data packet including a first address and being received from a computing device, the computing device being at a premises and coupled to a third interface, the first interface coupled to a first broadband connection received at the premises, the first broadband connection being coupled to a service using a first data network; determining at least one second data packet to be received at the first interface from the service is lost or delayed; supplying a second address to the computing device for communications with the service, in response to the determining; receiving from the computing device a third data packet including the second address; modifying the third data packet including replacing the second address with the first address; and giving the modified third data packet to a second interface.

Claims

1. A system for managing alternative networks comprising:

a first interface coupled to a first broadband connection received at a premises, the first broadband connection being coupled to a service outside the premises using a first data network;

a second interface coupled to a second broadband connection received at the premises, the second broadband connection being coupled to the service outside the premises using a second data network and being different from the first broadband connection;

a third interface coupled to a computing device at the premises;

a processor coupled to the first, second, and third interfaces; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing instructions executable by the processor to perform a method comprising;

providing a first data packet to the first interface, the first data packet including a first address and being received from the computing device;

determining at least one second data packet to be received at the first interface from the service is lost or delayed;

supplying a second address to the computing device for communications with the service, in response to the determining;

receiving from the computing device a third data packet including the second address;

modifying the third data packet including replacing the second address with the first address;

giving the modified third data packet to the second interface;

determining a quality of service provided by the first data network, the determining including;

measuring at least one of a data rate and a number of lost packets over the first data network, and

comparing the measurements to at least one of a predetermined data rate and predetermined number of lost packets;

supplying the first address to the computing device for communications with the service, in response to the determining the quality of service;

receiving from the computing device a fourth data packet including the first address; and

giving the fourth data packet to the first interface.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

receiving from the service using the second interface the fourth data packet;

modifying the fourth data packet including replacing the first address with the second address; and

forwarding the modified fourth data packet to the computing device using the third interface.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

monitoring an amount of data transferred associated with the second broadband connection; and

issuing at least one alert in response to the amount exceeding at least one predetermined threshold, the at least one predetermined threshold being associated with billing parameters associated with the second broadband connection.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

communicating with the service using the first interface to establish communications through the second broadband connection, the communicating including at least one of a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message, SIP header, Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) parameter, Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP) message, and Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) packet.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the supplying a second address includes:

directing to the computing device at least one of an SIP message, SIP header, URI parameter, RTCP message, and RTP packet.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein

the first broadband connection is at least one of a leased T-carrier line, Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), cable internet access, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), Broadband over power lines (BPL), Wi-Fi, WiMAX, mobile broadband, and satellite broadband;

the second broadband connection is at least one of a one of a leased T-carrier line, Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), cable internet access, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), Broadband over power lines (BPL), Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and mobile broadband; and

the third interface is coupled to a local data network, the local data network including at least one of a wired local area network (LAN), wireless LAN, and wireless communications using one or more of Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT), Bluetooth, and Bluetooth low energy.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the second broadband connection is associated with at least one of an alarm system, mobile device, network capable consumer device, and in-car Internet system located on or about the premises.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein

the determining at least one second data packet to be received at the first interface from the service is lost or delayed uses a scorecard, and

the method further comprises at least one of adjusting at least one of a redundancy level and an encoding rate of data received by the first interface, and performing diagnostics using data received by the first interface, in response to the determining.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the determining at least one second data packet to be received at the first interface from the service is lost or delayed includes:

detecting at least one of changes to jitter buffer size, packet latency above a predetermined threshold, and degradation in audio quality using a number of lost packets.

10. A method for managing alternative networks comprising:

providing a first data packet to a first interface, the first data packet including a first address and being received from a computing device, the computing device being at a premises and coupled to a third interface, the first interface coupled to a first broadband connection received at the premises, the first broadband connection being coupled to a service outside the premises using a first data network;

determining at least one second data packet to be received at the first interface from the service is lost or delayed;

supplying a second address to the computing device for communications with the service, in response to the determining;

receiving from the computing device a third data packet including the second address;

modifying the third data packet including replacing the second address with the first address;

giving the modified third data packet to a second interface, the second interface coupled to a second broadband connection received at the premises, the second broadband connection being coupled to the service outside the premises using a second data network and being different from the first broadband connection;

determining a quality of service provided by the first data network, the determining including;

measuring at least one of a data rate and a number of lost packets over the first data network, and

comparing the measurements to at least one of a predetermined data rate and predetermined number of lost packets;

supplying the first address to the computing device for communications with the service, in response to the determining the quality of service;

receiving from the computing device a fourth data packet including the first address; and

giving the fourth data packet to the first interface.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

receiving from the service using the second interface the fourth data packet;

modifying the fourth data packet including replacing the first address with the second address; and

forwarding the modified fourth data packet to the computing device using the third interface.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

monitoring an amount of data transferred associated with the second broadband connection; and

issuing at least one alert in response to the amount exceeding at least one predetermined threshold, the at least one predetermined threshold being associated with billing parameters associated with the second broadband connection.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

communicating with the service using the first interface to establish communications through the second broadband connection, the communicating including at least one of a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message, SIP header, Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) parameter, Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP) message, and Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) packet.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the supplying the second address includes:

directing to the computing device at least one of an SIP message, SIP header, URI parameter, RTCP message, and RTP packet.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein

the first broadband connection is at least one of a leased T-carrier line, Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), cable internet access, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), Broadband over power lines (BPL), Wi-Fi, WiMAX, mobile broadband, and satellite broadband;

the second broadband connection is at least one of a one of a leased T-carrier line, Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), cable internet access, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), Broadband over power lines (BPL), Wi-Fi, WiMAX, satellite broadband, and mobile broadband; and

the third interface is coupled to a local data network, the local data network including at least one of a wired local area network (LAN), wireless LAN, and wireless communications using one or more of Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT), Bluetooth, and Bluetooth low energy.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the second broadband connection is associated with at least one of an alarm system, mobile device, network capable consumer device, and in-car Internet system located on or about the premises.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein

the determining at least one second data packet to be received at the first interface from the service is lost or delayed uses a scorecard, and

the method further comprises at least one of adjusting at least one of a redundancy level and an encoding rate of data received by the first interface, and performing diagnostics using data received by the first interface, in response to the determining.

18. The method of claim 10 wherein the determining at least one second data packet to be received at the first interface from the service is lost or delayed includes:

detecting at least one of changes to jitter buffer size, packet latency above a predetermined threshold, and degradation in audio quality using a number of lost packets.

19. A system for managing alternative networks comprising:

a first interface coupled to a first broadband connection received at a premises, the first broadband connection being coupled to a service outside the premises using a first data network;

a second interface coupled to a second broadband connection received at the premises, the second broadband connection being coupled to the service outside the premises using a second data network and being different from the first broadband connection;

a third interface coupled to a computing device at the premises;

a processor coupled to the first, second, and third interfaces; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing instructions executable by the processor to perform a method comprising;

providing a first data packet to the first interface, the first data packet including a first address and being received from the computing device;

determining at least one second data packet to be received at the first interface from the service is lost or delayed;

supplying to the service a second address associated with the second data network in response to the determining, the second address for sending by the service redundant information;

receiving from the service at least a third data packet using the first interface and redundant information associated with the at least third data packet using the second interface;

receiving from the service redundant information associated with a fourth data packet using the second interface;

reconstructing the fourth data packet using the redundant information;

forwarding the at least third data packet to the third interface;

giving the reconstructed fourth data packet to the third interface;

determining a quality of service provided by the first data network, the determining including;

measuring at least one of a data rate and a number of lost packets over the first data network, and

comparing the measurements to at least one of a predetermined data rate and predetermined number of lost packets;

supplying the first address to the computing device for communications with the service, in response to the determining the quality of service;

receiving from the computing device the fourth data packet including the first address; and

giving the fourth data packet to the first interface.

20. A method for managing alternative networks comprising:

providing a first data packet to a first interface, the first data packet including a first address and being received from a computing device, the computing device being at a premises and coupled to a third interface, the first interface coupled to a first broadband connection received at the premises, the first broadband connection being coupled to a service outside the premises using a first data network;

determining at least one second data packet to be received at the first interface from the service is lost or delayed;

supplying to the service a second address in response to the determining, the second address associated with a second data network, the second data network being associated with a second broadband connection, the second broadband connection being received at the premises and coupled to a second interface;

receiving from the service at least a third data packet using the first interface and redundant information associated with the at least third data packet using the second interface;

receiving from the service redundant information associated with a fourth data packet using the second interface;

reconstructing the fourth data packet using the redundant information;

forwarding the third data packet to the third interface;

giving the reconstructed fourth data packet to the third interface;

determining a quality of service provided by the first data network, the determining including;

measuring at least one of a data rate and a number of lost packets over the first data network, and

comparing the measurements to at least one of a predetermined data rate and predetermined number of lost packets;

supplying the first address to the computing device for communications with the service, in response to the determining the quality of service;

receiving from the computing device the fourth data packet including the first address; and

giving the fourth data packet to the first interface.