Controlling transmission of data

• US 9,680,754 B2
• Filed: 10/02/2014
• Issued: 06/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Skype S.Ã R.L. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Andersen, Soren Vang, Rdbro, Christoffer Asgaard, Chen, Mingyu
• Primary Examiner(s): Milord, Marceau
• Application Number:
  US14/505,158
• Publication Number:
  US 20150055465A1
• Time in Patent Office: 985 Days
• Field of Search: 455 6711
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/18 End to end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/225 Determination of shaping rate, e.g. using a moving window
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2475 for supporting traffic characterised by the type of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/25 with rate being modified by the source upon detecting a change of network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/30 in combination with information about buffer occupancy at either end or at transit nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0215 based on user or device properties, e.g. MTC-capable devices services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC] H04W4/70; wireless resource selection or allocation plan definition based on terminal or device properties H04W72/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0252 per individual bearer or channel dynamic wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0284 detecting congestion or overload during communication monitoring arrangements H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

In an embodiment, a method of controlling transmission of data from a wireless device to a receiver connected via a communication channel includes an application executing on the wireless device providing an estimate of end-to-end bandwidth of the communication channel; supplying to the application from wireless access circuitry in the wireless device at least on communication-related parameter and modifying in the application the estimate of end-to-end bandwidth using the at least one communication-related parameter.

Claims

1. A method for controlling transmission of data by an application in a wireless user terminal, over a communication channel to another user terminal, the method comprising:

providing an estimate of end-to-end bandwidth of the communication channel between the wireless user terminal and the other user terminal;

receiving, at the application, from a media access control layer of a protocol stack in the wireless user terminal, at least one communication-related parameter; and

modifying, in the application, the estimate of end-to-end bandwidth using the at least one communication-related parameter.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one communication-related parameter comprises an indication of a quantity of data in a buffer of the media access control layer.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the indication comprises at least one of an indication in time or bits.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one communication-related parameter comprises a congestion indicator parameter.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one communication-related parameter comprises a wireless signal quality parameter determined by wireless access circuitry.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one communication-related parameter comprises a recent sending rate and wherein the modifying the end-to-end bandwidth of the communication channel comprises setting the estimated end-to-end bandwidth equal to the recent sending rate.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the estimate of the end-to-end bandwidth comprises using an aggregate of a plurality of different communication-related parameters.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the aggregate is smoothed over time, and wherein the smoothed aggregate is used in modifying the estimate of end-to-end bandwidth.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein an update rate of the smoothed aggregate is dependent on a difference between a current smoothed aggregate value and an observed instantaneous value of the aggregate.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising operations of controlling a transmission rate of the data from the wireless user terminal based on the modified estimate of end-to-end bandwidth.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the application is configured to generate the estimate of end-to-end bandwidth at the wireless user terminal.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the application is configured to receive an estimate of end-to-end bandwidth from the other user terminal.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one communication-related parameter is received at predetermined intervals from the media access control layer.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one communication-related parameter is received at an adaptive rate based on changes in the at least one communication parameter.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the application is one of a Voice over IP (VoIP) application, an Instant Messaging (IM) application, or a conferencing application.

16. A wireless device comprising:

a processor;

a computer-readable medium; and

an application stored on the computer-readable medium that, when executed on the processor, is configured to perform operations for controlling transmission of data from the wireless device to a receiver connected via a communication channel, the operations comprising;

providing an estimate of end-to-end bandwidth of the communication channel between the wireless device and the receiver;

receiving, at the application from a media access control layer of a protocol stack in the wireless device, at least one communication-related parameter; and

modifying in the application the estimate of end-to-end bandwidth using the at least one communication-related parameter.

17. The wireless device of claim 16, wherein the at least one communication-related parameter comprises an indication of a quantity of data in a buffer of the media access control layer.

18. The wireless device of claim 16, further comprising operations of controlling a transmission rate of the data from the wireless device based on the modified estimate of end-to-end bandwidth.

19. One or more computer-readable storage memories storing instructions of an application in a wireless device for controlling transmission of data over a communication channel in a wireless device, the instructions executable by one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

providing an estimate of end-to-end bandwidth of the communication channel;

receiving, at the application, from a media access control layer of a protocol stack in the wireless device, at least one communication-related parameter, the at least one communication-related parameter including a recent sending rate; and

modifying, in the application, the estimate of end-to-end bandwidth by setting the estimated end-to-end bandwidth equal to the recent sending rate.

20. One or more computer-readable storage memories comprising instructions of an application for controlling transmission of data over a communication channel in a wireless device, the instructions executable by one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

providing an estimate of end-to-end bandwidth of the communication channel;

receiving, at the application, from a media access control layer of a protocol stack in the wireless device, at least one communication-related parameter; and

modifying, in the application, the estimate of end-to-end bandwidth using the at least one communication-related parameter, the modifying the estimate of end-to-end bandwidth comprising using an aggregate of a plurality of different communication-related parameters,

wherein the aggregate is smoothed over time, wherein the smoothed aggregate is used in modifying the estimate of end-to-end bandwidth, and wherein an update rate of the smoothed aggregate is dependent on a difference between a current smoothed aggregate value and an observed instantaneous value of the aggregate.