Adaptive bandwidth throttling

• US 9,819,603 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2016
• Issued: 11/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pivot3, Inc., NexGen Storage, Inc. (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NexGen Storage, Inc. (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Rector, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Brian D
• Application Number:
  US15/192,797
• Publication Number:
  US 20160373366A1
• Time in Patent Office: 508 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2416 Real-time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/522 Dynamic queue service slot or variable bandwidth allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/56 based on priority criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

Apparatuses, systems, methods, and computer program products are disclosed for adaptive bandwidth throttling. A monitor module determines a network bandwidth and/or a historical bandwidth for a data transfer between a storage source and a storage target. A target module adjusts a target bandwidth for a data transfer using a weighting factor. A target bandwidth may be based on at least one of a network bandwidth and a historical bandwidth. A weighting factor for a target bandwidth may be based on a priority for a data transfer. A transfer module transfers at least a block of data of a data transfer from a storage source to a storage target in a manner configured to satisfy a target bandwidth. A delay before transferring a block and/or a block size for the block may be selected based on a target bandwidth.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining one or more of a network bandwidth and a historical bandwidth for a data transfer between a storage source adapted to store computer data and a storage target adapted to store computer data;

adjusting a target bandwidth for the data transfer using a weighting factor, the target bandwidth based on at least one of the network bandwidth and the historical bandwidth, the weighting factor based on a priority for the data transfer; and

transferring at least a block of data of the data transfer from the storage source to the storage target based on the target bandwidth for the data transfer, wherein a block size for the block is selected based on the target bandwidth.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the weighting factor is selected such that the target bandwidth is based more on the historical bandwidth than the network bandwidth for a higher value for the priority and is based more on the network bandwidth than the historical bandwidth for a lower value for the priority.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the target bandwidth comprises the network bandwidth multiplied by the weighting factor plus the result of the historical bandwidth multiplied by one minus the weighting factor, the weighting factor being higher for the lower value for the priority than for the higher value for the priority.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the target bandwidth comprises the historical bandwidth multiplied by the weighting factor plus the result of the network bandwidth multiplied by one minus the weighting factor, the weighting factor being higher for the higher value for the priority than for the lower value for the priority.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the weighting factor is selected such that a sensitivity of the target bandwidth to the network bandwidth increases as the priority decreases.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the priority for the data transfer is based on a quality of service level for a storage volume storing the data of the data transfer on the storage source.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the data transfer comprises a background data transfer and the priority for the data transfer is a predefined amount lower than the quality of service level for the storage volume.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking a bandwidth used for transferring the block of data from the storage source to the storage target; and

re-adjusting the target bandwidth for transfer of a subsequent block of data of the data transfer based at least partially on the tracked bandwidth.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a bandwidth limit between the storage source and the storage target, the adjusting of the target bandwidth satisfying the determined bandwidth limit.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the historical bandwidth is for a transfer of a plurality of blocks of data for the data transfer and the network bandwidth is for a transfer of a most recently transferred block of data for the data transfer.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the data transfer of data comprises one or more of an asynchronous replication process and a deduplication process.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of transferring includes selecting a delay before transferring the block, the delay being selected based on the target bandwidth.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising decreasing the block size for transfer of a subsequent block of data of the data transfer in response to determining that the delay was greater than a duration of the transferring of the block of data.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining one or more of the delay and the block size for the block of data to satisfy the target bandwidth such that the block size divided by the result of the delay plus an estimated duration of the transferring of the block of data is less than or equal to the target bandwidth.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the delay and the block size comprise a duty cycle for the data transfer, the duty cycle satisfying the target bandwidth.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a monitor module configured to monitor network bandwidth, the network bandwidth derived from the monitoring of the operation of a computer network adapted to transfer data between at least two separate locations, associated with a plurality of data transfers between different storage volumes in a computer network, the storage volumes associated with different quality of service levels;

a target module configured to determine target bandwidths for the data transfers based on the monitored network bandwidth and the different quality of service levels of the storage volumes; and

a bandwidth module configured to determine a block size for each of the data transfers based on the target bandwidths.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the target module is configured to dynamically update the target bandwidths and the bandwidth module is configured to dynamically update the one or more of a waiting period between transfers of different blocks and a block size in response to a change in the monitored network bandwidth.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the target module is configured to determine the target bandwidths using different weighting factors for different quality of service levels such that the target bandwidths for data transfers with different quality of service levels are weighted to different time periods of the monitored network bandwidth.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the bandwidth module is configured to decrease a block size for a data transfer of the plurality of data transfers in response to determining that a waiting period for the data transfer was greater than a duration of transferring a segment of data for the data transfer at the block size.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the bandwidth module is configured to also determine a waiting period between transfers of different blocks.

21. A method comprising:

transferring data from a first storage volume associated with a computer data storage device using a target bandwidth, the target bandwidth based on a quality-of-service level for the first storage volume and a block of data associated with the data transfer has a block size that is selected based on the target bandwidth; and

transferring data from a second storage volume associated with a computer data storage device using a different target bandwidth, the different target bandwidth based on a different quality-of-service level for the second storage volume.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising determining the different target bandwidth using a weighting factor selected based on the different quality-of-service level for the second storage volume.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the weighting factor is selected such that the different target bandwidth is influenced more by a historical bandwidth than by a network bandwidth for a first quality-of-service level for the second storage volume and is influenced more by the network bandwidth than by the historical bandwidth for a second quality-of-service level for the second storage volume.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein transferring the data from the first storage volume comprises a background data transfer for the first storage volume.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the background data transfer comprises an asynchronous replication process for the first volume.