Method and apparatus for adaptive bandwidth control with user settings

• US 20070091923A1
• Filed: 10/21/2005
• Published: 04/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hulu LLC (The Walt Disney Company)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Elliot, Steven, Lazzaro, Christopher, Kudamik, Gregory, Tran, Thanh
• Granted Patent: US 7,474,614 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/468
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/11 Identifying congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/22 Traffic shaping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/25 with rate being modified by the source upon detecting a change of network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/283 in response to processing delays, e.g. caused by jitter or round trip time [RTT]

Abstract

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code to receive a user input defining settings at an application layer to form a set of received settings. An adaptive bandwidth control process is executed using the received settings to identify a transmission rate for transmitting data packets across a network. The data packets are transmitted across the network using the identified transmission rate.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for adaptively controlling bandwidth in transmitting data, the computer implemented method comprising:

receiving a user input defining settings at an application layer to form a set of received settings;

executing an adaptive bandwidth control process using the received settings to adaptively identify transmission rates for transmitting data packets across a network in response to changes in network condition; and

transmitting the data packets across the network using the transmission rate.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the executing step is performed by a congestion control thread.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting step is performed by a send thread.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user defined parameters comprises an first value specifying a threshold level that is used to determine if the block is considered congested, a second value used to restrict an amount of change in a current round trip times relative to a previous measured round trip time, a third value indicating a maximum number of packets in a backlog router per connection before reducing a window, a fourth value indicating smoothing for round trip time measurements, a fifth value indicating a multiple of maximum round trip time a connection waits for an acknowledgment before resetting the adaptive bandwidth control process.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

collecting round trip time data for the data packets, wherein the round trip time data is used by the adaptive bandwidth control process.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein transmitting step comprises:

transmitting the data packets such that a number of data packets on a router is greater than alpha and less than beta.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user input is received using a user interface.

8. A computer program product comprising:

A computer usable medium having computer usable program code for adaptively controlling bandwidth in transmitting data, the computer program product including;

computer usable program code for receiving a user input defining settings at an application layer to form a set of received settings;

computer usable program code for executing an adaptive bandwidth control process using the received settings to adaptively identify transmission rates for transmitting data packets across a network in response to changes in network condition; and

computer usable program code for transmitting the data packets across the network using the transmission rate.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the computer usable program code for executing an adaptive bandwidth control process using the received settings to adaptively identify transmission rates for transmitting data packets across a network in response to changes in network condition is performed by a congestion control thread.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the computer usable program code for transmitting the data packets across the network using the transmission rate is performed by a send thread.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the user defined parameters comprises an first value specifying a threshold level that is used to determine if the block is considered congested, a second value used to restrict an amount of change in a current round trip times relative to a previous measured round trip time, a third value indicating a maximum number of packets in a backlog router per connection before reducing a window, a fourth value indicating smoothing for round trip time measurements, a fifth value indicating a multiple of maximum round trip time a connection waits for an acknowledgment before resetting the adaptive bandwidth control process.

12. The computer program product of claim 8 further comprising:

comp for collecting round trip time data for the data packets, wherein the round trip time data is used by the adaptive bandwidth control process.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein computer usable program code for transmitting the data packets across the network using the transmission rate comprises:

computer usable program code for transmitting the data packets such that a number of data packets on a router is greater than alpha and less than beta.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the user input is received using a user interface.

15. A data processing system comprising:

a bus;

a communications unit connected to the bus;

a memory connected to the bus, wherein the storage device includes a set of computer usable program code; and

a processor unit connected to the bus, wherein the processor unit executes the set of computer usable program code to receive a user input defining settings at an application layer to form a set of received settings;

execute an adaptive bandwidth control process using the received settings to adaptively identify transmission rates for transmitting data packets across a network in response to changes in network condition; and

transmit the data packets across the network using the transmission rate.

16. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein the processor unit further executes the computer usable program code to transmit the data packets across the network using the transmission rate is performed by a send thread.

17. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein the user defined parameters comprises an first value specifying a threshold level that is used to determine if the block is considered congested, a second value used to restrict an amount of change in a current round trip times relative to a previous measured round trip time, a third value indicating a maximum number of packets in a backlog router per connection before reducing a window, a fourth value indicating smoothing for round trip time measurements, a fifth value indicating a multiple of maximum round trip time a connection waits for an acknowledgment before resetting the adaptive bandwidth control process.

18. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein the processor unit further executes the computer usable program code to collect round trip time data for the data packets, wherein the round trip time data is used by the adaptive bandwidth control process.

19. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein the processor unit further executes the computer usable program code to transmit the data packets such that a number of data packets on a router is greater than alpha and less than beta.

20. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein the user input is received using a user interface.