Dynamic bandwidth allocation apparatus and method

• US 20070133407A1
• Filed: 09/28/2006
• Published: 06/14/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, KT Corporation, SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Song, Jae-Su, Shin, Yeon-Seung, Park, Ji-Soo, Choi, Sung-gu, Kim, Yeong-Jin, Nam, Sang-Woo, Park, Soon-Gi
• Granted Patent: US 7,843,832 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/215 using token-bucket
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/50 Queue scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/527 Quantum based scheduling, e.g. credit or deficit based scheduling or token bank
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

The present invention relates to a bandwidth allocation apparatus and a method thereof. The present invention provides a method for adaptively allocating and controlling radio channels to multimedia traffic having various characteristics. Particularly, the present invention proposes a method for maximizing a system resource use rate while satisfying a communication QoS requirement for individual video traffic. Therefore, the adaptive bandwidth allocation method according to the present invention guarantees system performance and user-required communication QoS.

Claims

1. A bandwidth allocation method for adaptively allocating radio channels in a mobile communication system, the bandwidth allocation method comprising:

(a) receiving a bandwidth allocation request of a mobile station from a call admission control module that has determined to accept a call signal of the mobile station;

(b) periodically filling a token bucket with an amount of tokens that corresponds to a requested amount of bandwidth; and

(c) allocating a bandwidth by controlling the amount of tokens provided in the token bucket.

2. The bandwidth allocation method of claim 1, wherein (c) comprises:

(c1) comparing a current queue length and a minimum queue length, the current queue length being measured for a predetermined time;

(c2) when the current queue length is less than the minimum queue length, comparing a packet loss rate and a packet loss threshold value to determine which one is greater than the other one, wherein the packet loss rate determines an amount of bandwidth to be allocated for the next time interval; and

(c3) when the packet loss rate is less than the packet loss threshold value, reducing the current bandwidth by a large amount.

3. The bandwidth allocation method of claim 2, wherein the method comprises reducing the current bandwidth by a small amount when the packet loss rate is greater than the packet loss threshold value in (c2).

4. The bandwidth allocation method of claim 2, wherein the method comprises increasing the current bandwidth by a small amount when the current queue length is greater than the minimum queue length, when the current queue length is greater than a maximum queue length, and when the packet loss rate is less than the packet loss threshold value.

5. The bandwidth allocation method of claim 2, wherein the method comprises increasing the current bandwidth by a large amount when the current queue length is greater than the minimum queue length, when the current queue length is greater than a maximum queue length, and when the packet loss rate is greater than the packet loss threshold value.

6. A bandwidth allocation apparatus for adaptively allocating radio channels in a mobile communication system, the bandwidth allocation apparatus comprising:

a call admission control module for requesting bandwidth allocation when a call signal of a mobile station is accepted;

a packet classification module for classifying received packets on the basis of one of an Internet Protocol address, a port, and an upper layer protocol in use, and transmitting the classified packets;

a buffer module for receiving and storing the classified packets transmitted from the packet classification module;

a packet scheduler module for receiving the classified packet from the buffer module and transmitting the packets to the mobile station through a radio resource link; and

a bandwidth allocation module for forming the buffer module for bandwidth allocation, and processing traffic services by inter-working with the packet scheduler module when the bandwidth allocation is requested by the call admission control module.

7. The bandwidth allocation apparatus of claim 6, wherein the bandwidth allocation module allocates a token bucket for each traffic flow and controls a bandwidth allocated to each traffic flow by controlling the amount of tokens provided in the token bucket.

8. The bandwidth allocation apparatus of claim 6, wherein the bandwidth allocation module increases or decreases bandwidth allocation in accordance with the bandwidth utility.

9. The bandwidth allocation apparatus of claim 6, wherein the bandwidth allocation module controls increase/decrease of the bandwidth allocation depending on a measured communication quality of service (QoS).

10. The bandwidth allocation apparatus of claim 9, wherein when the communication QoS violation probability is high, the bandwidth allocation apparatus increases a bandwidth increase rate and reduces a bandwidth decrease rate, whereas it reduces the bandwidth increase rate and increases the bandwidth decrease rate when the communication QoS violation rate is low.

11. The bandwidth allocation apparatus of claim 6, wherein the bandwidth allocation module periodically fills each token bucket with an amount of tokens that corresponds to an amount of bandwidth determined by the call admission control module.