Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L47/00—Traffic control in data switching networks
  • H04L47/10—Flow control; Congestion control
  • H04L47/39—Credit based
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L47/00—Traffic control in data switching networks
  • H04L47/10—Flow control; Congestion control
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L47/00—Traffic control in data switching networks
  • H04L47/10—Flow control; Congestion control
  • H04L47/11—Identifying congestion
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L47/00—Traffic control in data switching networks
  • H04L47/10—Flow control; Congestion control
  • H04L47/20—Traffic policing
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L47/00—Traffic control in data switching networks
  • H04L47/10—Flow control; Congestion control
  • H04L47/24—Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L47/00—Traffic control in data switching networks
  • H04L47/70—Admission control; Resource allocation
  • H04L47/76—Admission control; Resource allocation using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation requested by the user or requested by the network in response to changing network conditions
  • H04L47/765—Admission control; Resource allocation using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation requested by the user or requested by the network in response to changing network conditions triggered by the end-points

Definitions

• the invention relates to a method of dynamic distribution of quality of service between users of a service of a network, said service being used by at least one user who has a first quality of service credit
• the invention lies in the field of telecommunications. It more precisely concerns the quality of service in an IP type data network.
• an IP type network it is known to offer services to users by specifying a certain quality of service.
• the quality of service specified relates to a maximum rate.
• quality of service features http://www.allot.com/pages/ product_overview.asp.
• An example of a quality of service function is a bandwidth control function (the terms commonly used are the terms "shaping" or "rate-limiting") which consists in defining for an element, for example a terminal associated with a user, a maximum authorized rate between the terminal and the network. This function ensures that bandwidth offered over a network link shared by multiple users will not be completely consumed and monopolized by a minority of users who use a bandwidth-consuming service, as this may be the case for a network. file download service.
• values associated with these quality of service functions are used to verify that the quality of service is respected or not. These values are, for example, threshold values which, if exceeded, indicate that the quality of service is no longer assured.
• a single value is a maximum rate allowed for a user. These values are used to trigger a specific quality of service action on the devices. In the example of the bandwidth control, the action consists of a limitation of the bit rate.
• the equipment makes it possible to perform a large number of quality of service functions with the possibility of managing parameters such as thresholds for activating these functions and triggering quality of service actions in a completely autonomous manner.
• parameters such as thresholds for activating these functions and triggering quality of service actions in a completely autonomous manner.
• this system does not guarantee an equal distribution of the bandwidth between all the users of a service, over the period of use of the service.
• it benefits bandwidth-intensive services, to the detriment of services whose bandwidth consumption is intermittent.
• bandwidth management between users of a service that takes into account changes in the behavior of users of the service over time.
• a user who consumes little bandwidth, or intermittently must be privileged compared to a large bandwidth-consuming user.
• a first object of the invention is a method according to the invention as described in the introductory paragraph comprising:
• a quality of service credit that represents what a user is entitled to in terms of quality of service when using a service is calculated after a period of observation of the actual use of the service by the user and a policy quality of service associated with this credit is implemented for the user's service traffic.
• the quality of service policy that is applied to the user's traffic takes into account the use of the service made by the user so far.
• the method according to the invention proposes an equal distribution of the bandwidth on a longer period than the last observation period of the service.
• the calculation of the second quality of service credit depends on a first credit, which corresponds to a credit allocated for the current observation period, and the actual use of the service during the current observation period.
• the quality of service policy that is applied during the period of use of the service following the current observation period takes into account the history of the use of this service by the user. More precisely, it is an average of the credit actually consumed by the user during the use of the service which is taken into account to calculate a credit.
• the second quality of service credit is lower than the first quality of service credit if, during the current observation period, the use of the service has exceeded the quality of service reference credit
• the second service quality credit is higher than the first quality of service credit if, during the current observation period, the use of the service did not exceed the quality of service reference credit.
• the steps of the method according to the invention are carried out periodically.
• the process is triggered by a request.
• Another object of the invention is a dynamic quality of service distribution system comprising a network, a service, at least one user who has a first quality of service credit for the service and:
• the system is characterized in that it further comprises means for calculating the second quality of service credit for the period of use of the service following the current observation period, the second credit being calculated from said data of observation and first credit.
• the invention also relates to a control platform of a network designed to dynamically distribute the quality of service of a network service used by at least one user who has for said service a first quality of service credit.
• the control platform includes:
• control platform is characterized in that it comprises:
• the invention also relates to a computer program, characterized in that it comprises instructions for collecting data of observation of the use of a service by at least one user during a current observation period, said user having a first quality of service credit for said service, instructions for calculating a second quality of service credit for a period of use of the service following the current observation period, the second credti being calculated from said observation data and the first credit, and instructions to implement during the period of use of the service following the current observation period, a quality of service policy associated with the second quality of service credit.
• Figure 1 is a schematic representation of the operating principle of a quality of service equipment required for the invention according to a state of the art.
• FIG. 2 presents the method of dynamic management of the quality of service according to the invention.
• FIG. 3 is an example of a network architecture according to the invention.
• FIG. 4 is a second example of network architecture that implements the method according to the invention. An example of appiicat ⁇ on the method according to the invention is described for this architecture.
• FIG. 5 is a functional representation of a control platform which implements the method according to the invention.
• a quality of service perceived by a user of a service depends on the functionality offered by the service. For a file download service, the perceived quality of service will be the download time of a file. The shorter this time will be and the better the quality of service will be perceived. For a web portal access service, this results in effective access to the portal home page. For a voice or video stream service, the quality of service perceived will be relative to the continuity of the sound or the continuity in the scrolling of the video stream. From the point of view of the network, the quality of service is expressed for example and non-exhaustively by a rate expressed in kilobits per second, also called bandwidth, by a maximum number of simultaneous access to a web portal.
• the quality of service function the parameters associated with this function and which are, for example, threshold values, and the quality of service actions that are triggered when these threshold values are reached.
• One or more quality of service credits are also defined for a user who uses a service.
• Quality of service credit is what a user is entitled to in terms of quality of service when using the service.
• An example of quality of service credit for a service whose quality of service is measured in the network by a throughput, is an average traffic volume for the service for a given period.
• a possible credit value corresponds to a quality of service policy to be applied to the traffic of the user concerned.
• a high quality of service credit corresponds to a favorable quality of service policy that can result in a high priority of the user's traffic relative to the service, a low credit quality of service.
• service is a low traffic priority or a less favorable quality of service policy.
• FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of the operation of a quality of service management equipment in a network according to the state of the art adapted to implement a method according to the invention.
• Such equipment is for example and non-exhaustively a traffic regulator or conditioner (the term systematically used is the term "traffic shaper").
• the quality of service management equipment is adapted to classify the traffic passing through it, based on the users associated with it.
• the classification of the traffic per user is illustrated in the figure by pipes 15 and 16, each pipe representing a traffic classification for a user. Two pipes 15, 16 corresponding to the traffic classification for two users are shown.
• Such equipment is of course limited only by the number of users associated with it. To create such pipes, commands or classification rules are executed by the equipment.
• classification rules are created or deleted directly on the device or by a network control platform.
• the control platform creates such a pipe, for example and non-exhaustively, when opening a service session by a user and removes such a pipe when the user terminates his service session.
• An additional classification can be made by such equipment for the traffic of a user, in order to distinguish different types of traffic, for example and non-exhaustively, transport layer traffic as "UDP” User Datagram Protocol ") or” TCP “(Transmission Control Protocol), or application-layer traffic as” SMTP "-based mail-based data traffic (" Simple "). Mail Transfer Protocol "), a” Hyper Text Transfer Protocol “(” HTTP ”) based data transfer traffic,” Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) -based VoIP traffic ". ").
• This classification is represented in the figure by the channels 17, 18, 19 for the pipe 15 associated with a first user and by the channels 20, 21 and 22 for the pipe 16 associated with a second user.
• the quality of service management equipment is adapted to associate a service quality policy with each classification represented. by a pipe or a channel.
• the quality of service policies 170, 180 and 190 are respectively associated with the channels 17, 18 and 19 corresponding to the traffic type classifications for the pipe 15 associated with the first user.
• the quality of service policies 200, 210 and 220 are respectively associated with the channels 20, 21 and 22 corresponding to the classifications by type of traffic for the pipe 16 associated with the second user.
• the quality of service policies are preferably determined and assigned to the pipes and channels by the control platform.
• the quality of service management equipment is adapted to analyze all parameters of the packets and the data traffic passing through its interfaces and to apply to traffic the QoS policies set up as quality of service functions by a user.
• network operator in charge of managing the network from the control platform.
• the quality of service management equipment is adapted to observe the traffic that passes through them and to go back to another network equipment, such as the control platform, observation data relating to the traffic that the crosses, such as for example and non-exhaustively an average volume of data downloaded in an upward or downward direction, a mean bitrate, details on the user's traffic.
• the selection of the observation data that is reported is done by the control platform. This is a parameter of the platform.
• These observation data are sent by the quality of service management equipment to the control platform either spontaneously (we speak of "push” method in English), for example according to a parameter which represents a time interval. regular, or following a request from the platform command (we speak of method "pull" in English).
• FIG. 2 illustrates the steps of the method according to the invention.
• Users 1 and 2 access a service 3 through a packet network type ÎP (not shown in the figure).
• the service can be any service provided through an IP-type network, such as for example and in a non-exhaustive manner an Internet access service, a video stream sending service in streaming mode (the term commonly used is the term "streaming video"), a service for downloading media such as sound, video or image.
• Quality of service management equipment 4 installed in said network, classifies the traffic passing through it for users 1 and 2 and observes the use of the service 3 by the users 1 and 2 according to the description of a device quality of service management made in the prior art.
• the service quality management equipment 4 collects service usage observation data 3.
• the control platform 5 comprises a module 51 for dynamic management of the quality of service according to the invention.
• the module 51 comprises a program stored in a memory of the control platform 5.
• the invention is not limited by the number of service users, a single user can also use the service, although the method according to the invention is more advantageous when several users use the service. Similarly, only one service is shown in the figure. The invention is not limited by the number of services whose service quality management equipment 4 can observe the use.
• each user 1, 2 has for the service an initial quality of service credit which is a parameter of the dynamic management method of the quality of service according to the invention.
• the initial quality of service credit is what users 1 and 2 are entitled to in terms of quality of service when they use service 3 in a normal mode of operation.
• the initial credits of the users 1 and 2 are stored in one or more databases accessed by the control platform 5.
• the initial credit of a user is then recovered by ia command platform by a request, for example when opening a service session for this user.
• a service may send service requests to the control platform 5, for example to signal the start of a service session for the user and the end of the service session for that user. These service requests are used by the control platform 5 to calculate or recover the initial quality of service credit of said user.
• the users 1 and 2 use the service 3.
• the quality of service management equipment 4 observes during a period of current observation the use that is made of the service 3, and collect for each user observation data on the use of the service 3, such as, for example, and non-exhaustively, an average volume of downloaded data in an ascending or descending direction, an average bit rate, details per type of traffic, such as for example details relating to voice-over-IP type traffic, HTTP or SMTP data transfer traffic.
• users 1 and 2 have a first quality of service credit that corresponds to what they are entitled to in terms of quality of service during the current observation period.
• the first QoS credit is the initial user credit.
• step 10 corresponding to the end of the current observation period, the data collected by the quality of service management equipment 4 is sent back to the control platform 5.
• the feedback of data from observation is illustrated by sending a message if.
• step 10 on the figure ends with the sending of the message if that contains the observation data of the use of the service 3 during the current observation period, the duration of this observation period being a time parameter set by the control platform.
• observation of the use of the service 3 by the users 1 and 2 continues, and observation data of the use of the service 3 will be sent to the end of a subsequent observation step not shown.
• the data feedback observation of the use of the service 3 to the control platform 5 is consecutive to the sending by the control platform 5 a query request for observation data.
• a step 1 subsequent to the reception by the control platform 5 of the message if that contains the observation data of the use of the service 3 by the users 1 and 2 during the current observation period, the control platform 5 calculates a second quality of service credit for users 1 and 2.
• the second quality of service credit associated with a user corresponds to what the user is entitled to in terms of quality of service for a user. period of use of the service following the current observation period.
• the second service quality credit is calculated from service usage observation data 3, service quality equipment 4 reassembly to platform 5 at the end of step 10, and the first quality credit. service that is the credit available to users during the current observation period.
• the second quality of service credit associated with a user is representative of the user's use of the service during the current observation period.
• the calculation being done at the end of each current observation period the second credit, allocated in real time to a user, takes into account the history of use of the service since the opening of the service session.
• Each possible value of the quality of service credit corresponds to a quality of service policy to be applied to the traffic of the user concerned during the period of use of the service following the current observation period.
• the determination of the quality of service policy to be applied to the traffic of a user for the second quality of service credit takes into account a profile of the user: for example and non-exhaustive, a type of user manager of a service can benefit from a favorable quality of service policy during the service session it initiates since the service session concerns a priority maintenance operation on the service.
• the volume_normal value corresponds to a quality of service reference credit.
• the volume_normal value can be associated with the initial quality of service credit.
• the real volume value is information returned by the quality of service management equipment 4 in the message if.
• the value of the second credit is then calculated by adding credit_variation to the first credit associated with the current observation period.
• the value of the second credit belongs to an interval between a minimum value minjcredit, for example equal to 0 and a maximum credit value max_credit.
• the control platform 5 determines a quality of service policy to be applied to the service traffic of the user concerned.
• a quality of service policy is associated with each possible value of the new credit.
• the quality of service policy is a value corresponding to a traffic priority which is a number between a minimum priority value min_priority which can be equal to 0, and a maximum priority value max_prio ⁇ té.
• control platform 5 sends a control message s2 to the quality of service management equipment 4 for the implementation of the quality of service policy associated with the second credit determined at step 10.
• the quality of service management equipment 4 implements the quality of service policy for the service. 3 and for users 1 and 2.
• the implementation of the quality of service policy is represented in the figure by an message s3.
• a step 13 corresponding to the step of using the service following the current observation period, the quality of service policy associated with the second credit is implemented for the service 3 and for the service traffic which concerns users 1 and 2.
• steps 10 to 13 are implemented continuously during the period of use of the service 3.
• a period of use of the service following a period of observation of the use of the service, illustrated by step 13 is collected data observation of the use of the service 3 by the quality of service management equipment 4 and data feedback to the control platform 5, according to step 10,
• FIG. 3 is an example of a network architecture that carries out the method according to the invention.
• Users 1, 2 access a service (not shown) through a first network 30.
• the traffic between the service and users 1, 2, in the upstream or downstream direction, passes through a quality of service equipment 4 adapted to apply quality of service policies. Only one equipment 4 is shown.
• the invention is not limited to one! Quality of service equipment installed in the network.
• two users are represented, the invention is not duplicated by two users, the quality of service equipment 4 is connected to a second network 31 used to render the service.
• the invention recovers from the quality of service equipment 4 observation information on the use of the service by the users 1 and 2 and controls said equipment.
• the control platform comprises a module 51 for dynamic management of the quality of service according to the invention.
• the quality of service equipment 4 is controlled by the control platform through an intermediate network 32.
• a database 33 accessible by the control platform 5, provides on request of said control platform 5 user-specific or service-specific data, for example and non-exhaustively, an initial quality of service credit, a user profile.
• FIG. 4 is a second example of architecture that uses the method according to the invention and an example of the use of the method according to the invention in the case of a service.
• the architecture is that of a service of access to the internet via a wireless connection (for example, the English term for a type of wireless connection is "WiFi” for "Wireless Fidelity", the English term for access is "hot spot"), in which users 40, 41 share an "ADSL" connection (of the English “Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line”).
• the users 40, 41 access the Internet through wireless access points 42, 43 connected to a modem-router 44.
• the modem-router 44 establishes the ADSL connection with a first equipment 45 in charge of the multiplexing of the streams to the transport network (the term commonly used is the term “DSLAM” for "Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer”). Behind this first equipment 45 is a second data transmission management equipment 46 which groups the traffic coming from a dozen equipment 45 of the "DSLAM” type.
• This second device 46 is an access server (the term commonly used is the term “Broadband Access Server” or "BAS").
• the "BAS" type equipment 46 establishes a persistent tunnel with a third piece of equipment 47 which is an IP backbone network access router (these routers are commonly referred to as "LNS” routers for "L2TP Network Server”). crossing one or more networks 48.
• the fourth quality of service equipment 49 is a traffic conditioner (the term almost always used is the term "traffic shaper").
• a control platform 5 according to the invention communicates through the other networks 50 with the fourth equipment 49 to implement the method according to the invention.
• the control platform 5 comprises a module 51 for dynamic management of the quality of service according to the invention.
• control platform 5 receives requests relating to services, for example requests to open and close service sessions sent by elements.
• network not shown in the figure such as a web portal or other service.
• Support databases not shown in the figure such as databases of an information system can also interact with the control architecture to provide parameters specific to users of the service.
• the available bit rate in the downstream direction ie from the network to the users for the ADSL connection is x kilobits / second
• the users 40, 41 have an identical profile, that they have an initial credit of identical quality of service and that they use the same service at a certain time.
• the user 40 requests for m minutes the maximum flow possible in the downward direction, while the user 41, during these m minutes performs the following operations:
• the user 41 requests the maximum possible bit rate, for example to download a file from a server that offers a very high download speed.
• the flow rates obtained by the users 40 and 41 during the period of m minutes are as follows: the user 41 obtains y kilobits / second during n minutes. Indeed, at the beginning of the period, the two users have the same quality of service credit which is x / 2 since there is no other user and the offered bit rate is x kilobits / second. User 41 requests, for n minutes, less debit than that granted by his credit. He therefore has all the necessary credit for obtaining his video stream during these n minutes, that is to say y kilobits / second. During these n minutes, the credit of the user 41 can only remain higher than that of the user 40, so he gets this rate for the entire period of n minutes.
• the user 40 obtains x- y kilobits / second for n minutes. Indeed, the user 40 requests the maximum possible bit rate, that is to say all the bit rate that is not used by the user 41.
• the user 41 also requests a maximum rate for m - n minutes.
• the architecture implementing the invention ie the credit of the user 41 is increased, or it is decreased, while remaining strictly greater than that of the user 40.
• the users 40 and 41 are in competition to obtain a maximum bit rate but 41 has a credit higher than that of 40 so a rate w> x / 2 and 40 gets the remaining bitrate, namely x - w ⁇ x / 2.
• the user 41 was able to recover a portion of the bit rate that he had not used during the first phase.
• the user 40 obtains less flow in the second phase, because in the first phase he used more flow compared to the one to which he was entitled: this flow had been granted because no one else was using it during this period of time.
• the use of quality of service credit in terms of throughput is balanced between the users 40 and 41: the user 40 has a maximum bit rate as long as it is not used, and a bitrate less when the user 41 wishes to access a service.
• the user 41 having used very little bitrate at the beginning of the period deserves a larger bandwidth in the second period.
• the sharing of the bandwidth is balanced between the users 40 and 41. This sharing takes into account the use that each made of the bandwidth.
• FIG. 5 is a functional representation of a control platform 5 which implements the method according to the invention.
• the control platform 5 comprises several modules:
• a module 60 for retrieving and analyzing data for observing the use of a service adapted to receive network quality of service management equipment via a network interface 61 of the observation data of the network; use of a service by one or more users.
• the module 60 from these observation data analyzes the traffic data and is adapted to correlate the use of a service by several users for example, to study the distribution of the use of the bandwidth.
• the parameter is in an external database; it is recovered by the module 62 by a query to the database.
• a service quality management equipment control module 64 adapted to control the equipment and the implementation of the new quality of service policy identified by the module 63.
• the modules communicate with each other by means of an internal communication bus 65.

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• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Data Exchanges In Wide-Area Networks (AREA)

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• 2005
  • 2005-09-23 FR FR0552848A patent/FR2891425A1/fr active Pending
• 2006
  • 2006-09-21 EP EP06831213A patent/EP1941682A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2006-09-21 WO PCT/FR2006/050925 patent/WO2007034122A1/fr not_active Ceased
  • 2006-09-21 US US11/992,683 patent/US20090116495A1/en not_active Abandoned

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