US6404738B1
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Dynamic network bandwidth allocation for multimedia applications with soft quality-of-service requirements
Assignee: Juniper Networks Inc
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Filing: 1998-01-21
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Granted: 2002-06-11
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Expires: 2018-01-21
Abstract
Abstract A new concept of soft quality-of-service (soft-QoS) is developed that bridges the gap between the efficient provision of network-level QoS and the requirements of multimedia applications. Soft-QoS is defined by a satisfaction index (a number that rates users' perceptual quality) and a softness profile (a function that captures the robustness of multimedia applications to network congestion). Another aspect of this invention is a bandwidth allocation scheme for multimedia applications with soft-QoS requirements is presented. The implementation of the bandwidth allocation scheme on a network element realizes a soft-QoS controller. The controller uses the connections' softness profiles to compute a bandwidth allocation that maximizes the minimum satisfaction index of active connections.
Inventors
- 👤 Daniel Reininger
- 👤 Rauf Izmailov
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-24 15:31
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04L; H04L47/00; H04L47/70; H04L47/80; H04L47/805; H04L12/00; H04L12/54; H04L12/56; H04L12/5601; H04L12/5602; H04L41/00; H04L41/08; H04L41/0896; H04L47/10; H04L47/15; H04L47/24; H04L47/72; H04L47/724; H04L47/76; H04L47/762; H04L47/765; H04L47/78; H04L47/783; H04L47/801; H04L47/803; H04Q; H04Q11/00; H04Q11/04; H04Q11/0428; H04Q11/0478; H04L2012/5629; H04L2012/5631; H04L2012/5632; H04L2012/5638; H04L2012/5665; H04L2012/5667
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 25
Claim 1
Independent Claim
82 words
A distributed multimedia system having a soft quality of support comprising: a plurality of clients a plurality of servers; and a network; wherein each of said plurality of clients further comprises an application and a network interface card, wherein each of said plurality of servers further comprises a terminal quality of service controller, a data source and a server network interface card, and wherein said network provides soft quality of service support to said plurality of clients and said plurality of servers.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
82 words
A distributed multimedia system having a soft quality of support comprising: a plurality of clients a plurality of servers; and a network; wherein each of said plurality of clients further comprises an application and a network interface card, wherein each of said plurality of servers further comprises a terminal quality of service controller, a data source and a server network interface card, and wherein said network provides soft quality of service support to said plurality of clients and said plurality of servers.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
47 words
The distributed multimedia system of claim 1 wherein said network further comprises: a backbone network; an access network; a quality of service controller; wherein said quality of service controller is attached to said access network; and wherein said quality of service controller uses soft quality of service.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
17 words
The distributed multimedia system of claim 2 wherein said quality of service controller is a personal computer.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
15 words
The distributed multimedia system of claim 2 wherein said quality of service controller is embedded.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
27 words
The distributed multimedia system of claim 2 wherein said backbone network comprises an edge switch and wherein said quality of service controller resides in said edge switch.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
19 words
The distributed multimedia system of claim 2 wherein said quality of service controller is distributed in said backbone network.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
53 words
The distributed multimedia system of claim 2 wherein an application can request bandwidth from a server and network in terms of soft quality of service while connection is in progress, said application can renegotiate soft quality of service requirements, wherein said quality of service controllers compute and negotiates bit-rate necessary to maintain quality.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
20 words
The distributed multimedia system of claim 7 , wherein said renegotiation can be invoked by a user or said network.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
15 words
The distributed multimedia system of claim 7 wherein said renegotiation is sent to network elements.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
16 words
The distributed multimedia system of claim 2 wherein said data source is a multimedia bit-rate source.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
22 words
The distributed multimedia system of claim 10 wherein said quality of service is in the form of frame rate and frame detail.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
21 words
The distributed multimedia system of claim 10 wherein said multimedia bit-rate source uses rate control to scale its bit-rate and quality.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
21 words
The distributed multimedia system of claim 1 wherein said soft quality of service has a satisfaction index and a softness profile.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
37 words
The distributed multimedia system of claim 13 wherein said softness profile is defined using a satisfaction index and a bandwidth ratio, wherein said bandwidth ratio is further defined as a ratio of allocated bandwidth to requested bandwidth.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
28 words
The distributed multimedia system of claim 13 wherein said satisfaction index is graded from 2-5 with a granurality of G and said bandwidth ratio is graded from 0-1.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
167 words
The distributed multimedia system of claim 13 wherein the softness profile for a bandwidth ratio r is calculated using the following formula: L = { 0 if 0 ≤ s ≤ 2 , 1 if 2 ≤ s ≤ 3 , 2 if 3 ≤ s ≤ 4 , 3 if 4 ≤ s ≤ 5 , and r ( s ) = { C if L = 0 , ( s - 2 ) / ( B - C ) + C if L = 1 , ( s - 3 ) / ( A - B ) + B if L = 2 , ( s - 4 ) / ( 1 - A ) + A if L = 3. wherein A, B and C are three numbers that characterize bandwidth requirements of a client application and its performance requirement, 1≧A>B>C≧0, and r(s) represents the bandwidth ratio.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
55 words
A distributed multimedia system having a soft quality of service support, wherein said soft quality of service has a satisfaction index and a softness profile, wherein said softness profile is defined using the satisfaction index and a bandwidth ratio, wherein said bandwidth ratio is further defined as a ratio of allocated bandwidth to requested bandwidth.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
55 words
A distributed multimedia system having a soft quality of service support, wherein said soft quality of service has a satisfaction index and a softness profile, wherein said softness profile is defined using the satisfaction index and a bandwidth ratio, wherein said bandwidth ratio is further defined as a ratio of allocated bandwidth to requested bandwidth.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
46 words
A distributed multimedia system having a soft quality of service support, wherein said soft quality of service has a satisfaction index and a softness profile, wherein said satisfaction index is graded from 2-5 with a granurality of G and said bandwidth ratio is graded from 0-1.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
46 words
A distributed multimedia system having a soft quality of service support, wherein said soft quality of service has a satisfaction index and a softness profile, wherein said satisfaction index is graded from 2-5 with a granurality of G and said bandwidth ratio is graded from 0-1.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
191 words
A distributed multimedia system having a soft quality of service support, wherein said soft quality of service has a satisfaction index and a softness profile, wherein the softness profile for the bandwidth ratio r is calculated using following formulae: L = { 0 if 0 ≤ r ≤ C , 1 if C ≤ r ≤ B , 2 if B ≤ r ≤ A , 3 if A ≤ r ≤ 1 , and S ( r ) = { 2 if L = 0 , ( r - C ) / ( B - C ) + 2 if L = 1 , ( r - B ) / ( A - B ) + 3 if L = 2 , ( r - A ) / ( 1 - A ) + 4 if L = 3. wherein A, B and C are three numbers that characterize bandwidth requirements of a client application and its performance requirement, 1≧A>B>C≧0, and S (r) represents the softness profile as satisfaction index and bandwidth ratio.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
191 words
A distributed multimedia system having a soft quality of service support, wherein said soft quality of service has a satisfaction index and a softness profile, wherein the softness profile for the bandwidth ratio r is calculated using following formulae: L = { 0 if 0 ≤ r ≤ C , 1 if C ≤ r ≤ B , 2 if B ≤ r ≤ A , 3 if A ≤ r ≤ 1 , and S ( r ) = { 2 if L = 0 , ( r - C ) / ( B - C ) + 2 if L = 1 , ( r - B ) / ( A - B ) + 3 if L = 2 , ( r - A ) / ( 1 - A ) + 4 if L = 3. wherein A, B and C are three numbers that characterize bandwidth requirements of a client application and its performance requirement, 1≧A>B>C≧0, and S (r) represents the softness profile as satisfaction index and bandwidth ratio.
Claim 24
Independent Claim
70 words
A method of calculating bandwidth, said bandwidth being required to obtain a pre-determined satisfaction index s said method comprising: a) calculating a factor L using the formula: L = { 0 if 0 ≤ s ≤ 2 , 1 if 2 ≤ s ≤ 3 , 2 if 3 ≤ s ≤ 4 , 3 if 4 ≤ s ≤ 5 ,
Claim 25
Independent Claim
70 words
A method of calculating bandwidth, said bandwidth being required to obtain a pre-determined satisfaction index s said method comprising: a) calculating a factor L using the formula: L = { 0 if 0 ≤ s ≤ 2 , 1 if 2 ≤ s ≤ 3 , 2 if 3 ≤ s ≤ 4 , 3 if 4 ≤ s ≤ 5 ,
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