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Parameterized quality of service in a network

Parameterized quality of service in a network description/claims

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application 60/901,564 filed Feb. 14, 2007; U.S. Provisional Application 60/927,613 filed May 4, 2007; U.S. Provisional Application 60/901,563 filed Feb. 14, 2007; U.S. Provisional Application 60/927,766 filed May 4, 2007; U.S. Provisional Application 60/927,636 filed May 4, 2007; and U.S. Provisional Application 60/931,314 filed May 21, 2007, each of which is herein incorporated by reference.

The disclosed method and apparatus relates to a communication protocol in a network, and more specifically, relates to a quality of service protocol in a network.

In addition to computers, home networks now typically include multiple types of subscriber equipment configured to deliver subscriber services through the home network. The subscriber services include the delivering of multimedia, such as streaming audio and video, through the home network to the subscriber equipment where it is presented to a user. As the number of available subscriber services increases, so does the number of devices being connected to a home network. The increase in the number of services and devices increases the complexity of the coordination between the network nodes as each node may be produced by a different manufacturer at different times. Some home networking technologies have emerged in an attempt to facilitate simple home network solutions and take advantage of existing network infrastructure that may be present in a number of homes. For example, the Home Phone Network Alliance (HPNA) allows users to network home computers by using the existing telephone and coaxial cable wiring within a home. HPNA-enabled devices utilize a different frequency spectrum than the spectrum used by faxes and phones. Instead of using existing telephone and coaxial wiring, the Homeplug® Power Alliance utilizes the existing electrical power wiring in a home to create a home network. In a Homeplug® network, all Homeplug®-enabled devices that are plugged into a wall outlet connected to a common electrical circuit may be wired together in a home network. One issue with Homeplug® is that the network bandwidth is susceptible to significant reduction due to large variations of the home electrical wiring and reactive loads in the outlets.

Additionally, problems arise in implementing network devices that correctly interact with all other network devices. These problems may inhibit the deployment of newer devices that provide later-developed services in the presence of older (legacy) devices. The emerging Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) standard architecture impacts this problem in that (1) network behaviors dynamically assign a device, such as a node, the “Network Coordinator (NC) role” in order to optimize performance, (2) only the device in the NC role is known to be able to schedule traffic for all other nodes in the network and (3) form a full mesh network architecture between any device and its peers.

With many potential applications sharing the same digital network, various applications have to compete for the same limited bandwidth compounding the distribution problem. A bandwidth intensive application, such as a high-throughput download, may cause the degradation of other more important applications sharing the network. This outcome may be unacceptable when the other application requires a high quality of service.

Various solutions to solve this problem have been proposed, usually involving a high-level network controller or having high-level applications setting priority to data packets or data streams within the network. Moreover, intelligent network devices require high computational power, and are consequently more expensive than they need to be. Finally, complex network devices are impractical for home use, as most consumers do not have the sophistication or experience to configure a computer network.

In one embodiment, a method for managing data transmission, comprises the steps of: (a) making a prescribed bandwidth on a network resource available to at least one requestor for transmitting or receiving data according to a first request of a first request type, the first request type have a prescribed quality of service guarantee; (b) transmitting first data in accordance with the first request to or from the at least one requester on the network resource, such transmission using a first portion of the prescribed bandwidth, if the first data are available to be transferred to or from the at least one requester; (c) transmitting second data according to a second request of a second request type on the network resource to or from the at least one requestor or a second requester, the second data transmitted without a quality of service guarantee, the transmission using a second portion of the prescribed bandwidth, if the first portion of the prescribed bandwidth is less than the entire prescribed bandwidth.

In one embodiment, a method for managing data transmission comprises the steps of: (a) making a prescribed bandwidth on a network resource available to at least one requestor of a first type with a prescribed quality of service guarantee; (b) transmitting first data to or from the at least one requester of the first type on the network resource using a first portion of the prescribed bandwidth, if the first data are available to be transferred to or from the at least one requester of the first type; and (c) transmitting second data on the network resource to or from at least one requestor of a second type without a quality of service guarantee using a second portion of the prescribed bandwidth, if the first portion of the prescribed bandwidth is less than the entire prescribed bandwidth.

In some embodiments, a method of reporting a change in a network comprises the steps of: (1) determining a change in a network; (2) generating a first Layer 2 message in response to the change, the Layer 2 message indicating a change has occurred in the network, and (3) transmitting the first Layer 2 message to a node connected to the network, wherein upon receiving the first Layer 2 message the node transmits a notification to an upper layer application.

In some embodiments, a method for managing data transmission in a shared network comprises the steps of: (a) making a prescribed bandwidth on a shared network resource available to at least one requestor with a prescribed quality of service guarantee for a first time interval; (b) transmitting data to or from the at least one requester on the shared network resource during the first time interval; and (c) releasing the shared network resource associated with the prescribed bandwidth at the expiration of the first time interval, if a request to make the prescribed bandwidth available for a second time interval is not received from the at least one requestor.

In some embodiments, a method of performing a network transaction at Layer 2 comprises the steps of (a) receiving at a network coordinator a Layer 2 request to perform a network transaction from a first node; (b) transmitting a first Layer 2 message from the network coordinator to at least one node connected to the network in response to the request; (c) receiving, at the network coordinator, a response to the first Layer 2 message from at least one node connected to the network, the response including network resource allocation data; (d) determining the capabilities of the network at the network coordinator based on the received response to the first Layer 2 message; and (e) allocating network resources to perform the network transaction if the network coordinator determines there are sufficient network resources to perform the transaction.

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a network architecture.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing two L2ME Wave Cycles in accordance with the embodiment of FIG. 1.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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