Method for sharing network resources made accessible by a set of access gateways

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10848279-B2
Application number	US-201516065949-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 28, 2015
Priority date	Dec 28, 2015
Publication date	Nov 24, 2020
Grant date	Nov 24, 2020

Abstract

A method for sharing network resources made accessible by plural access gateways (AG). An AG requester sends a resource request to neighbouring AGs as potential helpers. Each potential helper decides whether to cooperate with the requester based on a reputation score calculated by the potential helper for the requester. The reputation score calculated by each potential helper for the requester is indicative of the requester's behaviour in response to past resource requests received from that potential helper. If the potential helper decides to cooperate, it sends a resource offer to the requester. The requester then selects its helper as the potential helper which sent the best offer, and sets up a resource sharing session with the helper. The requester then updates the reputations scores of a helper and potential helpers based on the disposition to cooperate and reliability they exhibited.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for sharing network resources made accessible by a set of access gateways, the method comprising:
a) at a first access gateway of the set of access gateways, sending a resource request to a second access gateway of the set of access gateways;
b) at the second access gateway, deciding whether to cooperate with the first access gateway based on a reputation score calculated by the second access gateway for the first access gateway, the reputation score being indicative of a likelihood of the first access gateway to offer resources to the second access gateway in response to a resource request from second access gateway and, when the second access gateway decides to offer at least part of the requested resources to the first access gateway, sending a resource offer to the first access gateway; and
c) at the first access gateway, deciding whether to accept the resource offer sent by the second access gateway to the first access gateway and, when the first access gateway decides to accept the resource offer from the second access gateway, setting up a resource sharing session with the second access gateway.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at b) the reputation score of the first access gateway is calculated by the second access gateway taking into account a resource credit of the second access gateway towards the first access gateway, the credit being calculated by the second access gateway as an algebraic sum of amounts of resources provided by the second access gateway to the first access gateway and amounts of resources received by the second access gateway from the first access gateway in at least one past resource sharing session.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at b) the reputation score of the first access gateway is calculated by the second access gateway taking into account a disposition shown by the first access gateway to cooperate with the second access gateway, the disposition being calculated as a ratio between an amount of resources offered by the first access gateway to the second access gateway in response to at least one past resource request sent by the second access gateway to the first access gateway and an amount of resources requested by the second access gateway in the at least one past resource request.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at b) the reputation score of the first access gateway is calculated by the second access gateway taking into account a reliability shown by the first access gateway toward the second access gateway, the reliability being calculated as a ratio between an amount of resources actually provided by the first access gateway to the second access gateway in response to at least one past resource request sent by the second access gateway to the first access gateway and an amount of resources offered by the first access gateway to the second access gateway in response to the at least one past resource request.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at b) the second access gateway decides to cooperate with the first access gateway if the reputation score is higher than a threshold value.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:
a) comprises sending the resource request by the first access gateway to a plurality of identified potential helpers including the second access gateway, each potential helper being identified by the first access gateway as an access gateway of the set of access gateways whose signal strength received at the first access gateway is above a minimum threshold capable of guaranteeing a minimum throughput between the first access gateway and the potential helper;
at b) each potential helper decides whether to cooperate with the first access gateway based on a reputation score calculated by the potential helper for the first access gateway, the reputation score being indicative of a likelihood of the first access gateway to offer resources to the potential helper in response to a resource request from the potential helper and, when a potential helper decides to cooperate with the first access gateway, the potential helper sends a respective resource offer to the first access gateway; and
c) comprises receiving resource offers from potential helpers which at b) decided to cooperate and deciding whether the resource offer received from the second access gateway is the best offer amongst the received resource offers.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein:
at a) the resource request comprises at least an amount of resources requested by the first access gateway and a time interval T for which the amount of resources is requested by the first access gateway; and
at b) the resource offer sent by each one of the potential helpers comprises at least an amount of resources offered by the potential helper and a time interval T j for which the amount of resources is offered by the potential helper.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein c) comprises:
calculating a value of an offered quality of experience parameter v ji for the resource offer received from each potential helper, the offered quality of experience parameter v ji being calculated based on the amount of resources offered by the potential helper and the time interval T j for which the amount of resources is offered by the potential helper; and
deciding whether the resource offer received from the second access gateway is the best offer amongst the received resource offers by deciding whether the resource offer received from the second access gateway has the highest value of offered quality of experience v ji .

9. The method according to claim 6 wherein, after the resource sharing session is closed, the first access gateway updates a further reputation score of each one of the potential helpers, the further reputation score being indicative of a behavior of the potential helper in response to at least one past resource request sent by the first access gateway to the potential helper.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein:
for the second access gateway, the updating comprises adding to a current value of the further reputation score a value that depends on a ratio between an amount of resources provided by the second access gateway to the first access gateway during the resource sharing session and an amount of resources offered in the resource offer sent by the second access gateway to the first access gateway at b); and
for each potential helper other than the second access gateway, the updating comprises adding to a current value of the further reputation score a value that depends on a ratio between an amount of resources offered by the potential helper to the first access gateway and an amount of resources requested by the first access gateway in the resource request.

11. The method according to claim 1 wherein, after the resource sharing session is closed:
the first access gateway updates a credit value c ij* towards the second access gateway by subtracting therefrom an amount of resources provided by the second access gateway to the first access gateway during the resource sharing session; and
the second access gateway updates a credit value c j*i towards the first access gateway by adding thereto the amount of resources provided by the second access gateway to the first access gateway during the resource sharing session.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein c) comprises building an overlay network comprising at least one connection between the first access gateway and the second access gateway, which allows an end user connected to the first access gateway accessing the resources offered by the second access gateway.

Assignees

• Telecom Italia Spa

Inventors

• Borean Claudio
• Castrogiovanni Pino
• Grasso Ennio
• Mana Dario

Classifications

• H04L69/24 Primary

  Negotiation of communication capabilities · CPC title

• H04L5/0032 Primary

  Distributed allocation, i.e. involving a plurality of allocating devices, each making partial allocation · CPC title

• H04W88/16

  Gateway arrangements · CPC title

• H04L47/39

  Credit based · CPC title

• H04L41/0896

  Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities (flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76) · CPC title