Bonding and redundancy for satellite transport paths

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11031998-B2
Application number	US-201816155549-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 9, 2018
Priority date	Oct 9, 2018
Publication date	Jun 8, 2021
Grant date	Jun 8, 2021

Abstract

A method for using multiple communication paths in a satellite network is disclosed. The method including: initiating a connection request from a first peer to a second peer; providing communication paths between the first peer and the second peer; retrieving a policy corresponding to the communication paths, the first peer and the second peer; receiving a transport metric for at least one of the communication paths; selecting a path from the communication paths based on a connection metric, the transport metric and the policy; and establishing a connection between the first peer and the second peer with the path, wherein at least one of the communication paths is relayed by a satellite.

First claim

We claim as our invention:

1. A method for using multiple communication paths in a satellite network, the method comprising:
initiating a connection request from a first peer to a second peer;
providing communication paths between the first peer and the second peer;
retrieving a policy corresponding to the communication paths, the first peer and the second peer;
receiving a transport metric for at least one of the communication paths;
selecting a path from the communication paths based on a connection metric, the transport metric and the policy; and
establishing a connection between the first peer and the second peer with the path,
wherein at least one of the communication paths is relayed by a satellite and the selecting comprises selecting based on a predictive analysis of a historical behavior of at least one of the communication paths.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transport metric is selected from one or more of a frequency band, a satellite constellation, an antenna, a carrier frequency, a gateway identification, an outdoor unit, a Packet Loss Rate (PLR), a Modulation and Coding (MODCOD) symbol rate, a MODCOD modulation, a signal strength, a transport layer queue depth, a transport layer queue latency, a link type or a combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the path is relayed by the satellite, and the transport metric comprises a metric of the path.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
detecting, on the path, a change in one or more of the connection metric, the transport metric or the policy; and
moving the connection to a second path based on the change, wherein the second path comprises another of the communication paths.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein
the second path has a metric differing from a corresponding transport metric of the path.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting, on the path, a change in one or more of the connection metric, the transport metric or the policy; and
moving the connection to a second path based on the change, wherein the second path comprises another of the communication paths.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the connection comprises a Performance-enhancing Proxy (PEP) connection.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the connection comprises a TCP spoof connection.

9. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
sending traffic for the connection over the second path;
receiving the traffic for the connection over the second path; and
maintaining an integrity of the received traffic.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selecting comprises selecting a plurality of paths from the communication paths as the path and the method further comprises:
sending traffic for the connection by replicating the traffic over the plurality of paths;
receiving the traffic for the connection over the plurality of paths; and
maintaining an integrity of the received traffic by discarding a duplicate of the received traffic.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the policy is selected from one or more of a Fair Access Policy (FAP), an allocated bandwidth, a maximum bandwidth, an allowed MODCOD, or a Quality of Service requirement.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the communication paths comprises a terrestrial path, the connection is intolerant of a long latency or jitter, and the selecting comprises selecting the terrestrial path for the connection.

13. A method for using multiple communication paths in a satellite network, the method comprising:
providing a first Virtual Network Operator (VNO) comprising a first VNO connection and a second VNO comprising a second VNO connection;
initiating a connection request from a first peer to a second peer;
providing communication paths between the first peer and the second peer;
retrieving a policy corresponding to the communication paths, the first peer and the second peer;
receiving a transport metric for at least one of the communication paths;
selecting a path from the communication paths based on a connection metric, the transport metric and the policy; and
establishing a connection between the first peer and the second peer with the path,
wherein at least one of the communication paths is relayed by a satellite, and the selecting comprises selecting the path for the first VNO connection and selecting another of the communication paths for the second VNO connection, and the path and the another of the communication paths are relayed by the satellite.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing a first Virtual Network Operator (VNO) comprising a first VNO connection and a second VNO comprising a second VNO connection; and
distributing bandwidth of the communication paths for the first VNO and the second VNO per a bandwidth allocation by a resource manager,
wherein the selecting comprises selecting the path for the first VNO connection and selecting another of the communication paths for the second VNO connection, and the path and the another of the communication paths are relayed by the satellite.

15. A method for using multiple communication paths in a satellite network, the method comprising:
initiating a connection request from a first peer to a second peer;
providing communication paths between the first peer and the second peer;
retrieving a policy corresponding to the communication paths, the first peer and the second peer;
receiving a transport metric for at least one of the communication paths;
selecting a path from the communication paths based on a connection metric, the transport metric and the policy;
establishing a connection between the first peer and the second peer with the path;
managing the first peer or the second peer via the path; and
altering a configuration of the first peer or the second peer while maintaining communications over another of the communication paths for a hitless configuration upgrade,
wherein at least one of the communication paths is relayed by a satellite.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
managing the first peer or the second peer via the path; and
wherein the managing comprises communicating via the path when another of the communication paths is unavailable.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the connection metric comprises one or more of a real-time connection indicator, a latency and jitter tolerance, a bulk connection, an interactive connection, or a protocol in use on the connection.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transport metric is selected from one or more of a satellite constellation, an antenna, a carrier frequency, a gateway identification, an outdoor unit, a Packet Loss Rate (PLR), a Modulation and Coding (MODCOD) symbol rate, a MODCOD modulation, a signal strength, a transport layer queue depth, a transport layer queue latency, a link type or a combination thereof.

19. The method of claim 13 , further comprising distributing bandwidth of the communication paths for the first VNO and the second VNO per a bandwidth allocation by a resource manager.

Assignees

• Roy Satyajit
• Choquette George
• Hughes Network Systems Llc

Inventors

• Roy Satyajit
• Choquette George

Classifications

• H04B7/18584 Primary

  Arrangements for data networking, i.e. for data packet routing, for congestion control (data switching networks H04L12/00) · CPC title

• H04W24/10

  Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports} · CPC title

• H04B7/18528

  Satellite systems for providing two-way communications service to a network of fixed stations, i.e. fixed satellite service or very small aperture terminal [VSAT] system · CPC title

• H04B7/1851

  Systems using a satellite or space-based relay (H04B7/18508, H04B7/18521 take precedence; providing specific services H04B7/18523 - H04B7/18576) · CPC title

• H04B7/18513 Primary

  Transmission in a satellite or space-based system · CPC title