Network latency control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11190983-B2
Application number	US-201916702722-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 4, 2019
Priority date	Apr 22, 2019
Publication date	Nov 30, 2021
Grant date	Nov 30, 2021

Abstract

Techniques for network scheduling that may provide consistent latency in content delivery are described. For example, the techniques may include receiving, by a scheduler of a carrier network, a consistent latency request associated with an application operating on a user equipment (UE), the consistent latency request including a specified latency value. Based at least in part on the specified latency value, the scheduler of the carrier network may schedule transmission of one or more packets associated with the application operating on the UE to cause the one or more packets to arrive at the UE with an inter-packet delay substantially equal to the specified latency value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a base station of a carrier network, a consistent latency request associated with an application operating on a user equipment (UE), the consistent latency request including a specified latency value;
assessing, by the base station, current conditions affecting communications between the base station and the UE; and
based at least in part on the specified latency value and the current conditions, scheduling, by a scheduler of the base station, transmission of packets associated with the application to cause the packets to arrive at the UE with an inter-packet delay substantially equal to the specified latency value,
wherein the current conditions indicate a best available latency that is lower than the specified latency value and the inter-packet delay.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the consistent latency request includes a specified threshold time period and the inter-packet delay substantially equal to the specified latency value is within the specified threshold time period of the specified latency value.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the scheduling includes delaying the scheduling of a particular packet of the packets when immediate scheduling of the particular packet would cause the particular packet to arrive with an inter-packet delay less than substantially equal to the specified latency value.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
when the immediate scheduling of the particular packet would cause the particular packet to arrive with the inter-packet delay less than substantially equal to the specified latency value, scheduling, by the scheduler, an additional transmission, to the UE, of an additional packet that is unrelated to the application operating on the UE before the particular packet when the additional packet has a lower priority than the packets.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the scheduling further includes modifying a Quality of Service Class Identifier (QCI) of a particular packet of the packets to cause the particular packet to arrive at the UE with the inter-packet delay substantially equal to the specified latency value.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining radio network conditions for communications between the carrier network and the UE, wherein the scheduling is further based at least in part on the radio network conditions.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining radio network conditions for communications between the carrier network and the UE; and
upgrading a Quality of Service Class Identifier (QCI) of the packets; and
wherein the scheduling, by the scheduler, of the transmission of the packets associated with the application operating on the UE includes delaying a release for scheduling of the particular packet until a release time, the release time being determined based on a specified arrival time for the particular packet at the UE, an estimated time from the release for scheduling of the particular packet to the transmission of the particular packet at the upgraded QCI, and an estimated time in flight of the particular packet.

8. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:
receiving a consistent latency request associated with an application operating on a user equipment (UE), the consistent latency request identifying a specified latency value;
assessing current conditions affecting communications between the system and the UE; and
based at least in part on the specified latency value and the current conditions, scheduling transmission of packets associated with the application cause the packets to arrive at the UE with an inter-packet delay substantially equal to the latency value,

wherein the current conditions indicate a best available latency that is lower than the specified latency value and the inter-packet delay.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the consistent latency request identifies a specified threshold time period and the inter-packet delay substantially equal to the specified latency value is within the specified threshold time period of the specified latency value.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the scheduling includes delaying the scheduling of a particular packet of the packets when immediate scheduling of the particular packet would cause the particular packet to arrive with an inter-packet delay less than substantially equal to the specified latency value.

11. The system of claim 10 , the operations further comprising:
when the immediate scheduling of the particular packet would cause the particular packet to arrive with the inter-packet delay less than substantially equal to the specified latency value, scheduling an additional transmission, to the UE, of an additional packet that is unrelated to the application operating on the UE before the particular packet when the additional packet has a lower priority than the packets.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the scheduling further includes modifying a Quality of Service Class Identifier (QCI) of a particular packet of the packets to cause the particular packet to arrive at the UE with the inter-packet delay substantially equal to the specified latency value.

13. The system of claim 8 , the operations further comprising:
determining radio network conditions for communications between the carrier network and the UE, wherein the scheduling further based at least in part on the radio network conditions.

14. The system of claim 8 , the operations further comprising retrieving the specified latency value from a database, the specified latency value being previously stored therein and identified and retrieved based on the identification of the application.

15. The system of claim 8 , the operations further comprising:
determining radio network conditions for communications between the carrier network and the UE; and
upgrading a Quality of Service Class Identifier (QCI) of the packets; and
wherein the scheduling of the transmission of the packets associated with the application includes delaying a release for scheduling of the particular packet until a release time, the release time being determined based on a specified arrival time for the particular packet at the UE, an estimated time from the release for scheduling of the particular packet to the transmission of the particular packet at the upgraded QCI, and an estimated time in flight of the particular packet.

16. The system of claim 8 , wherein a Quality of Service Class Identifier (QCI) associated with the packets includes a parameter specifying a latency variation tolerance threshold and wherein the inter-packet delay substantially equal to the specified latency value is within the latency variation tolerance threshold of the specified latency value.

17. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
requesting, by a user equipment (UE) in a consistent latency request, a scheduler of a carrier network to schedule transmission of packets associated with an application operating on the UE, the consistent latency request including a specified latency value;
receiving, at the UE, the packets associated with the application, wherein the packets are received at a first inter-packet delay within a threshold range of the specified latency value;
buffering, at the UE,

Assignees

• T Mobile Usa Inc

Inventors

• Gapin Andrew
• Wang Yun-Ling Jocelyn
• Najeeb Taha
• Smith Jeffery A
• Bongaarts Paul

Classifications

• H04L47/22 Primary

  Traffic shaping · CPC title

• H04W72/543

  based on requested quality, e.g. QoS · CPC title

• H04W28/22 Primary

  Negotiating communication rate · CPC title

• H04L47/803

  Application aware · CPC title