Reliability and aggregation selection for multi-connectivity network protocols

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12058050-B2
Application number	US-202017771827-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 2, 2020
Priority date	Nov 4, 2019
Publication date	Aug 6, 2024
Grant date	Aug 6, 2024

Abstract

A method for enabling communication between a first network entity and a second network entity via at least two network flows includes: providing at least a first network flow and a second network flow of the first network entity; measuring, by a measuring unit associated with the first network entity, condition values of each of the at least two network flows; comparing the measured condition values of the at least two network flows to entries of a condition matrix; based on comparing the measured condition values to the entries of the condition matrix, selecting a mode for the first network entity out of an aggregation mode, a reliability mode, and a single-connectivity mode; and activating the selected mode.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for enabling communication between a first network entity and a second network entity via at least two different network flows, wherein the first network entity has a multi-connectivity functionality, and wherein the at least two different network flows use two different communication interfaces, the method comprising the following steps executed by the first network entity:
providing at least a first network flow and a second network flow of the first network entity;
measuring condition values of each of the at least two different network flows by a measuring unit of the first entity or by a measuring unit connected to the first network entity;
comparing the measured condition values of the at least two different network flows to entries of a condition matrix, the condition matrix being stored in a memory unit of the first network entity;
selecting a mode based on the comparison of the measured condition values of the at least two different network flows to the entries of the condition matrix, wherein the selected mode is one of an aggregation mode, a reliability mode, or a single-connectivity mode; and
based on selecting the reliability mode, activating the reliability mode of the first network entity and selecting, based on cost information, the first network flow as a primary transmission flow such that, in the reliability mode, data is transmitted only via the first network flow while the second network flow is kept activated in the background for use as backup in the event of failure of the first network flow, wherein the first network flow is selected as the primary transmission flow based on the first network flow having a lowest cost out of network flow(s) of the at least two different network flows which fulfill a quality-of-service (QOS) requirement for the communication between the first and second network entities, and wherein the second network flow is kept available as backup based on the second network flow having a higher cost than the first network flow;
wherein the condition matrix comprises a plurality of different combinations of indications, wherein each respective combination of indications includes a first indication corresponding to multi-connectivity status of the first network entity, a second indication corresponding to status of a mobile communication interface, a third indication corresponding to status of a Wi-Fi communication interface, and a fourth indication corresponding to status of a connection to a special environment.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
switching to a different mode based on a new set of measured condition values.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the condition values are measured at regular time intervals and/or at trigger events.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the mode is based on a decision look-up table which takes the condition matrix into account.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the condition matrix comprises entries of an access technology of the first network entity and/or of cost information about the at least two different network flows.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the condition matrix comprises entries of an access state of the access technology.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the condition matrix comprises entries of a special communication environment of the first network entity, wherein the special communication environment comprises:
basic service sets (BSSs);
service set ID (SSID);
extended service sets (ESSs);
location environment;
@Home environment; and
authentication information.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selection of the primary transmission flow is based on the comparison of the measured condition values of the at least two different network flows to the entries of the condition matrix.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the mode is based on a cost policy that takes different costs of respective network flows into account.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the condition matrix comprises a plurality of columns, including a first column corresponding to the first indications, a second column corresponding to the second indications, a third column corresponding to the third indications, and a fourth column corresponding to the fourth indications;
wherein the condition matrix further comprises a plurality of lines, each line respectively corresponding to a different combination of indications.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first indications indicate whether multi-connectivity is off or on and whether an additional detecting feature of an internal measuring unit is turned on;
wherein the second indications indicate whether the mobile communication interface is off, whether the mobile communication interface has a 2G/3G connection, and whether the mobile communication interface has a 4G connection;
wherein the third indications indicate whether the Wi-Fi communication interface is on or off; and
wherein the fourth indications indicate whether or not the first network entity is connected to the special environment.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein selecting the mode is based on a decision look-up table having the same number of lines as the condition matrix, wherein each respective line of the decision look-up table corresponds to a respective line of the condition matrix, the respective line of the condition matrix corresponding to a respective combination of indications for the first, second, third and fourth columns of the condition matrix;
wherein the decision look-up table comprises a first column corresponding to a Multipath Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP) and a second column corresponding to an MPTCP backup mode;
wherein entries in the first column of the decision look-up table indicate whether to activate or deactivate the MPTCP; and
wherein entries in the second column of the decision look-up table indicate whether to activate or deactivate the MPTCP backup mode.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the first column of the decision look-up table indicating to deactivate the MPTCP and the second column of the decision look-up table indicating to deactivate the MPTCP backup mode corresponds to selection of the single-connectivity mode;
wherein the first column of the decision look-up table indicating to activate the MPTCP and the second column of the decision look-up table indicating to deactivate the MPTCP backup mode corresponds to selection of the aggregation mode; and
wherein the first column of the decision look-up table indicating to activate the MPTCP and the second column of the decision look-up table indicating to activate the MPTCP backup mode corresponds to selection of the reliability mode.

14. A first network entity for enabling communication between the first network entity and a second network entity via at least two different network flows, the first network entity comprising:
at least two different communication interfaces, wherein each of the at least two different communication interfaces is assigned to a respective network flow;
a memory configured to store a condition matrix and measurement condition values, wherein the condition matrix includes possible communication environments of the network entities and the measurement condition values include actual measured condition values of communication environments of the network entities;
a processor configured to:
compare the measurement condition values to the entries of the condition matrix;
select a mode based on the comparison of the measurement condition values to the entries of the condition matrix, wherein the selected mode is one of an ag

Assignees

• Deutsche Telekom Ag

Inventors

• Amend Markus
• Bogenfeld Eckard

Classifications

• H04L47/41

  by acting on aggregated flows or links · CPC title

• H04L47/20

  Traffic policing · CPC title

• H04W72/12

  Wireless traffic scheduling · CPC title

• H04W74/02

  Hybrid access · CPC title

• H04W40/02

  Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing · CPC title