Service plan based flow control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016134544-A1
Application number	US-201414537079-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 10, 2014
Priority date	Nov 10, 2014
Publication date	May 12, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided to achieve traffic flow control in accordance with traffic priority as well as service plan considerations. A weight for flow control and a per service plan minimum flow control meter (FCM) can be defined for different throttle rates for different service plans. An FCM value based upon traffic priority can be converted to a per service plan group FCM value so that each service plan can be assigned/configured with its own FCM for each uplink queue. An average throttled data rate is then calculated to determine whether the traffic in a particular gateway is under or over throttled based on the current per service plan FCM with current input data rates. The per service plan FCM can then be revised for use by an Internet Protocol Gateway sending traffic to a Satellite Gateway.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method, comprising:
determining a per service plan group flow control meter (FCM) value applicable to all service plans in a service plan group; determining a per service plan FCM value for each of the service plans in the service plan group; and adjusting the per service plan FCM value to account for traffic priorities associated with the service plans.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the per service plan group FCM value comprises converting a traffic priority based FCM value to the per service plan group FCM value in accordance with a configured flow control weight value.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the per service plan group FCM value is a percentage value.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein determining the per-service-plan FCM comprises comparing a minimum FCM value configured for each service plan with the per service plan group FCM value, and obtaining the larger of the minimum FCM value or the per service group FCM value.

5 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising calculating an average throttled data rate indicative of whether traffic is under throttled or over throttled with a currently configured flow control weight value and minimum FCM value.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the average throttled data rate is determined by subtracting the traffic priority based FCM value from the per service plan FCM value, and multiplying the resulting value with per service plan total input data rate.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the per service plan total input data rate comprises the product of a runtime input data rate value and a value indicative of the number of users within an Internet Protocol Gateway (IPGW) belonging to each of the service plans.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the runtime input data rate value is indicative of a pre-configured un-throttled data rate associated with each of the service plans.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein adjusting the per-service-plan FCM value comprises determining a delta FCM value indicative of a priority queue corresponding to an uplink queue maintained within the IPGW.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising determining a delta FCM value indicative of the service plan within the priority queue and based upon the delta FCM value indicative of the priority queue.

11 . A system, comprising:
a plurality of Internet Protocol Gateways (IPGWs); and a satellite gateway (SGW) configured to transmit and receive data packets to and from the plurality of IPGWs, the SGW controlling traffic flow by transmitting flow control messages to each of the plurality of IPGWs; wherein each of the plurality of IPGWs is configured to throttle the traffic flow to the SGW during periods of outroute congestion by performing the following:
determine a per service plan group flow control meter (FCM) value applicable to all service plans supported by the system in a service plan group;
determine a per service plan FCM value for each of the service plans in the service plan group; and
adjust the per service plan FCM value to account for traffic priorities associated with the service plans.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein each of the plurality of IPGWs determines the per service plan group FCM value by converting a traffic priority based FCM value to the per service plan group FCM value according to the following equation:
gFCM[ p,g ]=FCM[ p]*w[g ]/100
where gFCM[p,g] is the per service plan group FCM value, FCM[p] is the traffic priority based FCM value, w[g] is a flow control weight value, p is a priority of an uplink queue in each of the plurality of IPGWs associated with a corresponding traffic priority queue maintained in the SGW, g is a service plan group identifier, and f is a service plan identifier.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the service plan comprises a fair access policy (FAP) plan associated with a predefined data usage limit.

14 . The system of claim 12 , wherein each of the IPGWs determines the per service plan FCM value according to the following equation:
sFCM[ p,f ]=MAX(mFCM[ f ],gFCM[ p,g ])
where sFCM[p,f] is the per-service-plan FCM value, and mFCM[f] is a minimum FCM value configured for the service plan.

15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein each of the plurality of IPGWs is further configured to calculate an average throttled data rate indicative of whether traffic is under throttled or over throttled according to the following equation:
bw avg =Σ((sFCM[f]−FCM)*( BW[f]*N[f ]))

where bw avg is the average throttled data rate, FCM is a traffic priority based FCM value, sFCM[f] is the per-service-plan FCM value, BW[f] is a runtime input data rate, and N[f] is the number of users in each of the IPGWs belonging to the service plan.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the runtime input data rate value is indicative of a pre-configured un-throttled data rate associated with the service plan.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein each of the plurality of IPGWs is further configured to determine a delta FCM value indicative of the traffic priority queue according to the following equation:
dFCM global =(−1)* bw avg /Σ( BW[f]*N[f ])

where dFCM global is the delta FCM value indicative of the traffic priority queue.

18 . The system of claim 17 , wherein each of the plurality of IPGWs is configured to determine a delta FCM value indicative of the service plan within the traffic priority queue according to the following equation:
dFCM[f]=dFCM global *(sFCM[ f ]/sFCM[ f]*N[f ])
where dFCM[f] is the delta FCM value indicative of the service plan within the traffic priority queue.

19 . The system of claim 18 , where each of the plurality of IPGWs is configured to adjust the per service plan FCM value according to the following equation:
sFCM[ f ]′=sFCM+dFCM[ f]

where sFCM[f]′ is the adjusted per service plan FCM value.

20 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the throttling of traffic flow to the SGW during periods of outroute congestion does not fall below a minimum configured committed information rate.

21 . The system of claim 11 , wherein each of the plurality of IPGWs is configured to adjust the per-service-plan FCM value every flow control cycle.

Assignees

• Hughes Network Systems Llc

Inventors

• Roy Satyajit
• Lin Zhao Chan
• Arora Amit

Classifications

• H04L47/2441

  relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ] · CPC title

• H04B7/185 Primary

  Space-based or airborne stations; {Stations for satellite systems}(H04B7/204 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L47/623

  Weighted service order · CPC title

• H04L47/24

  Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS · CPC title

• H04L69/16

  Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] · CPC title