Arbitration of competing flows

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019190843-A1
Application number	US-201715846291-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 19, 2017
Priority date	Dec 19, 2017
Publication date	Jun 20, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

In one embodiment, a gateway includes a memory, and a processor to, in response to receiving a plurality of content requests, generate a plurality of network flows and flow buffers, each one content request of the plurality of content requests being served by one network flow of the plurality of network flows, and one flow buffer of the plurality of flow buffers, the one flow buffer being included in the memory, the plurality of network flows including a first flow and a second flow, the first flow serving one of the plurality of requests having a first priority level, the second flow serving one of the plurality of requests having a second priority level, the first priority level being higher than the second priority level, and run a network arbiter to give prioritize reading the first flow over reading the second flow when the first flow is non-idle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A gateway comprising: a memory; and a processor to:
in response to receiving a plurality of content requests, generate a plurality of network flows and a plurality of flow buffers, each one content request of the plurality of content requests being served by: one network flow of the plurality of network flows; and one flow buffer of the plurality of flow buffers, the one flow buffer being included in the memory, the plurality of network flows including a first flow and a second flow, the first flow serving one of the plurality of requests having a first priority level, the second flow serving one of the plurality of requests having a second priority level, the first priority level being higher than the second priority level; and run a network arbiter to give prioritize reading the first flow over reading the second flow when the first flow is non-idle.

2 . The gateway according to claim 1 , wherein the network arbiter is operative to:
block reading or reduce a read rate of the second flow when the first flow is non-idle; and unblock reading or increase the read rate of the second flow when the first flow is idle.

3 . The gateway according to claim 1 , wherein the network arbiter is operative to:
block reading the second flow when the first flow is non-idle; and unblock reading the second flow when the first flow is idle.

4 . The gateway according to claim 2 , wherein in response to blocking reading or reducing the read rate of the second flow, a flow control mechanism of a flow control protocol is initiated resulting in no new data being sent from a server for receipt by the second flow.

5 . The gateway according to claim 1 , wherein the first flow is non-idle during a period extending from starting reading, from the first flow, a first byte of a body of a response message until completing reading, from the first flow, a last byte of the body of the response message.

6 . The gateway according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of content requests includes at least one adaptive bitrate content request.

7 . The gateway according to claim 1 , wherein the network arbiter is operative to assign a priority level to each one content request of the plurality of content requests.

8 . The gateway according to claim 1 , wherein a priority level is assigned to each one content request of the plurality of content requests according to a content type of the one content request.

9 . The gateway according to claim 8 , wherein a highest priority level is assigned to a live viewing content request.

10 . The gateway according to claim 8 , wherein the content type includes one of the following: live viewing using adaptive bitrate; video on demand content; real-time recording; or a non-real-time recording.

11 . A method comprising:
in response to receiving a plurality of content requests, generating a plurality of network flows and a plurality of flow buffers, each one content request of the plurality of content requests being served by: one network flow of the plurality of network flows; and one flow buffer of the plurality of flow buffers, the one flow buffer being included in a memory, the plurality of network flows including a first flow and a second flow, the first flow serving one of the plurality of requests having a first priority level, the second flow serving one of the plurality of requests having a second priority level, the first priority level being higher than the second priority level; and prioritizing reading the first flow over reading the second flow when the first flow is non-idle.

12 . The method to claim 11 , further comprising:
blocking reading or reducing a read rate of the second flow when the first flow is non-idle; and unblocking reading or increasing the read rate of the second flow when the first flow is idle.

13 . The method to claim 11 , further comprising:
blocking reading the second flow when the first flow is non-idle; and unblocking reading the second flow when the first flow is idle.

14 . The method to claim 11 , wherein in response to blocking reading or reducing the read rate of the second flow, a flow control mechanism of a flow control protocol is initiated resulting in no new data being sent from a server for receipt by the second flow.

15 . The method to claim 11 , wherein the first flow is non-idle during a period extending from starting reading, from the first flow, a first byte of a body of a response message until completing reading, from the first flow, a last byte of the body of the response message.

16 . The method to claim 11 , wherein the plurality of content requests includes at least one adaptive bitrate content request.

17 . The method to claim 11 , further comprising assigning a priority level to each one content request of the plurality of content requests.

18 . The method to claim 11 , wherein a priority level is assigned to each one content request of the plurality of content requests according to a content type of the one content request.

19 . The method to claim 18 , wherein a highest priority level is assigned to a live viewing content request.

20 . A software product, comprising a non-transient computer-readable medium in which program instructions are stored, which instructions, when read by a central processing unit (CPU), cause the CPU to:
in response to receiving a plurality of content requests, generate a plurality of network flows and a plurality of flow buffers, each one content request of the plurality of content requests being served by: one network flow of the plurality of network flows; and one flow buffer of the plurality of flow buffers, the one flow buffer being included in the memory, the plurality of network flows including a first flow and a second flow, the first flow serving one of the plurality of requests having a first priority level, the second flow serving one of the plurality of requests having a second priority level, the first priority level being higher than the second priority level; and run a network arbiter to prioritize reading the first flow over reading the second flow when the first flow is non-idle.

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Bastable Ian
• Cunningham James
• Bowen Gareth John

Classifications

• H04L47/6275 Primary

  based on priority · CPC title

• H04L47/24 Primary

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