Method and system for determining sustainable throughput over wireless networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9363185-B2
Application number	US-201313941379-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 12, 2013
Priority date	Oct 17, 2012
Publication date	Jun 7, 2016
Grant date	Jun 7, 2016

Abstract

Sustainable average data throughput rates for data transfer between a sender and a receiver are determined for a network in a steady-state condition. Delivery performance for data transferred in non-steady-state conditions is disregarded in determining sustainable average data throughput rates. The rates may be used to adapt file delivery to network conditions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
sending at least one data pre-burst to a receiving system during a first network condition between a sending system and the receiving system, the data pre-burst including a first file segment of a file to be sent from the sending system to the receiving system, the first network condition having a data throughput rate that is below a steady-state data throughput rate for a network link coupling the receiving and sending systems;
sending at least one data measurement burst to the receiving system by the sending system during a second network condition, the data measurement burst including a second file segment of the file, the second network condition having the steady-state data throughput rate, the steady-state data throughput rate being a data throughput rate that is at or near a maximum sustainable capacity;
calculating the steady-state data throughput rate based on the data measurement burst sent during the second network condition without using any data measurement for the pre-burst during the first network condition;
setting a data transfer characteristic based on the calculated steady-state data throughput rate for sending a third file segment of the file to the receiving system; and
sending the third file segment to the receiving system at a data transmission rate that is based on a third network condition between the receiving and sending systems and the data transfer characteristic defined at the setting operation.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether or not a connection timeout has occurred; and
sending an initial data segment to establish a channel connection if it is determined that the connection timeout has occurred.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the initial data segment is sent over a channel establishment period.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the channel establishment period is obtained from a configuration file.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the initial data segment is at least 16 kBytes.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
setting a time duration to reach the second network condition,
wherein the data pre-burst is sent until the time duration is reached.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the time duration to reach the second network condition is obtained from a configuration file.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the sending system sends the first and second data pre-bursts if a transmission time for the first data pre-burst is less than the time duration to reach the second network condition, and
wherein the first data pre-burst includes the first file segment of the file, and the second data pre-burst includes a fourth file segment of the file.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data transfer characteristic is a wait interval between transfers of data bursts.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising calculating an updated steady-state throughput rate when the wait interval exceeds a maximum time between transfers of data bursts.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein each file segment is at least 16 kBytes.

12. A method comprising:
receiving at least one data pre-burst from a sending system during a first network condition between the sending system and a receiving system, the data pre-burst including a first file segment of a file to be sent from the sending system to the receiving system, the first network condition having a data throughput rate that is below a steady-state data throughput rate for a network link coupling the receiving and sending systems;
receiving by the receiving system at least one data measurement burst from the sending system during a second network condition, the data measurement burst including a second file segment of the file, the second network condition having the steady-state data throughput rate, the steady-state data throughput rate being a data throughput rate that is at or near a maximum sustainable capacity;
calculating the steady-state data throughput rate based on the data measurement burst sent during the second network condition without using any data measurement for the pre-burst during the first network condition;
setting a data transfer characteristic based on the calculated steady-state data throughput rate for receiving a third file segment of the file; and
receiving the third file segment at a data transmission rate that is based on a third network condition between the receiving and sending systems and the data transfer characteristic defined at the setting operation.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
determining whether or not a connection timeout has occurred; and
receiving an initial data segment to establish a channel connection if it is determined that the connection timeout has occurred.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
setting a time duration to reach the second network condition,
wherein the data pre-burst is sent until the time duration is reached.

15. An apparatus for determining steady-state throughput data transfer rates comprising:
a sending system having a non-transitory computer readable medium with computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed, performs a method including:
sending at least one data pre-burst to a receiving system during a first network condition between the sending system and the receiving system, the data pre-burst including a first file segment of a file to be sent from the sending system to the receiving system, the first network condition having a data throughput rate that is below a steady-state data throughput rate for a network link coupling the receiving and sending systems;
sending at least one data measurement burst to the receiving system by the sending system during a second network condition, the data measurement burst including a second file segment of the file, the second network condition having the steady-state data throughput rate, the steady-state data throughput rate being a data throughput rate that is at or near a maximum sustainable capacity;
calculating the steady-state data throughput rate based on the data measurement burst sent during the second network condition without using any data measurement for the pre-burst during the first network condition;
setting a data transfer characteristic based on the calculated steady-state data throughput rate for sending a third file segment of the file; and
sending the third file segment to the receiving system at a data transmission rate that is based on a third network condition between the receiving and sending systems and the data transfer characteristic defined at the setting operation.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the method further includes
determining whether or not a connection timeout has occurred; and
receiving an initial data segment to establish a channel connection if it is determined that the connection timeout has occurred.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the method further includes
setting a time duration to reach the second network condition,
wherein the data pre-burst is sent until the time duration is reached.

18. An apparatus for determining steady-state throughput data transfer rates comprising:
a receiving system having a non-transitory computer readable medium with computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed, performs a method including:
receiving at least one data pre-burst from a sending system during a first network condition between the sending system and a receiving system, the data pre-burst including a first file segmen

Assignees

• Opanga Networks Inc

Inventors

• Harrang Jeffrey P
• Gibbons David
• Burnette John M

Classifications

• H04L43/0888

  Throughput · CPC title

• H04L41/142

  using statistical or mathematical methods · CPC title

• H04L41/0806

  for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play · CPC title

• H04L47/22 Primary

  Traffic shaping · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title