Search Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »
Advanced Patent Search | Web History | Sign in

Patents

A device and algorithm for fairly allocating available bandwidth between contending connections at a contention point in a data network. The allocation is based on global queue size at the contention point and a weighted value assigned to the data traffic. The device and algorithm find particular application in an ATM network which supports the available bit rate (ABR) service category.

Inventors: Tom Davis, Sudhakar Ganti, Denny L. S. Lee
Original Assignee: Alcatel Canada Inc.
Primary Examiner: Chau Nguyen
Secondary Examiner: D. Trinh
Attorney: Marks & Clerk
Current U.S. Classification: 370/230; 370/236.1
International Classification: H04L/1226

View patent at USPTO
Search USPTO Assignment Database

Citations

Cited PatentFiling dateIssue dateOriginal AssigneeTitle
US5313454Apr 1, 1992May 17, 1994Stratacom, Inc.Congestion control for cell networks
US5594729Sep 23, 1994Jan 14, 1997Lucent Technologies Inc.System and method for employing single-bit feedback control within a variable bit rate data transmission network
US5734825Jul 18, 1994Mar 31, 1998Digital Equipment CorporationTraffic control system having distributed rate calculation and link by link flow control
US5737313Mar 15, 1996Apr 7, 1998NEC USA, Inc.Design of a closed loop feed back control for ABR service
US5805577Jul 19, 1996Sep 8, 1998Erica: explicit rate indication for congestion avoidance in ATM networks
US5864536Aug 28, 1996Jan 26, 1999Siemens AktiengesellschaftMethod and apparatus for adapting a transmission bit rate of a data multiplexer operating according to an asynchronous transfer mode
US5867482Feb 12, 1996Feb 2, 1999NEC CorporationTraffic control method and system for ATM switching apparatus
US5898669Mar 22, 1996Apr 27, 1999ATM traffic management device
US5926625Feb 6, 1997Jul 20, 1999Compex, Inc.Self-programming switch for computer networks
US5956322Mar 27, 1997Sep 21, 1999Caldetron Systems, Inc.Phantom flow control method and apparatus
US5966381Mar 20, 1996Oct 12, 1999Sun Microsystems, Inc.Method and apparatus for explicit rate flow control in ATM networks
US6046983Apr 1, 1997Apr 4, 2000Nippon Telegraph and Telephone CorporationDynamic rate control system

Referenced by

Citing PatentFiling dateIssue dateOriginal AssigneeTitle
US6438135Oct 21, 1999Aug 20, 2002Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.Dynamic weighted round robin queuing
US6587436Nov 24, 1997Jul 1, 2003Cisco Technology, Inc.Method and apparatus for allocation of available bandwidth
US6747990Jan 10, 2000Jun 8, 2004NEC CorporationPacket communication system, network-side apparatus to be used therein, and time slot allocation control method
US6952401Mar 17, 2000Oct 4, 2005Broadcom CorporationMethod for load balancing in a network switch
US7072299Aug 20, 2001Jul 4, 2006International Business Machines CorporationCredit-based receiver using selected transmit rates and storage thresholds for preventing under flow and over flow-methods, apparatus and program products
US7143154Jan 26, 2001Nov 28, 2006Lucent Technologies Inc.Internet protocol security framework utilizing predictive security association re-negotiation
US7349406Oct 18, 2001Mar 25, 2008Network Equipment Technologies Inc.Method and apparatus for virtual network connection merging
US7369504Dec 12, 2002May 6, 2008Alcatel Canada, Inc.Bandwidth management of resilient packet ring network
US7843943Mar 11, 2008Nov 30, 2010Nokia CorporationDifferentiation for bandwidth request contention
US7876680Jun 14, 2005Jan 25, 2011Broadcom CorporationMethod for load balancing in a network switch
US8102865May 16, 2008Jan 24, 2012Microsoft CorporationGroup based allocation of network bandwidth

Claims

1. A method of fairly allocating bandwidth to contending connections at a queuing point in a data network comprising:

computing a common control factor (OBW) used as the basis for allocating bandwidth to all contending connections wherein the computing of the common control factor is by a non linear process including, the steps of multiplying a previous value of the control factor by a function of queue depth and determining a value for the function of queue depth in order to achieve a target queue depth; and
computing the bandwidth to be attributed to each contending connection by multiplying the common control factor by a weighting factor corresponding to that connection.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein said data network is a packet-based switching network.

3. The method as defined in claim 2 wherein said packet based network is an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network.

4. The method as defined in claim 3 wherein said contending connections include Available Bit Rate (ABR) category of service data traffic.

5. The method as defined in claim 4 wherein said ABR traffic includes resource management (RM) cells carrying Explicit Rate (ER) information through said network.

6. The method as defined in claim 5 wherein said ER information includes said bandwidth to be attributed to individual connections.

7. A system for fairly allocating bandwidth to contending connections at a queuing point in a data network comprising:

computing means to compute a common control factor (OBW) used as the basis for the allocating bandwidth to all contending connections wherein the computing of the common control factor is by a non-linear process including the steps of multiplying a previous value of the control factor by a function of a queue depth and determining a value for the function of queue depth in order to achieve a target queue depth; and
means to compute the bandwidth to be attributed to each contending connection by multiplying the common control factor by weighting factor which correspond to that connection.

8. A system as defined in claim 7 wherein said data network comprises an ATM system carrying multi-service traffic including ABR category of traffic.

9. A system as defined in claim 8 wherein said ABR traffic includes a resource management cell carrying congestion information such as Explicit Rate (ER) information through said network.

10. A system as defined in claim 9 wherein said ER information includes bandwidth values that may be attributed to individual connections.

11. A system as defined in claim 10 wherein said ER information in said RM cell is changed to include a new bandwidth value attributed to individual connections if said bandwidth value is lower than said ER information already in said RM cell.

Drawings