British Telecommunications Public Limited Company

British Telecommunications Corporation

Alan P Smith

Trevor Burbridge

Andrea Soppera

Robert J Briscoe

Arnaud Jacquet

Philip L Eardley

Tobias Moncaster

Stephen Clifford Appleby

Andrew P Grace

Diagnostic test results are obtained in respect of local area networks (LANs), the LANs having user-devices located therein having interfaces and being operable to communicate via those interfaces and via a LAN gateway device with remote devices in a communications network outside their respective LANs. A method comprises comparing performance measures obtained in respect of communication flows with a performance threshold whereby to identify communication flows whose performance measures are indicative of performance below a predetermined level, and for any such communication flows, obtaining a diagnosis in respect of the LAN in question in dependence on a comparison of the performance measure obtained in respect of the identified communication flow and performance measures obtained in respect of other communication flows, the diagnosis being obtained in dependence on respective portability levels and network interface types determined in respect of the user-devices involved in said communication flows.

Obtaining local area network diagnostic test results

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for diagnostic testing, and in particular to methods and apparatus for obtaining diagnostic test results in respect of network-reliant applications used by one or more devices (') in a local user network (), the one or more user-devices (&#x2032;) being operable to communicate with a digital communications access network () via a network gateway device () having a control module associated therewith, and being operable to communicate with remote networked devices () involved in said network-reliant applications via the access network. Preferred embodiments relate to methods and apparatus for triggering diagnostic testing procedures and obtaining test results indicative of the actual Quality of Experience (QoE) of one or more users of the applications being run on the user-devices (&#x2032;) in the user network ().

Diagnostic testing

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for processing digital content service requests from user devices (), each service request relating to digital content provided by a content provider, and comprising a server location request and a content request. The server location request comprises an indication of a network name of a content provider from which digital content is desired. The content request comprises an indication of a desired content item and a routing identifier indicating the network location of an applicable content server (). The method comprises receiving a server location request; determining whether to serve or deny the server location request; receiving a content request; determining whether the content server routing identifier of the content request is of a first or second type; and allowing the content request if the content server routing identifier is not of the second type, or if the content server routing identifier is of the second type but it has been determined in response to an associated server location request that the applicable content provider is of the first type.

Processing service requests for digital content

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for processing data items received at a network element in a communications network. In particular, methods and apparatus are disclosed for processing data items such as packets received at a network element such as a router or other such packet-forwarding network element () from a source (') and which are intended to be forwarded towards an intended receiver (&#x2032;) in a communications network such as a network operating according to the Internet Protocol.

Processing data items in a communications network

Methods, apparatus and systems for processing digital content service requests from user devices in a user network are disclosed. The method, performed by a control device, comprises receiving policy indications in respect of the user devices indicating desired control policies to be implemented in respect of the user devices, and associating user device source identifiers with the user devices indicating a network location to which responses should be directed, the user device source identifier associated with a particular user device depending on the policy indication for that user device. On receiving digital content service requests containing indications of domain names associated with content providers from which digital content is desired, the control device submits server location requests to a domain name system server comprising (i) the domain name from the digital content service request and (ii) the user device source identifier for the user device in question.

Methods, apparatus and systems for processing service requests

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for monitoring network performance in respect of a digital communications network comprising a user-network () having at least one user-device () therein that is able to submit requests for data to and receive data from one or more remote servers () via an intermediate control module (), and an access network () via which data may be delivered to the user-network () via the control module (). In particular, methods and apparatus are disclosed that allow a network service provider providing network services via an access network to its customers' home networks to have visibility on the performance of its customers' home networks and/or on the performance of one or more networked devices within those customers' home networks.

Monitoring network performance

Methods and apparatus for providing path characterization information relating to a network characteristic such as network congestion to nodes in a data network using data units being forwarded from a source to a destination via a plurality of nodes in the network, the method comprising: receiving, at a first proxy node, data units from a source, each data unit comprising a destination indication indicative of an intended destination; identifying, in respect of an intended destination indicated, a second proxy node in the network to which data units may be forwarded before being forwarded to the intended destination; and forwarding a first and at least one subsequent data unit from the first to the second proxy node via 'one or more intermediate nodes; the method further comprising assigning conditions to path characterization metrics in respect of data units traversing a path across the network from the first to the second proxy node, the initial condition being dependent on information received by the first from the second proxy node.

Path characterisation in networks

Methods and apparatus for controlling the forwarding of a flow () of data units across a network from a sender node () to a receiver node () via at least one intermediate node (), the data units each having one of a plurality of different types of class indication associated therewith, each type of class indication providing, to an intermediate node currently processing the data unit with which the class indication is associated, an indication denoting a particular class of treatment, selected from a plurality of different classes of treatment, according to which the data unit is to be processed by that intermediate node, such that different proportions of the data units of the flow are forwarded as different sub-flows each comprising data units having class indications of different types thereby providing indications denoting different classes of treatment.

Multi-class data transport

Path characterization information is provided to a data sender relating to a network characteristic such as congestion experienced by data units traversing a path across a data network from the data sender towards one of a plurality of data receivers. The data units have associated therewith information indicative of the network characteristic. The path is traversed by the data units having at least a first path portion between the data sender and a proxy node along which data units may traverse conveying a measure indicative of the network characteristic that is representable by any of a first set of codepoints. The data receivers are operable to provide data acknowledgement units in respect of data units they receive via a second path portion in which information indicative of the network characteristic may only be representable using codepoints of a second set of codepoints having less codepoints than the first set.

Growing community of inventors

Ipswich, United Kingdom

Alan P Smith