Nokia Corporation

Nokia Telecommunications Oy

Kalevi Kilkki

Jussi Pekka Ruutu

Jose Costa-Requena

Marko Juhani Suoknuuti

Ossi Korhonen

A system, apparatus, and method are disclosed for providing quality of service (QoS) for a network data connection. The network data connection uses a network protocol selectable from a plurality of network protocols. A QoS module can receive a request for a generic QoS and apply this to the network protocol using a specific QoS associated with the protocol. The QoS module may include features for automatic management of QoS and a user interface for changing data connection parameters.

Apparatus and method for providing quality of service for a network data connection

The present invention relates to a method and system for handling congestion in a packet data network, wherein at least two operating modes of congestion handling are selected based on a detected congestion level. The operating modes will then affect the applied congestion handling modes to thereby achieve a flexible and automatic network response which is based on the congestion level. Thereby applications' quality requirements and service provider's business goals can both be met in an adequate manner.

Method and system for handling network congestion

A method and network element for marking data packets to be transmitted in a packet switched network with a priority information I, the packets being treated in the network according to the priority information I. The priority information I is calculated based on a required bit rate B. The priority information I may be additionally calculated based on a nominal bit rate NBR and on a momentary bit rate MBR, such that a terminal device used with the network element is able to inform the network element in advance about the required bit rate.

Method, network element and terminal device for marking data packets

A multimode queuing system for DiffServ routers is provided. The multimode buffering and scheduling system that can be adjusted to show either 'pure' AF/EF behavior, 'pure' DSUI behavior, or a combination of the AF/EF behavior and the DSUI behavior. An operation point parameter may be set to select the desired behavior. DiffServ products utilizing the combination of the behaviors are flexible and more configurable as compared to only AF/EF products. The multimode queuing system deployment is simple and is a low cost modification to DiffServ routers. The same hardware and/or software implementation can support both mechanisms with very small additional cost and effort. Also the management of the system is simplified. For example, there is no need for several parallel queuing systems.

Multimode queuing system for DiffServ routers

A SIMA Traffic Shaper (STS) and method is disclosed for use between the customer equipment and the SIMA access node to shape the transmitted traffic so that the cells will receive as good priority as possible in the access node. The STS includes an input device for receiving cells from a traffic source, a buffering device, coupled to the input, for holding the cells until instructed to send the cells; and a calculation unit, operatively coupled to the buffer processor, for calculating a send time for sending cells held by the buffering device. The buffering device further includes a buffer and a transmission unit, wherein the buffer holds the cells and the transmission unit sends the cell forward according to the send time received from the calculation unit. A monitoring unit is included for monitoring the input device and the buffering device to obtain loading information regarding the network. The calculation unit calculates the send time based upon a nominal bit rate, a maximum delay, the loading information provided by the monitoring unit and a monitoring principle. The monitoring principle may be based solely upon a number of segments containing cells in the buffer or on the loading information.

Method and apparatus for shaping traffice for a SIMA network

A method and system is used in a communication network for charging a flat- rate for a customer's Nominal Bit Rate (NBR,) of the network as well as providing a variable actual Nominal Bit Rate (NBR,) suitable for momentarily desired high nominal bit rates requested by the customer. In one embodiment, the network provides a maximum pool size (S,) which is predefined between a network operator and the customer. In another embodiment, instead of having the maximum pool size, the network provides the variable NBR,by filling the NBR pool progressively as a function of NBR,, a customer's desired Nominal Bit Rate (NBR,), and a constant z, for a period of time. A momentarily much higher NBR,can be provided based on the capacity of the filled NBR pool.

NBR pool for SIMA network

A cell format, an accounting device and a method for providing accounting information to a network for determining payment information between operators in the network. The cell format includes a data field including at least a portion of a data signal, a header field attached to the data field, the header field providing control information for processing the cell including a priority level field and an accounting field, wherein the accounting field indicates an entity that is to receive payment for the processing of the cell. The accounting bit is set to a first value to indicate that an entity on the ingress side of the network is to receive payment. The accounting bit is set to a first value to indicate that an entity on the egress side of the network is to receive payment. The entity is an Internet Service Operator. The first value includes a value of one. The accounting bits of each cell are counted along with the priority levels to determined whether an ingress side of the network is to compensate an egress side of the network or whether the egress side of the network is to compensate the ingress side of the network. The accounting device includes a reader for reading an accounting bit in a received cell, a counter for maintaining a record of cells containing an accounting bit and a controller, operatively coupled to the reader and counter, for incrementing the counter in response to the reader detecting the presence of an accounting bit in the received cell. The method includes the steps of detecting a value of an accounting bit in cells and collecting payment based upon the value of the accounting bit in the cells.

Method and apparatus using an accounting bit for a SIMA network

The invention relates to a method for implementing buffering in a packet-switched telecommunications network. In the method, incoming data units are received and stored in a logical queue in a buffer (BF) comprising a plurality of memory locations, and data units are read out from the memory location (FML) at the head of the queue at a predetermined rate. In order to eliminate delay variations over desired connections by as simple a method as possible, the traffic is divided into at least two different classes in such a way that (a) the data units of one class are stored in the first free memory location starting from the head of the queue in each case, (b) feed points (FP; FP,... FP,) are provided for the other classes at predetermined points in the middle of the queue formed by the memory locations, one for each of the other classes, and (c) a data unit belonging to one of said other classes is stored in the feed point for said class when the memory location associated with said feed point is free, and in the first free memory location after the feed point in the queue when the memory location associated with said feed point is reserved.

Implementation of buffering in a packet-switched telecommunications network

A method and apparatus for adjustment of TCP sliding window with information about network conditions is disclosed. The present invention obtains information from the network below TCP about the condition of the network and traffic and uses this information to control the transmission of the TCP source without any modifications to the existing TCP sources. The invention includes the steps of receiving feedback information in an acknowledgment packet, receiving a packet having an advertised window field set to an original advertised window size for a sliding window, and modifying the advertised window field to chose the size of the sliding window in response to feedback information received in the acknowledgment packet. The original advertised window size indicates the original size of a sliding window for determining a number of bytes that can be sent before an acknowledgment packet is received. The feedback information further includes a window advertisement. The size of the sliding window includes the minimum of the window advertisement and a congestion window. The window advertisement specifies an increase to the size of the sliding window. The increase includes an additional number of octets of data a receiver is prepared to accept. The method further includes the steps of calculating a modified advertised window size using the window advertisement, comparing the modified advertised window size to an original advertised window size and transmitting an acknowledgment including the least of the modified advertised window size and the original advertised window size.

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Espoo, Finland

Kalevi Kilkki