JP2005080206A - Band control method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obviate a procedure for securing a specific band and to enable a plurality of users to equally utilize a network connection band shared among them. <P>SOLUTION: A user terminal group management section 112 registers, in a storage device, the IP address and MAC address (L2 identification information) of a terminal 105 which are stored in an internal network interface and sends a virtual band securing instruction to a band management section 111. The band management section 111 receives a request from the user terminal group management section 112, secures a virtual band for the terminal 105 and performs routing setting between an internal interface and an external interface. The band management section 111 that has completed the setting notifies the user terminal group management section 112 of setting completion. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a bandwidth control method and apparatus in a system in which a bandwidth for network connection is shared among a plurality of users each using one or a plurality of terminals.

In recent years, the network is unevenly distributed by various wired / wireless access networks, and the network bandwidth used by users is increasing. In particular, wired and wireless Internet connection services in public places are rapidly increasing. In the access environment in these public spaces, each terminal can connect to the Internet via a route control device (router) connected to multiple users connected to the terminal. It has become.
PacketShaper (http://www.packeteer.co.jp/solutions/document/PacketShaper.pdf), a product of Packetia (http://www.packeteer.co.jp)

  Under such an environment, the bandwidth allocated between the Internet service provider and the router is shared between multiple terminals. However, due to the characteristics of the Internet protocol, some terminals consume a specific bandwidth. In such a state, there is a problem that sufficient bandwidth is not allocated to other terminals, resulting in unfairness. Therefore, a countermeasure is usually taken by installing a device for identifying the user terminal by the IP address and performing bandwidth control, or by securing a sufficient bandwidth in advance for use by all the members.

  Mainly in IPv4 network, when using one terminal per normal user, or when using multiple terminals, it uses a technology such as NAT (Network Address Translation) and is effectively terminated at one representative terminal. Therefore, the bandwidth control for each user can be practically performed by the bandwidth control by the IP address. However, a PAN (Personal Area Network) is also assumed as an environment for using an IPv6 network, and it is conceivable that a user connects not only a single terminal but also a plurality of terminals to the network at the same time. In this case, when bandwidth control is performed using an IP address, a large number of bandwidths are secured by a user with a large number of terminals due to the use of PAN or the like, and it cannot be said that the service is fair.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a bandwidth control method and a bandwidth control device that make it possible to use a network connection bandwidth shared among a plurality of users fairly on a per-user basis without requiring a special bandwidth securing procedure. is there.

  The bandwidth control method of the present invention uses the identification information of the second layer of the network to allocate a bandwidth to each user using the terminal. Further, the bandwidth is dynamically redistributed between the assigned user and other already assigned users.

  As a bandwidth allocation method, it is conceivable that the bandwidth is evenly distributed among a plurality of users or the bandwidth is redistributed according to a predetermined priority of each user.

  The present invention makes it possible to use a bandwidth fairly to each user so that some users do not occupy the bandwidth in an environment where a bandwidth for network connection is shared by a plurality of terminals. Therefore, the IP address and the terminal IP address group for each user are managed for the terminals that use the bandwidth, the bandwidth is redistributed to each user, and it is fair and balanced for the entire user. The reserved bandwidth is secured by the bandwidth control device.

  According to the present invention, when a plurality of users are connected to a network such as the Internet using one or a plurality of terminals, each user can be very easily performed without adding a special bandwidth securing procedure. Can be allocated evenly between the network and the network, so that it is possible to eliminate the unfairness that some users occupy most of the bandwidth, especially as a terminal There is also an effect that it can be used without adding.

  In addition, instead of allocating the bandwidth fairly to multiple users, it is possible to perform bandwidth management according to a special form by assigning a priority to each user in advance and allocating the bandwidth according to the priority. It has the effect of becoming.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  Referring to FIG. 1, the first embodiment of the present invention includes a router 101, the Internet 102, a terminal connection LAN 103, and an Internet connection network 104. The terminal connection LAN 103 includes a plurality of devices (in FIG. 1, a terminal 105, a terminal 106, and a PAN 107), and the PAN 107 includes a plurality of devices (in FIG. 1, a router 108, a terminal 109, and a terminal 110). Yes. In the router 101, a bandwidth management unit 111 and a user terminal group management unit 112, which are programs, operate.

  The router 101 is connected to the Internet 102 using an Internet connection network 104 provided by an Internet connection provider or the like, and is also connected to a terminal connection LAN 103 composed of a plurality of PCs such as a public Internet access service. The router device is responsible for the connection between the Internet 102 and the terminal connection LAN 103. When managing the connection between the terminal connection LAN 103 and the Internet 102, the bandwidth management unit 111 functions as a gateway to the Internet 102 and secures a necessary bandwidth at that time. The user terminal group management unit 112 manages the IP address of the terminal connected to the terminal connection LAN 103 and used for each user.

  The terminal connection LAN 103 is a personal computer, an Internet appliance, or the like that is generally widely used, and is connected to the network 102 using Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). The terminals 105 and 106 and the PAN 107 are assumed to be in these forms.

  Next, the configuration of the router 101 in FIG. 1 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The router 101 has two programs, a user terminal group management unit 112 and a bandwidth management unit 111, an inward network interface 113 for connection to the terminal connection LAN 103 in FIG. The interface 114 is configured.

  The user terminal group management unit 112 has the IP address and MAC address (network second layer identification information: L2 identification information) 200 of the terminals collected by the neighbor discovery (ND) protocol managed in the inward network interface 113. Is connected to the terminal connection LAN 103 and manages the IP address of the terminal being used.

  The bandwidth management unit 111 includes an internal network interface 113, a virtual bandwidth 202 that can specify the bandwidth from the entire bandwidth 201 when an IP packet is allowed to pass, and an external network interface 114.

  One virtual band 202 is allocated for each user in the terminal connection LAN 103 and connects between the internal network and the external network. The bandwidth management unit 111 ensures network connection between the two by performing network settings for each virtual bandwidth 202.

  In the present embodiment, the internal network interface 113 is a 100BASE-TX (communication speed 100 Mbps) network interface, and the external network interface 114 is an IEEE 802.11b (communication speed 11 Mbps).

  Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

  When a terminal in the terminal connection LAN 103 in FIG. 1 communicates with the Internet 102, the bandwidth (11 Mbps) or more given to the external network interface 114 cannot be logically used, and the entire terminal in the terminal connection LAN 103 has this 11 Mbps. Will share. In the initial state, since no terminals in the terminal connection LAN 103 are connected, nothing is registered in the storage area of the user terminal group management unit 112, and the band management unit 111 uses the virtual band 202. There is no state. Here, when the terminal 105 is activated or connected to the network, the neighbor search (ND) protocol is used, so that the IP address and MAC address (L2 identification information) 200 of the terminal 105 connected to the router 101 are transferred to the inward network interface. 113 (step 301).

  The user terminal group management unit 112 registers the IP address and MAC address (L2 identification information) of the terminal 105 stored in the inward network interface 113 in the storage device, and instructs the band management unit 111 to secure a virtual band. (Step 302). The bandwidth management unit 111 receives a request for securing the virtual bandwidth from the user terminal group management unit 112, secures the virtual bandwidth 202 for the terminal 105 (step 303), and establishes a connection between the internal interface 113 and the external interface 114. Routing setting is performed (step 304).

  In the virtual band 202, a process of sending a packet sent from the terminal PC 105 to the internal network interface 113 to the external network interface 114 and a process in the opposite direction are performed.

  Now, if only one terminal 105 is activated, it is possible to occupy all of the band 11 Mbps. However, if another terminal 106 is activated, the terminal 106 is similarly used by the user. In the terminal group management unit 112, after confirming that the MAC address of the terminal is different from that currently registered in the storage device, the terminal group management unit 112 additionally registers in the storage device and sends a virtual bandwidth reservation command to the bandwidth management unit 103, The bandwidth 202 is allocated, and at that time, the processing of all virtual bandwidth reconfiguration (band redistribution) in step 302 is started. That is, in order to share 11 Mbps, 11 Mbps ÷ 2 units = 5.5 Mbps is set for each virtual band 202. As a result, the bandwidth of 11 Mbps shared between the terminals of the terminal group 105 can be used fairly. If the number of terminals increases, each virtual band 202 is reset so that the band is distributed by the number of terminals.

  After completing the above setting, the bandwidth management unit 111 notifies the user terminal group management unit 112 of the completion of the setting (step 303).

  Next, the operation when the PAN 107 is connected will be described. In order for the PAN 107 to connect, the router 108 in the PAN needs to be connected first. Bandwidth allocation is performed for the router 108 in the same procedure as that for connection of the terminal 106. When the terminal 109 in the PAN 107 is connected, first, the IP address and the MAC address (L2 identification information) 200 of the terminal 109 are stored in the router 108 by using the neighbor search (ND) protocol. Thereafter, the router 108 starts the connection of the terminal 109 to the Internet 102 by transferring the packet sent from the terminal 109 to the Internet 102 to the inward network interface 113 of the router 101. When the router 101 receives the packet, it tries to register the IP address and MAC address (L2 identification information) 200 of the terminal 109 stored in the inward network interface 113 in the storage device. However, since the MAC address is the same as the MAC address of the already registered router 108, it is determined as the same user terminal group, and no new command to secure the virtual bandwidth is sent to the bandwidth management unit 103. The virtual bandwidth 202 secured when 108 is connected is used as it is.

  Next, explanation will be given when the terminal is opened. The IP address and MAC address (L2 identification information) 200 of the terminal 105 registered in the storage device of the user terminal group management unit 112 are automatically deleted if the terminal does not communicate for a preset time. At the same time, a virtual bandwidth release command is issued to the bandwidth management unit 111 (step 401). At that time, the bandwidth is recalculated to follow the decrease in the number of terminals, and then the allocation of the virtual bandwidth 202 allocated for the terminal 105 is released (step 402). Next, band redistribution is performed for the entire allocated virtual band 202 that remains. In this way, even when the number of terminals decreases, reallocation is performed so that other active terminals can use the bandwidth equally.

  After completing the above setting, the bandwidth management unit 103 notifies the user terminal group management unit 112 of the completion of setting (step 403).

  In this way, when a plurality of terminals are connected to the Internet, the bandwidth is evenly allocated between each terminal and the Internet, thereby eliminating the unfairness that one terminal uses most of the bandwidth. . In the above embodiment, the bandwidth is equally allocated among a plurality of terminals. However, a priority may be set for each user in advance, and the bandwidth may be assigned based on the priority.

  In the above description, IPv6 has been described. However, as a technical solution, the same applies to IPv4 by using L2 identification information by the address resolution protocol (ARP) instead of L2 identification information by the IPv6 neighbor discovery (ND) protocol. Needless to say, this control is possible.

1 is a schematic system configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the router 101 in FIG. It is a sequence chart which shows the operation | movement at the time of connection in embodiment of FIG. It is a sequence chart which shows the operation | movement at the time of cutting | disconnection in embodiment of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

101 router 102 internet 103 terminal connection LAN
104 Internet connection network 105, 106 terminal 107 PAN
108 Router 109, 110 Terminal 111 Band management unit 112 User terminal group management unit 113 Internal network interface 114 External network interface 200 IP address / MAC address 201 Full band 202 Virtual bands 301 to 303, 401 to 403 Steps

Claims (6)

In a bandwidth control method in a system for sharing a network connection bandwidth among a plurality of users,
A bandwidth management control method, wherein bandwidth is allocated to each user using a terminal by using identification information of the second layer of the network.   The band control method according to claim 1, wherein the band reallocation is dynamically performed between a newly allocated user and another already allocated user.   The bandwidth control method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the bandwidth is equally distributed among the plurality of users.   The bandwidth control method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the bandwidth is reallocated according to a predetermined priority of each user. In a system for sharing a band for network connection among a plurality of users, a band control device that is provided between the network and a plurality of terminals of the user and controls the band,
A bandwidth control apparatus comprising bandwidth management means for allocating a bandwidth to each user using a terminal by using identification information of the second layer of the network.   6. The bandwidth control apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the bandwidth management means redistributes the bandwidth between a newly assigned user and another already assigned user.

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