JPH07177144A - Relative rate control system in broadcasting communication and its control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow recipients of diversified reception capability into a group by allocating a specific transfer service level to each recipient and discriminating and transmitting the presence of a member of the level for each network. CONSTITUTION:A transfer service level designation means 1 allocates a transfer service level for each receiver in accordance with status information from a receiver 200 and occurrence frequency information of reception priority of a packet, and the allocated level is stored in a transfer service level storage means 3 for each network interface. When a broadcasting transmitter 100 transfers data, a transmission rate control means 2 discriminates whether or not a member of a transfer service receiving a packet for each network is in existence to transfer the packet. Thus, a receiver high in reception capability receives lots of packets including detailed transmission contents and a receiver low in reception capability conducts reception processing for only a transfer packet with high priority within the range of throughput.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a relative rate control system and control method in broadcast communication, and more particularly, to perform broadcast communication between a broadcast communication device and a broadcast receiving device on a network connected to a computer. In this case, the present invention relates to a relative rate control system and control method in broadcast communication for relatively controlling the transfer rate of transmission data from a transmitter in accordance with the data reception capability of the broadcast receiver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, with the enhancement of elemental technologies for constructing a wide-area distributed environment, a synchronous distributed multimedia system such as an electronic conference system or a television broadcasting system, which provides the same information to a plurality of recipients all at once. Have been announced.

Generally, the information handled by this synchronous distributed multimedia system is multimedia information such as voice and moving images, and a large amount of information is processed at one time. Furthermore, high throughput and low delay are required to guarantee real-time performance.

Therefore, a communication protocol for realizing high throughput in a broadband network has been proposed.

For example, it is conceivable that, due to the speeding up of the network, packets arrive from the transmitting device in excess of the receiving capability of the receiving device, which leads to packet loss.
For this reason, in these synchronous distributed multimedia system communication protocols, rate control is performed to adjust the data transfer rate of the transmission side according to the data reception processing capacity of the reception side, etc., in order to suppress this packet loss event. ing.

[0006]

However, the above-mentioned conventional synchronous distributed multimedia system is premised on a hybrid network configuration in which the speed of the mediating network and the processing capability of the gateway / target machine are various. There are the following problems when the conventional rate control system is applied to such broadcast communication.

In order to guarantee a uniform transfer service to all the members of the receiving side group, the receiving device that cannot keep up with the transfer service amount and the receiver requesting more transfer service are members of the group. There is a problem that you can not become.

Further, if the reception capability of a certain member in the group is low, the transfer service of all the group members is limited to the low value, and there is a problem that the overall service amount is reduced.

Further, if the data transfer rate is relatively controlled by the other party, it becomes a one-to-one unicast type, and there is a problem that the advantage of multicasting of sharing network resources cannot be utilized.

Therefore, in the synchronous distributed multimedia system as described above, network resources can be shared by transmitting a packet to a group composed of a plurality of receivers, and other computers can be shared like a broadcast. It is desired to apply a broadcast communication technology that does not give an extra load.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and allows a receiver having any receiving capability to be allowed in a group by relatively performing rate control according to the receiving processing capability of each receiver. , A node that implements a relative rate control system and further relays packets, without the reception capability of one member affecting other members of the group, and without compromising the advantages of multicast of sharing network resources. An object of the present invention is to provide a relative rate control system and control method in broadcast type communication that can avoid useless data transfer by propagating a stream by backflowing a stream using the packet relay processing status as its own receiving capability. .

[0012]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of the present invention.

According to the present invention, a transmitter 100 to a plurality of receivers 200 are provided on a network in which a plurality of computers are connected.
In the broadcast communication in which the same information is simultaneously provided to the group constituted by, the processing of the transmitted data packet when data is thinned out according to the processing capability of the data packet and transmitted from the transmission device 100. Packet reception processing status reporting means 4 for notifying the transmission device 100 of the status as status information, transfer service level holding means 5 for holding the transfer service level designated by the transmission device 100, and first transfer service level for the group address. Generation of a broadcast type receiving apparatus 200 having a reception rate control means 6 for receiving and processing packets by adding the service level held by the holding means 5, status information from the receiving apparatus 200 and reception priority of packets. A transfer service that assigns a transfer service level to each receiving device 200 according to frequency information It is determined whether there is a level designating unit 1, a second transfer service level holding unit 3 that holds the assigned transfer service level for each network interface, and a member of the transfer service level that receives a packet for each network. The broadcast type transmitter 100 including the transmission rate control means 2 for transmitting packets.

Further, the broadcast type receiving apparatus 200 of the present invention is
When the receiving device 200 also serves as a packet relay process to be transferred, a transfer service level propagating means 7 for propagating the packet relay process status report and the transfer service level assignment process in the opposite direction to the packet transfer direction. including.

FIG. 2 illustrates the principle of the present invention.

The present invention is a broadcast type broadcast system comprising a broadcast type receiving device and a broadcast type transmitting device for simultaneously providing the same information to a group composed of a plurality of receivers on a network connecting a plurality of computers. In communication, the broadcast receiving device notifies the broadcast transmitting device of the processing status of the transmitted data packet as status information (step 21),
The broadcast transmission device holds a transfer service level for each allocation interface with respect to the broadcast reception device (step 22), and when the broadcast transmission device transfers data,
It is checked whether or not there is a member of the transfer service level for each network (step 23), the packet is transferred (step 24), and the broadcast type receiving device transfers the transfer service transmitted from the broadcast type transmitting device to the group address. A level is added and data is received (step 25).

[0017]

In broadcast communication, the transmitting device relatively sets the transfer service level based on the reception processing status of the transfer data of each receiving device and the occurrence frequency information of the reception priority of each receiving device of the transfer packet. A subgroup is dynamically formed in each group for each level, and the priority of the transfer packet is associated with this subgroup and the packet is transmitted to the receiving device. As a result, the members of the subgroup consisting of receiving devices with high reception processing capability perform reception processing of many transfer packets that cover the detailed portion of the transmission content, and in the case of receiving devices with low reception processing capability, reception is performed. Only the transfer packets with high priority within the range of processing capability will be received, and while maintaining the effect of broadcast communication of sharing network resources, each receiving device will be able to perform relative processing according to its receiving processing capability. Rate control can be performed.

Further, by performing such relative rate control, it is possible to avoid the deterioration of the transfer service of the entire group due to the low reception processing capability of a certain member. Further, the receiving device that relays propagates the packet relay processing status report and the transfer service level assignment in the opposite direction to the transfer direction, so that unnecessary packet transfer can be avoided and the network bandwidth can be reduced. it can.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 3 shows a broadcast type transmitter of the relative rate control system of the present invention. Broadcast type transmitter 1 shown in FIG.
00 is composed of an application interface unit 110, a packet transmission control unit 120, a transmission rate control unit 130, a transfer service level holding unit 140, a transfer service level designation unit 150, a priority occurrence frequency information holding unit 160, and a network interface unit 170. It

Application interface section 110
Is an application 300 and a broadcast transmitter 100.
Controls an interface between (hereinafter referred to as a transmission device). The packet transmission control unit 120 transmits a packet to the broadcast type receiving device 200 (hereinafter referred to as receiving device). The priority occurrence frequency information holding unit 160 includes the application interface unit 1
The generation frequency information of the priority of the transfer data transferred from the AP 300 via 10 is generated and held. The transfer service level designation unit 150 includes a priority occurrence frequency information holding unit 160.
The transfer service level is generated for each receiving device based on the occurrence frequency information of the above and the reception processing status report information received from the receiving device 200. Transfer service level holding unit 140
Holds the transfer service level generated by the transfer service level designation unit 150 for each network interface. The transmission rate control unit 130 makes an inquiry to the transfer service level holding unit 140 and investigates whether a receiving device corresponding to the transfer service level exists on the network 400. Network interface unit 170
Manages an interface with the network 400.

FIG. 4 shows a broadcast type receiver of the relative rate control system of the present invention.

Broadcast receiving apparatus 200 shown in the figure has network interface section 210, packet reception control section 220, transfer service level holding section 230, reception processing status reporting section 240, transfer service level propagating section 250, and application interface section 260. It is composed of

The network interface section 210 is
It manages the interface with the network 400. The packet reception control unit 220 receives a packet transmitted from the transmission device 100. Transfer service level holding unit 2
30 holds the transfer service level sent from the transmitting device 100 for each receiving device. The reception processing status reporting unit 240 reports the reception processing status of the data packet to the transmission device 1.
00 is notified. When the receiving device 200 relays packet transfer, the transfer service level propagating unit 250
Send the relay processing status. The application interface unit 260 manages an interface between the application and the receiving device 200.

FIG. 5 is a sequence chart showing the operation of the relative rate control system of the present invention.

First, when the transmitting device 100 receives a data transfer request from the application 300 (step 1), the transmitting device side 100 transfers a data packet to the receiving device (step 2).

Next, the transmitting device 100 side receives the receiving device 20.
When a report of the data packet reception processing status is requested to 0 at an arbitrary timing (step 3), the reception device 2
The reception processing status reporting unit 240 of 00 returns the number of packets of data received and processed within the designated time as status information to the transmission device 100 via the packet reception control unit 220 and the network interface unit 210. If the receiving device 200 is a relay receiving device that relays to another receiving device, the maximum value of the number of packets relayed to each interface within the designated time is returned as status information (step 4).

The transmitting device 100 determines the throughput value of each receiving device from the status information received from the receiving device 200, and the receiving priority received by each receiving device 200 from this throughput value and the occurrence frequency of each priority of the transfer packet. Degree, the receiving device 200 is subgrouped according to this reception priority, a transfer service level is assigned to the subgroup (step 5), and the transfer service level is notified to the receiving device 200 (step 5). 6).

On the receiving device 200 side, the received transfer service level is held in the transfer service level holding unit 230 (step 7). When receiving the reception status reports (step 4) from the plurality of receiving devices, the transfer service level designating unit 150 of the transmitting device 100 determines the maximum value of the transfer service level for each network (step 8),
The transfer service level holding unit 230 holds this (step 6).

Next, when there is a data transfer request from the application 300 (step 9), the transmitting device 100
Obtains a transfer service level for each network from the transfer service level holding unit 140, and checks whether there is a receiving device (member) corresponding to the transfer service level for receiving a transfer packet of data on the interface to be transmitted. If the member exists (step 10), the data is transferred (step 11).

The receiver 200 adds a transfer service level to the group address, checks whether the transferred data is addressed to itself (step 12), and receives the packet (step 13).

The above operations will be described in detail below.

First, the procedure up to the packet reception processing status report will be described.

FIG. 6 shows a transfer service level setting procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, as shown in FIG. 1A, the transmitters (agents) are the receivers (agents) (A _{1 to} A _1
In order to know the reception processing capability of _n ), the transfer service level designation unit 150 transmits a packet requesting status information from the reception agent 200 to the group via the packet transmission control unit 120 and the network interface unit 170. This request packet includes the first packet number when setting the timer and the time (TIMER) set in the timer.

Upon receiving this packet, the receiving agent 200 sets a timer when it receives the packet of the designated number, as shown in FIG. Then, the number of packets processed for reception until the timeout (P
_n ) as status information, the sending agent 100
Return to.

<< Transfer Service Level Setting >> Next, the procedure for setting the transfer service level to the receiving agent will be described. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a procedure for setting the transfer service level according to the embodiment of this invention.

Step 80) Transmission agent 100
Receives status information from each reception agent 200 via the network interface unit 170.

Step 81) Transmission rate control unit 130
Determines each throughput value according to the status information from each reception agent 200.

The throughput value (T _n ) is the number of packets
The packet size (P _n · PACKETSIZE) and the time (TIMER) set in the timer are used to calculate as follows.

T _n = P _n / TIMER Step 82) The transfer service level designation unit 150 uses the throughput value determined by the transmission rate control unit 130,
The reception priority group of each reception agent is determined from the generation frequency of each priority of the transfer packet held by the priority generation frequency information holding unit 160.

First, it is assumed that the packet generation frequency of each priority level is fixed. At this time, the priority occurrence frequency information holding unit 160 of the transmission agent 100 holds a correspondence table between the priority level (Pri) and the occurrence frequency (F) of packets having that priority as shown in Table 1. It is assumed that.

[0042]

[Table 1]

In this case, the reception priority group is determined from the throughput value T _n obtained in step 81 by the following equation.

[0044]

[Equation 1]

A set of priority levels Pri _s up to a maximum s for which this expression holds is defined as a reception priority group of the reception agent 200.

Step 83) The transfer service level designating section 150 forms a sub-group for each common receiving agent according to the receiving priority group determined in step 82.

Step 84) Transfer service designation section 150
Assigns a transfer service level (S) to the Suff Group. Table 2 shows an example of setting the transfer service level.

[0048]

[Table 2]

Here, the transfer service level holding unit 140 of the transmission agent 100 has the reception agent 200 existing on the next network for each interface.
Holds the transfer service level to which the belongs.

Step 85) The packet transmission control unit 120 of the transmission agent 100 transmits a packet notifying the assigned transfer service level to each reception agent 200 via the network interface unit 170.

Step 86) When the receiving agent 200 receives the transfer service level from the transmitting agent 100, as shown in FIG. 8, the transfer service level holding unit 230 sets the transfer service level for the data receiving process for the data receiving process. Hold on.

<< Changing Transfer Service Level >> Next, the case of changing the transfer service level will be described.

The transfer service level change request can be requested from either the transmitting device 100 or the receiving device 200.

The transfer service level change request is transmitted by the transmitter 1.
If sent from 00, sending agent 100
Sends again a packet requesting status information to the group. When the transmission agent 100 receives the status information from each reception agent 200, the transfer service level is repartitioned by the processing of steps 81 to 84 in the above flowchart. And
The transfer service level newly assigned to the receiving agent 200 is transmitted to each receiving agent (step 85). The transfer service level holding unit 230 of each receiving agent 200 discards the transfer service level that it has so far and holds the newly generated transfer service level.

When a transfer service level change request is issued from the receiving agent 200, a packet requesting status information from the transmitting agent 100 which has received the change request to the receiving agent 200 is sent to the receiving side group. Send. The subsequent processing is the same as above.

<< Relative Rate Control >> Next, the case of performing relative rate control during data transmission will be described.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the control of the relative rate of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 10 is a flowchart of the relative rate control operation of one embodiment of the present invention.

Application 300 on the data transmission side
Requests the data transmission side agent 100 to transmit a data packet via the application interface unit 110 (step 100). At this time, it is premised that a priority field indicating the priority of the packet is provided for each data packet (step 1
01). The transfer service level designating unit 150 of the transmission agent 100 includes the transfer service level holding unit 14 described above.
From the correspondence table (Table 2) of the interface and transfer service level held in advance with 0, the receiving agent 2 that receives the transfer packet to the interface side to be transmitted
00 is present (step 102), and if it is present, a transfer packet is sent from the network interface section 170 (step 103).

The receiving agent 200 confirms whether the transfer packet sent from the transmitting agent 100 is addressed to itself from the group address and priority field of the packet (step 104), and receives the packet addressed to itself (step 104). 105).

Specifically, the control is performed as shown in FIG.

Assuming that the transfer service level of the receiving agent 200 is set as shown in Table 2, first, as shown in FIG.
“Data 1, Pri ₁ ” is transferred to the reception agent 200. Here, the reception agents A1 and A3 hold transfer service levels having the same reception priority group. Therefore, to receive the same figure the receiving agent A1~A3 by receiving priority group as shown in (B) is transferred in Fig (A) "Data 1, Pri _1". When the next data 2 “Data 2, Pri ₂ ” is transferred as shown in FIG. 2B, receiving agents A1 and A3 having the same transfer service level as shown in FIG. To do. Next, when data 3 “Data 3, Pri ₃ ” shown in FIG. 7C is transferred, as shown in FIG. 7D, receiving agents A1 and A3 having the same transfer service level receive and Reception is performed as shown in FIG.

As described above, when the transmission agent 100 transmits each transfer packet on the interface, the reception agent 200 receives only the packet of the priority that its transfer service level should receive.

<< Transfer Service Level Propagation >> Next, a case where the transfer service level is propagated between the transmitting agent and the receiving agent will be described.

FIG. 12 is a sequence chart showing a transfer service level propagation operation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In order to know the reception processing capability of the receiving agent 200, the transmitting agent 100 transmits a packet requesting status information from the transfer service level designating section 150 to the group of receiving agents 200 (step 120). If the receiving agent 200 for this packet is a relay agent, after receiving the packet designated as the request packet, the timer is set (step 121) until the time-out occurs.
The maximum value of the number of packets relayed to each interface is returned as its own status information (step 122).

Upon receiving this status information (step 123), the transmission agent 100 assigns a transfer service level to each reception agent 200 (step 124). The assigned transfer service level is transmitted to each receiving agent 200 (step 12).
5).

The receiving agent 200 which has received the transfer service level holds it (step 126).
Then, it is judged from the group address of the packet to be transmitted and the priority field whether or not the packet should be relayed by itself (step 127). The stream is back-flowed and propagated until it arrives (step 128).

[0068]

As described above, according to the present invention, by performing manual rate control on the transmission side according to the reception processing capacity of the members of each group, the receivers having various reception capacities can be shared by the group. You can In particular, it is possible to avoid deterioration of the transfer service to another member due to the low reception processing capability of one member while maintaining the advantage of the communication technology on the broadcast side of sharing network resources. Furthermore, it is possible to provide a transfer service according to the network load by dynamically changing the transfer service level assigned to each receiving agent.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a broadcast type transmission device of a relative rate control system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a broadcast-type receiving device of a relative rate control system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a sequence chart showing an operation of the relative rate control system according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a transfer service level setting procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a transfer service level setting procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a procedure for setting a transfer service level to a receiving agent according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing relative rate control according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a relative rate control operation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a relative rate control procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a sequence chart showing transfer service level propagation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 transfer service level designating means 2 transmission rate control means 3 transfer service level holding means 4 packet reception processing status reporting means 5 transfer service level holding means 6 reception rate control means 7 transfer service level propagating means 100 broadcasting type transmitter 110 application interface section 120 Packet Transmission Control Unit 130 Transmission Rate Control Unit 140 Transfer Service Level Holding Unit 150 Transfer Service Level Designating Unit 160 Priority Occurrence Frequency Information Holding Unit 170 Network Interface Unit 200 Broadcast Receiver 210 Network Interface Unit 220 Packet Reception Control Unit 230 Transfer Service level retaining unit 240 Reception processing status reporting unit 250 Transfer service level propagating unit 260 Application interface unit 300 Application 40 0 network

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. In a broadcast type communication in which the same information is simultaneously provided from a transmitter to a group composed of a plurality of receivers on a network connecting a plurality of computers, depending on the processing capability of a data packet. Packet transmission processing status reporting means for notifying the transmitting apparatus of the processing status of the transmitted data packet as status information when the data is thinned out and transmitted from the transmitting apparatus, and a transfer service designated by the transmitting apparatus. Broadcast type having first transfer service level holding means for holding a level, and reception rate control means for receiving the packet by adding the service level held by the transfer service level holding means to a group address The receiving device receives the information according to the status information from the receiving device and the occurrence frequency information of the reception priority of the packet. And transfer service level specifying means for assigning a forwarding service building level for each Shah, a second transfer service level holding means for holding a transfer service level assigned to each network interface,
And a broadcast transmission apparatus including transmission rate control means for determining whether or not there is a member of a transfer service level for receiving a packet for each network, and transmitting the packet. Rate control system. 2. The broadcast type receiving device, when the receiving device also serves as a packet relay process to be transferred, performs the packet relay process status report and the transfer service level assignment process in the reverse packet transfer direction. 2. A relative rate control system as claimed in claim 1, including transfer service level propagating means for propagating in directions. 3. In a broadcast type communication comprising a broadcast type receiving device and a broadcast type transmitting device for simultaneously providing the same information to a group composed of a plurality of receivers on a network connecting a plurality of computers. The broadcast type receiving apparatus notifies the broadcast type transmitting apparatus of the processing status of the transmitted data packet as status information, and the broadcast type transmitting apparatus holds the transfer service level to the broadcast type receiving apparatus for each allocation interface. Then, when the broadcast transmission device transfers data, it checks whether or not there is a member of the transfer service level for each network, and transfers the data. The broadcast reception device assigns the group address from the broadcast transmission device to the group address. A relative rate control method in broadcast communication, characterized in that the transmitted transfer service level is added to receive data.