WO2006115339A1

WO2006115339A1 - Method for controlling admission of network access

Info

Publication number: WO2006115339A1
Application number: PCT/KR2006/001268
Authority: WO
Inventors: Kyung Ju Lee
Original assignee: Lg Electronics Inc.
Priority date: 2005-04-08
Filing date: 2006-04-06
Publication date: 2006-11-02

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for allowing access request for data transfer over a home network such as UPnP-based home network. In the present method, after a minimum requirement, e.g. , minimum service rate (MinSR) , needed for transfer of non-real time data, whose information is accompanied by an access request for transfer of non-real time data is checked, the requested access is allowed. Afterwards, if another access request to a network can not be admitted, the MinSR is updated and then the updated MinSR is used as criterion to determine whether to admit the another access request .

Description

D E S C R I P T I O N

METHOD FOR CONTROLLING ADMISSION OF NETWORK

ACCESS

1. Technical Field The present invention relates to a method of allowing access request for data transfer over a home network such as UPnP-based home network.

2. Background Art

Networking technologies based on various types of small-sized devices have been emerged and commercialized recently A home network enables to interconnect various consumer electronics devices such as refrigerator, TV set, washing machine, PC, and stereo set , making itpossible toprovide a convenient , user-friendlylivingenvironment . The UPnP™ (hereinafter, referred to UPnP) standard has been proposed to offer such a digital home network platform.

An UPnP network usually comprises a plurality of UPnP devices , services and a control point (CP) . Each service, the smallest accessible and controllable unit in an UPnP network is modeled by its own unique state variables. In general, the CP is a control application running on a device in the network such as PDA and is capable of accessing, monitoring, and controlling all of the devices on the network and their services. The CP can also be implemented on a device, together with media renderer service that enables to display media data such as video data . It is possible that a plurality of CPs exist in a UPnP network and therefore a user can choose a nearer or more accessible CP so that he/she makes requests for desired services and for controlling the services at his/her convenience.

Specifically, the UPnP home network enables us to execute desired operations such as move or copy of data between different devices connected to the home network at the chosen CP conveniently andto share thevarious devices at the same time . Therefore itpossibly happens that when a plurality of users use the devices in the network at the same time or sequentially or when a plurality of tasks are executedon the devices at the same time or sequentially, the bandwidth in the network required for doing the jobs exceeds the network bandwidth available at that time. If this case happens, new access requests for data transfer are often refused. However, instead of just denying the access requests, it is desirable to adaptively adjusting the network resource occupied by data transfers being executed, if possible, and to provide the newly adjusted network resource for the new access requests.

3./ Disclosure of the Invention

It is an object of the present invention to improve efficiency of thenetworkbandwidthbyusingtheminimumrequirement for transfer of non-real time data when access request for data transfer is made, determining whether to allow another access request based on the minimum requirement, and adjusting the minimum requirement adaptively while the non-real time data is being transferred. In the method of allowing access request according to the present invention, a minimum requirement, needed for transfer of non-real time data, whose information is accompanied by an access request for transfer of non-real time data is examined, and then the requested access is allowed if it is determined that the network resource available satisfies the minimum requirement.

In a method of making access request for data transfer over a network according to the present invention, given a request for transfer of non-real time data as well as a designated transfer completion time of the non-real time data from a user, a minimum data transfer rate is computed based on the size and the designated transfer completion time of the non-real time data, and then the access request for transfer of the non-real time data is made and sent, with the calculated minimum data transfer rate included. In a method of controlling allowance of access request for data transfer over a network according to the present invention, after a minimum requirement, need for transfer of non-real time data, whose information is accompanied by an access request for transfer of non-real time data is examined and the requested access is allowed, it is examined at an appropriate time whether to update of the minimum requirement, the minimum requirement is updated if needed, and when another access request for data transfer over the network is made, whether to allow the another requested access is determined based on the updated minimum requirement.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the minimum requirement is the minimum data transfer rate that is obtained by dividing the size of the non-real time data by the designated transfer completion request time of the non-real time data.

In still embodiment, the minimum requirement is updated at an appropriate time as a value that is obtained by dividing the remaining size of the non-real time data by the remaining time of the designated transfer completion request time.

In yet another embodiment, whether to update the minimum requirement is examinedwhen another access request for data transfer over the network cannot be admitted due to the pre-occupied bandwidth by transfer of the non-real time data.

In a further embodiment, whether to update the minimum requirement is examined each time another access request for data transfer over the network is made. In a further embodiment, whether to update the minimum requirement is examined periodically.

4. Brief Description of the Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, illustrate the preferred embodiments of the invention, and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the present invention.

In the drawings :

Fig. 1 illustrates a procedure of processing access request required for transfer of non-real time data, where information on a minimum service rate is included in the access request according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig .2 illustrates a series of access requests for data transfer and the resulting bandwidth change;

Fig. 3 illustrates another series of access requests for data transfer and the resulting bandwidth change for description of an embodiment of the present invention ; and

Fig. 4 illustrates a procedure of allowing an access request for data transfer according to anther embodiment of the present invention. 5. Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

In order that the invention may be fully understood, preferred embodiments thereof will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings .

In embodiments of the present invention, when an access request for transfer of non-real time data over a network is made, minimum service rate (hereinafter referred to as "MinSR") that is one of minimum requirements for the requested access is included as a field of Tspec items. The Tspec item is traffic descriptor (one of QoS (qualityof service) information) and is sent to a device that controls QoS (hereinafter referred to ^ΛQoS manager' ) . It should be noted that since Tspec and QoS terminologies are not the required ones in this invention, that other terminologies may be chosen, and that the MinSR may be sent to the QoS manager independently of the Tspec items. Also, in the description of this invention, non-real time data means all types of data that are copied or transferred with no transfer rate constraint. The video data that are to be streamed for real-time presentationor playback are not classified as non-real time data, but the video data that are just copied or transferred with no transfer rate constraint are classified as the non-real time data.

How the MinSR is used for access request for data transfer in accordance with an embodiment of this invention is described in detail below. Fig.1 illustrates a procedure that access request for transfer of non-real time data is processed according to an embodiment of this invention. Upon a user request, CP 11 chooses a plurality of devices under control of the CP 11 , which are specified by the request , and requests QoS manager 10 to allow the network resource access for transfer of non-real time data (SlO) . The request action is called "RequestTrafficQoS ( )" and includes the MinSR as a minimum requirement and information about source and destination devices as input arguments. The MinSR is given by dividing the total number of bytes of the non-real time data by transfer completion time that is designated by the user.

Then, the QoS manager 10 sends a request action to both of the source and destination devices and, if any, other devices located on a communication path between the two devices to determine if they can transfer data under the condition that meets the MinSR (SIl) . Each device that receives the request action determines if it satisfies transfer rate constrained by the MinSR (S12) , and sends access admission message to the QoS manager 10 if it can handle the data transfer at the MinSR (S13) . Receiving the admission message, the QoS manager 10 allows the network resource access from the CP 11 (S14) . If the QoS manager 10 receives a message indicating that data transfer at the MinSR cannot be supported from at least one of them, the CP 11 in turn denies the user request. QoS devices 12 (QD shown in Fig. 1) represent the source and destination devices as well as devices that lie in a communication path between the two devices and the meaning of QoS devices 12 does not change hereinafter unless stated otherwise.

In this way, under control of the QoS manager 10 , the QoS devices

12 are able to transmit or receive the requested non-real time data at a data transfer rate that is at least equal to the MinSR or at the maximum data transfer rate that the network bandwidth allows at that time , which will be described below in detail with reference to the situation illustrated in Fig. 2.

In the situation of Fig. 2, suppose that the transmission bandwidth of a home network is lOMbps, that B user is watching ,an animation whose stream is transmitted at a rate of 6Mbps and that A user hopes to transfer a non-real time data of 1.5GBytes from a portable device , e.g., digital movie camera to a storage device within 1 hour since A user is scheduled for another camera shooting after 1 hour .

In the situation, the MinSR of network access request by A user is 3.3Mbs (= 1.5Gbytes/lhour) . Because the MinSR is smaller than the current available bandwidth of 4Mpbs (=10Mbps-6Mbps) , the requested access is allowed (S20) . The non-real time data starts to be transmitted at a transfer rate of not the MinSR but 4 Mbps that is the maximum transfer rate from the portable device to the storage device (S21) . However, the maximum allowable data transfer rate depends on the current communication loads between other devices over the network. For example, if as soon as playback of animation of 6Mbps has been completed, B user watches another animation whose transfer rate is 2Mbps at 5 minutes after start of transmission of the non-real time data (S22) , the transfer bandwidth available becomes 8Mbps and thus the non-real time data starts to be transmitted at a rate of 8Mbps (S23) . The opposite situation may happen while the non-real time data over network is transmittedat the designated transfer rate of 3.3Mbps . If another user, say C user request to watch a real-time video data that requires a transfer rate of 6Mbps at 20 minutes after start of transfer of the non-real time data (S24) , the access requested by C user is not admitted because the network bandwidth available at this time is 4.7Mbps (= lOMbps - 3.3Mbps - 2Mbps) , which is smaller than the requested bandwidth of 6Mbps (S25) .

It should be noted that non-real time data could be transferred at a higher transfer rate than the designated MinSR if more bandwidth over the network is available . It is, therefore, likely that transfer of non-real time data takes a shorter time than the transfer completion time that was specified at the time that the MinSR is calculated. Hence, it is preferred that another request for transfer of real-time or non-real time data over the network is admitted if the designated transfer completion time of the non-real time data being transferred is still satisfied because it can maximize efficiency of the network bandwidth.

In another embodiment of this invention, upon another access request for data transfer, the MinSR value of non-real time data being transferred is updated and it is then determined whether or not the requested access is admitted based on the updated MinSR.

For example, as shown in Fig. 3 (steps of S20 through S24 are the same as those of Fig. 2) , when C user makes access request to watch a real-time video data that requires a transfer rate of 6Mbps or access request to transfer a non-real time data with a MinSR value of 6Mbps (S24) , the MinSR value or 3.3Mbps of the non-real time data being transferred is re-calculated based on the initially designated transfer completion time, the elapsed time after start of the transfer, and size of the remaining part of the non-real time data at the time that the access is requested by C user(S35) . The updated MinSR is denoted^' by MinSRu.

In case of Fig. 3, since the elapsed time is 20 minutes and the size of transferred data during 20 minutes is l.OΞGBytes (= (4Mbps x 5min x 60sec / 8bits) + (8Mbps x 15min x 60sec / 8bits) ) , the MinSRubecomes 1.5Mbps (= (1.5GBytes - 1.05GBytes) / (60min - 20min) ) . If transfer rate of the non-real time data is adjusted to 1.5Mbps, the resulting available bandwidthbecomes 6.5Mbps (= lOMbps - 1.5Mbps - 2Mbps for B user) so that the bandwidth for transfer requested by C user is admissible. After the requested access by C user is admitted, the non-real time data is transferred at rate of 2Mbps that is the maximum available bandwidth (S36) so that the transfer is completed in 30 minutes.

Through the above-described steps, transfer of non-real time data can be completed within the initially designated transfer competition time and at the same time transfer of other data may^¬ be allowed by adjusting transfer rate of the non-real time data, leading to improvement of utilization of the network bandwidth. Fig. 4 illustrates a procedure of another embodiment of this invention which was described with reference to Fig. 3. A request for transfer of non-real time data between QoS devices 43 is made at CPl 41 and is then sent to QoS manager 40 (S40) . Then, QoS manager 40 allows the request if the requested bandwidth is available (S41) . As before, the MinSR information is included in the request of S40 and the QoS manager 40 admits the request if the MinSR is smaller than or equal to the network bandwidth available.

Since then, when another request of data transfer between the QoS devices 43 is made (S42) froma CP (CP2inFig.4 for the convenience of description, but the request can be made at CPl, implying that this embodiment is applicable to the network with only one CP) , the QoS manager 40 requests the QoS devices 43 to determine if the current networkbandwidth satisfies the transfer requirement associatedwith the request (the MinSR for transfer of non-real time data and transfer rate for real-time data) (S43) . The decision (SSl) is made based on the available bandwidth of the network to which the QoS devices 43 are connected. For example, suppose that the total bandwidth of the network is lOMbps, a bandwidth occupied already for data being transferred is 2Mbps (not depicted in Fig.4)) and the MinSR requested at step of S40 is 3.3Mbps . Since the bandwidth available is 4.7Mbps, the transfer requested at the step of S42 from CP2 is allowed if the MinSR (or real-time transfer rate) associated with the request is smaller thanor equal to 4.7Mbps . If not, the QoS devices 43 generate an event called UpToDateTspec notifying that the minimum service rate should be updated (S44-1) . Accordingly, the QoS manager 40 sets its network status variable to 'CONJESTION EXPECTED¹. The UpToDateTspec event is notified to the devices that have been subscribed to the event notification group, in this case, the QoS manager 40 and the CP 41. Specifically, afternotified, the QoS manager 40 relays the event to the CP that belongs to the event notification group (S44-2) . For convenience of description, it is assumed in Fig. 4 that a single CP or CPl 41 has been subscribed to the UpToDateTspec event notification group at the step of S39, but it should be noted that another CP or CP2 42 may subscribe to the UpToDateTspec event notification group. The steps executed by control points that have subscribed to the event notification group are described below.

The CPl 41 requests the QoS devices 43 to send information on the amount of non-real time data transferred until the time when the CPl 41 receives the UpToDateTspec event (or the amount of the remaining data until then) and the transfer completion time designated initially (S45) . The operations for requesting and/or receiving the information may use UPnP action or other appropriate information exchange messages. The operations may be executed on another channel on the network that is separated with the bandwidth channel on which the non-real time data is being transferred. In another embodiment of this invention, the information on the amount of non-real time data transferred until then (or the amount of the remaining data until then) and the transfer completion time may be sent to the CPl, with the information included in the UpToDateTspec event .

After receiving the information, the CPl 41 recalculates the MinSR of the non-real time data. At this time, the remaining time is also calculated by using the transfer completion time designated initially. In another embodiment of this invention, the MinSR may be recalculated by the QoS devices 43 and then the updated MinSR is sent to the CPl 41.

Given the updated MinSR, the CPl 41 sends the MinSR to the QoS manager 40 by using UpdateTrafficQoS action (S46) . Accordingly, the QoS manager 40 sends access allowance information that includes the updated MinSR to the QoS devices 43 so that the non-real time data can be transferred at a different transfer rate based on the updated MinSR (347) . In response to the allowance information, the QoS devices 43 examines if the access request of S42 can be admitted on the basis of the updated MinSR (SS2) . Before the step of S47, a message maybe sent to the QoS devices 43 that signifies the release of the MinSR stored previously. If it is determined that the access request of S42 can be admitted due to the updated MinSR, the QoS devices 43 sends access allowance messages (S48-1, S48-2) to the QM manager 40 and the CP2.

After the access request is admitted (or rejected) , the QoS manager 40 sets the network status variable to 'NORMAL' (or ' CONJESTION¹ ) .

In an embodiment of Fig. 4, the MinSR of transfer of non-real time data is recalculated only when it is determined that another access request cannot be admitted under the network bandwidth available .

In another embodiment of this invention, the MinSR of transfer of non-real time data is updated at a predetermined period of time and whether or not new access requests are admitted is determined based on the updatedMinSR. To be specific, the QoS devices 43 generate the UpToDateTspec event periodically, and in response to the event directly or via the QoS manager 40, a control point updates the MinSR of the non-real time data by using the steps described before and invokes UpdateTrafficQoS action on the QoS manager 40 by using the updated MinSR as arguments of the action. In turn, the QoS manager 40 has the QoS devices 43 accept the updated MinSR of the non-real time data by invoking AdmitTrafficQoS action on the QoS devices 43. Afterwards, each time an access request is made, the QoS devices determine whether to admit the requested access based on the MinSR updated periodically.

In another embodiment of this invention, the QoS devices 43 adjusts the MinSR update period. Specifically, if a ratio of the networkbandwidthavailable to the occupiedbandwidth (bothbandwidth for real time data and the MinSR of non-real time data) is maintained greater than a predefined ratio during a predetermined time, the UpToDateTspec event is invoked at the period of Tl to update the MinSR of non-real time data being transferred. Otherwise, the event is invoked at the period of T2 that is certainly larger than Tl. For example, the predefined ratio of 40% implies that, given the total network bandwidth of lOMbps the MinSR of non-real time data being transferred is updated at the period of Tl when the occupied bandwidth is smaller than 7.14Mbps . The reasonwhythe MinSR is updated at two different periods is as follows. The fact that ■ a ratio of the network bandwidth available to the total network bandwidth has been maintained during a certain period of time implies that it is highly probable that the non-real time data has been transferred at a higher transfer rate than the designated MinSR. Therefore, the MinSR needs to be updated at a short period of time or Tl. On the other hand, if the network bandwidth available has been smaller than a predefined ratio, the MinSR is updated at a longer period of time orT2 since the networkbandwidth available will be ineffective even if the MinSR is updated at a shorter period. In another embodiment of this invention, the MinSR of transfer of non-real time data is recalculated each time an access request is made and then whether to admit the requested access is determined based on the recalculated MinSR. The foregoing embodiments of this invention make it possible to improve efficiency of the network bandwidth by admitting another request for transfer of real-time or non-real time data while satisfying the minimum requirement for transfer of non-real time data being transferred. While the disclosure has discussed a limited number of implementations, those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure will appreciate numerous modifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that all such modifications and variations fall within the spirit and scope of this disclosure.

Claims

1. A method of controlling allowance of access request for data transfer over a network, comprising the steps of: examining a minimum requirement that is needed for transfer of non-real time data, the minimum requirement being accompanied by an access request for the transfer; and allowing the access request if it is determined that available network resource satisfies the minimum requirement.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the minimum requirement is minimum data transfer rate.

3. The method as set forth in claim 2, wherein the minimum data transfer rate is obtained by dividing size of the non-real time data by a transfer completion request time for the non-real time data designated by a user.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the network resource is a transmission bandwidth in the network.

5. A method of making an access request for data transfer over a network, comprising the steps of: from a user, receiving a request for transfer of non-real time data; from a user, receiving a designated transfer completion time of the non-real time data; and calculating a minimum data transfer rate based on size and the designated transfer completion time of the non-real time data and making an access request for transfer of the non-real time data with the calculated minimum data transfer rate included.

6. The method as set forth in claim 5, wherein the minimum data transfer rate is obtaining by dividing the size of the non-real time data by the designated transfer completion request time.

7. A method of controlling allowance of access request for data transfer over a network, comprising the steps of:

(a) checking a minimum requirement that is needed for transfer of non-real time data, the minimum requirement being accompanied by an access request of non-real time data, and allowing the access request;

(b) checking updated information of the minimum requirement; and

(c) using the updated minimum requirement in determining whether to allow another access request for data transfer over the network.

8. The method as set forth in claim 7, wherein the minimum requirement is a minimum data transfer rate.

9. The method as set forth in claim 8, wherein the minimum data transfer rate in the step (a) is obtained by dividing size of the non-real time data by transfer completion request time for the non-real time data designated by a user.

10. The method as set forth in claim 8, wherein the updated minimum data transfer rate in the step (b) is obtained by dividing remaining size of the non-real time data by remaining time of the designated transfer completion request time.

11. The method as set forth in claim 7, wherein in the step (b) , the updated minimum requirement is checked when another access request for data transfer over the network cannot be admitted due to reserved bandwidths including a bandwidth demanded by the minimum requirement .

12. The method as set forth in claim 11, wherein in the step

(b) , when another access request for data transfer over the network cannot be admitted due to reserved bandwidths including a bandwidth demanded by the minimum requirement , the updated minimum requirement is checked after the minimum requirement is updated by generation of an event that signifies reject of the another access request.

13. The method as set forth in claim 7, wherein in the step (b) , the updated minimum requirement is checked each time another access request for data transfer over the network is made.

14. The method as set forth in claim 7, wherein in the step (b) , the updated minimum requirement is checked periodically.

15. The method as set forth in claim 7, wherein in the step (b) , the updated minimum requirement is checked when an available network bandwidth is maintained greater than a predefined value during a predetermined time.

16. The method as set forth in claim I₁ wherein the non-real time datawhose transferhasbeenallowed inthe step (a) is transferred at themaximumallowable transferrate that is greater than theminimum requirement .

17. The method as set forth in claim 7, wherein the updated minimum requirement is calculated by a device that transmits the non-real time data or other devices on the transmission path over which the non-real time data is transferred.

18. The method as set forth in claim 7, wherein the updated minimum requirement is received from a control application that has control over devices participating transfer of the non-real time data.

19. The method as set forth in claim I₁ further comprising the step of re-allowing access for transfer of the non-real time data that has been admitted in the step (a) , on the basis of the updated minimum requirement .