WO2016203749A1

WO2016203749A1 - Communication flow relay device, communication system and communication flow relay method

Info

Publication number: WO2016203749A1
Application number: PCT/JP2016/002829
Authority: WO
Inventors: 裕志吉田
Original assignee: 日本電気株式会社
Priority date: 2015-06-19
Filing date: 2016-06-13
Publication date: 2016-12-22

Abstract

In order to provide a communication flow relay device, a communication system and a communication flow relay method which enable both an improvement in the quality of experience of all users connected to a mobile network and an improvement in the rate of utilization of a communication resource while the influence of disturbance such as the increase or decrease of a communication flow and the change of an communication environment is taken into consideration, a communication flow relay device 10 is provided with: a communication flow reception means 20 for receiving a plurality of communication flows; a pacing control means 30 for periodically selecting n communication flows from among the plurality of communication flows, and every time the n communication flows are selected, simultaneously determining whether or not to put a transfer rate limit regarding each of the selected n communication flows; and a communication flow transfer means 40 for, on the basis of the determination, transferring the received plurality of communication flows to an external terminal.

Description

Communication flow relay apparatus, communication system, and communication flow relay method

The present invention relates to a communication flow relay device for transferring a communication flow between communication devices, a communication system including the communication flow relay device, and a communication flow relay method.

A communication flow relay device that transfers a communication flow transmitted from a transmission side via a communication network to a reception side is known. Here, the communication flow refers to a series of communication data flows identified by the source address and port number, the destination address and port number, the application type, and the like.

For example, when the communication flow to be transferred is multimedia data such as a moving image, the communication flow relay device described in Patent Document 1 refers to the multimedia media rate (data amount per unit reproduction time). Then, the communication flow relay apparatus optimizes an objective function indicating an index integrating the quality of experience of the user who receives and reproduces the multimedia data and the transfer cost of the multimedia data. A communication flow relay apparatus for controlling a transfer rate is disclosed. Here, the transfer cost of the multimedia data is a communication resource of the network spent when transferring the communication flow.

By the way, when a mobile user uses an Internet service via a mobile network, a decrease in communication speed in a radio access network that is a network between the mobile core network and the user may become a bottleneck. As a result, the experience quality of the Internet service of the mobile user may deteriorate. The radio access network is also called a RAN (Radio Access Network).

There are two main reasons why the communication speed decreases in RAN. The first cause is the radio wave environment. Depending on the surrounding environment of the mobile user, the radio wave intensity is lowered, or a radio transmission error occurs due to radio wave interference, thereby reducing the communication speed. The second cause is the traffic (cross traffic) of other mobile users. When a large number of mobile terminals are connected to a RAN configured by one base station to generate a large amount of communication traffic, a sufficient communication speed can be obtained even if the communication environment of the RAN is insufficient and the radio wave environment is good. I can't get it. Note that the above communication resources are referred to as resource blocks in the case of LTE (Long Term Evolution).

When the communication resources of the RAN are insufficient, the device that transfers the communication flow to the RAN may perform control to keep the transfer rate of the communication flow low. The transfer rate is controlled for a user who generates a large amount of communication traffic by receiving a large amount of communication flow such as moving image streaming in the RAN, for example. Here, the transfer rate means the data amount of the communication flow transferred per unit time. By reducing the transfer rate of a user generating a large amount of communication flow, a part of the RAN communication resources occupied by the user can be released to increase the communication resources that can be used by other users. it can. As a result, the quality of experience of other users can be improved, and the quality of experience of the entire mobile network can be improved. Here, the control for suppressing the transfer rate of the communication flow to be lower than when nothing is controlled is referred to as pacing.

It should be noted that the paced user may have a lower quality of experience as opposed to other users. However, when the communication flow with the transfer rate suppressed is video streaming, if the transfer rate is more than the media rate of the video, the video streaming may cause a drop in the quality of experience such as image quality degradation or playback stop. There is no.

The communication flow relay device described in Patent Document 1 described above operates to release communication resources as much as possible while ensuring a transfer rate equal to or higher than the media rate for communication flows such as video streaming. As a result, it is possible to optimize the user experience quality and transfer cost that are in a trade-off relationship.

International Publication No. 2013/094118

However, the communication flow relay device described in Patent Document 1 does not take into consideration the effects of changes in the real environment (disturbances) such as increase / decrease in communication flow and fluctuations in the communication environment. For this reason, for example, when the communication flow relay device described in Patent Literature 1 continues pacing in a situation where the communication resources of the RAN are not insufficient, the communication resources are unnecessarily released, and the RAN utilization rate (maximum communication possible) The proportion of the amount actually used) decreases. In a situation where the communication resources of the RAN are not insufficient, pacing does not contribute to the quality of experience of other users, leading to the possibility of impairing the quality of experience of the paced user, which is counterproductive.

The present invention makes it possible to achieve both improvement in the quality of experience of the entire user connected to the mobile network and improvement in the utilization rate of communication resources while taking into consideration the influence of disturbances such as increase / decrease of communication flow and fluctuation of communication environment. The aim is to provide possible technology.

In order to achieve the above object, a communication flow relay device according to the present invention, a communication flow receiving means for receiving a plurality of communication flows, and periodically selecting n communication flows from the plurality of communication flows, pacing control means for simultaneously determining whether or not to provide a transfer rate limit for each of the selected n communication flows each time n communication flows are selected, and based on the determination, Communication flow transfer means for transferring the communication flow to an external terminal.

In order to achieve the above object, a communication system according to the present invention includes the communication flow relay apparatus that transfers a received communication flow to an external terminal, and an external terminal that receives and consumes the transferred communication flow. .

In order to achieve the above object, a communication flow relay method according to the present invention receives a plurality of communication flows, periodically selects n communication flows from the plurality of communication flows, and sets n communication flows. Is selected simultaneously to determine whether or not to provide a transfer rate restriction for each of the selected n communication flows, and based on the determination, the received plurality of communication flows are transferred to an external terminal.

According to the aspect of the present invention described above, while considering the influence of disturbances such as increase / decrease of communication flow and fluctuation of communication environment, improvement in the quality of experience of the entire user connected to the mobile network and the utilization rate of communication resources. Both improvements can be achieved.

It is a block block diagram of the communication flow relay apparatus 10 which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a system configuration figure of communication system 700 concerning a 2nd embodiment. It is a block block diagram of the communication flow relay apparatus 100 which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is an operation | movement flowchart of the communication flow relay apparatus 100 which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is an example of the sigmoid function used in 2nd Embodiment. It is an example of the simulation result in the communication flow relay apparatus 100 which concerns on 2nd Embodiment, and a comparison method.

<First Embodiment>
A first embodiment of the present invention will be described. A block diagram of a communication flow relay apparatus according to the present embodiment is shown in FIG. In FIG. 1, the communication flow relay device 10 includes a communication flow receiving unit 20, a pacing control unit 30, and a communication flow transfer unit 40.

The communication flow receiving unit 20 receives a plurality of communication flows transmitted from the transmission source to the transmission destination via the Internet or the like, and delivers the received plurality of communication flows to the communication flow transfer unit 40. For example, when a user accesses the Internet using an external terminal and requests download of multimedia data such as a moving image, the communication flow receiving unit 20 transmits G multimedia data transmitted to the user's external terminal. A communication flow is received from the Internet and transferred to the communication flow transfer means 40. Here, the communication flow refers to a series of communication data flows identified by a source address and port number, a destination address and port number, an application type, and the like.

The communication flow receiving unit 20 periodically selects n (<G) communication flows from among a plurality (for example, G) of communication flows received by the communication flow receiving unit 20, and selects the n communication flows. Each time it is selected, it is simultaneously determined whether or not to provide a transfer rate restriction for each of the selected n communication flows, and the determined content is output to the communication flow transfer means 40. When determining whether or not to set a transfer rate limit for n communication flows at the same time, the influence of disturbance can be reduced.

Here, the communication flow receiving means 20 refers to the selected n communication flow points, and determines probabilistically whether or not to set a transfer rate limit according to the size of the referenced points. Specifically, for example, when the communication flow receiving means 20 inputs a reference point to a monotonically increasing function that outputs (α, (α + β) / 2, β) when (−∞, 0, ∞). The output value is compared with a uniform random value between α and β. If the output value is greater than or equal to the random value, a transfer rate limit is set. If the output value is less than the random number value, no transfer rate limit is set. To do.

The communication flow transfer means 40 is periodically input from the communication flow reception means 20 to determine whether or not to set a transfer rate limit for n communication flows. The communication flow transfer unit 40 transfers the G communication flows transferred from the communication flow reception unit 20 to the user's external terminal according to the determination input from the communication flow reception unit 20.

As described above, the communication flow relay device 10 periodically selects n communication flows from the G communication flows to be transferred, and sets whether or not to set a transfer rate restriction on the selected n communication flows. Determine at the same time. When determining whether or not to set a transfer rate limit for n communication flows at the same time, since the influence of disturbance can be reduced, the communication flow relay device 10 according to the present embodiment can increase or decrease the communication flow or the communication environment. It is possible to achieve both improvement in the quality of experience of the entire user connected to the mobile network and improvement in the utilization rate of communication resources, while taking into consideration the influence of disturbance such as fluctuations in the network.

<Second Embodiment>
A second embodiment will be described. FIG. 2 shows a system configuration diagram of the communication system according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 2, the communication system 700 includes a communication flow relay device 100, a base station 200, and a terminal 300.

The communication flow relay device 100 is installed in the mobile core network 500 and transfers a communication flow, which is a service provided from the Internet 400, to the terminal 300 via the base station 200.

The base station 200 is a communication device that mediates between the mobile core network 500 and the mobile access network 600, and wirelessly transmits the communication flow transferred from the communication flow relay device 100 to the target terminal 300. The base station 200 is a communication device called eNodeB (Evolved Node B) in LTE, for example.

The terminal 300 is installed in the mobile access network 600, receives a communication flow, which is a service provided from the Internet 400, via the communication flow relay device 100 and the base station 200, and consumes (reproduces or displays) the communication flow. )

Here, the Internet 400 is a network that performs communication conforming to the Internet protocol (IP: Internet Protocol), and various sub-networks around the world are connected by the IP of the third layer of the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) reference model. It is a global network.

The mobile core network 500 is a network connecting the Internet 400 and the mobile access network 600, and transfers and manages a communication flow to the terminal 300. For example, in LTE, it is called EPC (Evolved Packet Core).

The mobile access network 600 is a RAN from the base station 200 to the terminal 300. For example, in LTE, it is called eUTRAN (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Network).

The communication flow relay device 100 will be described in detail. FIG. 3 shows a block configuration diagram of the communication flow relay device 100 according to the present embodiment. 3 includes a communication flow receiving unit 101, a communication flow transfer unit 102, a sensation quality calculation unit 103, and a pacing control unit 104.

The communication flow receiving unit 101 receives a communication flow transmitted from the Internet 400 to the terminal 300 and delivers the communication flow to the communication flow transfer unit 102. The communication flow receiving unit 101 according to the present embodiment is configured to be able to identify a communication flow. Instead of identifying the communication flow in the communication flow receiving unit 101, the communication flow can be identified by DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) or the like before receiving the communication flow receiving unit 101.

The communication flow transfer unit 102 transfers the communication flow delivered from the communication flow receiving unit 101 to the terminal 300 via the mobile access network 600. The communication flow transfer unit 102 according to the present embodiment further acquires each transfer rate for the transfer target communication flow, and notifies the pacing control unit 104 of the total of the acquired transfer rates as the total communication traffic amount. Further, the communication flow transfer unit 102 receives a notification from the pacing control unit 104 regarding whether or not to perform pacing on the communication flow to be transferred, and transfers the communication flow to be transferred to the terminal 300 according to the notification.

The communication flow transfer unit 102 immediately transfers the communication flow delivered from the communication flow receiving unit 101 for communication flows that do not execute pacing. That is, the communication flow is transferred at a transfer rate equivalent to the reception rate received by the communication flow receiving unit 101. On the other hand, the communication flow transfer unit 102 transfers the communication flow at a predetermined transfer rate, instead of transferring the communication flow immediately when transferring the communication flow for the communication flow for executing pacing. .

Specifically, when the communication flow for performing pacing is video streaming, if the transfer rate equivalent to the media rate of the target video can be secured, the user's quality of experience will not be impaired. Performs pacing by limiting the transfer rate to the media rate or media rate + α (a margin). Here, if the reception rate received by the communication flow receiving unit 101 is equal to or less than the media rate or the media rate + α, immediate transfer is performed without performing pacing. Instead of referring to the media rate, the playback buffer amount (or the remaining playback time) in the terminal 300 can also be referred to. In this case, pacing is executed when the reproduction buffer amount exceeds a predetermined threshold value. However, since the communication flow relay apparatus 100 may not be able to directly observe the reproduction buffer amount, it is necessary to estimate the reproduction buffer amount from the transfer amount of the communication flow and the passage of time.

Also, when the communication flow for performing pacing is file download, it is easy to limit the transfer rate so as not to exceed a predetermined value. This predetermined value can be changed according to the file size. Note that any pacing method can be applied as the pacing method.

The sensation quality calculation unit 103 quantifies the sensation quality of the communication flow transferred from the communication flow transfer unit 102 and notifies the pacing control unit 104 of the quantified total sensation quality. As a method of quantifying the quality of experience, for example, if the communication flow is video streaming, ITU-U (Telecommunication standardization of the International Telecommunication Union) recommended P.I. 1201 Amendment 2 can be used to calculate MOS (Mean Opinion Score) estimates (real numbers from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 5). On the other hand, for example, if the communication flow is Web access, the ITU-T recommendation G. According to 1030 Annex A, the estimated value of MOS can be calculated. In addition, any method can be applied as a method for quantifying the quality of experience.

The pacing control unit 104 has a total quality of each communication flow notified from the quality of experience calculation unit 103, a total transfer rate (total communication traffic amount) of each communication flow notified from the communication flow transfer unit 102, and Based on the above, a communication flow for performing pacing (communication flow for pacing ON) and a communication flow for not performing pacing (communication flow for pacing OFF) are determined for each communication flow. The pacing control unit 104 notifies the communication flow transfer unit 102 of the determined content. The communication flow transfer unit 102 transfers the communication flow to the terminal 300 according to the determination of necessity of pacing execution notified from the pacing control unit 104.

Next, a procedure for determining whether or not to perform pacing in pacing control unit 104 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. Hereinafter, a case where the communication flow to be paced is video streaming will be described. The procedure when the communication flow for downloading a large-capacity file is targeted for pacing is the same.

[Step 0: Initialization]
A set of all communication flows handled by the communication flow relay apparatus 100 is indicated as F, and a set of communication flows related to pacing target video streaming is indicated as G (G⊆F). First, the pacing control unit 104 initializes all communication flows g (gεG) in G with p _g = 0, and starts all from pacing OFF (t = 0). Here, _pg is a point with respect to the communication flow g. Then, the pacing controller 104, all communication flows g of QoE q _g summation Q (t) and for transferring input from experience quality calculation unit 103, all communication flows to transfer inputted from the communication flow transfer unit 102 The objective function value J (t) is calculated from the sum ( _g of total communication traffic) X (t) of the transfer rate _xg of _g . Here, Q (t), X (t), and J (t) are represented by Expression (1), Expression (2), and Expression (3), respectively.

Q (t) = Σ _g q _g (t) Equation (1)
_{X (t) = Σ g x} g (t) (2)
J (t) = A (Q (t)) + B (X (t)) Equation (3)
Note that q _g (t) is the quality of experience of the communication flow g at time t, and x _g (t) is the transfer rate (communication traffic) of the communication flow g at time t. A (Q (t)) is a monotonically increasing function for Q (t), and B (X (t)) is a monotonically increasing function for X (t).

Then, the pacing control unit 104 calculates the average <J (τ)> _τ of the objective function value J (t) at the time interval τ using the equation (4) after τ time elapses (t = τ). To do.

<J (t)> _τ = (1 / τ) ∫t _{−τ → τ} J (t) dt Equation (4)
[Step 1: Select communication flow]
Next, pacing control unit 104 randomly selects n communication flows from set G. However, 1 ≦ n ≦ | G |, and | G | is the number of elements of the set G (= the number of communication flows). The selection method of n communication flows is random, but any selection method may be used. Here, let H be the set of selected communication flows.

[Step 2: Pacing ON / OFF control]
The pacing control unit 104 generates random values of uniform random numbers (hereinafter referred to as U (0, 1)) of 0 to 1 for the selected n communication flows hεH, Let the value be r _h (0 ≦ r _h ≦ 1). Further, the pacing controller 104 calculates the sigmoid function value as an argument a point _{p h} of flow h zeta the _{(p h) (0 ≦ ζ} (p h) ≦ 1). Then, the pacing controller 104, generated allowed random number r _h, calculated on the basis of the paging status of the sigmoid function value zeta (p _h) and the selected flow h, pacing ON / OFF for the selected flow h∈H Take control. Specifically, in the case of _{_{r h ≦ ζ (p h)}} , is turned ON pacing flow h, or _{r h>} zeta of _{(p h),} turns OFF the pacing flow h.

Here, the sigmoid function ζ (p) approaches 1 as the value of the point p increases (closer to ∞), and approaches 0 as the value of the point p decreases (closer to −∞). Therefore, in the pacing ON / OFF control by comparing the sigmoid function value ζ (p) and the random value of U (0, 1) as described above, the pacing is turned ON as the flow of the point p is larger. The smaller the value of p, the higher the probability that pacing will be turned off. As an example of the sigmoid function ζ, there is ζ (p) = (1 + exp (−ap)) ⁻¹ , and at this time, a graph as shown in FIG. 5 is obtained. In addition, any monotonically increasing function of (−∞, ∞) → (0, 1) can be applied as long as ζ (0) = ½.

[Step 3: Evaluation of objective function value]
After elapse of τ time from the execution of step 2, the average value <J (t)> _τ of the next objective function is calculated.

[Step 4: Point update of communication flow]
The objective function average value <J (t−τ)> _τ obtained in step 0 is compared with the objective function average value <J (t)> _τ obtained in step 3. Based on the comparison result, the point p is changed as follows.
(I) <J (t−τ)> _{τ <<<} J (t)> When _τ (when the objective function is improved)
・ K points are added to point p of the flow where pacing is changed from OFF to ON ・ k points are subtracted from point p of the flow where pacing is changed from ON to OFF (ii) <J (t−τ)> _τ ≧ <J (t) > When _τ (when objective function is not improved)
・ The point p of the flow where the pacing is changed from OFF to ON is decremented by k ・ The point p of the flow where the pacing is changed from ON to OFF is added by k. It may be determined according to the difference between the average values of the functions (<J (t)> _τ− <J (t−τ)> _τ ). By changing the point p as described above, it is possible to increase the probability that the pacing is turned on for a communication flow that can contribute to an increase in the objective function by pacing.

[Step 5: Repeat]
Return to step 1.

By performing pacing ON / OFF control according to the above procedure, it is possible to simultaneously increase both the total Q (t) of the user experience quality and the total X (t) of the communication traffic.

Next, the simulation results of the usefulness of the above-described pacing ON / OFF control will be described. In this simulation, there are 10,000 pacing candidate communication flows (| G | = 10,000), and the number of pacing candidate communication flows does not increase or decrease during the simulation. In the initial state, pacing is turned off for all communication flows g. By this simulation, it is verified whether the objective function value J (t) can be increased by applying the pacing ON / OFF control of FIG. 4 described above to the 10,000 communication flows g.

First, for each of 10,000 communication flows from communication flow 1 to communication flow 10,000, the amount of increase / decrease in the objective function when pacing is turned ON is U (−1, 1) (from −1 to 1). (Uniform random number). This is because it is not easy to simulate the increase / decrease of the objective function value due to actual pacing ON / OFF, and thus the influence on the objective function value due to pacing ON / OFF of each communication flow is simply set. .

Here, the only observable quantity is the objective function value J (t). Therefore, when each communication flow is changed from the pacing OFF state to the ON state, the objective function value J (t) fluctuates by a value from −1 to +1, but how much it changes is actually changed to the ON state. I don't know until later. Further, since only the objective function value J (t) cannot be observed, when a plurality of communication flows are changed to the ON state or OFF state at the same time, which communication flow contributes to how much the objective function value J (t) varies. I do n’t know.

Further, in practice, the objective function value J (t) observed due to factors other than pacing ON / OFF (= disturbance) such as increase / decrease of communication flow and fluctuation of communication environment, etc. fluctuate. Consider the effects of disturbances. Therefore, when calculating the objective function value J (t), a normal random number N (0, σ) is given. In this simulation, the simulation is performed with three patterns of σ = 0, σ = 0.5, and σ = 1. If the disturbance is σ = 0, the flow is switched to pacing ON one by one, and the increase / decrease of the objective function value is checked each time. If the objective function value increases, the pacing is kept ON and the objective function value is If it decreases, by returning to pacing OFF, the global optimal solution (= maximizing the objective function value) can be reached without fail at 10,000 times.

The pacing ON / OFF control method of FIG. 4 described in the present embodiment and the method of controlling the communication flow one by one (hereinafter referred to as a comparison method) are compared and evaluated for an increase in the objective function. In this simulation, parameters in the pacing ON / OFF control in FIG. 4 are set to n = 20, k = 1, and a = 1. FIG. 6A shows the simulation result when the disturbance is σ = 0, FIG. 6B shows the simulation result when σ = 0.5, and FIG. 6C shows the simulation result when σ = 1. Shown in Here, the horizontal axis of FIG. 6 is the number of ON / OFF control executions, and the vertical axis is the objective function value. Further, the solid line is the pacing ON / OFF control method according to the present embodiment, and the broken line is the comparison method.

First, the simulation result when the disturbance is σ = 0 will be described. As shown in FIG. 6A, when there is no disturbance, the comparison method can increase the objective function reliably by switching the pacing of each communication flow one by one as described above. it can. Therefore, as shown by the broken line in FIG. 6A, the objective function value can be increased almost linearly, and the maximum value of the objective function is reached after 10,000 times. On the other hand, in the pacing ON / OFF control method according to the present embodiment, a plurality of communication flows (in this case, 20 communication flows) are set as ON / OFF switching candidates at the same time, and the ON / OFF switching is controlled stochastically. Therefore, the optimal solution is not reached even after 10,000 trials. However, since ON / OFF control is simultaneously performed for a plurality of communication flows, the objective function increase rate at the initial stage of the trial start is higher in the method of the present invention.

Next, the simulation result when the disturbance is σ = 0.5 will be described. When a disturbance is included, as shown by the broken line in FIG. 6B, the comparison method cannot increase the objective function in the same manner as when there is no disturbance. This is because there is a case where the decrease amount of the objective function value due to the disturbance is larger than the increase amount of the objective function value when pacing is turned on for one communication flow. At this time, the ON / OFF control is erroneously performed. It is. The same applies when the objective function value increase amount due to disturbance is larger than the objective function value decrease amount when pacing is turned on for one communication flow. On the other hand, in the method according to the present embodiment, since a plurality of communication flows are switched ON / OFF simultaneously, the increase / decrease amount of the objective function value due to the ON / OFF becomes larger than the increase / decrease amount of the objective function value due to the disturbance. The possibility increases. As a result, the determination in step 4 of the method of the present embodiment can be performed accurately. Further, by simultaneously pacing a plurality of communication flows, the increase speed of the objective function value at the initial stage is fast.

Finally, the simulation results when the disturbance is σ = 1 will be described. At this time, as shown by the broken line in FIG. 6C, it is difficult to increase the objective function value by the comparison method. This is because the probability that the increase / decrease amount of the objective function value due to the disturbance is greater than the increase / decrease amount of the objective function value due to one communication flow. On the other hand, with the method according to the present embodiment, the objective function value can be reliably increased even when σ = 1. From this simulation result, it was shown that the method according to the present embodiment is a highly robust method.

As described above, in the communication system 700 according to the present embodiment, the communication flow relay device 100 randomly selects n communication flows from the communication flow G to be transferred such as video streaming, and the objective function increases. In addition, pacing control corresponding to points is simultaneously performed for n communication flows. By performing pacing control according to points simultaneously on n communication flows, the amount of change in the objective function value due to pacing control can be made larger than the amount of change in the objective function value due to disturbance. Therefore, the communication flow relay device 100 according to the present embodiment improves the quality of experience of the entire user connected to the mobile network and the communication resources while taking into consideration the influence of disturbance such as increase / decrease of the communication flow and fluctuation of the communication environment. It is possible to achieve both improvement in the utilization rate.

The invention of the present application is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and any design change or the like within a range not departing from the gist of the invention is included in the invention.

This application claims priority based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2015-123781 filed on June 19, 2015, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Communication flow relay apparatus 20 Communication flow receiving means 30 Pacing control means 40 Communication flow transfer means 100 Communication flow relay apparatus 101 Communication flow receiving part 102 Communication flow transfer part 103 Experience quality calculation part 104 Pacing control part 200 Base station 300 Terminal 400 Internet 500 Mobile Core Network 600 Mobile Access Network 700 Communication System

Claims

A communication flow receiving means for receiving a plurality of communication flows;
Whether n communication flows are periodically selected from the plurality of communication flows, and each time n communication flows are selected, whether or not a transfer rate limit is set for each of the selected n communication flows Pacing control means to determine simultaneously;
A communication flow transfer means for transferring the plurality of received communication flows to an external terminal based on the determination;
A communication flow relay device comprising:
The communication flow relay apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pacing control unit probabilistically determines whether a transfer rate restriction is provided for each of the selected n communication flows.
The pacing control means includes
Each time n communication flows are selected, n random numbers, which are uniform random numbers from α to β, are generated.
N output values when the selected n communication flow points are input to a monotonically increasing function that outputs (α, (α + β) / 2, β) when (−∞, 0, ∞); Each of the generated n random values is compared,
If the output value is greater than or equal to the random value, transfer rate restriction is provided, and if the output value is smaller than the random value, no transfer rate restriction is provided.
The communication flow relay device according to claim 2.
Further comprising bodily sensation quality calculating means for calculating the bodily sensation quality of each of the plurality of received communication flows and outputting the sum thereof,
The communication flow transfer means further obtains the transfer rates of the received plurality of communication flows, respectively, and outputs the sum as a sum of communication traffic,
The pacing control means changes the points of the n communication flows so that the sum of the output communication traffic sum and the output experience quality sum increases.
The communication flow relay device according to claim 3.
When the quality of experience is q g and the transfer rate is x g (g = 1, 2,..., G: G is the total number of received communication flows),
The pacing control means calculates an objective function value J (t) that is the sum of a monotonically increasing function for Σ g q g (t) and a monotonically increasing function for Σ g x g (t) Changing the points of the n communication flows so that the objective function value J (t) increases;
The communication flow relay device according to claim 4.
The pacing control means includes
An average value of the objective function value J (t) is calculated at a predetermined time interval τ,
When the new average value increases with respect to the previous average value, the communication flow point with the newly added transfer rate limit is added and the communication flow point with the newly deleted transfer rate limit is deducted,
When the new average value decreases with respect to the previous average value, the points of the communication flow in which the transfer rate restriction is newly provided are deducted and the points of the communication flow in which the transfer rate restriction is newly deleted are added,
The communication flow relay device according to claim 5.
The communication flow relay device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the received communication flow is transferred to an external terminal;
An external terminal that receives and consumes the transferred communication flow;
A communication system comprising:
The communication flow relay device is arranged in a mobile core network,
The external terminal is located in a mobile access network;
The communication flow relay device transfers the communication flow to an external terminal via a base station that mediates the mobile core network and the mobile access network.
The communication system according to claim 7.
Receive multiple communication flows,
Whether n communication flows are periodically selected from the plurality of communication flows, and each time n communication flows are selected, whether or not a transfer rate limit is set for each of the selected n communication flows Decide at the same time,
Based on the determination, forwarding the received plurality of communication flows to an external terminal;
Communication flow relay method.