Routing quality-of-service traffic in a wireless system
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsHamid Mahmood, William Gage
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a packet-based wireless access network, packet route selection is made in a terminal which communicates with the network via a wireless link. The route selection process uses information provided by the network relating to links in the network, and information available in the terminal relating to its wireless link to the network. Consequently the selected route may be via a wireless link between the terminal and a network node that does not provide the best signal strength but has the best prospect of providing a required Quality-of-Service (QoS) for a traffic flow. Monitoring enables the terminal to update the route selection to maintain the required QoS, despite changing conditions and handover, without a need for signalling messages.
Claims26
A method of routing packets from a wireless communications terminal, comprising the steps of, in the terminal:
- receiving, via a respective wireless link from at least one of a plurality of wireless access nodes forming a network, network information relating to links between the nodes;
- selecting a multi-node route via the network for packets from the terminal in dependence upon the network information and information dependent upon wireless communications between the terminal and at least one of the nodes;
- supplying packets with route information relating to the selected multi-node route, wherein the route information defines each of the nodes along the selected multi-node route;
- and
- receiving and monitoring network information to determine a status of the selected multi-node route and, selectively in dependence upon the determined status indicating that a value of at least one parameter of the network information has crossed a route re-computation threshold, selecting a new multi-node route via the network for packets from the terminal, wherein the selecting the new multi-node route is performed at a time when the selected multi-node route is available to route packets from the terminal to the network and wherein the selecting the new multi-node route is performed autonomously in the terminal without any co-ordination with the nodes of the network.
A method of routing packets from a wireless communications terminal via nodes of a network having wireless communications links between the nodes, comprising the steps of:
- supplying network information, relating to links between the nodes, from at least one node to the terminal;
- in the terminal, selecting a multi-node route via the network for packets from the terminal in dependence upon the network information and information dependent upon wireless communications between the terminal and at least one of the nodes;
- in the terminal, supplying packets with route information relating to the selected multi-node route, wherein the route information defines each of the nodes along the selected multi-node route;
- communicating packets from the terminal via the selected multi-node route via the nodes of the network in dependence upon the information in the packets relating to the selected multi-node route;
- and
- in the terminal, monitoring network information to determine a status of the selected multi-node route and, selectively in dependence upon the determined status indicating that a value of at least one parameter of the network information has crossed a route re-computation threshold, selecting a new multi-node route via the network for packets from the terminal, wherein the selecting the new multi-node route is performed at a time when the selected multi-node route is available to route packets from the terminal to the network and wherein the selecting the new multi-node route is performed autonomously in the terminal without any co-ordination with the nodes of the network.
A method of routing packets from a wireless communications terminal, comprising the steps of, in the terminal:
- receiving, via a respective wireless link from at least one of a plurality of wireless access nodes forming a network, network information relating to links between the nodes;
- selecting a multi-node route via the network for packets from the terminal in dependence upon at least one Quality-of-Service parameter for said packets, the network information, and information dependent upon wireless communications between the terminal and at least one of the nodes;
- supplying packets with route information relating to the selected multi-node route, wherein the route information defines each of the nodes along the selected multi-node route;
- and
- receiving and monitoring network information to determine a status of the selected multi-node route and, selectively in dependence upon the determined status indicating that a value of at least one parameter of the network information has crossed a route re-computation threshold, selecting a new multi-node route via the network for packets from the terminal, wherein the selecting the new multi-node route is performed at a time when the selected multi-node route is available to route packets from the terminal to the network and wherein the selecting the new multi-node route is performed autonomously in the terminal without any co-ordination with the nodes of the network.
A method of routing packets from a wireless communications terminal via nodes of a network having wireless communications links between the nodes, comprising the steps of:
- supplying network information, relating to links between the nodes, from at least one node to the terminal;
- in the terminal, selecting a multi-node route via the network for packets from the terminal in dependence upon at least one Quality-of-Service parameter for said packets, the network information, and information dependent upon wireless communications between the terminal and at least one of the nodes;
- in the terminal, supplying packets with route information relating to the selected multi-node route, wherein the route information defines each of the nodes along the selected multi-node route;
- communicating packets from the terminal via the selected multi-node route via the nodes of the network in dependence the information in the packets relating to the selected multi-node route;
- and
- in the terminal, receiving and monitoring network information to determine a status of the selected multi-node route and, selectively in dependence upon the determined status indicating that a value of at least one parameter of the network information has crossed a route re-computation threshold, selecting a new multi-node route via the network for packets from the terminal, wherein the selecting the new multi-node route is performed at a time when the selected multi-node route is available to route packets from the terminal to the network and wherein the selecting the new multi-node route is performed autonomously in the terminal without any co-ordination with the nodes of the network.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.