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AssigneeTelefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)
InventorsBengt Henriques, Lars Westberg
Estimating the term…
A data packet network comprises a policer module (17) metering the flow in a metering unit (49) and deciding in a decision unit (43) whether arrived packets are to be transmitted or discarded. The flow of transmitted packets is metered by a sliding window procedure having a fixed window length to meter the flow of the data packets. The sliding window is divided in a plurality of subwindows of equal length and the sliding window moves by steps corresponding to the length of the subwindows. For each subwindow and for the sliding window counts of transmitted and/or discarded bytes and/or packets are determined and stored in memory cells (CSW; C1, . . . , CN). For an arrived packet the counts of the current subwindow are compared to a maximum value obtained from the counts of the sliding window and an absolute maximum value, and based on the result of the comparison, the decision means will transmit or discard the packet. The policer module can also perform soft policing in the case where the packets belong to different traffic classes. Then individual sliding windows having subwindows are used for each traffic class and the counts are calculated for each class. The comparison is in that case made based on a value of the total aggregated flow of packets from the module compared to some maximum value indicating a congestion state. The sliding window procedure using subwindows meters the flow efficiently and is especially useful for allocating transmission resources for traffic of different priorities.
A method of transmitting arrived data packets, the method including the use of a sliding window having a fixed length to meter the flow of data packets, an arrived data packet being transmitted or discarded based on the metered flow, characterized in that the sliding window is divided into a plurality of subwindows of equal length including a current subwindow and an oldest subwindow, that counts of transmitted and/or discarded bytes and/or packets are determined for the sliding window and the subwindows, and that a data packet is transmitted or discarded based on the count/s/ both for the current subwindow and for the sliding window.
A policer module for transmitting or discarding arrived data packets, the module including metering means executing a sliding window procedure having a fixed window length to meter the flow of data packets, and further including decision means connected to the metering means to decide whether an arrived data packet is to be transmitted or discarded based on the metered flow, characterized in that the metering means comprise counting means for determining counts of transmitted and/or discarded bytes and/or packets of the sliding window and for a plurality of subwindows of the sliding window, the subwindows having equal length and including a current subwindow and an oldest subwindow, and comparing means for comparing the count/s/ of the current subwindow to a maximum value obtained from the count/s/ of the sliding window and an absolute maximum value, the decision means arranged to transmit or discard an arrived data packet based on the result of the comparing.
A data packet network comprises a policer module for transmitting or discarding arrived data packets, the module including metering means executing a sliding window procedure having a fixed window length to meter the flow of data packets, and further including decision means connected to the metering means to decide whether an arrived data packet is to be transmitted or discarded based on the metered flow, characterized in that the metering means comprise counting means for determining counts of transmitted and/or discarded bytes and/or packets of the sliding window and for a plurality of subwindows of the sliding window, the subwindows having equal length and including a current subwindow and an oldest subwindow, and comparing means for comparing the count/s/ of the current subwindow to a maximum value obtained from the count/s/ of the sliding window and an absolute maximum value, the decision means arranged to transmit or discard an arrived data packet based on the result of the comparing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.