Technique for limiting network congestion

A method of regulating use of an Internet Protocol packet switched data network, comprising:

• establishing a predetermined number of logical channels between two points of the network having different processing priorities;
• associating a different per byte usage cost with each of said logical channels;
• designating each of said logical channels by a unique channel designation;
• presenting the option of selecting a logical channel from the predetermined number of logical channels to a plurality of network users;
• receiving packet data from one of the plurality of network users, a header field for each packet including a channel selection value identifying a unique channel designation;
• identifying at least one of said logical channels as a constant bit rate channel;
• limiting a number of said packets to which a channel selection value corresponding to the unique channel designation for said constant bit rate channel may be assigned;
• transmitting each said packet in accordance with said processing priority;
• estimating a number of bytes received over the identified logical channel on behalf of a network user according to statistical sampling techniques;
• and
• applying a charge to each network user for the number of bytes received from the network user in accordance with said per byte usage cost associated with said logical channel.

A regulated packet switched communications network path, between two points of the network, for use with data packets having header information including channel selection information, comprising:

• a predetermined number of channels having substantially equal bandwith and a different per byte usage cost associated with each of said channels;
• a channel selector monitoring cost-based channel selection information and allocating each incoming data packet from a network user to a channel in accordance with said cost-based channel selection information;
• and
• a usage monitor associated with each of said channels estimating a number of bytes communicated across each said channel on behalf of a network user according to statistical sampling techniques and applying a charge to each network user based on the estimated number of bytes and the per byte usage cost.

A method of limiting congestion in an Internet Protocol packet switched data network path between two points of the network, comprising:

• partitioning the data network path into a predetermined number of logical channels having substantially equal bandwidth;
• associating a different per byte usage cost with each of said logical channels;
• designating each of said logical channels by a unique channel designation;
• presenting the option of selecting a logical channel from the predetermined number of logical channels to a plurality of network users;
• receiving packet data from the plurality of network users, a header field for each packet including a channel selection value identifying a unique channel designation;
• identifying at least one of said logical channels as a constant bit rate channel;
• limiting a number of said packets to which a channel selection value corresponding to the unique channel designation for said constant bit rate channel may be assigned;
• transmitting each said packet across said logical channel designated by said unique channel designation corresponding to said assigned channel selection value;
• estimating a number of bytes switched across each of said channels on behalf of a network user according to statistical sampling techniques;
• and
• applying a charge to each network user for the number of bytes received from the network user and communicated across each logical channel in accordance with the per byte usage cost associated with each said logical channel.

A network utilization method, comprising:

• establishing a predetermined number of logical channels between two points of a data network, each logical channel having substantially equal bandwidth and an associated per packet usage cost that is different than the per packet usage costs of the other logical channels;
• presenting the option of selecting a logical channel from the predetermined number of logical channels to a plurality of network users;
• receiving a plurality of data sets from said plurality of network users, wherein each data set identifies one of the logical channels;
• routing each data set over the identified logical channel;
• estimating a number of packets routed over each logical channel on behalf of each network user according to statistical sampling techniques;
• and
• applying a charge to each network user for the number of packets routed over each logical channel in accordance with said per packet usage cost associated with each logical channel.