Network traffic regulation
AssigneeAT&T Corp.
InventorsXiaolin Lu, Xiaoxin Qiu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention provides a traffic regulation technique for media that functions within access protocols by making a percentage of total communication capacity of the media unavailable to end-users as reserve capacity. This reserve capacity is released when appropriate to regulate network traffic. Thus, the traffic regulation technique regulates the traffic by adjusting the percentage of reserve capacity. The reserve capacity may be targeted to a specific type of traffic. In this way, the traffic of the communication system 10 may be regulated so that desired quality of service may be provided for specific end users.
Claims18
A method for regulating traffic in a network, the network including media access protocols having contention signals used to indicate that a particular user seeks access to the network, the method comprising:
- making unavailable an amount of network transmission capacity as reserve capacity, by blocking end-users from gaining access to the network by asserting the contention signal in a channel of the network, while no particular user seeks access to the media;
- and
- adjusting the amount of reserve capacity based on a desired network performance.
A network traffic regulation system, comprising:
- a network that includes media;
- said media having at least one protocol including a contention signal used to indicate that a particular user seeks access to the media;
- media access controllers (MACs);
- each of the MACs controlling one of more media of the network, each of the MACs
- (1) making unavailable an amount of media transmission capacity as reserve capacity, by blocking end-users from gaining access to the network by asserting the contention signal in a channel of the media controlled by each of the MACs, while no particular user seeks access to the media, and
- (2) adjusting the amount of reserve capacity based on a desired network performance.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.