Congestion buffer control in wireless networks

A network device comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more memories, coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more memories storing instructions, that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
• receive a packet associated with a quality of service priority class and with a connection to a user device, wherein the network device includes an output queue associated with the priority class of the packet and wherein the output queue is congested;
• determine, in response to the output queue being congested, whether the connection associated with the packet is a guaranteed bit rate (GBR) connection;
• determine whether a usage rate of the connection associated with the packet is greater than a maximum bit rate for the connection;
• drop the packet or downgrade the priority class of the packet when the connection associated with the packet is determined to be a GBR connection and the usage rate of the GBR connection associated with the packet is determined to be greater than the maximum bit rate for the GBR connection;
• delay the packet or downgrade the priority class of the packet when the connection associated with the packet is determined to not be a guaranteed bit rate connection and the usage rate of the connection associated with the packet is determined to be greater than the maximum bit rate for the connection;
• drop other packets in lower priority classes or downgrade the priority class of the packet when the connection associated with the packet is determined to be a GBR connection and the usage rate of the GBR connection associated with the packet is determined to be less than the maximum bit rate for the connection;
• delay the packet or downgrade the priority class of the packet when the connection associated with the packet is determined to not be a guaranteed bit rate connection and the usage rate of the connection associated with the packet is determined to be less than the maximum bit rate for the connection;
• and
• delay the packet or downgrade the priority class of the packet, when the connection associated with the packet is determined to not be a guaranteed bit rate connection and the usage rate of the connection associated with the packet is determined to be greater than the maximum bit rate for the connection, based on whether an aggregate usage of all connections to the user device is less than a maximum allowed aggregate usage.

A device comprising:

• one or more processors to receive a packet associated with a quality of service priority class and with a connection to a user device, wherein the network device includes an output queue associated with the priority class of the packet and where the output queue is congested;
• one or more processors to determine whether the connection associated with the packet is a guaranteed bit rate (GBR) connection;
• one or more processors to queue the packet according to a first action policy function when the connection associated with the packet is a GBR connection, wherein the first action policy function includes:
• determining whether resources are available for other priority classes,
• queuing, responsive to determining that the resources are available, the packet to a queue associated with one of the other priority classes, and
• dropping, responsive to determining that the resources are not available, the packet when a usage rate of the GBR connection to the user device is greater than a maximum bit rate value defined for the GBR connection;
• and
• one or more processors to queue the packet according to a second action policy function when the connection associated with the packet is not a guaranteed bit rate connection, where the first action policy function is different than the second action policy function,
• wherein the second action policy function includes, when a usage rate of the connection to the user device is greater than a maximum bit rate value defined for the connection:
• determining whether an aggregate usage rate for connections with the user device is greater than a maximum aggregate allowed usage rate, and
• delaying the packet when the aggregate usage rate for the connections with the user device is greater than the maximum aggregate allowed usage rate.