Relay method, relay device, communication system, and computer program

Abstract

The present invention enables accurate simulation of the state of communication over a communication network in which a communication channel of different communication characteristic is set for each protocol and session, such as a VoIP network built in a multi-vendor environment, and evaluation of communication quality of communications between IP phones, etc. over a supposed communication network. A relay device for relaying packet communications between a plurality of communication devices is used, and the relay device sets a virtual processing unit as an initial process so that it corresponds to the packet transmission direction and / or attribute, based on the contents of a received packet specified by a control protocol, and relays communications of packets after the initial process, based on the packet loss rate and delay time distribution indicated by communication state information associated with the processing unit.

Description

[0001]The present application is a continuation of PCT International Application No. PCT / JP2005 / 000411 which has an International filing date of Jan. 14, 2005 and designated the United States of America and a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 826,460, filed Jul. 16, 2007 in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the contents of both are incorporated herein by reference and priority to which is claimed.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The present invention relates to a relay method for relaying packet communications between a plurality of communication devices; a relay device adopting the relay method; a communication system comprising the relay device; and a computer program for realizing the relay device, and more particularly relates to a relay method, a relay device, a communication system and a computer program for use in simulating the communication state of real-time communications such as IP telephony.BACKGROUND ART[0003]In recent years, there is an increasing use of rea...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a relay method and device for accurately reproducing and evaluating the communication state of packets in a VoIP network. The relay method and device use different processing units for different communication channels, such as signaling and media, to accurately simulate and evaluate the communication state over a communication network in which a communication channel is set for each session. The relay method and device also take into account the influence of conversion processes on the communication quality, such as encoding and decoding. The technical effects of the invention include the ability to accurately reproduce and evaluate the communication state of a VoIP network, and the ability to set processing units for each communication channel to accurately simulate and evaluate the communication state.

Problems solved by technology

However, in the VoIP network, although signaling transmitted by a protocol such as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and media such as video data and audio data transmitted by a protocol such as RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) pass through different communication channels according to the types and there is often a difference in the characteristics between the up-direction and down-direction communication channels, a conventional method performs the process relating to the reproduction of the communication state under a single condition, and therefore there is a problem that it is difficult to accurately reproduce and evaluate the state of communication using a different communication channel for each session, such as signaling and media type.

Moreover, there is a problem that, although conversion such as encoding and decoding is performed for the communication of audio data over the VoIP network, the influence of the conversion on the communication quality is not taken into consideration.

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