Monitoring datagrams in a data network

Abstract

A communication session over a network is facilitated. A signaling datagram from a source device having a source identity may be intercepted by a network device, and a response datagram may be generated for instructing the source device to send a subsequent datagram to the network device. The signaling datagram may be forwarded to a SIP server, where the SIP server associates the source identity with the network device acting on behalf of the source device, and where the SIP server operates to connect a destination device with the source device to establish a communication session over the network. The subsequent datagram may be received from the source device, and the subsequent datagram may be made available to the destination device via the network.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]Implementations consistent with the principles of the invention relate generally to communication networks and, more particularly, to negotiating media flows in data communication networks.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Historically, voice-based telephone communications have been handled via dedicated networks, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN), while data communications have been handled via dedicated packet networks, such as Internet protocol (IP) networks. A current trend is to converge these two types of networks, where telephone voice traffic and other forms of real-time media are converted into digital form and carried by a packet data network along with other forms of data. These converged networks may offer many advantages, such as lower operating costs as compared to maintaining separate voice and data networks, greater flexibility regarding service offerings to customers, such as multimedia conferencing, and more efficient u...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention provides a network device that can intercept and process signaling data from a source device to establish a communication session with a destination device. The network device can apply quality-of-service to the data and forward information associated with the source device to a registrar, which directs a subsequent source device to send a subsequent datagram to the network device. The network device can also receive and process the subsequent datagram, which includes bearer data or signaling data, and apply QoS to the bearer data. The invention also provides a method for facilitating a communication session over a network by intercepting a signaling datagram, processing it, and forwarding it to a destination device. Overall, the invention enhances the efficiency and reliability of communication sessions over a network.

Problems solved by technology

For example, static data such as historical documents and / or still images accessed from a database may be insensitive to transmission delays.

In contrast, real-time streaming video and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) data may be very sensitive to transmission delays.

Transmission delays may be caused by insufficient bandwidth in network links, signal losses in the transmission path, propagation delays, processing delays, and / or queuing delays.

Employing heuristic prediction is computationally intensive because actual data traffic is being monitored and processed substantially on the fly.

In addition, heuristic prediction may not be very adaptable and / or accurate because the data used to make future resource allocation decisions has already gone by the router, and subsequent data may not be of the same type and / or pattern as the data that has already traversed the router.

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