Communication process with classification and prioritization and associated device

Abstract

Communication method with classification and prioritization and associated device The present invention relates to a communication method, comprising a transmission phase comprising the following steps: - providing packets to an exchange module, each packet comprising a classification field and being associated with a grouping, - providing a prioritization module (14) with a prioritization context and a network metric, the prioritization context associating an operational weight with each grouping, - determining by the prioritization module (14) a prioritized classification for each grouping as a function of the operational weight and the network metric, - for each grouping, for each packet associated with said grouping, assigning to the classification field a value corresponding to the prioritized classification of the grouping, and - transmitting the plurality of packets with the assigned classification field.The invention further relates to an associated device. Figure 1.

Claims

Claims

1. A method of communication between an electronic transmitting device (10) and an electronic receiving device, the electronic transmitting device and the electronic receiving device being part of a network, the method comprising a transmitting phase implemented by the electronic transmitting device, the transmitting phase comprising the following steps: - providing a plurality of packets (210) to an exchange module (12), each packet comprising a classification field, each packet being associated with a grouping, - providing a prioritization module (14) with a prioritization context and at least one network metric (212), the prioritization context associating an operational weight with each grouping, - determining by the prioritization module (14) a prioritized classification for each grouping as a function of the operational weight of said grouping and the at least one network metric (216),the prioritized classification corresponding to a class of service, - supply by the prioritization module (14) to the exchange module (12) of the prioritized classification for the different grouping(s) (216), each prioritized classification being associated with a respective classification field value, - for each grouping, for each packet associated with said grouping, assignment to the classification field the classification field value corresponding to the prioritized classification of the grouping (218), and - transmission of the plurality of packets (220) with the classification field assigned by a transmission module (16).,

2. A communication method according to claim 1, comprising a receiving phase implemented by the receiving electronic device, the receiving phase comprising the reception by the receiving electronic device of the plurality of transmitted packets.

3. A communication method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein each of the service classes has a respective authorized bandwidth, the at least one network metric comprising at least one routing metric of the effective bandwidth for each of the service classes.

4. Communication method according to claim 3, wherein the at least one network metric comprises the respective occupied bandwidth for each class of service, the step of determining the prioritized classification comprising, for at least one class of service, the comparison of the at least one respective occupied bandwidth to a threshold, and, in the case where the at least one respective occupied bandwidth is strictly greater than the threshold, comprises a reassignment by the prioritization module to a prioritized classification of at least one grouping for which the classification of an initial prioritization corresponds to said class of service, called reassigned grouping.

5. Communication method according to claim 4, in which the prioritized classification has a priority strictly lower than the classification of the initial prioritization, the transmission phase comprising a step of comparing the operational weights of each of the groupings for which the classification of the initial prioritization corresponds to said class of service before the reallocation step, the grouping having the lowest operational weight of all the groupings for which the classification of the initial prioritization corresponds to said class of service being selected as the at least one reassigned grouping.

6. The communication method of claim 5, wherein, if, in the step of comparing operational weights, a plurality of clusters have the lowest operational weight, the reallocated cluster is the lowest operational weight cluster that occupies the least bandwidth over a time window.

7. Communication method according to claim 5 or 6, in which at least one operational weight is associated with a minimum priority requirement, the transmission phase comprising a step of verifying the existence of a minimum priority requirement for the least important operational weight, and if applicable, a step of comparing the priority of the prioritized classification with the priority of the minimum requirement of the least important operational weight, the reallocation step being implemented only if the priority of the prioritized classification is greater than or equal to the priority of the minimum requirement of the least important operational weight.

8. Communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the electronic transmission device (10) comprises a measuring probe (18) adapted to measure the quantity of data transmitted from the exchange module (12) to the transmission module (16) for each class of service, the determination by the prioritization module (14) of the prioritized classification for each grouping being further carried out as a function of the quantity measured by the measuring probe (18).

9. A communication method according to claim 8 when dependent on any one of claims 4 to 7, wherein the threshold is equal to a respective maximum threshold of said class of service from which the quantity of data measured by the measuring probe (18) is subtracted.

10. A communication method according to claim 9, wherein, for each class of service, the respective maximum threshold is equal to a given portion of the respective authorized bandwidth, the given portion being identical for all classes of service.

11. Communication method according to any one of claims 4 to 10 wherein the step of determining the prioritized classification comprises, for at least one class of service, the comparison of the at least one respective occupied bandwidth with a respective minimum threshold of the class of service, and, in the case where the at least one respective occupied bandwidth is strictly lower than the respective minimum threshold of the class of service, a reallocation by the prioritization module to the prioritized classification corresponding to said class of service of at least one grouping having a classification not corresponding to said class of service.

12. Communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, in which each classification field is included in the header of the corresponding packet, more particularly in the field called “Differentiated Services Code Point” or DSCP for differentiated services code point in French.

13. Electronic transmission device comprising an exchange module (12), a prioritization module (14) and a transmission module (16), the electronic transmission device being capable of implementing a transmission phase comprising the following steps: - providing a plurality of packets to the exchange module (12), each packet comprising a classification field, each packet being associated with a grouping, - providing the prioritization module (14) with a prioritization context and at least one network metric, the prioritization context associating an operational weight with each grouping, - determining by the prioritization module (14) a prioritized classification for each grouping as a function of the operational weight of said grouping and of the at least one network metric, the prioritized classification corresponding to a class of service, - providing by the prioritization module (14) to the exchange module (12) the prioritized classification for the different grouping(s), each prioritized classification being associated with a respective classification field value, - for each grouping, for each packet associated with said grouping,assigning to the classification field a classification field value corresponding to the prioritized classification of the grouping, and - transmitting the plurality of packets with the classification field assigned by the transmitting module (16).,

14. Method of communication between a plurality of electronic devices capable of communicating with each other by a communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, at least one of the electronic devices being capable of implementing the transmission phase, the prioritization modules of the electronic devices being capable of communicating with each other.

15. Communication method according to claim 14, in which the prioritization modules of the electronic devices are able to communicate with each other via one of the prioritization modules, called the coordinating prioritization module.

16. A communication method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the prioritization contexts of each of the prioritization modules of the electronic devices are identical.

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