123 results about "Bandwidth availability" patented technology

Cache management techniques are described for a content distribution network (CDN), for example, a video on demand (VOD) system supporting user requests and delivery of video content. A preferred cache size may be calculated for one or more cache devices in the CDN, for example, based on a maximum cache memory size, a bandwidth availability associated with the CDN, and a title dispersion calculation determined by the user requests within the CDN. After establishing the cache with a set of assets (e.g., video content), an asset replacement algorithm may be executed at one or more cache devices in the CDN. When a determination is made that a new asset should be added to a full cache, a multi-factor comparative analysis may be performed on the assets currently residing in the cache, comparing the popularity and size of assets and combinations of assets, along with other factors to determine which assets should be replaced in the cache device.

An architecture for quality-of-service (QoS) management creates a logical circuit-switched network within a packet network to support QoS-sensitive demands levied on the network. This QoS-managed network can serve to interwork, e.g., a PSTN with VoIP networks. The architecture can include a connection resource manager (CRM), which oversees bandwidth availability and demand admission / rejection on dynamically provisioned virtual trunk groups (VTGs) within the packet network, and a transport bandwidth controller (TBC). The VTGs serve to transport QoS-sensitive demands across the packet network. The TBC serves the CRM by providing an interface to routers and / or OAM systems of the packet network to size VTGs to meet QoS requirements. Media switches located at the packet network borders serve to mux / demux the demands into / from VTGs. CRMs and TBCs can be implemented as centralized, distributed, or hierarchical, and flat and aggregated variants of the architecture are supported. VTGs can be implemented using MPLS LSPs, VPNs, or source-based routing.

A border gateway protocol (BGP) management system (10) dynamically determines an optimum or preferred data route (12) from wireline networks (18) into a satellite communication system (11). Multiple gateways (16, 30-34) provide access points to the wireline networks. The management system includes a connectivity matrix which processes (74) information, such as bandwidth availability and route congestion, and then generate a BGP update that is communicated (80) into at least one of the gateways. The BGP update promotes preferred gateways and so identifies a preferred access path to the satellite system. Specifically, the BGP update instruction contains a metric altering a weighting of an identified route data route, which metric effects path selection at a gateway receiving IP datagrams. The metric is derived from information pertaining to a connectivity matrix associated with the satellite system.

Methods for testing network bandwidth availability in a non-intrusive manner. By implementing occasional, base-line bandwidth testing, a more accurate indication of actual transfer rate results. When an application dependent upon network bandwidth is first executed, a series of file transfers takes place utilizing a series of different sized pieces of content.

A gateway device configured to receive IP video content may select and use transmission methods that maintain a certain quality of service for delivering the content. A transmission method may be selected based on a network to which the client device is connected. The gateway device may select a network through which the content is to be delivered depending on a variety of factors including bandwidth availability, client compatibility, quality of service provided and the like. A gateway device may further be configured to convert multicast transmissions to unicast, to provide dynamic storage of content for pre-positioning and other purposes and / or to provide other functions.

An apparatus and a method for multimedia data handling to a web or cloud-computing service are disclosed. A set-top box can generate a pre-encoded stream of digitized data after receiving a raw incoming multimedia signal or after receiving a pre-processed, decoded, decompressed, and / or decrypted incoming multimedia signal from a service provider-specific signal receiver. The set-top box can also generate streams of encoded multimedia data from the pre-encoded stream of digitized data and segmentize the streams of encoded multimedia data into individually-viewable segments for uploading to the web or cloud-computing service, wherein a size of each segment varies based on a current connection bandwidth availability and / or a workload on the set-top box. By automatically segmentizing the streams of encoded multimedia data into individually-viewable segments for the web or cloud-computing service, a user can start viewing the currently-uploading multimedia data faster than a conventional single stream upload.

In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for selective website vulnerability and infection testing and intelligently paced rigorous direct website testing. By providing robust website content integrity checking while only lightly loading the website hosting server, visitor bandwidth availability is maintained through selective testing and intelligently paced external website exercising. A modular pod-based computing architecture of interconnected severs configured with a sharded database facilitates selective website testing and intelligent direct website test pacing while providing scalability to support large numbers of website testing subscribers.

A method for monitoring a wireless channel or wireless network. Preferably, the method and system monitors a web-based network. Active data probing is used to estimate bandwidth availability when no a-priori knowledge of the current channel or network condition is available, and passive monitoring is used to track ongoing web traffic in estimating the current bandwidth available. Data probes are selected that are dynamically customized based on application requirements and the network variability observed in view of a balancing between accuracy of the bandwidth estimation and the potential overhead in terms of time consumed and additional traffic used. In this way, under specified limits of overhead, the active probing attempts to achieve best-effort network bandwidth estimation, and the passive monitoring tracks ongoing web traffic in estimating the current bandwidth available.

Methods and apparatus are provided for managing a data packet queue corresponding to a resource of a network device. A token count TC is maintained for a predefined flow of data packets, and the transmission of packets in the flow into the queue is controlled in dependence on this token count. The token count is decremented when packets in the flow are transmitted into the queue, and the token count is incremented at a token increment rate C. A bandwidth indicator, indicative of bandwidth availability in the resource, is monitored, and the token increment rate C is varied in dependence on this bandwidth indicator. The bandwidth-dependent variation of the token increment rate C is such that, when available bandwidth is indicated, the increment rate C is increased, and when no available bandwidth is indicated the increment rate C is decreased.

The invention discloses a bandwidth allocation method and a device thereof. The invention comprises the following steps that a bandwidth allocation state threshold value including a bandwidth availability threshold value is arranged; a current bandwidth allocation state including current bandwidth availability is determined; the bandwidth adjustment is performed according to the current bandwidth allocation state, to judge whether the current bandwidth availability exceeds the bandwidth availability threshold value, if exceeding the bandwidth availability threshold value and having a large bandwidth user, the bandwidth allocation of the large bandwidth user is reduced; after the bandwidth degression treatment to the large bandwidth user is performed or the large bandwidth user is not available, if the current bandwidth availability still exceeds the bandwidth availability threshold value, the bandwidth adjustment is stopped; if the current bandwidth availability does not exceed the bandwidth availability threshold value, the user bandwidth allocation with actual flow rate exceeding the current bandwidth allocation is improved. The use of the method can improve the bandwidth availability of a computer network, and can obviously improve the rationality of the bandwidth allocation under the condition of particularly applying in enterprises, network bars and other networks.

A method and apparatus for estimating an available backhaul bandwidth in a femto-cell communication network includes a step (204, 304) of sending at least one defined data stream to at least one femto-cell. A next step (206, 306) includes measuring a delay of the at least one defined data stream at the at least one femto-cell. A next step (208, 308) includes estimating, from the delay of the at least one defined data stream, a backhaul bandwidth availability.

An apparatus and a method for inserting and displaying one or more signals during processing and display delays encountered in digital STB-receivers, including those delays encountered during channel changes. Moreover, a means for increasing the channel change delay period, while maintaining subscriber satisfaction, and thereby freeing up bandwidth for other services, is provided. These signals can be advertisements, entertainment, or other messages. When a channel change request occurs on a digital set-top receiver, a local watchdog module detects the channel change event and causes to be generated a signal that is immediately displayed on the TV, while the MPEG-2 subsystem of the receiver acquires, stores, decodes and presents the new program to the television. Providing advertisements or entertainment during the delay period allows for increase in the delay period thus allowing for higher compression and increased availability of bandwidth.

A quality of service (QoS) based load-balancing scheme in network communication between a local area network (LAN) and a wireless local area network (WLAN) is provided. The load balancing decision is made by a load balancing module according to traffic conditions and bandwidth availability of each traffic priority class based on a corresponding class of service. The load balancing module also maps an identifier in the LAN to one or more identifiers (BSSIDs or SSIDs) in the WLAN for accommodating the communication between LAN and WLAN for maintaining the quality of service (QoS). The identifier in the LAN can be a VLAN tag at the LAN, or identity of the port, physical address of terminals including MAC address, Token Ring or etc. protocols, or Internet address (IP) according to LAN standards.

A method and apparatus for transparently transforming a multicast stream is provided. The method includes transforming the multicast stream in a content engine. The multicast stream has a first bandwidth. The content engine receives a request for the multicast stream from a multicast receiver with a second bandwidth availability. Thereafter, the content engine transforms the multicast stream to a multicast stream with a third bandwidth. The third bandwidth is less than or equal to the second bandwidth. The transformed multicast stream is sent to the multicast receiver.

Systems and methods for scheduling network communications in a managed network can include receiving in a Network Coordinator a submission from each of a plurality of network nodes requesting, for their respective flows, reservation of communication slots in a communication window, the submission including scheduling information such as latency tolerance maximum aggregation amount; the Network Coordinator checking available bandwidth in the communication window; and the Network Coordinator allocating the available bandwidth to a first flow from a first requesting node based on the first flow's scheduling information and the bandwidth availability, and deferring allocation of bandwidth to a second flow from a second requesting node until a later window based on the second flow's scheduling information and the bandwidth availability, thereby reallocating peak demand among the plurality of requesting nodes across a plurality of communication windows.

An embedded pattern-based adaptive equalizer coefficient updating mechanism updates weighting coefficients of an adaptive equalizer in accordance with an error or differential signal obtained by processing the distorted version of a known signal pattern, that is repetitively distributed among information signals contained within the electrical communication signal output from the equalizer, with a copy of the known signal pattern. No dedicated ‘training sequence’ communication with the transmitter is required, so that the coefficient update mechanism does not impact the operation or bandwidth availability of the channel.

Systems and methods for midstream determination of varying available bandwidth for streaming content between two network entities are described. During content streaming, a client requests a server to surge the content transmission rate. One or more bandwidth measurements are taken during the surge to determine if the increased transmission rate can be adequately managed. If the increased transmission rate can be adequately managed, the client may request the server to transmit remaining content at a transmission rate that is not greater than the increased, or surged, transmission rate. In a multi-bitrate file scenario, the surge rate may be higher than the rate of the fastest useable stream. In such a case, the fastest useable stream is selected. If the increased transmission rate is not suitable for future transmission, then the rate may remain at the original transmission rate.

Disclosed herein is a method for providing a user with an indication of availability of a service at a user terminal, the user terminal being connected to a gateway via a first communications link, and the gateway being connected to a service provider via a second communications link. The method includes determining a service bandwidth demand, a bandwidth availability, and a service priority; determining a service availability based on the service bandwidth demand, the bandwidth availability, and the service priority; and providing the user with an indication of the service availability.

A circuit is presented including switches connected to registers. The registers control the switches. The switches are connected to universal serial bus (USB) ports based on a USB device bandwidth balancing process. Also presented is a method determining allocation of USB root hubs. The method also switching USB root hub USB device assignments.

In subscriber units 0 to (N−1), a subscriber unit to be allocated to a bandwidth is defined as a subscriber unit K, where K is an integer from 0 to (N−1) inclusive. In a bandwidth allocating method, a free bandwidth in a communication channel ch(K−1) not used by the subscriber unit (K−1) is found, and a bandwidth requested by the subscriber unit K is allocated to the free bandwidth in the communication channel ch(K−1). A free bandwidth in the communication channel chK is found on the basis of a residual bandwidth requested by the subscriber unit K not allocated to the bandwidth in the communication channel ch(K−1), and the residual bandwidth requested by the subscriber unit K is allocated to the found free bandwidth in the communication channel chK. The operation is repeated for the subscriber units 0 to (K−1) and (K+1) to (N−1).

Disclosed herein is a method for providing a user with an indication of availability of a service at a user terminal, the user terminal being connected to a gateway via a first communications link, and the gateway being connected to a service provider via a second communications link. The method includes determining a service bandwidth demand, a bandwidth availability, and a service priority; determining a service availability based on the service bandwidth demand, the bandwidth availability, and the service priority; and providing the user with an indication of the service availability.

A private access point may be utilized to establish a local network that is accessible by client devices when the client devices are communicatively coupled to the private access point. The private access point is then operable to determine services that may be provided in its local network to the client devices, and to advertise these services within its local network. The services comprise network and / or data accessibility, and bandwidth availability. Private access points are also operable to utilize local and / or remote resources to provide additional services, comprising audio / video processing capability, storage, and / or processing. Offering of services in private access point networks is incentivized to the private access points and / or to client devices. Incentives comprise offering pay and / or credit to the private access points. Providing access to, blocking, limiting and / or modifying available / offered services is managed in private access point networks, based on incentives and / or availability of resources.

In an embodiment of the invention the Network Operator (NO) manages the available bandwidth of the digital broadcast network in time-dependent manner. The NO announces the available bandwidth to the datacast operator (DCO) via an interface for a certain period of time. The interface is a data connection intermediator between the NO and the DCO. A network of computing systems couples the NO with the DCO. Advantageously, the network of computing systems comprises Internet. The DCO, which makes use of the NO's bandwidth for distributing electronic media to end-users, reserves some bandwidth for a certain period of time in accordance with the need, which the DCO obtains from a Content Provider (CP). The content is broadcast to the end-user in accordance with a schedule which is based on the bandwidth availability. Thus, the content is multicast via the digital broadcast network which is maintained by the network operator (NO).

An enhanced stream reservation protocol comprising a Talker device sending a Stream Reservation Protocol (SRP) Talker Advertise message for streaming data to a Listener device, receiving the Talker Advertise message and checking bandwidth availability on an output port thereof for the streaming. In case of insufficient communication bandwidth, sending a failure message that includes information about available bandwidth from the Talker device to the Listener device. A protocol for communication in a bridged network, comprising a Talker device sending an SRP Talker Advertise message for streaming data to a Listener device. The Talker Advertise message includes communication path information from the Talker device to the Listener device. A communication path from the Talker device to the Listener device is selected based on said path metrics, for streaming data between the Talker device and the Listener device.

An ad hoc network enabled to handle secure data may be created for a specified user via a handheld wireless communication device (HWCD) such that rightful access to protected data stored on one or more networked devices may be extended to one or more distributed rendering devices. The HWCD and / or the user may be authenticated. The HWCD may enable configuration of one or more dynamic connections on the ad hoc network as needed until communication of data is complete. Bandwidth and throughput of one or more communication links may be adjusted according to bandwidth availability. The data may be buffered via the HWCD and / or one or more of the distributed rendering devices. Processing data tasks may be assigned to one or more networked resources on the ad hoc network. The data may undergo format conversion and be consumed on the one or more distributed rendering devices and / or the HWCD.

A load balancing method for a wireless local area network (LAN) which has a plurality of access points is provided in the present invention. The load balancing decision is made by a load balancing module according to traffic conditions and bandwidth availability of each traffic priority class based on a corresponding class of service. The load balancing module is a centralized module which the load balancing decision is determined by the centralized module, or is determined through information exchanges among distributed load balancing modules of the access points. The load balancing decision also takes into consideration of VLANs per VLAN tag basis. Each of the VLANs is defined with the corresponding traffic priority class.

A system and method for upgrading service class of a connection in a wireless network includes identifying a congested CoS in a sector of a wireless network. Bandwidth availability in the sector is determined at an enhanced CoS in relation to the congested CoS. A communications session is selected in the congested CoS for upgrading. The communications session is upgraded to the enhanced CoS.

An apparatus and a method for automatic real-time cloud computing processing of live multimedia content are disclosed. In one embodiment of the invention, a portable electronic device can transmit live event multimedia data to a web / cloud computing storage service in real time, wherein the web / cloud computing storage service segmentizes incoming streams of the live event multimedia data into multiple media files during an ongoing transmission of the live event multimedia data. In one embodiment of the invention, the size of each segmented media file depends on a current network traffic condition and / or a bandwidth availability. By automatically segmentizing the streams of encoded multimedia data into individually-viewable segments for the web or cloud-computing storage service, a user can start viewing the currently-uploading multimedia data faster than a conventional single stream upload which requires a longer waiting time.

A mobile communication device may be utilized to establish a localized user network that is accessible by client devices when the client devices are communicatively coupled to the mobile communication device. The mobile communication device is then operable to determine services that may be provided in the user network to the client devices, and to advertise these services within the user network. The services comprise network and / or data accessibility, and bandwidth availability. Mobile communication devices are also operable to provide, directly or via local and / or remote resources, additional services, comprising audio / video processing capability, storage, and / or processing. Offering of services in user networks is incentivized to the mobile communication devices and / or to client devices. Incentives comprise offering pay and / or credit to the mobile communication devices. Providing access to, blocking, limiting and / or modifying available / offered services is managed in U-Spot networks, based on incentives and / or availability of resources.