Application Flow-Aware Broadband Data Caps for Fair L4S Queuing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing congestion control mechanisms cause queuing delay and adversely affect latency-sensitive traffic, leading to network congestion and poor quality of experience, while ISPs marking all traffic as L4S-capable can starve non-L4S flows and violate net neutrality principles.
Innovation Solution
Implement a mechanism to enforce data caps for preferential network traffic, allowing selective treatment of L4S-capable traffic based on ISP or application service provider indications, using dual queuing and ECN bit modifications to manage congestion and ensure fair bandwidth allocation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If congestion control mechanisms are used to detect available capacity and adjust transmission rate, then network capacity utilization is improved, but queuing delay increases and latency worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments network traffic into multiple queues based on latency sensitivity and application requirements. By dividing the single queue into multiple priority queues, the system can handle latency-sensitive traffic separately from bulk data traffic, thereby reducing queuing delay for time-critical applications while maintaining high network capacity utilization through efficient bandwidth allocation across different traffic types.
2Loss of time
If all traffic is marked as L4S-capable to minimize latency, then low latency performance is improved, but non-L4S flows are starved and net neutrality is violated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by providing different service qualities to different traffic flows based on their specific requirements. Instead of uniformly treating all traffic as L4S-capable, the system identifies and marks only those flows that genuinely require low latency treatment with L4S markings, while other flows receive standard treatment. This ensures latency-sensitive applications get priority handling without starving other traffic types, maintaining both performance and fairness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial action by selectively applying L4S marking only to the portion of traffic that actually requires low latency optimization, rather than marking all traffic excessively. This partial marking approach prevents bandwidth starvation for non-L4S flows while still achieving latency minimization for critical applications, thereby maintaining net neutrality compliance.
3Loss of time
If dual queuing is implemented to separate L4S and classic traffic, then latency for L4S traffic is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-marking traffic with appropriate L4S or classic indicators before it enters the network core. This upfront classification and marking of traffic flows allows network devices to automatically route packets to the appropriate queue based on pre-established rules, significantly reducing the complexity of real-time queue management decisions while still achieving low latency for L4S traffic through dedicated queue handling.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods are disclosed for receiving, at a first networking equipment, network traffic over a network, and identifying a portion of the network traffic that corresponds to preferential network traffic, based on an indication from an application service provider or an Internet service provider (ISP). A preferential network traffic data cap for data provided over the network to the first networking equipment over a particular time period may be accessed, and whether an amount of preferential network traffic provided to the first networking equipment over the particular time period that equals or exceeds the preferential network traffic data cap may be determined. Based on determining that the amount of preferential network traffic equals or exceeds the preferential network traffic data cap, the disclosed systems and methods may identify an action to be performed on the portion of the network traffic that corresponds to preferential network traffic.