Dynamic Airtime Fairness Allocation in Wireless Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Legacy wireless stations in heterogeneous Wi-Fi networks slow down newer stations due to equal and constant airtime quantum allocation, lacking discrimination between different devices based on applications, location, and roles.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that dynamically allocates airtime fairness by determining priority parameters for network traffic, identifying specific applications and users without deep packet inspection, and adjusting airtime fairness ratios based on application priority, location, and roles, ensuring more efficient network resource allocation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If equal and constant airtime quantum is allocated to each wireless station, then airtime fairness is maintained, but network throughput and performance are reduced due to legacy devices slowing down newer devices
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic airtime fairness by making the airtime quantum adjustable and variable rather than fixed and equal. The access point dynamically modifies airtime quantum allocations based on real-time network conditions, device capabilities, and traffic requirements, allowing newer high-throughput devices to receive larger time slots while legacy devices receive appropriate allocations, thereby resolving the contradiction between fairness and throughput
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different airtime quantum allocations to different wireless stations based on their specific characteristics, capabilities, and needs. Each station receives a customized airtime quantum rather than a uniform allocation, with newer devices receiving larger allocations to maximize their throughput potential while legacy devices receive allocations matched to their capabilities, achieving both fairness and optimized network performance
2Measurement precision
If deep packet inspection is used to identify applications and users, then precise traffic prioritization is achieved, but system complexity and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements partial packet inspection by examining only specific fields (source/destination IP addresses, source/destination port addresses, and protocol identifiers) rather than performing deep inspection of the entire packet content. This partial inspection approach provides sufficient application and user identification accuracy for traffic prioritization while significantly reducing processing complexity and overhead compared to full deep packet inspection
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts only the essential identification fields from network packets (IP addresses, port addresses, and protocol information) that are sufficient for application and user identification. By extracting and using only these specific fields rather than analyzing the complete packet structure and content, the system achieves accurate traffic classification with minimal processing complexity
Data Source
AI summary
A set of priority parameters for network traffic on the data communication network is stored. Based on a specific application determination, based at least in part on a source IP address, a source port address, a destination IP address, a destination port address and a protocol, an airtime fairness ratio (ATR) for the session with a specific station from the set of priority parameters concerning application priority is assigned. A higher ATR results in more packets being stored in the queue for processing and a lower ATR results in fewer packets being stored in the queue for processing, thereby affecting airtime.