Ping Pair Technique for Wireless Congestion Detection

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing WiFi network congestion leads to increased delay and packet loss, causing transport-layer protocols and applications to back off transmissions, which can harm performance without reducing delay or packet loss, especially when congestion is self-induced or due to other traffic.

Innovation Solution

A method involving sending high and low priority ping requests to determine queuing delay by calculating the difference in round trip times or arrival times of ping responses, and assessing the contribution of target flows to congestion, using Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) Echo Requests and examining Type of Service (TOS) prioritization.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If transport-layer protocols back off transmissions in response to perceived congestion, then packet loss is reduced, but application performance deteriorates due to unnecessary transmission slowdowns

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepacket loss reductionVSAvoidapplication performance

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring queuing delay through ping pair measurements and using this information to adjust transmission rates. The client device measures actual network congestion levels and provides feedback to the transport layer to make informed decisions about transmission rate adjustments, avoiding unnecessary backoffs when congestion is not self-induced.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an intermediary measurement mechanism (ping pair with different priorities) that acts as a mediator between the application layer and transport layer. This intermediary provides accurate congestion information without being part of the data transmission flow itself, allowing the system to distinguish between self-induced and external congestion before adjusting transmission rates.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Reliability

If queuing delay increases due to network congestion, then packet loss may occur, but transmission rate reduction exacerbates the problem by reducing network utilization

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepacket loss preventionVSAvoidqueuing delay

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system dynamically adjusts transmission rates based on real-time congestion measurements rather than using static backoff mechanisms. By continuously monitoring queuing delay through ping pair measurements and adapting the transmission rate accordingly, the system optimizes the balance between preventing packet loss and minimizing queuing delay, avoiding both excessive backoffs and unsustainable transmission rates.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentUS10511513B2Ping pair technique for detecting wireless congestion

Publication Date: 2019.12.17 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

AI summary

A process of determining queueing delay. The process sends a high priority ping request to an access point; sends a low priority ping request to the access point; receives a high priority ping response from the access point; receives a low priority ping response from the access point; and calculates the queuing delay based on the difference in the round trip times of the low priority ping request from the high priority ping request.