Application QoE Scoring via Content Category Weighting

The patent applies local quality by differentiating QoE treatment across different application types and content categories. Instead of uniform QoE management, the system identifies specific applications (e.g., video streaming, VoIP, browsing) and content categories (e.g., video, audio, text, images) to apply targeted QoE measurements and congestion management policies. This allows critical applications to receive higher priority treatment while less sensitive applications receive standard treatment, resolving the contradiction between providing high QoE and managing network congestion.

The patent implements segmentation by dividing traffic classification into two hierarchical levels: application-level classification and content category-level classification. The application module first identifies the application type, then the content module further categorizes the content within that application. This segmented approach maintains ease of operation through automated multi-level classification while achieving measurement precision by capturing both application-specific and content-specific QoE requirements, allowing differentiated treatment for different content types within the same application.

The patent applies dynamics by implementing adaptive, multi-level congestion control that adjusts treatment based on real-time identification of application type and content category. The system dynamically assigns different congestion management policies to different application-content combinations, such as prioritizing video streaming traffic over file downloads, or applying different loss tolerance thresholds for VoIP versus email. This dynamic approach increases device complexity through automated classification and policy management but significantly improves QoE reliability by matching congestion control strategies to specific traffic characteristics.