Router Flow Duplication for Packet Loss Resilience
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Solution Overview
Problem
Real-time audio and video transmission in computer networks face significant latency and packet loss issues due to the use of delta encoding, which causes degradation and artifacts like jitter and pixelation when packet loss occurs.
Innovation Solution
A method that modifies packets to include unique sequence numbers, duplicates these packets, and forwards them through distinct stateful paths within the network, ensuring redundancy and reliability by eliminating redundant packets and restoring them to their original format at the destination.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If delta encoding is used to save bandwidth, then transmission efficiency is improved, but packet loss causes extensive degradation and artifacts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates multiple copies of critical packets and transmits them through different paths. When delta encoding causes degradation due to packet loss, these redundant copies ensure that at least one complete packet reaches the destination, maintaining audio/video quality without requiring additional bandwidth for full redundancy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent prepares backup packets in advance by duplicating them before transmission. This beforehand cushioning ensures that when packet loss occurs in delta-encoded streams, the receiver has pre-prepared alternative packets to maintain continuity and quality of real-time audio/video transmission.
2Reliability
If multiple paths are used to forward packets, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the packet stream by identifying critical packets that need duplication and separating them from regular traffic. This segmentation allows the system to apply complex multi-path routing only to specific packets that benefit most from it, rather than applying it to all traffic, thereby reducing overall device complexity while maintaining reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies packet duplication and multi-path forwarding selectively to only those packets that require it, rather than duplicating all packets. This partial action approach balances reliability improvement with device complexity management by focusing resources on critical packets only.
3Measurement precision
If sequence numbers are added to packets, then packet tracking is improved, but packet size increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the sequence number information from the packet payload and places it in the packet header. This extraction allows for efficient packet tracking and identification without significantly increasing the overall packet size, as header fields are typically optimized for compact storage and transmission.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus for routing a plurality of session packets across a network toward a destination modifies each packet to include a sequence number that is different from the sequence number of other packets in the plurality of packets. Accordingly, at this point, each of the plurality of packets is transformed into a corresponding plurality of processed packets. The method also duplicates the plurality of processed packets to produce a corresponding plurality of duplicated packets. Next, the method forwards the plurality of processed packets toward the destination using a first stateful path through the network, and correspondingly forwards the plurality of duplicated packets toward the destination using a second stateful path through the network. In preferred embodiments, the first stateful path is different from the second stateful path. For example, the two paths may be entirely distinct in that they share no common intermediary elements.