Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer network managing – Network resource allocating
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-20
2004-12-07
El-Hady, Nabil (Department: 2154)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer network managing
Network resource allocating
C709S224000, C709S225000, C709S229000, C709S235000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06829643
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network control apparatus, and in particular to a bandwidth control apparatus in a network such as an Internet service provider which provides an Internet access and an in-enterprise LAN.
In the network control apparatus, a traffic quantity within the network, or with respect to the Internet or the like as a backbone network connected to the outside changes with time as a utilizing status (availability) of user changes. Therefore, it is required to control the bandwidth of the network according to such a change of the traffic quantity.
2. Description of the Related Art
For a bandwidth control in a prior art LAN network control apparatus, as shown in
FIG. 7
, such control methods have been adopted that a partition (area) is statically set over a whole bandwidth of a transmission line L to secure traffic channels independent of each other, thereby improving a quality of service (QoS), and that a priority for using a bandwidth per user is statically set.
The prior art LAN network control apparatus using the above-mentioned bandwidth control methods performs the bandwidth control by static setting. Therefore, when a file is transferred at one time by a method such as an FTP (File Transfer Protocol), or a plurality of connections are started up, the apparatus can not flexibly deal with a utilizing status of the inside of the LAN network or a backbone changing with time. Accordingly, there has been a problem that a stable quality of service can not be always maintained.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a network control apparatus which can dynamically control a bandwidth flexibly corresponding to a traffic status of a user.
FIG. 1
shows a schematic arrangement of a network control apparatus according to the present invention. A portion
10
shown by a dotted line indicates an LAN network control apparatus exemplified for a network control apparatus according to the present invention, which is connected to an LAN network
20
connecting terminal equipments
200
such as personal computers and to the Internet
30
as a backbone, e.g. through a router
40
.
The LAN network control apparatus
10
comprises a detector
1
for detecting a packet passing through a network and a fact that a whole traffic quantity exceeds a predetermined threshold value, a database DB for holding packet information per user detected by the detector
1
, a bandwidth managing portion
2
for detecting a bandwidth occupant based on the information per user in the database DB and for selecting a corresponding bandwidth control method when the detector
1
has detected that the whole traffic quantity has exceeded the predetermined threshold value, and a bandwidth controller
3
for performing a bandwidth control to the bandwidth occupant based on the bandwidth control method selected by the bandwidth managing portion
2
.
The arrangement of the present invention shown in
FIG. 1
will now be described referring to a schematic diagram of an operation diagram shown in FIG.
2
.
In the present invention, the detector
1
firstly detects a packet passing through the network such as a route leading to the LAN network
20
from the Internet
30
, and monitors the whole traffic quantity of the network to write the information per user (per-user-information) in the database DB (at step S
1
).
The detector
1
further determines whether or not the traffic quantity of the whole network exceeds a predetermined threshold value (at step S
2
).
As a result, when it is found that the whole traffic quantity exceeds the predetermined threshold value, the bandwidth managing portion
2
which has received this notification detects which user occupies the bandwidth referring to a utilizing status table T
1
per user (per-user-utilizing status table) and a user order table T
2
written in the database DB (at step S
3
), selects the bandwidth control method corresponding to the user based on a bandwidth control method selection table T
3
preliminarily provided in the database DB (at step S
4
), and notifies the bandwidth controller
3
of the selected method. It is to be noted that “bandwidth occupation” includes the status of utilizing a part of the bandwidth of the transmission line.
Receiving the notification from the bandwidth managing portion
2
, the bandwidth controller
3
performs the bandwidth control (set/release) (at step S
5
).
The above-mentioned detector
1
may have a variable value as the predetermined threshold value.
The above-mentioned per-user-utilizing status table T
1
may include at least one of an average traffic quantity, an average communication data quantity, an average packet number, an average connection number, and an average session time as a parameter of the per-user-information.
Also, the user order table T
2
indicates a ranking (order) of users in respect of each parameter of the per-user-information. The bandwidth managing portion
2
may detect a highest ranking bandwidth occupant at one specified parameter based on the user ranking table T
2
(at step S
2
), determine whether or not the value of another parameter exceeds a corresponding predetermined threshold value by referring to the per-user-utilizing status table T
1
when the value of the specified parameter at this time exceeds a corresponding predetermined threshold value, gives points indicating a bandwidth occupation degree when the threshold value is exceeded, and select a bandwidth control method based on the current point from the bandwidth control method selection table T
3
(at step S
4
).
The selection table T
3
indicates a correspondence between the point and the bandwidth control method. The bandwidth control method may have contents of the transmission of packet to a partition for a bandwidth occupant and a priority at the time the packet is passed through the partition.
Furthermore, the bandwidth managing portion
2
may use the total value of the above-mentioned points of the parameters.
Moreover, the database DB may have a total point table T
4
per user (per-user-total point table) indicating a correspondence between each user and the total point. When the whole traffic quantity is less than the predetermined threshold value after performing the bandwidth control (at step S
5
), the bandwidth controller
3
may sequentially release the bandwidth control in order from a user with a smaller point, based on the per-user-total point table T
4
(at step S
5
), whereby the bandwidth managing portion
2
may clear the point of the user where bandwidth control is released, from the per-user-total point table T
4
.
Thus, in this invention, the bandwidth control can be performed according to the whole traffic quantity and the bandwidth availability of the user with a higher traffic quantity, so that it becomes possible to perform a flexible control corresponding to the bandwidth availability changing with time.
REFERENCES:
patent: 6424624 (2002-07-01), Galand et al.
patent: 6625643 (2003-09-01), Colby et al.
patent: 2001/0003830 (2001-06-01), Nielsen
patent: 08079305 (1996-03-01), None
patent: 09200270 (1997-07-01), None
patent: 11122279 (1999-04-01), None
Kobayashi Hiroshi
Ohura Hitoshi
Suzuki Yoshiki
Tobe Teruo
Yanagidate Kazuhiko
El-Hady Nabil
Fujitsu Limited
Katten Muchin Zavis & Rosenman
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