Claims:1. A method of prioritizing data in an IP network, the method comprising:
constructing a network policy to assign a network priority value for each data packets received in a network;
mapping the network policy with network configuration on the received data in the network; and
prioritizing the data based on the network priority value assigned to the data packets, wherein the data with high network priority value is routed first than the lower network priority value.

2. The method of claim 1, where the step of constructing the network policy including:
creating a list of user policies for all users, wherein the user policies includes user priority or privilege associated with the data;
creating a list of policies for different type of applications including voice, video, web, message and management;
mapping the user policies and application policies into a network priority values; and
marking the IP data packets with network priority value and store the same in a database.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step of mapping includes comparing the received data in the network with network policy.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:
filtering uninterested and unimportant data based on QOS policies in order to drop the same before routing.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the filtering including analyzing the content and metadata of the data and filters based on timestamp, size of the data, application type (Voice, Video, Web, Message, network), etc.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein each user is assigned with a priority value for different type of data.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
dynamically updating the network policy based on the network bandwidth availability, wherein the method reconfigures the policies in order to adapt for lower or higher bandwidth requirement by the network.

8. A system for prioritizing data in an IP network, the system comprising:
a policy manager is configured to create a list of user policies for all users, wherein the user policies includes user priority or privilege associated with the data, create a list of policies for different type of applications including voice, video, web, message and management, maps the user policies and application policies into a network priority values and mark the IP data packets with network priority value and store the same in a database; and
a QOS manager coupled to the policy manager and the database, wherein the QOS manager configured for receiving a plurality of data packets, detecting user profile and associated application corresponding to each data packet, retrieving network priority value for each data packet from the database via policy manager and forward the data packets for routing to destination, where each data packets are processed based on Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) value and prioritize the same, wherein the data with high network priority value is routed first than the lower network priority value.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising:
an user interface which receives input on user policies for communication and policies for the action to be taken for the events, are captured and sent to the policy manager and further stored in the database.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein DSCP value is calculated based on the application type and user privilege, and wherein the QOS manager enforces the policies in near real time based on the critical events and available bandwidth for communication.
, Description:FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See section 10, rule 13)

“Policy based QOS Framework to Prioritize data for critical IP network with bandwidth constraints”
By
Bharat Electronics Limited,
Central Research Laboratory
Jalahalli P.O., Bangalore – 560013

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.
Field of the invention
The present invention mainly relates to Quality of Service for IP network which has limited bandwidth and more particularly to the method and system for prioritizing IP traffic based on type of application, privilege of users and mission critical events and also provides an improved quality of service for IP networks.

Background of the invention
Communication devices include phones, servers, routers, switches, gateways, customer premise equipments etc. These devices are connected to form a simple network and combination of small such networks form a bigger network. Open System Interconnect (OSI) model forms a framework on which the protocols are written so that communication between nodes is established. A network can be wired only or wireless or a mixture of both. Any kind of network has a capacity to handle the traffic associated with it. The moment the data traffic crosses the capacity threshold, it leads to congestion. One way to solve the problem is to increase the capacity. Increasing capacity of the network may involve additional cost, space and other logistics. It is very difficult to increase the network traffic capacity because of the communication constraints imposed due to geography/terrain and security and non-availability of technology. Also the networks may not experience the same amount of traffic throughout the day. In some scenario traffic pattern can change drastically depending on the events happening in the Network operational area. When the amount of traffic is more than the network capacity, congestion occurs. The effective way of handling congestion is to provide Quality of Service based on the Service Level Agreement agreed upon between the user and service provider in the network.
There are requirements wherein a network may be quickly set up and dismantled once the job is done. This network may be bandwidth constrained, lossy and may experience latency. Such Network environments present significant challenges that must be overcome in order to effectively support voice, video and data traffic. The wireless and ad hoc nature of networks implies unreliable connectivity, constrained bandwidth, and variable latency.
In surveillance operations region being unknown, a surveillance camera needs to quickly move to the location and relay the information back to the command center. Here the information is critical in nature to quickly make certain decisions but if the network is bandwidth constrained and some low priority data is congesting the network, then the critical surveillance data may not reach the command center in real time.
Latency is also a factor in some IP network. A high priority confidential call is to be established in the network but due to the congestion, the call latency may significantly increase. In both the above cases there is a need to provide preferential treatment to certain kind of data.
Quality of service (QoS) is well known in the art which is a mechanism to provide better service to a set of data with guarantees in terms of bandwidth, latency of a telephony or computer network. To quantitatively measure the quality of service, several related aspects of the network service are often considered, such as error rates, bit rate, throughput, transmission delay, availability, jitter, etc.
There are few approaches for providing QoS, prominent being Integrated Services “Intserv” and Differentiated Services “DiffServ”. In Intserv an end to end connection is set up prior to any service and bandwidth reserved for the connection till the service ends. The disadvantage here is that all the intermediate nodes need to support Intserv and also lot of bandwidth is wasted during the connection. DiffServ provides differential treatment to various set of data based on service, user and other criteria. Each packet is marked based on the priority and the intermediate nodes provide differential treatment to a packet based on the marking. There are QoS solutions based on application, content, ports etc.
Methods have been devised for tagging a portion of the message frame with priority information to achieve QoS. In example, document US 2008/0025334 A1 titled “Systems and methods for assured communications with quality of service” describes a systems and methods for facilitating communication of data. A method includes communicating data including prioritizing a block of data, setting an indicator in a header of the block of data, transmitting the block of data, and retransmitting the block of data. The indicator indicates that reliable delivery of the block of data is desired. The indicator is set based at least in part on a rule. The indicator is set on a per-message basis. The block of data is retransmitted when a predetermined time has elapsed and when an acknowledgement of delivery of the block of data has not been received.
There have been cases where QoS delivery has been adapted based on the link state changes in the network. Further in document, US 2009/0274045 A1 titled “QoS provisioning in a network having dynamic link states” describes a network node for a network having dynamic link states includes a processing unit and computer-readable memory for causing the processing unit to monitor a link state of the network, perform QoS provisioning and make appropriate updates to the QoS provisioning based on changes in the link state and QoS provisioning demands of QoS-aware applications; and provide notification to the QoS-aware applications to allow those applications to dynamically adapt to the link state changes.
Many solutions have been proposed to provide QoS at the network based on the class of service. There are quite a few methods where the QoS have been provided at the user application itself without consideration as to how a particular packet will be treated at the network. Further, the above models however fail when a critical high priority event from a high privilege user has to be handled in a particular manner.
Therefore there is a need in the art with method and system for prioritizing IP traffic based on type of application and to solve the above mentioned limitations.
Objective of the invention
The main objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for prioritizing data traffic based on application data type (voice, video, messaging, mail, management, and web, etc.) and user priority or privilege associated with data.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a method for marking the IP packets for the router to recognize and ensure that data with highest priority gets delivered prior to normal data in case of constrained bandwidth, thereby improving the overall quality of service and of the application.
Further objective of the present invention is to provide a method to modify the priorities of data traffic driven by scenarios which are dynamically changed during execution of critical operations.

Summary of the Invention
An aspect of the present invention is to address at least the above-mentioned problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantages described below.
Accordingly, in one aspect of the present invention relates to a method of prioritizing data in an IP network, the method comprising: constructing a network policy to assign a network priority value for each data packets received in a network, mapping the network policy with network configuration on the received data in the network and prioritizing the data based on the network priority value assigned to the data packets, wherein the data with high network priority value is routed first than the lower network priority value.
In another aspect of the present invention relates to a system for prioritizing data in an IP network, the system comprising: a policy manager to create a list of user policies for all users, wherein the user policies includes user priority or privilege associated with the data, create a list of policies for different type of applications including voice, video, web, message and management, maps the user policies and application policies into a network priority values and mark the IP data packets with network priority value and store the same in a database, and a QOS manager coupled to the policy manager and the database, wherein the QOS manager configured for receiving a plurality of data packets, detecting user profile and associated application corresponding to each data packet, retrieving network priority value for each data packet from the database via policy manager, set the priority value in each packet and forward the data packets for routing to destination, where each data packets are processed based on Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) value and prioritize the same, wherein the data with high network priority value is routed first than the lower network priority value.
Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses exemplary embodiments of the invention.

Brief description of the drawings
The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1 illustrates the IP network scenario with QOS information processing system according to one embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 2 illustrates the block diagram of an information processing system consisting components of QOS framework IP network according to one embodiment of the present invention.
Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and may have not been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figure may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.

Detailed description of the invention
The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.
The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the invention. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention are provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the invention as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “a component surface” includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.
By the term “substantially” it is meant that the recited characteristic, parameter, or value need not be achieved exactly, but that deviations or variations, including for example, tolerances, measurement error, measurement accuracy limitations and other factors known to those of skill in the art, may occur in amounts that do not preclude the effect the characteristic was intended to provide.
Figs. 1 through 2, discussed below, and the various embodiments used to describe the principles of the present disclosure in this patent document are by way of illustration only and should not be construed in any way that would limit the scope of the disclosure. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged communications system. The terms used to describe various embodiments are exemplary. It should be understood that these are provided to merely aid the understanding of the description, and that their use and definitions, in no way limit the scope of the invention. Terms first, second, and the like are used to differentiate between objects having the same terminology and are in no way intended to represent a chronological order, unless where explicitly stated otherwise. A set is defined as a non-empty set including at least one element.
Some IP networks are characterized by mobility, low bandwidth and intermittent communication. Information dominance is important in critical operations and information has to be shared in right time irrespective of constraints in the network. Moreover the information is generated by different users and its importance is dynamically changing during the course of time. Based on user privileges and criticality of information network should prioritize the information (data) for dissemination across the network.
The present invention is a method and system for prioritizing data traffic based on application data type (voice, video, messaging, mail, management, web) and user priority or privilege associated with data. Further, the present invention proposes method for marking the IP packets for the router to recognize and ensure that data with highest priority gets delivered prior to normal data in case of constrained bandwidth, thereby improving the overall quality of service and of the application. Also, the invention proposes method to modify the priorities of data traffic driven by scenarios which are dynamically changed due to battlefield events.
The present invention relates to a novel method of prioritizing data traffic. Each user is assigned with a priority value for different type of data. The application data is sent to QOS manager. The QOS manger gets the network priority values from Directory server through Policy manager. Each data packet is marked with priority value in a way the router recognizes it. The data is then forwarded to the router and based on the priority marking, router will route the data. The present invention allows for priority marking to be done based on priority assigned to users and type of application data. At the end, the router sends the data with higher priority before the data with lower priority.
Figure 1 illustrates the IP network scenario with QOS information processing system according to one embodiment of the present invention.
The figure shows the IP network scenario with QOS information processing system. The network has core network 100 and edge nodes 101, 102 ... 10N. Core network 100 has core router 111 and Radio Relay 110. Each node has edge router 112, radio relay 110. The edge node 101 is connected to Core network with edge routers 112, radio relays110 and core router 111. Communication intelligence server (CIS) 120, Application server 121, Directory server 122 and user terminals (1011, 1012, and 1013) are getting connected to the network via network switch 113 and edge router 112. Similar way node 102 has routers switch, radio relays, servers and user terminals and also connected to core network.
User from one node can send data to any other node. In network there exists bandwidth constraint between the nodes since Radio relays connecting the nodes.
Communication intelligence server 120 is to run the QOS information processing software which has policy manager and QOS manager and is explained in detail with figure 2. Different applications (voice, web, video, Msg and Mgmt) hosted on the application server 121. Users are using these applications to send the information to users in local node or users connected to other nodes. User generated data packets from different users are either filtered or tagged with network priority value based on the policies and service level agreements in the Communication intelligence server. These data packets are passed to edge router 112 which will route out the packets based on network priority values.
Figure 2 shows a block diagram of an information processing system consisting of the components of QOS framework according to one embodiment of the present invention.
The block diagram illustrates the creation of user policies / priorities, mapping of user policies to network priority values and marking and priority assignment by QOS Manager. The block diagram consists of two major components Policy Manager 203 and QOS Manager 206. With the help of graphical user interface 201 the user policies for communication and policies for the action to be taken for the events, are captured and sent to policy manager 203 and stored in directory server 204. Policy manager after completion of all the user policies compute the network priority value for different application data for different users and is stored in the directory server 204.
Some critical events will trigger for a change in the user policy and the same will get captured using policy change request UI 202. When a change request of policy is received the Policy manager 203 will again compute the network priority values and store the same in directory server 204.
A user can send different types of data namely voice, video, messages, web and network management data. All Voice data from different users will be received by voice data 207. In the same way all video data from different users will be received by video data 208, all message data from different users will be received by Msg data 209, all Web data from different users will be received by web data 210 and all network management related data from network managers will be received by Mgmt data 211.
QOS manager 206 will receive all the data packets. It 206 detects user and application associated with each data packet. Now QOS manager 206 gets network priority value (already computed and stored by policy manager203) from directory server 204. This value is set to the DSCP (Differentiated Services Code Point) value of the DiffServ field of the IP header of the data packet. The priority marked message is sent to the router 212. The router will process the packets based on DSCP value and prioritize them and sent to Radio relays 213 for sending to destination.
In some scenario many events will happen which will have impact on the network communication. In response to these events the system should adapt itself to provide seamless network communication continuously. The change in communication scenario events is received by 205 and is sent to policy manager 203. Policy manager process the event with policies to be applied to the network for such events. These policies are sent as messages to QOS Manager 206. QOS manager will make necessary configuration changes to the router 212. QOS manager enforces policies on the data packets to make the system stable by avoiding congestion at the Radio relay 213 at physical layer leve1.
In some example embodiments, priorities of applications and users may change. The present invention offers customizable and dynamic policy based QoS. For example if a low priority user has some important data to transfer, by setting his priority high for that instant, that user can send that important data with high priority. Moreover, the present invention uses the user profiles to set user privileges and application priorities. The QoS manager creates and fills user profiles for all users in the network. It contains priority for that user and priorities of applications for that user. For example: User Priority: 1, Applications: {Voice: 1, Video: 2, Message: 3} etc.
The present invention provides a method for marking and prioritizing data, the method comprising of: Creating a list of user policies (priority values) for all users and store them in the directory server, creating a list of policies for different types of applications (Voice, Video, Web, Message and Management), mapping the user policies and application policies into a network priority values, marking the IP data-packets with network priority values.
This invention also provide a method for enforcing traffic policies in near real time based on the events triggered by network communication policy. This method comprises of: receiving communication bandwidth related data, comparing this data with network policy, mapping network policy with network configuration and enforcing the network configuration in the network router.
In another aspect of the present invention is an communication information processing system for marking and prioritizing information data, the information processing system comprising of: policy manager, wherein the policy manager executes the computer usable code to create a list of user privilege/priorities and network policies and store them in directory server, and a QOS manager system, wherein the QOS manager system analyzes the data and set network priority value for IP data packets based on user privilege which is defined policy manager and QOS manager in response to communication scenario also enforces communication policy by executing computer usable code to configure the network elements in IP network.
Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses exemplary embodiments of the invention.
Those skilled in this technology can make various alterations and modifications without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Therefore, the scope of the invention shall be defined and protected by the following claims and their equivalents.
FIGS. 1-2 are merely representational and are not drawn to scale. Certain portions thereof may be exaggerated, while others may be minimized. FIGS. 1-2 illustrate various embodiments of the invention that can be understood and appropriately carried out by those of ordinary skill in the art.
In the foregoing detailed description of embodiments of the invention, various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments of the invention require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description of embodiments of the invention, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.
It is understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. It is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. Many other embodiments will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and “in which” are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms “comprising” and “wherein,” respectively.

We Claim:

1. A method of prioritizing data in an IP network, the method comprising:
constructing a network policy to assign a network priority value for each data packets received in a network;
mapping the network policy with network configuration on the received data in the network; and
prioritizing the data based on the network priority value assigned to the data packets, wherein the data with high network priority value is routed first than the lower network priority value.

2. The method of claim 1, where the step of constructing the network policy including:
creating a list of user policies for all users, wherein the user policies includes user priority or privilege associated with the data;
creating a list of policies for different type of applications including voice, video, web, message and management;
mapping the user policies and application policies into a network priority values; and
marking the IP data packets with network priority value and store the same in a database.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step of mapping includes comparing the received data in the network with network policy.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:
filtering uninterested and unimportant data based on QOS policies in order to drop the same before routing.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the filtering including analyzing the content and metadata of the data and filters based on timestamp, size of the data, application type (Voice, Video, Web, Message, network), etc.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein each user is assigned with a priority value for different type of data.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
dynamically updating the network policy based on the network bandwidth availability, wherein the method reconfigures the policies in order to adapt for lower or higher bandwidth requirement by the network.

8. A system for prioritizing data in an IP network, the system comprising:
a policy manager is configured to create a list of user policies for all users, wherein the user policies includes user priority or privilege associated with the data, create a list of policies for different type of applications including voice, video, web, message and management, maps the user policies and application policies into a network priority values and mark the IP data packets with network priority value and store the same in a database; and
a QOS manager coupled to the policy manager and the database, wherein the QOS manager configured for receiving a plurality of data packets, detecting user profile and associated application corresponding to each data packet, retrieving network priority value for each data packet from the database via policy manager and forward the data packets for routing to destination, where each data packets are processed based on Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) value and prioritize the same, wherein the data with high network priority value is routed first than the lower network priority value.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising:
an user interface which receives input on user policies for communication and policies for the action to be taken for the events, are captured and sent to the policy manager and further stored in the database.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein DSCP value is calculated based on the application type and user privilege, and wherein the QOS manager enforces the policies in near real time based on the critical events and available bandwidth for communication.

Abstract

Policy based QOS Framework to Prioritize data for critical IP network with bandwidth constraints
The present invention relates to Quality of Service for IP network which has limited bandwidth. Particularly, it relates to a method and system of prioritizing data in an IP network: In one embodiment, this is accomplished by constructing a network policy to assign a network priority value for each data packets received in a network, mapping the network policy with network configuration on the received data in the network and prioritizing the data based on the network priority value assigned to the data packets, wherein the data with high network priority value is routed first than the lower network priority value.
Figure 2 (for publication)