The present invention generally relates to systems and methods and, more particularly, to mechanism and techniques for enabling traffic acceleration in a mobile telecommunication network.
Companies are rapidly adding dynamic, rich and interactive capabilities to improve user experiences, grow online audiences, and drive page views and transactions. As Web sites evolve toward completely rich, dynamic online channel experiences, businesses face a new, but stark challenge: this dynamic content cannot be cached and takes longer to load in a Web page. Today's consumers and businesspeople have come to expect highly personal and interactive online experiences. Whether they are making a purchase, booking a reservation or watching a movie, they demand a smooth, flawless experience and they will not hesitate to click to another site when their expectations go unmet. Sluggish site performance and slower page downloads can diminish the user experience and increase site abandonment. The result is lower customer loyalty and revenue.
Content Distribution Network CDN providers Internet are currently offering traffic acceleration services to address the issue of Quality of Experience QoE for Internet based services from regular browsing to e-commerce. An example of an acceleration offering is the EdgePlatform [see: Beyond Caching; The User Experience Impact of Accelerating Dynamic Site Elements across the Internet, 2008]. The EdgePlatform provides the insight into Internet traffic patterns and is the dynamic site acceleration platform for three critical technologies used to carry site content requests from the customer's browser to the company's origin data center and back—in an instant.
The below mentioned three technologies compensate for the inadequacies of BGP, TCP and HTTP protocol and effectively create a new Internet platform for today's dynamic online businesses.
Traffic acceleration is based on a set of components. These include; Domain Name Server DNS system with global mapping function, a set of distributed acceleration servers and a Service level Agreement SLA between a Content Distribution Network CDN provider and portal provider (web application provider). The SLA also means a set of configurations on the portal provider's DNS server.
The following steps summarize the acceleration process:
The CDN providers understand that in a few years Internet will be mostly accessed via mobile broadband rather than via fixed broadband. For this reason they will like to be able to offer their services to their customers (content providers) in mobile networks, i.e. be able to perform acceleration of traffic for terminals connected to mobile networks.
Latencies are mainly due to the characteristics of the access technologies in the different network segments. The values however will vary depending on the transmission technology (e.g. fiber, coaxial cable or microwave) and also on specific characteristics of a given operator's network. Quality of Experience QoE is a subjective measure of a customer's experiences with a technology or service. For Web browsing experience such as for example purchasing an airline ticket online, the measure of the responsiveness of the web portal application is of crucial importance for the success of the business transaction. In the worst case scenario, due the user's perception of the ‘slowness’ of using the web portal application, the end user can abandon the attempt to use the portal and this leads to a business loss for the portal owner.
A model is helpful to illustrate the potential performance bottlenecks in any application environment in general, as well as in a Web 2.0 environment in particular. A model discussed in [The 2009 Handbook of Application Delivery: A Guide to Decision Making in Challenging Economic Times, Dr. Jim Metzler] is a variation of the application response time model created by Sevcik and Wetzel [Why SAP Performance Needs Help, NetForecast Report 5084, http:/www.netforecast.com/ReportsFrameset.htm]. As shown below in an application Response Time Model, the application response time (R) is impacted by amount of data being transmitted (Payload), the WAN bandwidth, the network round trip time (RTT), the number of application turns (AppTurns), the number of simultaneous Transmission Control Protocol TCP sessions (concurrent requests), the server side delay (Cs) and the client side delay (Cc).
Lab tests disclosed in [The 2009 Handbook of Application Delivery: A Guide to Decision Making in Challenging Economic Times, Dr. Jim Metzler] show the effect latency would have on an inquiry-response application. As network latency is increased up to 75 ms, it still has little impact on the application's response time, but if network latency goes above 150 ms., the response time of the application degrades rapidly and is quickly well above the target response time.
Transmission Control Protocol TCP is today designed for low latency and high bandwidth networks with few communication errors. However, the standard TCP settings are not optimal for mobile networks, as mobile networks are characterized by high latency, low or medium bandwidth and more communication errors than in fixed networks. Therefore, TCP also includes a number of wireless extensions that can be used to maximize the throughput in mobile networks.
Wireless TCP standard settings have been recommended by Open Mobile Alliance OMA. The minimum window size required to maximize TCP performance is computed by Bandwidth Delay Product (BDP), where Bandwidth is the available bandwidth and Delay is the round-trip time of the given path [RFC1323]. The maximum window size is the minimum of the send and receive socket buffer. The receive socket buffer generally determines the advertisement window on the receiver. The congestion window on the sender further limits the amount of data the sender can inject into the network depending on the congestion level on the path. If the maximum window size is too small, relative to the available bandwidth of the network path, the TCP connection will not be able to fully utilize the available capacity. If the maximum window is too large for the network path to handle, the congestion window will eventually grow to the point where TCP will overwhelm the network with too many segments, some of which will be discarded before reaching the destination.
According to [Using Radio Network Feedback to improve TCP Performance over Cellular Networks, N Möller et al] TCP proxy improves performance in mobile networks for person to person as well as person to content services. The performance improvements are based on the reduction of latency (RTT). Architecture has here been proposed whereby Radio Network Feedback (RNF) is signaled to a TCP proxy for the selection of best settings TCP settings for egress traffic. The RNF relies on the radio resource management (RRM) algorithms, located in a Radio Network Controller RNC, which make use of information such as uplink interference, total downlink power and orthogonal codes to determine network condition. The problem of the existing solutions is that the last segment of the network, i.e. between the Radio Network Controller RNC (base station in some scenarios) and the end user still has significant latency (RTT).
An aim of the invention is to overcome above identified limitations of the prior art. A solution is hence needed to be able to further reduce the latency between a Radio Network Node (RNN) (e.g. a Radio Network Controller, base station or evolved Node B) and an end user. The invention focuses on the deployment of functionality inside the RNN that enables the reduction of latency in a network segment between the RNN and the end user.
The solution in one exemplified embodiment is a method for enabling traffic acceleration in a mobile telecommunication network. The method comprises the following steps:
The solution in another exemplified embodiment is a Radio Network Node RNN for enabling traffic acceleration in a mobile telecommunication network. The Radio Network Node comprises:
In yet another exemplified embodiment is described an article for manufacture comprising a program storage in a Radio Network Node having a computer code embodied therein for enabling traffic acceleration in a mobile telecommunication network. The code comprises:
An object of the invention is to improve Quality of Experience to end users.
Some advantages of the invention are as follows:
In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth, such as particular circuits, circuit components, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from these specific details. In other instances, detailed descriptions of well known methods, devices, and circuits are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present invention with unnecessary detail.
In the document [Using Radio Network Feedback to improve TCP Performance over Cellular Networks, N Möller et al] that was mentioned in the background part of this patent application, the proxy is located outside the Radio Network Controller RNC and architecture is proposed so that Radio Network Feedback (RNF) is signaled to the TCP proxy for the selection of best TCP settings for egress traffic. The RNF hereby relies on the Radio Resource Management (RRM) algorithms, located in a Radio Network Controller RNC, which make use of information such as uplink interference, total downlink power and orthogonal codes to determine network condition. In the invention as claimed, instead the proxy is located in the Radio Network Controller. By locating the proxy in the RNC where the RRM is located, focus instead is kept strictly on the radio link. Improvement is hereby made both on the session between the location of the proxy (when located apart from the RNC) and the RNC, and on the session on the link between the RNC and the end user, i.e. by using the invention granularity has been refined.
As mentioned, the invention strives to achieve the best TCP parameter settings on the network segment between the TCP proxy and the end user. To achieve this, the RNN architecture described so far has been applied.
System and nodes that can be used to put the invention into practice is schematically shown in the figures. Enumerated items are shown in the figures as individual elements. In actual implementations of the invention, however, they may be inseparable components of other electronic devices such as a digital computer. Thus, actions described above may be implemented in software that may be embodied in an article of manufacture that includes a program storage medium. The program storage medium includes data signal embodied in one or more of a carrier wave, a computer disk (magnetic, or optical (e.g., CD or DVD, or both), non-volatile memory, tape, a system memory, and a computer hard drive.
The systems and methods of the present invention may be implemented for example on any of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), American National Standards Institute (ANSI), Long Term Evolution (LTE) or other standard telecommunication network architecture. Other examples are the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) or The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
The description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, sets forth specific details, such as particular components, electronic circuitry, techniques, etc., in order to provide an understanding of the present invention. But it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from these specific details. In other instances, detailed descriptions of well-known methods, devices, and techniques, etc., are omitted so as not to obscure the description with unnecessary detail. Individual function blocks are shown in one or more figures. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that functions may be implemented using discrete components or multi-function hardware. Processing functions may be implemented using a programmed microprocessor or general-purpose computer. The invention is not limited to the above described and in the drawings shown embodiments but can be modified within the scope of the enclosed claims.
The present application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/991,950, which is the national stage entry under 35 U.S.C. 371 of international application no. PCT/SE2010/051345, filed Dec. 7, 2010, each of which applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20160353319 A1 | Dec 2016 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 13991950 | US | |
Child | 15231474 | US |