With rapidly growing of user's needs for accessing digital contents everywhere, various communication technologies have been developed for transmission of the digital contents. These communication technologies may be developed for different environments, different transmission speeds and/or different user requirements. In addition, several medium access control (MAC)/physical (PHY) protocols are established based on different communication standards, which define different communication methods based on heterogeneous mediums. For example, IEEE 1901 communication standard is used for power line (PLC), IEEE 802.11 communication standard is used for wireless communication (i.e. WiFi), IEEE 802.3 communication standard is used for Ethernet, and Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) communication standard is used for coaxial cables, and so on.
In addition, quality of service (QoS) negotiation is used for resource reservation (i.e. bandwidth reservation) for efficient transmission. Currently, QoS negotiation mechanism is defined in each medium specification (i.e. PLC, WiFi, MoCA, or Ethernet). For example, QoS negotiation in a PLC network is implemented based on the traffic specification (TSPEC). In other words, each QoS negotiation mechanism is well defined according to his specification. There is however no guideline for QoS negotiation cross multi-media. Without clear guideline, communication devices using different media for communication would not know how to perform QoS negotiation with each other. For example, a device A is in WiFi network and a device B is in PLC network. The device A cannot negotiate the QoS requirement with the device B because there is no rule for QoS negotiation cross multi-media.
The present invention therefore provides a unified QoS negotiation mechanism cross multi-media, to solve the abovementioned problem.
The present invention discloses a method of unified quality of service, hereafter called QoS, negotiation cross multi-media for a first unified terminal device (UTD) using a first medium for communication in a network system. The method comprises obtaining a QoS requirement from the first UTD, via the first medium, transmitting the QoS negotiation request including QoS requirement to a second UTD using a second medium for communication in the network system, and reporting a QoS negotiation result to the first UTD when a QoS negotiation response corresponding to the QoS negotiation request is received from the second UTD.
The present invention discloses a method of unified quality of service, negotiation cross multi-media for a first unified terminal device (UTD) compatible of at least a medium for communication in a network system. The method comprises via a first medium, receiving a QoS negotiation request including QoS requirement from a second UTD of the network system to a third UTD of the network system, checking whether the QoS requirement is acceptable for the first medium, via a second medium, forwarding the QoS negotiation request to the third UTD when the QoS requirement is acceptable for the first medium, and transmitting a QoS negotiation response failure to the second UTD when the QoS requirement is not acceptable for the first medium.
The present invention discloses a method of unified quality of service, negotiation cross multi-media for a first unified terminal device (UTD) using a first medium for communication in a network system. The method comprises via a first medium, receiving a QoS negotiation request including QoS requirement from a second UTD of the network system, determining whether the QoS requirement is acceptable for the first medium, and transmitting a QoS negotiation response to the second UTD according to the determination.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
Please refer to
Please refer to
Note that, the main idea of the present invention is to provide a user with a unified quality of service (QoS) negotiation experience in multi-media. In other words, the QoS negotiation is performed between unified terminal devices of
Please refer to
Step 300: Start.
Step 302: Obtain a QoS requirement from the first UTD.
Step 304: Via a first medium, transmit the QoS negotiation request including QoS requirement to a second UTD of a second network using a second medium for communication.
Step 306: When a QoS negotiation response corresponding to the QoS negotiation request is received from the second UTD, report a QoS negotiation result to the first UTD according to the QoS negotiation response.
Step 308: End.
According to the process 30, QoS requirement is inputted in a first UTD from a user or upper application. The first UTD sends out the QoS negotiation request to a second UTD compatible of a second medium, with a first medium. If the first UTD receives the QoS negotiation response from the second UTD, the first UTD reports QoS negotiation result to the user or application according to the QoS negotiation response. Based on the process 30, a UTD has the ability to negotiate QoS requirement with another UTD, which uses a medium different with the one that the UTD uses.
Take an example based on the process 30. Please refer to
Based on the above description, a source device, such as the abovementioned device A, has the ability to determine QoS behavior and perform QoS configuration according to the QoS negotiation response. The “source device” herein means that a device requests for a QoS negotiation.
Please refer to
Step 600: Start.
Step 602: Via a first medium, receive a QoS negotiation request including QoS requirement from a second UTD of a second network to a third UTD of a third network.
Step 604: Check whether the QoS requirement is acceptable for the first medium.
Step 606: Via a second medium, forward the QoS negotiation request to the third UTD when the QoS requirement is acceptable for the first medium.
Step 608: Transmit a QoS negotiation response failure to the second UTD when the QoS requirement is not acceptable for the first medium.
Step 610: End.
According to the process 60, a first UTD checks if it can fulfill the QoS requirement in the QoS negotiation request with the first medium when receiving the QoS negotiation request from a second UTD to a third UTD. The first UTD transmits the QoS negotiation response failure to the second UTD when determining that the QoS requirement is not acceptable for the first medium. On the other hand, the first UTD forwards the QoS negotiation request to the third UTD when determining that the QoS requirement is acceptable for the first medium.
Take an example based on the process 60. Referring back to
Note that, if the device 1 determines that it is not the destination of the negotiation request, the device 1 checks whether the QoS requirement is acceptable for the medium Medium 1 (in step 704). If the QoS requirement is not acceptable for the medium Medium 1, the device 1 drops the QoS negotiation request and responses a QoS negotiation response failure to the device A (in step 706). On the other hand, if the QoS requirement is acceptable for the medium Medium 1, the device 1 forwards the QoS negotiation request to the device 2 via the medium Medium 2 and waits for a QoS negotiation response from the destination device B (in step 708). If the devices 1 receives a QoS negotiation response success from the device B (i.e. through the devices 2 and n), the device 1 forwards the QoS negotiation response success to the device A, and configuring QoS parameters (in steps 710-712), whereas if the device 1 receives QoS negotiation response failure from the device B, the device 1 forwards the QoS negotiation response failure to the device A (in steps 713-714). Besides, if the device 1 receives no QoS negotiation response from the device B, the device 1 does nothing (in step 715). Note that, steps 700-715 can be applied in any device (i.e. devices 1, 2 and n), which is in a data path between device A and B. The detailed operation for the devices 2 and n can be referred from above, so it is omitted herein.
Based on the above description, a device between the source device and destination device, such as the abovementioned devices 1, 2, and n, has the ability to determine QoS behavior and perform QoS configuration according to the QoS negotiation response from the destination device or the medium capability. The “destination device” herein means a device which the source device wants to perform QoS negotiation with.
Please refer to
Step 800: Start.
Step 802: Via a first medium, receive a QoS negotiation request including QoS requirement from a second UTD of a second network using a second medium for communication.
Step 804: Determine whether the QoS requirement is acceptable for the first medium.
Step 806: Transmit a QoS negotiation response to the second UTD according to the determination.
Step 808: End.
According to the process 80, the first UTD receives the QoS negotiation request including QoS requirement from a second UTD, and checks if it can support this QoS requirement. In addition, the first UTD transmit the QoS negotiation response (e.g. a QoS negotiation response success or QoS negotiation response failure) to the second UTD based on the determination of whether the first medium supports the QoS requirement.
Take an example based on the process 80. Referring back to
Based on the above description, a destination device, such as the abovementioned device B, has the ability to determine QoS behavior and perform QoS configuration according to the medium capability.
Further, take a bandwidth reservation of QoS negotiation as an example. Please refer to
The difference between
On the other hand, if QoS requirement is not supported by the underlying PLC of the UTD2, the UTD2 replies QoS negotiation response failure to the UTD3, and the unified QoS module of the UTD2 does not configures the underlying PLC of QoS parameters. In addition, after the UTD3 receives the QoS negotiation response failure from the UTD2, the UTD3 forwards the received QoS negotiation response failure to the UTD1. Then, the unified QoS module of UTD1 reports QoS negotiation failure to the user.
Please note that, the abovementioned steps of the processes including suggested steps can be realized by means that could be hardware, firmware known as a combination of a hardware device and computer instructions and data that reside as read-only software on the hardware device, or an electronic system. Examples of hardware can include analog, digital and mixed circuits known as microcircuit, microchip, or silicon chip. Examples of the electronic system can include system on chip (SOC), system in package (Sip), computer on module (COM), and the communication device 20.
To sum up, the present invention provides a method of unified QoS negotiation cross multi-media. Thus, devices using different media know how to perform QoS negotiation, to provide a user of unified experience within QoS negotiation.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/535,337, filed on Sep. 15, 2011, entitled “Unified QoS Negotiation Method Cross Multi-Media”, the contents of which are incorporated herein in their entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61535337 | Sep 2011 | US |