Source-aware network shaping

摘要

Systems and methods are described for source-aware shaping of network traffic in a communications system. Embodiments can manage resource congestion within a communications network by preferentially adjusting certain types of traffic on a per-subscriber and/or per-application basis. For example, a subscriber can receive various types of traffic in respective streams, and the streams can be identified according to whether they carry adaptive traffic. When a congestion condition is detected, one or more of the identified streams can be squeezed or expanded, which can cause an associated content source to automatically adapt communication of the adaptive traffic (e.g., its quality) to the reduced or expanded capacity. Selectively squeezing those streams identified as adaptive can appreciably mitigate congestion, while maintaining a desired level of network performance for the subscriber.

主权项

1. A system for network traffic shaping, the system comprising:
a plurality of stream pipes that each operates to carry network traffic of an associated traffic type from a content source to one or more subscriber terminals via a communications network, wherein only a subset of the plurality of stream pipes operates to carry adaptive traffic that is encoded in such a way that automatically adapts to throughput of its stream pipe; and a gateway, communicatively coupled with the plurality of stream pipes and disposed in the communications network between the content source and the subscriber terminals, the gateway comprising: a congestion management system that operates to
detect a congestion condition on the communications network; and a traffic shaping system that is communicatively coupled with the congestion management system and operates to adjust allocation of shared network resources of at least one of the subset of stream pipes in response to detecting the congestion condition.