QUALITY OF SERVICE FOR MIXED SERVICE TIERS

摘要

Improving the quality of service in multiple service tiers, particularly during periods of Internet congestion, may be accomplished by scaling back the bitrate from a maximum rate to a minimum reserved rate in a non-linear fashion. The use of an intermediate value for scaling back enables a quick drop off of high maximum rates. In embodiments, the shape of a non-linear curve may be configured and controlled to make the drop-off steeper for heavy users.

主权项

1. A method for a non-linear reduction in bitrates for service-flows using shared Internet bandwidth as congestion increases, the method comprising:
identifying a maximum bitrate and a minimum reserved bitrate for each of a plurality of service-flows; and determining at least one intermediate bitrate for each of the plurality of service-flows to alter a linear scaling between the maximum bitrate to the minimum reserved bitrate, the at least one intermediate bitrate determined to cause, as congestion of the shared Internet bandwidth increases, both:
a reduction in the bitrates for each service flow between the maximum bitrate and the intermediate bitrate that is greater than that of a linear reduction between the maximum and minimum reserved bitrates, anda greater reduction in bitrates servicing heavier users than a reduction in bitrates servicing comparatively lighter users, wherein inserting the at least one intermediate bitrate alters the scaling between the maximum bitrate and the minimum reserved bitrate to cause an increasing reduction in a ratio of the operative bitrates to respective maximum rates between service-flows as the congestion increases.