Regulating content streams from a weighted fair queuing scheduler using weights defined for user equipment nodes

摘要

Apparatuses and methods control communication of content streams through a content distribution network. A data repository is accessed to retrieve information which identifies a group of user equipment nodes that are registered with one of a plurality of subscriber accounts and which further identifies weight values that are associated with the group of the user equipment nodes. Communication bit rates that are provided by a weighted fair queuing scheduler node to individual ones of a group of the content streams within bandwidth allocated to a virtual pipe for carrying the group of the content streams through the content distribution network to the group of the user equipment nodes, are regulated responsive to the weight values associated with the group of the user equipment nodes. Weighted fair queuing scheduling can thereby be provided at a virtual pipe level and, furthermore, at a user equipment node level.

主权项

1. A method by at least one network node for controlling communication of content streams through a content distribution network, the method comprising:
defining subscriber-level weight values corresponding to a plurality of subscribers being served by an edge replication server node, wherein each subscriber is associated with a corresponding subscriber account and a subscriber-level weight value is operative for regulating bandwidth of a shareable virtual pipe associated with a particular one of the subscribers; receiving a set of priority values assigned by a subscriber with respect to a group of user equipment (UE) nodes registered with the subscriber; generating a set of device-level weight values corresponding to the UE nodes based at least in part upon the priority values of the UE nodes and storing the device-level weight values in a data repository; accessing the data repository to retrieve information which identifies the user equipment nodes registered with the subscriber and which further identifies the device-level weight values that are associated with the group of the user equipment nodes; regulating, by a weighted fair queuing (WFQ) scheduler node, bandwidth allocation to each virtual pipe associated with a corresponding subscriber, responsive to the subscriber-level weight value defined for the corresponding subscriber; and regulating, by the WFQ scheduler node, communication bit rates of a group of content streams within a particular virtual pipe of the corresponding subscriber, wherein each content stream is delivered to a particular one of the group of user equipment nodes registered with the corresponding subscriber and regulated responsive to the device-level weight value of the corresponding UE node.