Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for allocating bandwidth in teleconferencing applications using bandwidth control

US5983261A · kind A · utility

95Cited by
3References
4Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateJul 1, 1996
Grant dateNov 9, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 1, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L69/329
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

In the present invention, in some embodiments, an administrator assigns a total bandwidth allocation to at least one other computer system, and the computer system parcels the bandwidth among the applications running on the computer system. In the operation of one embodiment of the present invention, an administrator sends a bandwidth maximum allocation to each node on the system. Each node determines a current bandwidth being used, and limits the current bandwidth to this allocation. Thereafter, each node then reallocates its usable bandwidth among applications running on the nodes that are attempting to send messages over the network. For each application, a current bandwidth use is determined, as well as a current bandwidth demand. The current bandwidth demand is the amount of bandwidth that the application would be using if no other applications were running on the node and if there were no limitations on the amount of data the application could send to the network. A ratio is calculated to determine the amount of the bandwidth demand currently being satisfied for each application, thus calculating the happiness factor for the application.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.