Peer signaling protocol and system for decentralized traffic management
View Patent ↗A network communications protocol to allow endpoints in a computer network to communicate their respective requirements for access to a network resource to each other, and to communicate a policy for access to the network resource by the endpoints. The network protocol may also allow negotiation of access to the network resource for the respective endpoint in accordance with the policy and the requirements information communicated by other endpoints. The network resource may be access to a WAN connection or an Internet connection, or may be a device such as a network printer or network attached storage.
1. A method for each endpoint of a plurality of endpoints in a decentralized local area network, each endpoint communicating with each other endpoint in the network by signals passing over the local area network, the method comprising:
(a) providing the respective endpoint means for regulating access of the respective endpoint to a shared network resource;
(b) receiving a policy for allocation of use of said shared network resource among the plurality of endpoints;
(c) multicasting the respective endpoint access rate and access requirements to the shared network resource to each other endpoint in the local area network;
(d) self-allocating own and only own access to the network resource according to said policy, the multicasted access rate, the multicasted access requirements, and data on availability of said shared network resource; and
(e) self-enforcing the allocated access of the respective endpoint to the shared network resource using said means for regulating the respective endpoint own and only own access to the shared network resource.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the endpoint has means to identify presence of other endpoints on the network.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein said policy includes relative priority between endpoints.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further includes communicating any or all of an endpoint requested bandwidth, the data rate of the network resource, network statistics and network data.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein a distributed cache is implemented amongst a plurality of endpoints.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the network resource is an access point to a wide area network.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the network resource is an access point to the internet.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the policy for allocation to the network resource is a policy for allocation of a portion of bandwidth on a wide area network or internet connection to each endpoint, calculated as total available bandwidth available on the link divided by the number of endpoints.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein the policy for allocation of access to the network resource is a policy for allocation of a portion of bandwidth on a wide area network or internet connection to each endpoint, based on pre-set or communicated relative priority of each endpoint.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein there resides on the local area network at least one endpoint adapted to set and communicate said policy for access.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the local area network is a wireless network or a 3G mobile telephony network.
12. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprising the step of installing a software agent for resource management in the respective endpoint.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of endpoints includes at least three endpoints.
14. The method of claim 1 wherein the data rate in the local area network is at least two orders of magnitude higher than the data rate of the traffic to be presented to the shared network resource.
15. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further includes enabling priority queuing between software applications executed by the respective endpoint.
16. An endpoint in a decentralized network traffic management system for managing traffic flows to a shared network resource, the endpoint being one of a plurality of endpoints in a local area network, the endpoint including:
(a) means for regulating rate of access of the respective endpoint to the shared network resource; and
(b) a software agent associated with the respective endpoint, said software agent configured for:
(i) receiving a policy for allocation of use of said shared network resource among the plurality of endpoints;
(ii) multicasting the respective endpoint access rate and access requirements to the shared network resource to each other endpoint in the local area network;
(iii) self-allocating access of the respective endpoint to the network resource in accordance with the policy and the endpoint access rate and access requirements to the shared network resource communicated by all agents in the network; and
(iv) self-enforcing the allocated access of only the respective endpoint using said means for regulating rate of own and only own access of the respective endpoint to the shared network resource.
17. The endpoint of claim 16 wherein the plurality of endpoints is consisted of computing devices.
18. The endpoint of claim 16 wherein the plurality of endpoints is consisted of client devices.
19. The endpoint of claim 16 wherein at least one of the plurality of endpoints is a computer server.
20. The endpoint of claim 16 wherein at least one of the plurality of endpoints is a computer peripheral.
21. The endpoint of claim 16 wherein the local area network is a wireless network or a 3G mobile telephony network.
22. The endpoint of claim 18 wherein the client devices are selected from the group consisting of desktop computers, laptop computers and handheld computers.
23. The endpoint of claim 20 wherein the computer peripheral is selected from the group consisting of printers and scanners.