Sector-based quality-of-service enforcement

1. A method of operating a communication system, comprising:

in a wireless access node, receiving communication packets from wireless devices communicating in sectors over wireless links, determining wireless device identifiers of the wireless devices, sector identifiers of the sectors, and associations between the communication packets, the wireless device identifiers, and the sector identifiers, and transferring the communication packets, the wireless device identifiers, the sector identifiers, and the associations;

in a packet processing system, receiving the communication packets, the wireless device identifiers, the sector identifiers, and the associations between the communication packets, the wireless device identifiers, and the sector identifiers, determining application types of the communication packets based on at least the communication packets, determining sector activity profiles for the sectors that relate the application types present in each of the sectors as a portion of total communication packets for each sector, determining quality-of-service policies based on the sector activity profiles to adjust a quality-of-service provided to at least one of the applications in at least one of the sectors, and transferring the quality-of-service policies;

in the wireless access node, receiving the quality-of-service policies and enforcing a level of service to the wireless devices over the wireless links based on the quality-of-service policies.

2. The method of operating the communication system of claim 1 , further comprising:

in the packet processing system, inspecting payloads of the communication packets to determine the application types.

3. The method of operating the communication system of claim 1 , further comprising:

in the packet processing system, transferring the communication packets.

4. The method of operating the communication system of claim 1 , wherein the quality-of-service policies are defined for each of the application types.

5. The method of operating the communication system of claim 1 , wherein each of the sectors comprise at least one antenna.

6. The method of operating the communication system of claim 1 , wherein the wireless access node comprises at least one base station and wherein the at least one base station comprises at least one sector.

7. The method of operating the communication system of claim 1 , wherein the quality-of-service policies comprise controlling a bandwidth of video application types.

8. The method of operating the communication system of claim 1 , wherein the quality-of-service policies comprise controlling a bandwidth of peer-to-peer application types.

9. The method of operating the communication system of claim 1 , wherein the quality-of-service policies comprise preferring voice application types.

10. A communication system, comprising:

a wireless access node configured to receive communication packets from wireless devices communicating in sectors over wireless links, wherein the communication packets indicate an application type, determine wireless device identifiers of the wireless devices, sector identifiers of the sectors, and associations between the communication packets, the wireless device identifiers, and the sector identifiers, and transfer the associations, and transfer the communication packets, the wireless device identifiers, the sector identifiers, and the associations;

a packet processing system configured to receive the communication packets, the wireless device identifiers, the sector identifiers, and the associations between the communication packets, the wireless device identifiers, and the sector identifiers, determine the application types of the communication packets based on at least the communication packets, determine sector activity profiles for the sectors that relate the application types present in each of the sectors as a portion of total communication packets for each sector, determine quality-of-service policies based on the sector activity profiles to adjust a quality-of-service provided to at least one of the applications in at least one of the sectors, and transfer the quality-of-service policies;

the wireless access node configured to receive the quality-of-service policies and enforce a level of service to the wireless devices over the wireless links based on the quality-of-service policies.

11. The communication system of claim 10 , wherein the packet processing system is configured to inspect payloads of the communication packets to determine the application types.

12. The communication system of claim 10 , wherein the packet processing system is configured to transfer the communication packets.

13. The communication system of claim 10 , wherein the quality-of-service policies are defined for each of the application types.

14. The communication system of claim 10 , wherein each of the sectors comprise at least one antenna.

15. The communication system of claim 10 , wherein the wireless access node comprises at least one base station and wherein the at least one base station comprises at least one sector.

16. The communication system of claim 10 , wherein the quality-of-service policies comprise controlling a bandwidth of video application types.

17. The communication system of claim 10 , wherein the quality-of-service policies comprise controlling a bandwidth of peer-to-peer application types.

18. The communication system of claim 10 , wherein the quality-of-service policies comprise preferring voice application types.