Granted Patent B2

US 12,640,847 · App. 17/813,624 · Granted May 26, 2026

Inventors: Robert Barton (Richmond, CA); Jerome Henry (Pittsboro, NC); Thomas Szigeti (Vancouver, CA); Indermeet Singh Gandhi (San Jose, CA)

Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.

H04L1/08H04L45/74H04W28/04

Abstract

Claims (59)

1 . A method comprising:

receiving a data packet comprising a Differentiated Service Code Point (DSCP) field in a header;

determining that the data packet comprises a candidate traffic for bi-casting;

setting, in response to determining that the data packet comprises the candidate traffic for bi-casting, a flag in the DSCP field in the header of the data packet, wherein the flag triggers replication of the data packet and simultaneous bi-casting of the data packet and replicated data packet on two different and independent wireless communication links; and

sending the data packet to a destination device, wherein sending the data packet to the destination device comprises:

replicating, by a network interface of a user device, the data packet,

sending the data packet to a first Access Point (AP) over a first Wireless Channel Link (WCL) through a first radio of the user device, wherein the first radio establishes the first WCL with the first AP, and

simultaneously sending the replicated data packet to a second AP over a second WCL through a second radio of the user device, wherein the second radio establishes the second WCL with the second AP.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein setting the flag comprises changing a Least Significant Bit (LSB) in the DSCP field from a first value to a second value.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein changing the LSB in the DSCP field in the header of the data packet from the first value to the second value comprises changing the LSB in the DSCP field from a bit value 0 to a bit value 1.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by the first AP, the data packet;

removing, by the first AP, the flag from the DSCP field of the data packet; and

forwarding, by the first AP after removing the flag from the DSCP field of the data packet, the data packet towards the destination device.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by the second AP, the replicated data packet by the second AP;

removing, by the second AP, the flag from the DSCP field of the replicated data packet; and

forwarding, by the second AP after removing the flag from the DSCP field of the replicated data packet, the replicated data packet towards the destination device.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving the data packet and replicated data packet by the destination device; and

discarding, by the destination device, one of the data packet and the replicated data packet.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first AP and the second AP form a Multi-Link Orchestration (MLO) cluster.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein simultaneously sending the replicated data packet to the second AP over the second WCL through the second radio of the user device comprises simultaneously sending the replicated data packet to the second AP over the second WCL through the second radio of the user device in response to degradation of the first WCL.

9 . A system comprising:

a memory storage; and

a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is operative to:

receive a data packet comprising a Differentiated Service Code Point (DSCP) field in a header;

determine that the data packet comprises a candidate traffic for bi-casting;

set, in response to determining that the data packet comprises the candidate traffic for bi-casting, a flag in the DSCP field in the header of the data packet, wherein the flag triggers replication of the data packet and simultaneous bi-casting of the data packet and replicated data packet on two different and independent wireless communication links; and

send the data packet to a destination device, wherein the processing unit being operative to send the data packet to the destination device comprises the processing unit being operative to:

replicate, at a network interface of a user device, the data packet;

send the data packet to a first Access Point (AP) over a first Wireless Channel Link (WCL) through a first radio of the user device, wherein the first radio establishes the first WCL with the first AP, and

simultaneously send the replicated data packet to a second AP over a second WCL through a second radio of the user device, wherein the second radio establishes the second WCL with the second AP.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the processing unit being operative to set the flag comprises the processing unit being operative to change a Least Significant bit (LSB) in the DSCP field of the data packet from a first value to a second value.

11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the processing unit being operative to change the LSB in the DSCP field from the first value to the second value comprises the processing unit being operative to change the LSB in the DSCP field from a bit value 0 to a bit value 1.

12 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the processing unit being operative to determine that the data packet comprises the candidate traffic for bi-casting comprises the processing unit being operative to determine that the data packet comprises a latency sensitive traffic.

13 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the first AP and the second AP form a Multi-Link Orchestration (MLO) cluster.

14 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the data packet is generated by a Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality application.

15 . A method comprising:

receiving a data packet;

detecting a trigger for bi-casting the data packet, wherein detecting the trigger comprises determining that a Differentiated Service Code Point (DSCP) field in a header of the data packet comprises a flag that triggers replication of the data packet and simultaneous bi-casting of the data packet; and

bi-casting the data packet in response to detecting the trigger, wherein bi-casting the data packet comprises:

replicating, at a network interface of a user device, the data packet,

forwarding the data packet to a first Access Point (AP) over a first Wireless Channel Link (WCL) through a first radio of the user device, wherein the first radio establishes the first WCL with the first AP, and

simultaneously forwarding the replicated data packet to a second AP over a second WCL through a second radio of the user device, wherein the second radio establishes the second WCL with the second AP.

16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

receiving, by the first AP, the data packet;

removing, by the first AP, the flag from the DSCP field of the data packet; and

forwarding, by the first AP, the data packet to a destination device.

17 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

receiving, by a destination device, the data packet and replicated data packet; and

discarding, by the destination device, one of the data packet and the replicated data packet.

18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein detecting the trigger for bi-casting the data packet comprises determining that a Least Significant Bit (LSB) of the DSCP field comprises a bit value 1.

19 . The method of claim 15 , wherein forwarding the data packet to the first AP comprises:

establishing the first WCL with the first AP through a first radio; and

forwarding the data packet over the first WCL.

20 . The method of claim 15 , wherein forwarding the replicated data packet to the second AP comprises:

establishing the second WCL with the second AP through a second radio; and

forwarding the replicated data packet over the second WCL.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (32)