Patent attributes
For on-demand Quality of Service (QoS) transmission of packets, edge nodes update a TERMINAL-PORT TABLE as terminals log-on and then pass their node ID to each terminal that logged on. The nodes establish Quality of Service (QoS) assured pre-set paths through the WAN with conventional IP routing and accordingly update their NODE-PATH TABLE to provide links between the pre-set paths, network resources upon which the QoS of the paths depend and identification of a last-hop node, without the need for identification of each destination terminal of the paths. An application level connection between source and destination terminals, using conventional IP routing, provides the source terminal with identification of the last-hop node that is coupled to a destination terminal. The source terminal provides the first-hop node the last-hop node ID, the destination ID and flow information. The first-hop node creates its FLOW-PATH TABLE and transmits the information to the last-hop node, which creates its FLOW-PORT TABLE. The last-hop and first-hop nodes send acknowledgements to the source terminal. As a part of creating the FLOW-PATH TABLE, the NODE-PATH TABLE is searched and a QoS path extracted based upon the request and the last-hop node ID. Then packets are sent from the source terminal to the destination terminal over the designated path. Thereby, nodes do not need to link pre-set paths to destination terminals prior to receiving a request for a QoS path, which reduces network storage capacity requirements and computational load as compared to a conventional pre-set path system.
