Patent ID: 7969882
Filing Date: 2011-06-28
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A packet transfer rate monitoring control apparatus of a packet transfer apparatus for routing a variable length packet, wherein from a received packet, an upper layer flow to which the received packet belongs is identified, a packet transfer rate is measured from a transfer interval and a length of the received packet, and the measured packet transfer rate is compared with rate information preset for each flow to determine a priority order in which individual received packets are transferred, thereby preferentially transferring the packet received in relation to a flow whose packet transfer rate is less than a minimum guaranteed rate before the packet received in relation to a flow whose packet transfer rate is not less than the minimum guaranteed rate, and preferentially transferring the packet received in relation to the flow whose packet transfer rate is less than a maximum limiting rate before the packet received in relation to the flow whose packet transfer rate is not less than the maximum limiting rate, said control apparatus further comprising: upper layer flow identifying means for identifying, from header information of the received packet, the upper layer flow to which the received packet belongs; packet transfer rate measuring means for measuring the packet transfer rate from the transfer interval and the length of the received packet, for each flow identified by said upper layer flow identifying means; comparing means for comparing the packet transfer rate measured by said packet transfer rate measuring means with minimum guaranteed rate information and maximum limiting rate information preset for each flow; and classifying means for classifying flows corresponding to received packets, on a basis of a result of comparison by said comparing means, into wherein the packet received in relation to the flow which belongs to said group 1 is preferentially transferred before the packet received in relation to the flow which belongs to said group 2, and the packet received in relation to the flow which belongs to said group 2 is preferentially transferred before the packet received in relation to the flow which belongs to said group 3 is transferred, letting {M1, M2, . . . , Mi} be maximum limiting rates preset for flows {F1, F2, . . . , Fi} which belong to said group 1, and Msum be the sum total of said maximum limiting rates, weighting coefficients {W1, W2, . . . , Wi} for the flows {F1, F2, . . . , Fi} which belong to said group 1 are defined as letting {N1, N2, . . . , Nj} be maximum limiting rates preset for flows {G1, G2, . . . , Gj} which belong to said group 2, and Nsum be the sum total of said maximum limiting rates, weighting coefficients {V1, V2, . . . , Vj} for the flows {G1, G2, . . . , Gj} which belong to said group 2 are defined as letting C be an output interface rate of the received packet, the flows {F1, F2, . . . , Fi} of said group 1 are classified into a group 1A whose packet transfer rate is less than {C×W1, C×W2, . . . , C×Wi}, and a group 1B whose packet transfer rate is not less than {C×W1, C×W2, . . . , C×Wi}, and the flows {G1, G2, . . . , Gj} of said group 2 are classified into a group 2A whose packet transfer rate is less than {(C−Msum)×V1, (C−Msum)×V2, . . . , (C−Msum)×Vj}, and a group 2B whose packet transfer rate is not less than {(C−Msum)×V1, (C−Msum)×V2, . . . , (C−Msum)×Vj}, and the packet received in relation to the flow which belongs to said group 1A is preferentially transferred before the packet received in relation to the flow which belongs to said group 1B, and the packet received in relation to the flow which belongs to said group 2A is preferentially transferred before the packet received in relation to the flow which belongs to said group 2B.