US-12628028-B2 - Method and system for traffic engineering supporting real-time applications

US12628028B2US 12628028 B2US12628028 B2US 12628028B2US-12628028-B2

Abstract

Embodiments are disclosed for traffic engineering in support of real-time applications. A user equipment (UE) can detect a real-time application running on the UE, assess a link health corresponding to the real-time application, and transmit a payload including the link health to a peer device via WiFi communications. To detect the real-time application, the UE can receive traffic symptoms or application indications, and monitor corresponding traffic flows. To assess the link health, the UE can receive link quality metrics of a link corresponding to the link health, and determine an intra basic service set (BSS) clear channel assessment (CCA) percentage. The UE can initiate a Rapport session with the peer device, activate a keep-alive timer, and transmit updated information to the peer device according to the keep-alive timer.

Inventors

Veerendra Boodannavar

Assignees

APPLE INC.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20220923

Claims (20)

1 . A wireless device comprising: a transceiver; and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver, configured to: detect a real-time application running on the wireless device; assess a link health of a link corresponding to the real-time application, wherein the link is associated with a WiFi channel; subsequent to the assessment, monitor a traffic rate of the real-time application and a traffic rate of a non-real-time application running on the wireless device; determine that the traffic rate of the non-real-time application satisfies a threshold; and subsequent to the determination, dequeue an access category corresponding to the real-time application at a greater rate than an access category corresponding to the non-real-time application.
2 . The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein to detect the real-time application running on the wireless device, the processor is configured to: receive a traffic symptom comprising: current foreground traffic, current background traffic, or predicted foreground traffic; receive an application indication comprising: a jitter, a latency, a loss tolerance, a duration, a required minimum bandwidth, or a preferred bandwidth; monitor a traffic flow corresponding to the traffic symptom or the application indication; and detect the real-time application based at least on the monitored traffic flow.
3 . The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein to assess the link health, the processor is further configured to: receive a link quality metric corresponding to the link; determine based at least on the link quality metric, an intra basic service set (BSS) clear channel assessment (CCA) percentage corresponding to the link; and assess the link health based at least on the intra BSS CCA percentage.
4 . The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to construct a payload comprising: a basic service set (BSS) identifier (BSSID), a channel identifier, a bandwidth, or an application context.
5 . The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to: initiate a Rapport session with a peer device via WiFi communications; activate a keep-alive timer corresponding to the real-time application; and transmit updated information to the peer device according to the keep-alive timer.
6 . The wireless device of claim 5 , wherein the processor is further configured to: receive link event information corresponding to the link; and transmit second updated information to the peer device according to the link event information, wherein the link event information comprises: a disconnect of the link, or an indication that the wireless device has roamed.
7 . The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the greater rate for dequeuing the real-time application access category is at least two times that of the non-real-time application access category.
8 . The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit, via the transceiver to a peer device, a payload comprising the link health; and receive, via the transceiver from the peer device, an analysis result based on the payload indicating the link health has improved.
9 . The wireless device of claim 8 , wherein the link health improvement corresponds to a reduction of an intra BSS clear channel assessment (CCA) rate, a decrease in a transmit/receive (Tx/Rx) packet error rate (PER), or an increase in a Tx/Rx rate.
10 . A method for a wireless device comprising: detecting a real-time application running on the wireless device; assessing a link health of a link corresponding to the real-time application, wherein the link is associated with a WiFi channel; subsequent to the assessment, monitoring a traffic rate of the real-time application and a traffic rate of a non-real-time application running on the wireless device; determining that the traffic rate of the non-real-time application satisfies a threshold; and subsequent to the determination, dequeuing an access category corresponding to the real-time application at a greater rate than an access category corresponding to the non-real-time application.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the detecting the real-time application running on the wireless device comprises: receiving a traffic symptom comprising: current foreground traffic, current background traffic, or predicted foreground traffic; receiving an application indication comprising: a jitter, a latency, a loss tolerance, a duration, a required minimum bandwidth, or a preferred bandwidth; monitoring a traffic flow corresponding to the traffic symptom or the application indication; and detecting the real-time application based at least on the monitored traffic flow.
12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the assessing the link health comprises: receiving a link quality metric corresponding to the link; determining based at least on the link quality metric, an intra basic service set (BSS) clear channel assessment (CCA) percentage corresponding to the link; and assessing the link health based at least on the intra BSS CCA percentage.
13 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising: initiating a Rapport session with a peer device via WiFi communications; activating a keep-alive timer; and transmitting first updated information to the peer device according to the keep-alive timer.
14 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising: receiving link event information corresponding to the link; and transmitting second updated information to the peer device according to the link event information, wherein the link event information comprises: a disconnect of the link, or an indication that the wireless device has roamed.
15 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of a wireless device, cause the wireless device to perform operations, the operations comprising: detecting a real-time application running on the wireless device; assessing a link health of a link corresponding to the real-time application, wherein the link is associated with a WiFi channel; subsequent to the assessment, monitoring a traffic rate of the real-time application and a traffic rate of a non-real-time application running on the wireless device; determining that the traffic rate of the non-real-time application satisfies a threshold; and subsequent to the determination, dequeuing an access category corresponding to the real-time application at a greater rate than an access category corresponding to the non-real-time application.
16 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein to detect the real-time application running on the wireless device, the operations comprise: receiving a traffic symptom comprising: current foreground traffic, current background traffic, or predicted foreground traffic; receiving an application indication comprising: a jitter, a latency, a loss tolerance, a duration, a required minimum bandwidth, or a preferred bandwidth; monitoring a traffic flow corresponding to the traffic symptom or the application indication; and detecting the real-time application based at least on the monitored traffic flow.
17 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein to assess the link health, the operations comprise: receive a link quality metric corresponding to the link; determine based at least on the link quality metric, an intra basic service set (BSS) clear channel assessment (CCA) percentage corresponding to the link; and assess the link health based at least on the intra BSS CCA percentage.
18 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the operations comprise constructing a payload comprising: a basic service set (BSS) identifier (BSSID), a channel identifier, a bandwidth, or an application context.
19 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise: initiating a Rapport session with a peer device via WiFi communications; activating a keep-alive timer corresponding to the real-time application; and transmitting updated information to the peer device according to the keep-alive timer.
20 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the operations further comprise: receiving link event information corresponding to the link; and transmitting second updated information to the peer device according to the link event information, wherein the link event information comprises: a disconnect of the link, or an indication that the wireless device has roamed.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/348,891, filed on Jun. 3, 2022, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND Field The embodiments relate generally to wireless devices running real-time applications in a wireless communication system. Related Art Wireless local area network (WLAN) communications are described in IEEE P802.11REVme_D1.0, Draft Standard for Information technology—Telecommunications and information exchange between systems Local and metropolitan area networks—Specific requirements, Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications “IEEE P802.11REVme”. SUMMARY Some embodiments include a system, apparatus, article of manufacture, method, and/or computer program product and/or combinations and sub-combinations thereof, for traffic engineering for real-time applications. Herein, a real-time application transmits/receives latency sensitive traffic. A non-real-time application refers to an application that transmits/receives traffic that is not latency sensitive. Some embodiments include a user equipment (UE) that can detect a real-time application running on the UE, assess the health of a link corresponding to the real-time application, and transmit a payload including the link health, to a peer device via WiFi communications. To detect the real-time application running on the UE, the UE can receive or determine traffic symptoms including: current foreground traffic, current background traffic, or predicted foreground traffic. The UE can also receive or determine application indications including: jitter, latency, loss tolerance, duration, required minimum bandwidth, or preferred bandwidth. The UE can monitor traffic flows corresponding to the traffic symptoms or the application indications, and detect the real-time application based at least on the monitored traffic flows. The UE can monitor traffic rates of the real-time application and a non-real-time application, and determine that a traffic rate of the non-real-time application satisfies a threshold. After the threshold is satisfied, the UE can dequeue access categories (ACs) corresponding to the real-time application at a greater rate than the access categories corresponding to the non-real-time application. To assess the link health, the UE can receive or determine link quality metrics corresponding to the link, and determine based at least on the link quality metrics, an intra basic service set (BSS) clear channel assessment (CCA) percentage corresponding to the link. The UE can assess the link health based at least on the intra BSS CCA percentage. To transmit the payload, the UE can construct the payload to include: a BSS identifier (BSSID), a channel identifier, a bandwidth, and/or an application context. The UE can initiate a Rapport session with the peer device, where the WiFi communications utilize the Rapport session. The UE can activate a keep-alive timer corresponding to the real-time application, and transmit updated information to the peer device according to the keep-alive timer. The UE an also receive link event information corresponding to the link, and transmit second updated information to the peer device according to the link event information, where the link event information can include a disconnect of the link, or an indication that the UE has roamed (e.g., away from the BSS). In some embodiments a UE can detect a non-real-time application running on the UE, and receive a payload from a peer device on a BSS, where the peer device is running a real-time application. Subsequently, the UE can initiate a congestion control mechanism based at least on the payload. The payload can also include: an identifier of the BSS, a channel identifier, a bandwidth, or an application context. To initiate the congestion control mechanism, the UE can limit uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) transmissions by implementing: a dynamic sleep timer, frame burst transmissions, and/or limited aggregations. The UE can tune a value of the dynamic sleep timer according to a link health of a link corresponding to the real-time application. The UE can establish a Rapport session with the peer device, where the payload is received via the Rapport session, and receive updated information from the peer device regarding the real-time application or a connection of the peer device to the BSS. In some embodiments, the UE can also detect a second real-time application running on the UE, and determine that a traffic rate of the non-real-time application satisfies a threshold. Subsequently, the UE can dequeue ACs corresponding to the second real-time application at a greater rate than ACs corresponding to the non-real-time application. To detect the non-real-time application running on the UE, the UE can receive or determine traffic symptoms including: current foreground traffic, current background traffic, or predicted fo