System, method, and computer program for selecting from among available network access points based on an associated quality of experience for use by a client device to access a network
地域：
Limassol
摘要
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for maintaining quality of experience (QoE) for a client device on a network. In use, access points that are available to a client device are determined, based on a policy. Additionally, a current QoE provided to the client device by one of the access points utilized by the client device to access the network is determined. This QoE could be valued as a score computed by a function called QoE Metric taking QoS parameters as inputs. An expected QoE associated with each of the other access points is then determined. Further, the access point utilized by the client device to access the network is conditionally switched to one of the other access points, based on the current QoE and the expected QoEs. Additionally, any potential QoE downgrades on the current access point is detected using QoE Degradation Patterns that could be matched with current QoS measures and can encourage the client device to determine more accurately the current QoE.
說明書
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/014,268, filed Aug. 29, 2013, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,379,948; and U.S. application Ser. No. 15/166,184, filed May 26, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,712,400; the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to the provisioning of network services provided, and more particularly to quality of service (QoS) related to the provisioning of network services.
Generally, network services are provisioned to network devices (e.g. client devices, etc.) with a required, expected, or otherwise desired QoS. Identifying the current QoS delivered by the network and the resulting Quality of Experience for the users is a difficult problem because it requires one to have measures on both the client and the network sides. Techniques used in the past to monitor and/or maintain QoS for a network service have been limited because it does not provide a collaborative approach between the network and the client sides. For example, these techniques may assume that either the QoS information is known accurately from network elements (e.g. routers, etc.), or that a network device can measure the QoS by sending/retrieving packets, which may be costly for the network operator and network device, respectively.
There is thus a need for addressing these and/or other issues associated with the prior art. For example, embodiments of the proposed invention describe a system that can optimally address this matter by mutualizing in one algorithm on the devices all the meaningful information retrieved for the client and any servers sitting in the network.
權(quán)利要求
What is claimed is:1. A computer program embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising:computer code for storing a configuration file for a client device, the configuration file for use in maintaining a desired level of quality of experience (QoE) of the client device and the configuration file including:a policy dependent on a user profile that prioritizes sub-networks associated with the access points by cost, and a QoE degradation pattern that is a predefined pattern indicating degradation in the QoE of the client device; computer code for using the QoE degradation pattern in the configuration file to determine that the client device is showing the QoE degradation pattern; computer code for determining a subset of all access points that are available to the client device, based on the policy; computer code for determining a current QoE provided to the client device by one of the access points currently utilized by the client device to access a network, the current QoE being automatically determined by evaluating a first predefined function that takes as input at least one first quality of service (QoS) value measured based on operation of the client device; computer code for determining an expected QoE associated with each of the other access points in the subset, the expected QoE associated with each of the other access points being determined from an evaluation of a second predefined function that takes as input at least one second QoS value measured based on operation of the other access point; computer code responsive to the determination that the client device is showing the QoE degradation pattern for switching the access point utilized by the client device to access the network to one of the other access points in the subset, based on the current QoE and the expected QoEs. 2. The computer program of claim 1 , wherein the policy indicates at least one trigger for determining the subset of all access points that are available to the client device. 3. The computer program of claim 2 , wherein the at least one trigger occurs in response to identification that a location of the client device has changed. 4. The computer program of claim 2 , wherein the at least one trigger occurs at a periodic interval. 5. The computer program of claim 1 , wherein the current QoE is determined in response to the determination that the client device is showing the QoE degradation pattern. 6. The computer program of claim 5 , wherein the QoE degradation pattern is identified utilizing a script. 7. The computer program of claim 5 , wherein the QoE degradation pattern is determined from expected usage of the client device and applications running on the client device. 8. The computer program of claim 1 , wherein a server determines the expected QoE for each of the other access points in the subset, and wherein the client device determines the expected QoE for each of the other access points in the subset by receiving the expected QoEs from the server. 9. The computer program of claim 8 , wherein the server performs the evaluation of the predefined QoE metric by collecting QoS information measured by all client devices connected to the access points and reported to the server. 10. The computer program of claim 1 , wherein the determination of the subset of all access points that are available to the client device is performed by the client device. 11. The computer program of claim 1 , wherein the current QoE is a subjective parameter representing the at least one QoS value measured based on operation of the client device, as expected to be perceived by a user of the client device. 12. The computer program of claim 1 , wherein the client device determines the current QoE. 13. The computer program of claim 1 , wherein the access point utilized by the client device to access the network is switched to the one of the other access points in the subset when the expected QoE for the one of the other access points is greater than the current QoE. 14. The computer program of claim 1 , wherein the network is a heterogeneous network, and the access points are located across sub-networks of the heterogeneous network. 15. The computer program of claim 1 , wherein the current QoE and the expected QoE are each a measure of network performance at a service level from a user perspective and wherein each of the first and second QoS values is a measure of the network performance at a packet level from a network perspective. 16. A system, comprising:a processor for:storing a configuration file for a client device, the configuration file for use in maintaining a desired level of quality of experience (QoE) of the client device and the configuration file including:a policy dependent on a user profile that prioritizes sub-networks associated with the access points by cost, and a QoE degradation pattern that is a predefined pattern indicating degradation in the QoE of the client device; using the QoE degradation pattern in the configuration file to determine that the client device is showing the QoE degradation pattern; determining a subset of all access points that are available to the client device, based on the policy; determining a current QoE provided to the client device by one of the access points currently utilized by the client device to access a network, the current QoE being automatically determined by evaluating a first predefined function that takes as input at least one first quality of service (QoS) value measured based on operation of the client device; determining an expected QoE associated with each of the other access points in the subset, the expected QoE associated with each of the other access points being determined from an evaluation of a second predefined function that takes as input at least one second QoS value measured based on operation of the other access point; responsive to the determination that the client device is showing the QoE degradation pattern, switching the access point utilized by the client device to access the network to one of the other access points in the subset, based on the current QoE and the expected QoEs. 17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the processor is coupled to memory via a bus. 18. A method, comprising:storing a configuration file for a client device, the configuration file for use in maintaining a desired level of quality of experience (QoE) of the client device and the configuration file including:a policy dependent on a user profile that prioritizes sub-networks associated with the access points by cost, and a QoE degradation pattern that is a predefined pattern indicating degradation in the QoE of the client device; using the QoE degradation pattern in the configuration file to determine that the client device is showing the QoE degradation pattern; determining a subset of all access points that are available to the client device, based on the policy; determining a current QoE provided to the client device by one of the access points currently utilized by the client device to access a network, the current QoE being automatically determined by evaluating a first predefined function that takes as input at least one first quality of service (QoS) value measured based on operation of the client device; determining an expected QoE associated with each of the other access points in the subset, the expected QoE associated with each of the other access points being determined from an evaluation of a second predefined function that takes as input at least one second QoS value measured based on operation of the other access point; responsive to the determination that the client device is showing the QoE degradation pattern, switching the access point utilized by the client device to access the network to one of the other access points in the subset, based on the current QoE and the expected QoEs.
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