Patents by Inventor Peter B. Key
Peter B. Key has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
-
Patent number: 8045463Abstract: In example methods and algorithms, a node in a wireless mesh network calculates an estimated cost for a packet flow through the node. The estimation may be based on the back-log at the node and the cost of downstream neighbor nodes for the flow. Further, selection of a downstream flow and a downstream neighbor node may be based on the estimation. A packet re-ordering algorithm is also described which intercepts packets received at a node and delays delivery of the packet to the IP layer if an earlier packet in the sequence of packets has not been received.Type: GrantFiled: July 30, 2008Date of Patent: October 25, 2011Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Bozidar Radunovic, Christos Gkantsidis, Dinan Gunawardena, Peter B. Key
-
Patent number: 7912003Abstract: A method of transmitting data across a wireless mesh network is described which uses network coding at each of the intermediate nodes between the source node and the destination node. Each intermediate node also controls the rate at which it broadcasts packets based on link congestion and the backlog of packets at each of the possible next-hop nodes for the data flow.Type: GrantFiled: June 27, 2007Date of Patent: March 22, 2011Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Bozidar Radunovic, Christos Gkantsidis, Peter B. Key, Dinan Gunawardena, Wenjun Hu, Pablo Rodriguez
-
Patent number: 7843828Abstract: Methods and systems for detecting and predicting congestion patterns from network feedback are described. In the inventive embodiments, network feedback in the form of binary feedback messages is received. The network feedback can comprise any suitable feedback messages and, in the illustrated and described embodiments comprise packet loss events or ECN marks, to name just a few. The inventive embodiment uses the network feedback to predict when congestion is likely to occur in the future. Based on these predictions, the behavior of end users within the system can be modified so that congestion is reduced. Specifically, the data packets that are typically transmitted by the end users can be delayed until such a time when the predicted congestion is mitigated. Thus, the inventive systems and methods take a predictive, proactive approach to addressing network congestion issues, rather than a reactive approach.Type: GrantFiled: May 27, 2004Date of Patent: November 30, 2010Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Peter B. Key, Laurent Massoulie, Koenraad Laevens
-
Patent number: 7689686Abstract: Various actively probing techniques on a network allow an estimation of the sustainable capacity available in the network. One implementation probes the network using two probe sequences having different loads. Probe estimates associated with each sequence are used to estimate the sustainable capacity in the network. Another implementation probes the network using two probe sequences, in which either the probe packet size or the inter-probe gap are different between the sequences. Calculation of a delay trend for each sequence leads to estimate of the maximum network capacity and the background load on the network. Yet another implementation uses a windowing technique to probe the sustainable capacity in the network. The window size is increased until the network is saturated. The number of bytes transferred within the window during a given time period is an estimate of the sustainable capacity of the network.Type: GrantFiled: October 28, 2003Date of Patent: March 30, 2010Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Dinan S. Gunawardena, Laurent Massoulie, Peter B. Key
-
Patent number: 7672234Abstract: Network congestion avoidance within aggregated channels is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method first transmits a packet associated with a first channel of a plurality of related channels from a source protocol layer (e.g., a source IP layer) of a source through a network (e.g., the Internet). Next, the method triggers an ECN event by the packet at the network. Finally, at least one channel is determined to have decreased packets transmitted therethrough, in response to the triggering of the ECN event (e.g., based on a congestion pricing criteria).Type: GrantFiled: January 19, 2006Date of Patent: March 2, 2010Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Derek McAuley, Peter B. Key, Paul R. Barham, Koenraad Laevens
-
Publication number: 20100027424Abstract: Methods and algorithms for path estimation in a wireless mesh network are described. In an embodiment, each node calculates its cost for a packet flow based on the back-log at the node and the cost of downstream neighbor nodes for the flow. The cost is communicated to the upstream neighbor nodes for the flow. When a node has an opportunity to transmit a packet, a flow is selected by the node based on the back-log at the node and the costs received from each of the downstream neighbor nodes. These costs are then also used to select a downstream neighbor node is selected based on the costs received from each of the downstream neighbor nodes. A packet re-ordering algorithm is also described which intercepts packets received at a node and delays delivery of the packet to the IP layer if an earlier packet in the sequence of packets has not been received.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 30, 2008Publication date: February 4, 2010Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Bozidar Radunovic, Christos Gkantsidis, Dinan Gunawardena, Peter B. Key
-
Patent number: 7649841Abstract: An end-to-end congestion control is provided that emulates a different service differentiation than the common low-normal priority. This protocol is referred to as 4CP (Competitive, Considerate Congestion Control). The target service differentiation enables provisioning of per-flow average bandwidth guarantees to “normal” traffic, but not at the expense of potentially starving the “low” priority traffic (4CP). It thus features incentive compatibility to file-transfer applications that are throughput-greedy but want to be considerate to other traffic. 4CP is implemented and configured as a sender-only adaptation of standard TCP, and requires no special network feedback. Configuration of the bandwidth guarantee is either statically configured or automatically adjusted by 4CP. The automatic mode aims to be TCP-friendly over appropriately large timescale.Type: GrantFiled: June 16, 2006Date of Patent: January 19, 2010Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Dinan Gunawardena, Shao Liu, Laurent Massoulie, Milan Vojnovic, Peter B. Key
-
Publication number: 20090161546Abstract: Methods and systems for detecting and predicting congestion patterns from network feedback are described. In the inventive embodiments, network feedback in the form of binary feedback messages is received. The network feedback can comprise any suitable feedback messages and, in the illustrated and described embodiments comprise packet loss events or ECN marks, to name just a few. The inventive embodiment uses the network feedback to predict when congestion is likely to occur in the future. Based on these predictions, the behavior of end users within the system can be modified so that congestion is reduced. Specifically, the data packets that are typically transmitted by the end users can be delayed until such a time when the predicted congestion is mitigated. Thus, the inventive systems and methods take a predictive, proactive approach to addressing network congestion issues, rather than a reactive approach.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 27, 2004Publication date: June 25, 2009Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Peter B. Key, Laurent Massoulie, Koenraad Laevens
-
Patent number: 7516238Abstract: In an application-level background transport service, a receiver node infers the available network capacity between itself and a sender node over a control interval. Based on the inferred available network capacity, the receiver node adjusts its receive window size accordingly in order to conservatively optimize the bandwidth used by a background transfer without degrading performance of other foreground transfers on the network. The adjusted receive window size is communicated to the sender node, which is likely to adjust its send window size based on the adjusted receive window size.Type: GrantFiled: September 30, 2003Date of Patent: April 7, 2009Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Peter B. Key, Laurent Massoulie, Bing Wang
-
Publication number: 20090003216Abstract: A method of transmitting data across a wireless mesh network is described which uses network coding at each of the intermediate nodes between the source node and the destination node. Each intermediate node also controls the rate at which it broadcasts packets based on link congestion and the backlog of packets at each of the possible next-hop nodes for the data flow.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 27, 2007Publication date: January 1, 2009Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Bozidar Radunovic, Christos Gkantsidis, Peter B. Key, Dinan Gunawardena, Wenjun Hu, Pablo Rodriguez
-
Publication number: 20070211633Abstract: An end-to-end congestion control is provided that emulates a different service differentiation than the common low-normal priority. This protocol is referred to as 4CP (Competitive, Considerate Congestion Control). The target service differentiation enables provisioning of per-flow average bandwidth guarantees to “normal” traffic, but not at the expense of potentially starving the “low” priority traffic (4CP). It thus features incentive compatibility to file-transfer applications that are throughput-greedy but want to be considerate to other traffic. 4CP is implemented and configured as a sender-only adaptation of standard TCP, and requires no special network feedback. Configuration of the bandwidth guarantee is either statically configured or automatically adjusted by 4CP. The automatic mode aims to be TCP-friendly over appropriately large timescale.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 16, 2006Publication date: September 13, 2007Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Dinan Gunawardena, Shao Liu, Laurent Massoulie, Milan Vojnovic, Peter B. Key
-
Patent number: 7225267Abstract: Real time communications over a network are adjusted to improve the quality of service (QoS) under incipient congestion conditions. The system detects incipient network congestion and feeds back information regarding the incipient congestion back to the transmitter. Based on this information, the transmission rate is altered appropriately using a control algorithm, which computes the altered transmission rate based on a weight parameter, a gain parameter, and information from a congestion report. The altered transmission rate improves the transmitter's use of the available bandwidth to maintain an acceptable QoS at the receiver.Type: GrantFiled: January 27, 2003Date of Patent: May 29, 2007Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Peter B. Key, Dinan S. Gunawardena, Laurent Massoulie
-
Patent number: 6947386Abstract: Substantially accurate estimation of coordinates of a subject network node in a coordinate space is accomplished by considering designated coordinates of other positioned nodes within the network. The designation of coordinates in the coordinate space to such nodes allows the computation of predicted coordinate distances between two network nodes based on the coordinates. By optimizing the network distance errors between measured distances and predicted coordinate distances, the predicted coordinates of a subject node joining the network can be iteratively refined. With these estimated coordinates, the coordinate distance between two points in the space may be computed as a prediction of the network distance between the two corresponding nodes. Furthermore, coordinate-based coordinate estimation lends itself to security precautions to protect against malicious reference nodes or external interference.Type: GrantFiled: June 4, 2003Date of Patent: September 20, 2005Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Miguel Oom Temudo de Castro, Manuel Silverio da Silva Costa, Peter B. Key, Antony Rowstron
-
Patent number: 6842424Abstract: Methods and systems for detecting and predicting congestion patterns from network feedback are described. In the inventive embodiments, network feedback in the form of binary feedback messages is received. The network feedback can comprise any suitable feedback messages and, in the illustrated and described embodiments comprise packet loss events or ECN marks, to name just a few. The inventive embodiment uses the network feedback to predict when congestion is likely to occur in the future. Based on these predictions, the behavior of end users within the system can be modified so that congestion is reduced. Specifically, the data packets that are typically transmitted by the end users can be delayed until such a time when the predicted congestion is mitigated. Thus, the inventive systems and methods take a predictive, proactive approach to addressing network congestion issues, rather than a reactive approach.Type: GrantFiled: September 5, 2000Date of Patent: January 11, 2005Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Peter B. Key, Laurent Massoulie, Koenraad Laevens
-
Publication number: 20040243335Abstract: Various actively probing techniques on a network allow an estimation of the sustainable capacity available in the network. One implementation probes the network using two probe sequences having different loads. Probe estimates associated with each sequence are used to estimate the sustainable capacity in the network. Another implementation probes the network using two probe sequences, in which either the probe packet size or the inter-probe gap are different between the sequences. Calculation of a delay trend for each sequence leads to estimate of the maximum network capacity and the background load on the network. Yet another implementation uses a windowing technique to probe the sustainable capacity in the network. The window size is increased until the network is saturated. The number of bytes transferred within the window during a given time period is an estimate of the sustainable capacity of the network.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 28, 2003Publication date: December 2, 2004Inventors: Dinan S. Gunawardena, Laurent Massoulie, Peter B. Key
-
Publication number: 20040148423Abstract: Real time communications over a network are adjusted to improve the quality of service (QoS) under incipient congestion conditions. The system detects incipient network congestion and feeds back information regarding the incipient congestion back to the transmitter. Based on this information, the transmission rate is altered appropriately using a control algorithm, which computes the altered transmission rate based on a weight parameter, a gain parameter, and information from a congestion report. The altered transmission rate improves the transmitter's use of the available bandwidth to maintain an acceptable QoS at the receiver.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 27, 2003Publication date: July 29, 2004Inventors: Peter B. Key, Dinan S. Gunawardena, Laurent Massoulie
-
Publication number: 20040109417Abstract: Substantially accurate estimation of coordinates of a subject network node in a coordinate space is accomplished by considering designated coordinates of other positioned nodes within the network. The designation of coordinates in the coordinate space to such nodes allows the computation of predicted coordinate distances between two network nodes based on the coordinates. By optimizing the network distance errors between measured distances and predicted coordinate distances, the predicted coordinates of a subject node joining the network can be iteratively refined. With these estimated coordinates, the coordinate distance between two points in the space may be computed as a prediction of the network distance between the two corresponding nodes. Furthermore, coordinate-based coordinate estimation lends itself to security precautions to protect against malicious reference nodes or external interference.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 4, 2003Publication date: June 10, 2004Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: Miguel Oom Temudo de Castro, Manuel Silverio da Silva Costa, Peter B. Key, Antony Rowstron
-
Patent number: 6377677Abstract: To provide secure communications to a PBX (20,22) the PBX is connected to two different local exchanges of the PSTN. On recognising a telephone number designating calls to the PBX service switching points (2) apply to service control points (8) for route translations. The SCP (8) directs calls though the network alternately to network connections on one DLE (say 1c) and then to the other DLE (1b). In the event of a predetermined number of call failure on one of the route all subsequent calls are directed to the other route until a predetermined number of call failures occur on the other route where upon consecutive calls are again offered alternately.Type: GrantFiled: May 5, 1998Date of Patent: April 23, 2002Assignee: British Telecommunications public limited companyInventors: Roger G Ackerley, Peter B Key, Mark Woolley
-
Patent number: 5521971Abstract: A communication network (1) comprises a number of network nodes (2, 3, 4 and 5) linked together by transmission paths (6, 7 and 8). A network manager (9) controls acceptance of calls onto transmission paths by classifying an incoming call and selecting from the database (14) an appropriate mean to peak bit rate distribution. This selected distribution is then used with the monitored transmission path load to determine a posterior distribution which reflects the load. The decision to accept or reject the call is made on the basis of the posterior distribution by a call acceptance algorithm considering the effective bandwidth for example.Type: GrantFiled: May 31, 1994Date of Patent: May 28, 1996Assignee: British Telecommuncations, plcInventors: Peter B. Key, Thomas R. Griffiths, Richard J. Gibbens, Francis P. Kelly
-
Patent number: 4862496Abstract: A method and apparatus for routing traffic in a circuit switched network. A call between two nodes interconnected by a direct link is first offered to the direct route, and if that is blocked it is offered to a currently nominated two-link alternative route between the two nodes. If that route is busy, the call is lost, and a randomly chosen two-link route is assigned to be the new current nominated alternative route. The strategy is particularly effective because it is simple, available routes are quickly located and once one available route is found, that same route is used for rerouting further calls until it is full. Trunk reservation protection is applied on alternative routes.Type: GrantFiled: December 16, 1986Date of Patent: August 29, 1989Assignee: British Telecommunications public limited companyInventors: Francis P. Kelly, Richard J. Gibbens, Peter B. Key, Paul A. Turton, Roger R. Stacey, Martin J. Whitehead