Importance

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Abstract

The invention describes a scheme by which the dynamic characteristics of virtual links provided to a first network protocol engine are fed back to a second network protocol engine, and used to improve the performance of the second protocol traffic across a backbone. As an example, the invention describes a scheme by which the dynamic characteristics of the virtual links provided to the HPR network are fed back to the RTP protocol, and used to improve the performance of RTP traffic across the IP backbone. The invention provides this feedback using the mechanisms provided by the HPR networking architecture, and thus can inter-operate with HPR networks that do not support this invention. In one embodiment of the present invention, on the link characteristics are determined by programs running on both end of the IP network. These link characteristics are sent to the HPR end-node when an HPR connection is established. The HPR end-node obtains the information during the connection establishment phase. During the initiation of a connection, the HPR connection establishment protocols send out route-setup messages along the desired path of the connection. When the message is received by the node along the path, it is required to send its fixed bandwidth and delay in the route-setup control vector, a component of the set-up message. This value is dynamically changed so as to reflect the current state of the network. Three methods to obtain the current link characteristics of the multi-hop IP network are described.

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First Claim