JP2016127359A - Communication control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To optimize a bandwidth to be allocated to a communication application on the basis of quality threshold obtained every application from a result of an analysis between a user's communication behavior and communication quality.SOLUTION: An aggregation section 30 aggregates respective sessions of the same transmitter in a bulk time series every application next to traffic of a communication terminal. A communication quality computation part 40 computes quality of the sessions aggregated in the respective bulks. An analysis part 50 analyzes a relationship between the bulk situations representing a terminal user's communication behavior and the quality of the session. A quality threshold determination part 601 determines the quality threshold the terminal user is satisfied with every communication application on the basis of the analysis result. An allocated bandwidth determination part 60 determines an allocated bandwidth to each communication application on the basis of the quality threshold and notifies a main body of bandwidth control of it.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication control apparatus that optimizes bandwidth allocation to communication applications, and in particular, allocates bandwidth to a plurality of communication applications sharing a bandwidth for each application based on analysis results of user communication behavior and communication quality. The present invention relates to a communication control device that performs optimization based on a determined quality threshold.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for estimating quality based on information obtained by active measurement of RTT, packet loss rate, and the like as a TCP quality estimation method based on active measurement. Patent Document 2 discloses a system in which a measurement agent intermittently transmits packets and measures the quality of a communication network to Active.

  Patent Document 3 discloses an apparatus that analyzes a user's communication behavior at an intermediate GW node of a network. Patent Document 4 discloses a system for modeling the movement of a user / terminal and how the communication is performed after the movement.

  Since Patent Documents 1 and 2 perform active measurement of communication traffic, extra traffic and a load are generated along with the measurement. In addition, there are load and scalability problems associated with measurement. Furthermore, communication quality and communication behavior cannot be linked and analyzed.

  Patent Document 3 is intended for communication behavior analysis for security measures, and does not analyze the relationship between quality and behavior. Patent Document 4 cannot analyze communication quality and communication behavior in association with each other.

  On the other hand, apart from the above-mentioned patent documents, as a method for analyzing the relationship between communication quality and communication behavior and the quality of experience, a method for preparing a special monitor function on the terminal side, a subjective quality evaluation experiment, a questionnaire And so on. However, all of these methods have a problem that the processing is complicated and it is difficult to conduct a large-scale survey.

  In response to such a technical problem, the inventors of the present invention aggregate the traffic in units of users in bulk units and call units based on the occurrence intervals, and analyze the aggregation status as a result of user communication. Representing behaviors, inventing a communication behavior analysis device that enables estimation of communication quality conditions satisfied by the user by analyzing the relationship between the aggregation status and communication quality and obtaining a correspondence relationship, patent application (patent document) 5)

  Further, the inventors of the present invention analyze the concurrent communication behavior by analyzing the bulk parallel status in units of users, and analyze the relationship between the communication behavior mode and the communication quality to obtain the correspondence relationship. Invented a communication behavior analysis device that enables estimation of communication quality conditions satisfied by the user, and applied for a patent (Patent Document 6).

  According to Patent Document 5, it is possible to analyze a relationship between an aggregation state and communication quality when sessions are aggregated according to a predetermined rule based on a large amount of communication traffic captured passively. Since the session aggregation status can represent the communication behavior of the communication user, the relationship between the quality of experience of the communication user and the communication behavior can be accurately analyzed.

  According to Patent Document 6, it is possible to analyze the relationship between the bulk parallel status obtained by aggregating sessions according to a predetermined rule and communication quality based on a large amount of communication traffic captured passively. Since the parallel state of the bulk can represent the communication behavior of the communication user, the relationship between the quality of experience of the communication user and the communication behavior can be accurately analyzed.

JP 2004-140596 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-7339 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-147067 JP 2007-233849 Japanese Patent Application No. 2014-73091 Japanese Patent Application No. 2014-128566

  According to Patent Documents 5 and 6, since it is possible to analyze and grasp the perceived quality or subjective quality of each user or each user without directly inquiring the user or conducting a questionnaire survey, it is easy to perform scalable communication behavior analysis. Can be realized.

  On the other hand, when a user simultaneously uses a plurality of communication applications on a limited bandwidth, for example, if bandwidth allocation is performed evenly for each communication application regardless of the required bandwidth, While there is a surplus bandwidth for a small communication application, there is a technical problem that the quality of experience can be significantly reduced due to a lack of bandwidth for a communication application with a large required bandwidth.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above technical problem and optimize a bandwidth allocated to a plurality of communication applications sharing a bandwidth based on a quality threshold obtained for each application from an analysis result of user communication behavior and communication quality. It is to provide a communication control device.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is characterized in that a communication control apparatus for controlling bandwidth allocation to a communication application has the following configuration.

  (1) A means for aggregating traffic sessions generated by communication terminals into a bulk time series for each application, a means for measuring the quality of sessions aggregated in each bulk, and a terminal user's communication behavior can be represented. Means for analyzing the relationship between the bulk status and session quality; means for determining a quality threshold for each terminal application based on the result of the analysis; and for each communication application based on the quality threshold. And an allocated bandwidth determining means for determining the allocated bandwidth and notifying the bandwidth control subject.

  (2) The communication control according to claim 1, wherein the allocated bandwidth determining means determines the allocated bandwidth for a plurality of communication applications sharing the bandwidth at a ratio corresponding to a quality threshold value of each communication application. apparatus.

  (3) It comprises a bulk aggregation status analyzing means for analyzing session aggregation status in each bulk, and the means for analyzing is based on the aggregation status of each bulk whose session quality fluctuations belong to the same range, The relationship between behavior and communication quality was analyzed.

  (4) It has a bulk parallel status analyzing means for analyzing a bulk parallel status in which a plurality of bulks having the same transmission source are parallel, and the analyzing means includes a parallel status of each bulk whose session quality variation belongs to the same range. Based on the above, the relationship between communication behavior and communication quality of terminal users was analyzed.

According to the present invention, the following effects are achieved.
(1) Based on the relationship between the user's subjective quality and the communication behavior obtained by analyzing the communication traffic generated by the user terminal, the user estimates the quality threshold value that indicates dissatisfaction with the communication quality for each application. Since communication of each application is controlled to satisfy the quality threshold, scalable communication control with high subjective quality can be easily realized without directly inquiring the user or conducting a questionnaire survey.

  (2) Even when a plurality of communication applications share a bandwidth, the bandwidth allocated to each communication application can be optimized based on the quality threshold.

  (3) Since the aggregation status when a session is aggregated according to a predetermined rule can represent the communication behavior of the communication user, it is possible to analyze the session aggregation status without directly inquiring the user or conducting a questionnaire survey. Thus, it becomes possible to accurately analyze the relationship between the communication user's quality of experience and communication behavior.

  (4) Since the bulk parallel status obtained by aggregating sessions according to the prescribed rules can represent the communication behavior of communication users, simply analyzing the bulk parallel status, directly inquiring users and conducting questionnaire surveys, etc. Therefore, it is possible to accurately analyze the relationship between the quality of experience of the communication user and the communication behavior.

  (5) If the communication control device of the present invention is installed in each communication terminal and communication traffic is analyzed, communication quality is estimated, and a bandwidth to be allocated to each communication application is determined for each communication terminal, a unique characteristic customized for each user is obtained. Bandwidth allocation can be realized.

  (6) If the communication control device of the present invention is installed in a node on a network and the analysis of communication traffic for all terminal users, the estimation of communication quality, and the determination of the bandwidth allocated to each communication application are performed together, the existing communication It is possible to easily realize scalable communication control without modifying the terminal.

  (7) If the entity that analyzes communication traffic, estimates the communication quality, and determines the bandwidth for each communication application is the same as the entity that controls the allocation of communication bandwidth for each communication application based on the result of determining the bandwidth allocation, Therefore, it is possible to eliminate the traffic for notifying each control subject of the determination result of bandwidth allocation.

It is the block diagram which showed the structure of the network to which the communication control apparatus of this invention is applied. It is the functional block diagram which showed the structure of the capture apparatus (communication control apparatus) to which this invention is applied. It is a figure for demonstrating bulk aggregation. It is a sequence flow for demonstrating the measuring method of the quality characteristic for TCP connection. It is a sequence flow for demonstrating the measuring method of the quality characteristic for HTTP session. It is a functional block diagram of the capture device concerning a 1st embodiment of the present invention. It is the figure which showed the analysis item of the bulk and the call. It is the figure which showed the relationship between the throughput (DL) in a web browsing, and a bulk continuation rate. It is the figure which showed the relationship between the throughput (DL) in the streaming reproduction | regeneration of a moving image, and a bulk continuation rate. It is a functional block diagram of the capture device concerning a 2nd embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure for demonstrating bulk parallel. It is the figure which showed the relationship between a throughput and the number of parallel bulk generation It is the figure which showed the relationship between a throughput and parallel bulk size (DL). It is the figure which showed the relationship between HTTP response delay and the generation number of parallel bulk. It is the figure which showed the relationship between HTTP response delay and parallel bulk size (DL). It is the figure which showed the relationship between HTTP pending | holding time and the number of parallel bulk generation. It is the figure which showed the relationship between HTTP pending | holding time and parallel bulk size (DL). It is a functional block diagram of other embodiments of the present invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Here, first, an outline of the present invention will be described, and then a specific embodiment thereof will be described. In the following explanation, the connection at the transport layer (layer 4) is basically expressed as “(TCP) connection”, and the connection at the higher layer is expressed as “(HTTP) session”. However, for convenience of explanation, both may be represented by “session”.

  In the present invention, an action (communication action) in which a communication user operates his / her communication terminal to generate communication (communication action) is analyzed based on the communication traffic, and is associated with communication quality for each application. And, when a plurality of communication applications (communication services) share one band, by identifying for each application a quality threshold value that lowers the user's experience quality from the relationship between the user's communication behavior and communication quality, The bandwidth allocated to the communication application is optimized from the viewpoint of the user's quality of experience.

  As the communication action, in particular, a communication action (first embodiment) for generating communication by operating a communication terminal on the communication application between starting and closing the communication application, or another communication is newly added. Pay attention to the parallel / parallel communication behavior (second embodiment) generated by the system. Therefore, in the present invention, sessions are identified from communication traffic, and a large number of sessions are aggregated in time series in bulk units based on their occurrence times, for example.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing a session (connection) aggregation method in the present embodiment. For each session with the same transmission source, the occurrence time of the earliest session is set as a reference time, and the reference time and A time difference Δτ from the occurrence time of each subsequent session is calculated.

  In this embodiment, the identity of the transmission source is determined based on the transmission source address information. All sessions whose session occurrence interval Δτ is equal to or less than a predetermined first bulk threshold Δτbulk1 are aggregated into the same bulk #i, while sessions whose occurrence interval Δτ is greater than the first bulk threshold Δτbulk1 # i + 1, bulk # i + 2 ... [Figure (a)].

  In addition, the final end time of the session aggregated in the i-th bulk #i adjacent in time series is compared with the first occurrence time of the session aggregated in the i + 1-th bulk # i + 1. If the time difference ΔT is equal to or less than the predetermined call threshold Δτcall, the bulks are aggregated into the same call #j, whereas if the time difference ΔT is greater than the predetermined call threshold Δτcall, the bulk is aggregated into the next call # j + 1 [ (B)].

  Here, for each session in the same bulk, after identifying whether the application is performed in the foreground derived from the user's communication operation or in the background regardless of the user's communication operation Only the user-derived foreground communication may be analyzed.

  Further, for each session in a call or bulk, after identifying only a communication session caused by a user operation on the same application, only a communication operation derived from the same application may be analyzed. By analyzing these, for example, for each application, the experience quality related to the user's communication may be associated with the communication behavior of the user, and the experience quality of the communication user may be estimated from any communication behavior.

  Note that the bulk aggregation method for each session is not limited to the above. For example, as shown in FIG. 3 (c), for each session having the same source address information, the interval between the occurrence time of the nth session and the occurrence time of the (n + 1) th session (session occurrence interval) Δτ All sessions whose session occurrence interval Δτ is equal to or smaller than a predetermined second bulk threshold Δτbulk2 are aggregated into the same bulk #i, and sessions larger than the second bulk threshold Δτbulk2 are bulk # i + 1 after the next. , Bulk # i + 2 ... may be consolidated.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of a network to which the present invention is applied. The communication control device of the present invention is mounted on a node on the network when the communication traffic generated by the communication terminal is captured and analyzed on the network, and on the communication terminal when the communication terminal analyzes the communication traffic by itself. Implemented. In the following, description will be given by taking as an example the case of being mounted on a node on the network.

  A radio base station BS is installed in each area of the service providing range, and a client (radio mobile terminal MH in this embodiment) in the area is accommodated in each radio base station BS. Each radio base station BS is connected to a radio access network RAN, and the radio access network RAN is connected to a gateway (GW) of the core network. The core network is connected to the Internet at the Internet Exchange (IX).

  Various servers that provide services in response to requests from the MH are connected to the Internet. In this embodiment, the capture device 1 is connected to a line L that connects the radio access network RAN and the core network as a line that can aggregate traffic between each MH and each server.

  FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a network node to which the present invention is applied. Here, illustrations of components unnecessary for the description of the present invention are omitted. The communication control device of the present invention can be mounted not only on the network device such as the capture device 1 and GW but also on each MH. Here, an example of mounting on the capture device 1 will be described.

  The packet capture unit 10 selectively captures IP (TCP, UDP, etc.) packets on the line L. The log information management unit 20 records and manages at least the type of the captured packet, source address information, arrival time, and packet size (data amount) as log information.

  The traffic aggregating unit 30 includes a bulk aggregating unit 301, and as described with reference to FIG. 3, the traffic aggregating unit 30 aggregates each session of captured traffic for each source address information based on the occurrence interval Δτ. For a set of sessions having the same address information, sessions whose occurrence interval Δτ is equal to or less than a predetermined bulk threshold Δτbulk1 are aggregated in the same bulk. The communication quality calculation unit 40 calculates the communication quality of each session aggregated in each bulk for each predetermined quality item.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a communication quality calculation method by the communication quality calculation unit 40. Here, a method for measuring the delay characteristics of a connection that can be captured from a SYN packet of a TCP_3way handshake executed between a client and a server when a TCP connection is established will be described.

  In this case, the difference between the arrival time (connection occurrence time) t1 of the SYN packet first transmitted from the terminal MH to the server and the arrival time t2 of the SYN + ACK packet returned from the server to the terminal MH (t2-t1) Based on the above, the server side RTT (round trip) delay is calculated.

  The client-side RTT delay is calculated based on the difference (t3-t2) between the arrival time t2 of the SYN + ACK packet and the arrival time t3 of the ACK packet last transmitted from the terminal MH to the server.

  Further, the TCP connection delay is calculated based on the difference (t4-t1) between the arrival time t1 of the first SYN packet and the arrival time t4 of the data packet first transmitted from the terminal MH to the server after the 3-way handshake. .

  Furthermore, based on the difference (t5-t4) from the arrival time t4 of the first data transmitted from the terminal MH after the 3-way handshake to the arrival time t5 of the FIN or RST packet, and the amount of transmitted / received data captured within the difference time Thus, the throughput characteristic of the TCP connection is calculated.

  When packet capture is started from the middle of the connection, only possible analysis is selectively performed from the obtained arrival time. That is, if the capture is started from the SYN + ACK packet, only the client-side RTT delay is calculated based on the difference (t3-t2) from the arrival time t2 to the arrival time t3 of the ACK packet.

  Further, the throughput characteristics and TCP connection time required for the TCP connection depend not only on the client side delay but also on the server side delay, so these characteristics calculated when the server side delay is large are Cannot accurately represent the communication quality on the other side. Therefore, when the server-side RTT delay exceeds a predetermined threshold, or when the packet arrival interval such as data or ACK that can represent the server-side delay exceeds a predetermined threshold, TCP characteristics and TCP connection It is desirable to exclude the time required from quality analysis.

  FIG. 5 is a sequence flow for explaining a method for measuring quality characteristics for an HTTP session. An HTTP request (# 1) packet arrival time t1 and an HTTP response (# 1) The time difference (t2−t1) from the arrival time t2 of the packet is regarded as the HTTP response delay.

  Further, the time difference (t3−t1) between the arrival time t1 of the first HTTP request (# 1) packet and the arrival time t3 of the last HTTP response (# 1) packet is set as the HTTP hold time.

  Furthermore, the time difference (t2-t1) between the arrival time t2 of the first HTTP response (# 1) packet and the arrival time t3 of the last HTTP response (# 1) packet is set as the HTTP response hold time and downloaded during that time. The total data amount is the HTTP communication data amount.

  Furthermore, the time difference (t5-t4) between the arrival time t4 of the first HTTP request (# 2) packet and the arrival time t5 of the last HTTP request (# 2) packet is the HTTP request hold time, and the amount of data between them is The amount of HTTP request data.

  Returning to FIG. 2, in the analysis unit 50, the bulk situation analysis unit 501 includes “bulk transition continuation”, “bulk continuation count”, “bulk duration”, “ Analyzing the bulk aggregation status (first embodiment) or the bulk parallel status (second embodiment) such as “call continuation count” and “call duration”.

  The classification unit 502 classifies each bulk into one of a plurality of groups based on the communication quality range for each application. The analysis unit 50 analyzes the relationship between the communication behavior of the terminal user and the communication quality based on the relationship between the status of each bulk and the communication quality range.

  In the present embodiment, when each quality value is obtained by the communication quality calculation unit 40, the following three items of “1. delay characteristics”, “2. throughput characteristics”, and “3. A statistical value is calculated by the valve state analysis unit 501.

1. Delay characteristics
(1) Server / terminal RTT average, standard deviation, maximum, minimum, X% ile value
(2) Average value, standard deviation, maximum value, minimum value, X% ile value of client / RAN side RTT
(3) TCP connection delay average value, standard deviation, maximum value, minimum value, X% ile value
(4) Average value, standard deviation, maximum value, minimum value, X% ile value of HTTP response delay
(5) Average value, standard deviation, maximum value, minimum value, X% ile value of HTTP hold time

2. Throughput characteristics
(1) Download (Res) throughput
(2) Upload (Req) throughput
(3) Throughput in bulk of HTTP sessions (Aggregated HTTP sessions in bulk and calculated as total data amount ÷ total hold time. (That is, the real time hold time is calculated)

3. Termination characteristics
(1) Reset occurrence rate (calculated by the total number of TCP Reset (RST) occurrences in the call bulk divided by the total number of TCP connections)
(2) Timeout occurrence rate (calculated as the total number of timeout occurrences in the call bulk divided by the number of aggregated TCP connections)

  Returning to FIG. 2, in the allocated bandwidth determination unit 60, the quality threshold value determination unit 601 calculates a quality threshold value for which the user's communication behavior specifically changes with respect to quality degradation for each application. The allocated bandwidth determination unit 60 determines the bandwidth allocated to each communication application based on the quality threshold. When the allocated bandwidth is shared by a plurality of communication applications, the bandwidth allocated to each competing application is determined based on the quality threshold value of each communication application.

  The determination result of the bandwidth allocation is notified to the user terminal MN or GW as the control entity through a control channel, a broadcast channel, or a dedicated channel provided individually, and the bandwidth allocated to each application for each user is determined by the allocation According to the determination result of the bandwidth, for example, it is controlled by a token bucket method.

  In this way, if the communication traffic is passively captured on the network and the analysis of the communication traffic and the estimation of the communication quality for all the communication terminals are performed together, the user can be directly inquired or the questionnaire survey can be conducted. Without this, scalable communication control can be easily realized.

  On the other hand, each of the control function units 10 to 60 shown in FIG. 2 is installed in each communication terminal instead of a device on the network, and each communication terminal analyzes its own communication traffic, estimates the communication quality, and determines each communication application. Band determination may be performed. In this way, unique band allocation customized for each user can be realized.

  Note that the entity that performs communication traffic analysis, communication quality estimation, and bandwidth determination for each communication application is the same or different from the entity that controls the allocation of communication bandwidth for each communication application based on the determination result. May be. However, if the entities are the same, traffic for notifying each control entity of the result of determining bandwidth allocation can be eliminated.

[First embodiment]
FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the first embodiment of the capture device 1. The same reference numerals as those described above represent the same or equivalent parts, and thus the description thereof is omitted. The present embodiment is characterized in that the traffic aggregation unit 30 includes a call aggregation unit 302, and the analysis unit 50 includes a bulk aggregation state analysis unit 501a as the valve state analysis unit 501.

  As shown in FIG. 3 (b), the call aggregating unit 302 ends the time of the last session aggregated in the #th bulk adjacent in time sequence and the first aggregated in the # + 1st bulk. If the time interval ΔT between the two is less than or equal to a predetermined call threshold Δτcall, the bulks are aggregated into the same call, and if the time interval ΔT call is larger than the call threshold Δτcall, it is transferred to another (next) call. Summarize.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the bulk aggregation status analysis unit 501a analyzes the bulk aggregation status of each session. In this embodiment, “bulk transition continuation”, “bulk continuation count”, “bulk continuation time”, “call continuation count”, “call continuation time”, and the like are required for sessions with the same source address information. .

  “Bulk transition continuation” is a flag value determined by whether or not the next bulk is in the same call, with the bulk for each call as a base point. That is, the time between the end time of the session with the latest end time among the sessions aggregated in each bulk in each call and the start time of the session with the earliest start time among the sessions aggregated into the next bulk This is a flag value determined by whether or not the difference ΔT is equal to or less than the call threshold value ΔτCall. In the present embodiment, if the next bulk is in the same call, “continuation present (= 1)” is set, and if it is not in the same call, “no continuation (= 0)” is set.

  “Bulk continuation count” is an ordinal number indicating the order of occurrence of each bulk in each call. For example, when 10 bulks exist in a call, 1 to 10 in time series order for each bulk. Each ordinal number up to is set as the number of bulk continuations.

  “Bulk duration” is the elapsed time in the order of occurrence of each bulk within each call. For example, if there are 10 bulks in a call, the first = the start time of the first bulk The time is the difference from the start time of each bulk generated after the second time. Since the generation order of the bulk is chronological order, the elapsed time corresponding to each bulk order has a monotonically increasing time width.

  Next, a method for determining a quality threshold by the quality threshold determining unit 601 will be described. In the present embodiment, the collected communication logs of each session are grouped based on the quality value for each application and communication quality item that generates communication, and are associated with the analysis result regarding the bulk aggregation status for each group. It is done.

  For example, when attention is paid to download (DL) throughput in Web browsing (HTTP session), all communication logs related to Web browsing are grouped in a range of about 10 kbps by paying attention to the DL throughput. As a result, for example, each communication log with a throughput of 150 kbps to 160 kbps is grouped into the same group, and each communication log with 160 kbps to 170 kbps is grouped into another same group.

  For example, for a group of 150 kbps to 160 kbps, if the number of logs in the group is 100, of which 85 are “1” and 15 are “0”, the bulk continuation rate Is 0.85, and this is the bulk continuation rate (bulk aggregation status) corresponding to Web browsing throughput of 150kbps to 160kbps (quality value).

  Then, by repeating the association between the quality value and the bulk aggregation status for each group, as shown in FIG. 8, the correspondence between the DL throughput and the bulk continuation rate in Web browsing can be obtained.

  According to FIG. 8, the DL throughput and the bulk continuation rate in Web browsing show a significant correlation, and the bulk continuation rate rapidly decreases when the DL throughput shows 190 to 200 kbps. From this, the user can estimate that about 190 to 200 kbps is the threshold value of the allowable communication quality of the user, that is, the limit value of the sensation quality at which dissatisfaction starts to appear, regarding the DL throughput in Web browsing. Therefore, the quality threshold value determination unit 601 determines the quality threshold value related to the Web browsing DL throughput to be 190 to 200 kbps.

  Note that the singular point where the correspondence between the session aggregation status in each bulk and the communication quality of the session specifically changes is as follows. It can be detected based on the first and second derivative values of the session aggregation status (bulk continuation rate).

  FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a correspondence relationship between DL throughput and bulk continuation rate in streaming playback of moving images. As in the above, all communication logs are grouped into predetermined ranges based on DL throughput. It is constructed by plotting the relationship with the bulk continuation rate for each.

  According to FIG. 9, the DL throughput of streaming playback and the bulk continuation rate show a significant correlation, and the DL continuation rate rapidly decreases when the DL throughput is around 700 kbps, and the user is dissatisfied with the communication quality of the download. You can see how you are starting to feel. Therefore, the quality threshold value determination unit 601 determines the DL threshold quality threshold value for streaming playback of moving images as 700 kbps.

  The allocated bandwidth determining unit 60 is a bandwidth allocated to Web browsing if a certain user performs Web browsing and streaming playback of a moving image in parallel, and the upper limit of the bandwidth that can be allocated to the user is set to 900 kbps. Is set to 200 kbps, and the bandwidth allocated to streaming playback of moving images is determined to be 700 kbps, and bandwidth control based on the determination result is instructed to the user terminal MN or GW.

  According to this embodiment, based on the relationship between the user's subjective quality and communication behavior analyzed based on a large amount of passively captured communication traffic, the quality threshold value that the user is dissatisfied with the communication quality is set for each application. The communication of each application can be estimated and controlled to satisfy its quality threshold. Therefore, scalable communication control can be easily realized without directly inquiring the user or conducting a questionnaire survey.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, even when a plurality of communication applications share a band, the band allocated to each communication application can be optimized based on the quality threshold value.

  Furthermore, according to the present embodiment, since the communication behavior of the communication user is represented by the aggregation state when the session is aggregated according to a predetermined rule, session aggregation is performed without directly inquiring the user or conducting a questionnaire survey. By simply analyzing the situation, it becomes possible to accurately analyze the relationship between the communication user's quality of experience and communication behavior.

[Second Embodiment]
FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the second embodiment of the capture apparatus 1. The same reference numerals as those described above represent the same or equivalent parts, and thus the description thereof is omitted.

  In this embodiment, the analysis unit 50 analyzes the parallel / parallel (Parallel / Concurrent: hereinafter “represented by“ parallel ”) status with each bulk subsequent to the bulk for each bulk as the valve status analysis unit 501. It is characterized in that it includes a bulk parallel status analysis unit 501b.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining a bulk parallel situation to be analyzed by the bulk parallel situation analysis unit 501b. In the present embodiment, attention is paid sequentially to each bulk in the bulk set having the same source address information, and there is a subsequent bulk that starts during the bulk period from the start time to the end time with the focused bulk as the reference bulk. For example, all of them are certified as parallel bulks in relation to the reference bulk. The start time and end time of each bulk are the occurrence time of the earliest session and the end time of the latest session among the sessions aggregated in the bulk.

  In the illustrated example, since two bulks TX_2 and TX_3 are generated during the bulk period between the start time and end time of the reference bulk TX_1, two parallel bulks TX_2 and TX_3 are certified for the reference bulk TX_1. Is done.

  On the other hand, if attention is paid to the bulk TX_2 and this is assumed to be a reference bulk, two bulks TX_3 and TX_4 are generated during the bulk period between the start time and the end time. Therefore, two parallel bulks TX_3 and TX_4 are certified for the reference bulk TX_2.

  In addition, apart from the above example, a bulk that has been certified as a reference bulk or parallel bulk even once may not be certified as a reference bulk or parallel bulk again in relation to other bulks.

  The above bulk parallel situation is, for example, when a user is connected to a certain site (for example, a Web server) and opens a new tab and connects to the same or another site on the tab. Observed when communication operation is performed.

  The bulk parallel status analysis unit 501b further targets “(1) presence / absence of parallel bulk”, “(2) number of parallel bulks”, “(3)” for each bulk in the bulk set having the same source address information. `` Parallel Bulk Size '', `` (4) Number of Parallel Bulk Sessions '', `` (5) Elapsed Time of Parallel Bulk '', `` (6) Number of Sessions per Parallel Bulk '', `` (7) Size per Parallel Bulk '' , “(1) Duration per parallel bulk” is analyzed.

  (1) “Presence / absence of parallel bulk” is obtained by paying attention to all target bulks sequentially, and is the presence / absence of a subsequent bulk parallel to the target bulk (reference bulk). In the present embodiment, in order to facilitate calculation, statistical analysis is performed with “Yes = 1” and “No = 0”.

  (2) The “number of parallel bulks” is a number of subsequent parallel bulks obtained by paying attention to all target bulks in order and found for each target reference bulk.

  (3) “Parallel bulk size” is obtained by paying attention to all target bulks in sequence, and is the total amount of data sent / received in all subsequent bulks in parallel with the target reference bulk (download data and upload data) Total amount). Note that the “size of parallel bulk” may be obtained as the data amount per parallel bulk, not the total data amount.

  (4) “Number of sessions in parallel bulk” is a total sum of the number of sessions obtained by paying attention to all target bulks sequentially and being aggregated in all subsequent bulks in parallel with the target reference bulk.

  (5) “Elapsed time of parallel bulk” is obtained by paying attention to all target bulks sequentially, and is the elapsed time from the start time of each reference bulk to the start time of each subsequent bulk in parallel with this.

  (6) “Number of sessions per parallel bulk” is the number of sessions aggregated in each subsequent bulk that is parallel to each reference bulk.

  (7) “Size per parallel bulk” is the data amount of each subsequent bulk in parallel with each reference bulk.

  (8) “Duration per parallel bulk” is a duration (bulk period) from the start to the end of each subsequent bulk in parallel with each reference bulk.

  The quality threshold value determination unit 601 analyzes the correspondence between both based on the analysis result of the communication quality and the bulk parallel situation. In the present embodiment, the collected communication logs of each session are grouped for each item of communication quality based on the quality value, and each group is associated with an analysis result regarding a bulk parallel situation.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram showing the relationship between the DL throughput and the average number of parallel bulk occurrences. The DL throughput and the average number of parallel bulk occurrences show a significant correlation, and the DL throughput is about 100 kbps or less. It can be seen that the average number of occurrences of parallel bulk is increasing. This means that if the download throughput is below about 100 kbps, the user will not be satisfied with the communication quality, such as opening a new tab and trying to access the same site or another site. Suggests.

  Therefore, the user can estimate that as the communication quality at the time of download, about 100 kbps is the threshold value of the allowable communication quality of the user, that is, the limit value of the experience quality at which dissatisfaction starts to appear. The quality threshold value determination unit 601 determines the quality threshold value related to the Web browsing DL throughput to 100 kbps from the above analysis results.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram showing the relationship between DL throughput and parallel bulk DL size in Web browsing. DL throughput and parallel bulk size show a significant correlation. When DL throughput falls below 100 kbps, parallel bulk It shows that the DL size is increasing.

  This means that if the download throughput is below about 100 kbps, the user will not be satisfied with the communication quality, such as opening a new tab and trying to access the same site or another site. Suggests. Therefore, the quality threshold value determination unit 601 determines the quality threshold value related to the Web browsing DL throughput to 100 kbps.

  FIG. 14 is a diagram showing the relationship between the HTTP response delay and the average number of parallel bulk occurrences, and FIG. 15 is a diagram showing the relationship between the HTTP response delay and the parallel bulk DL size.

  From these characteristics, it can be seen that the average value of the number of parallel bulk occurrences and the DL size of the parallel bulk have increased rapidly since the HTTP response delay exceeded approximately 0.4 to 0.5 sec. That is, the user reacts with 0.4 to 0.5 seconds regarding the HTTP response delay as the communication quality at the time of download, and it can be estimated that this is the limit value of the experience quality at which the user begins to complain. Therefore, the quality threshold value determination unit 601 determines the quality threshold value related to the HTTP response delay to 0.4 to 0.5 sec.

  FIG. 16 is a diagram showing the relationship between the HTTP suspension time and the average value of the number of parallel bulk occurrences, and FIG. 17 is a diagram showing the relationship between the HTTP suspension time and the parallel bulk DL size.

  From these characteristics, it can be seen that the average value of the number of parallel bulk occurrences and the DL size of the parallel bulk have increased rapidly since the HTTP response delay exceeded approximately 0.8 to 1.0 sec. That is, the user reacts with 0.8 to 1.0 sec regarding the HTTP response delay as the communication quality at the time of download, and it can be estimated that this is the limit value of the quality of experience at which the user begins to complain. Therefore, the quality threshold value determination unit 601 determines the quality threshold value related to the HTTP hold time to 0.4 to 0.5 sec.

  According to the present embodiment, since the communication behavior of the communication user is represented in a bulk parallel situation obtained by aggregating sessions according to a predetermined rule, it is possible to perform bulk inquiry without directly inquiring the user or conducting a questionnaire survey. By simply analyzing the parallel situation, it becomes possible to accurately analyze the relationship between the communication user's experience quality and communication behavior.

  In the above embodiment, the case where the analysis target and the control target are the same index value is used as an example so that the allocation of the throughput is controlled based on the analysis result of the quality threshold value obtained with respect to the throughput characteristic. Although described, the present invention is not limited to this, and the index value to be analyzed may be different from the index value to be controlled.

  For example, if specific quality thresholds are obtained for delay system index values such as “RTT delay”, “TCP connection delay”, “HTTP response delay”, etc., each past delay system index value and the allocated bandwidth at that time And the allocated bandwidth estimated that the delay system index value satisfies the quality threshold may be used as a future allocation target.

  Similarly, if specific quality thresholds are obtained for the “HTTP hold time”, “average reset occurrence rate”, and “timeout occurrence rate”, the relationship between these past index values and the allocated bandwidth at the time is subsequently analyzed. In other words, the allocation band estimated that each index value satisfies the quality threshold may be set as the allocation target.

  In each of the above embodiments, the allocated bandwidth is determined for each communication application regardless of the attributes of each user. However, the relationship between the bulk status representing the communication behavior of the terminal user and the session quality is It has been confirmed by an investigation by the inventors of the present invention that it strongly depends on the attributes (such as personality and taste) of the present invention.

  Therefore, each user (communication terminal) is clustered based on its attributes, the relationship between the bulk status and session quality is analyzed for each cluster, and the quality threshold is determined for each combination of cluster and communication application. May be.

  Furthermore, in principle, in the present invention, all communication applications used by each communication terminal are set as control targets. However, it may be possible for the terminal user to specify in advance whether or not each communication application is set as a control target.

  Furthermore, when a terminal user who feels that the bandwidth limitation of a certain communication application is excessive or insufficient after application of bandwidth control requests the communication application to relax the bandwidth limitation, for example, as shown in FIG. The user evaluation may be received by the evaluation receiving unit 70 and fed back to the allocated band determining unit 60 to be reflected in the allocated band.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Capture apparatus, 10 ... Packet capture part, 20 ... Log information management part, 30 ... Traffic aggregation part, 40 ... Communication quality calculation part, 50 ... Analysis part, 60 ... Allocation band determination part, 301 ... Bulk aggregation part, 302 ... Call aggregation unit, 501 ... Valve status analysis unit, 501a ... Bulk aggregation status analysis unit, 501b ... Bulk parallel status analysis unit, 502 ... Classification unit, 601 ... Quality threshold determination unit

Claims (17)

In a communication control device that controls bandwidth allocation to a communication application,
Concerning communication terminal traffic, means for aggregating each session with the same transmission source into a bulk time series for each application;
A means of measuring the quality of sessions aggregated into each bulk;
A means to analyze the relationship between the bulk situation that can represent the communication behavior of the terminal user and the quality of the session,
Means for determining for each communication application a quality threshold satisfied by the terminal user based on the analysis result;
A communication control apparatus comprising: an allocated band determining unit that determines an allocated band for each communication application based on the quality threshold and notifies a subject of band control.   The communication control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the allocated bandwidth determining unit determines the allocated bandwidth for a plurality of communication applications sharing the bandwidth at a rate according to a quality threshold value of each communication application. Equipped with bulk aggregation status analysis means for analyzing session aggregation status in each bulk,
3. The analysis unit according to claim 1, wherein the analyzing unit analyzes a relationship between the communication behavior of the terminal user and the communication quality based on an aggregation state of each bulk in which a variation in session quality belongs to the same range. Communication control device. A bulk parallel situation analyzing means for analyzing a bulk parallel situation in which a plurality of bulks having the same transmission source are parallel,
3. The analysis unit according to claim 1, wherein the analyzing unit analyzes a relationship between the communication behavior of the terminal user and the communication quality based on a parallel state of each bulk in which a variation in session quality belongs to the same range. Communication control device.   The aggregating means aggregates sessions having the same source address and an occurrence interval within a predetermined bulk threshold into the same bulk, and sequentially aggregates sessions with the occurrence interval exceeding the predetermined bulk threshold into each subsequent bulk. The communication control device according to claim 1, wherein   The communication control apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the aggregation unit aggregates all the sessions generated within the first bulk threshold from the earliest session occurrence time into the same bulk and repeats the same.   The communication control apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the aggregation unit aggregates all the sessions whose occurrence time intervals are within the second bulk threshold with each other and repeats the same.   The means for aggregating includes, for a plurality of bulks that aggregate sessions having the same transmission source, the last end time of the session included in the i-th bulk and the occurrence time of the earliest session included in the i + 1th bulk. 6. Bulks having a difference from a predetermined call threshold within a predetermined call threshold are aggregated into the same call, and bulks whose occurrence intervals exceed a predetermined call threshold are sequentially aggregated into subsequent calls. 8. The communication control device according to any one of items 7.   The bulk aggregation status analysis means includes: presence / absence of continuation of bulk transition, number of continuations of bulk, duration of bulk, status of TCP connection per bulk, status of HTTP session per bulk, status of data transmission / reception per bulk, call 4. The communication control apparatus according to claim 3, wherein either the number of continuations or the call occurrence interval is analyzed.   5. The communication control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the bulk parallel state analyzing unit analyzes a parallel state with each bulk subsequent to the bulk for each bulk.   5. The communication control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the bulk parallel state analyzing unit analyzes presence / absence of a subsequent bulk in parallel with the bulk for each bulk.   5. The communication control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the bulk parallel status analyzing unit analyzes the number of subsequent bulks in parallel with the bulk for each bulk.   5. The communication control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the bulk parallel state analyzing unit analyzes a sum of data amounts of all subsequent bulks parallel to the bulk for each bulk.   5. The communication control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the bulk parallel state analyzing unit analyzes the sum of the number of sessions of all subsequent bulks parallel to the bulk for each bulk.   5. The communication control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the bulk parallel status analyzing unit analyzes a data amount of each subsequent bulk that is parallel to the bulk for each bulk. Means for clustering terminal users based on their attributes;
16. The communication control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means for determining the quality threshold value for each communication application determines the quality threshold value for each combination of the cluster to which the terminal user belongs and the communication application. . Means for accepting a user evaluation for the bandwidth control for each communication application;
The communication control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the allocated bandwidth determination unit reflects the evaluation result on an allocated bandwidth to the communication application.