MANAGING BANDWIDTH USAGE IN DISCONNECTED, INTERMITTENT, AND LOW BANDWIDTH (DIL) NETWORKS

20240250917

18/158526

January 24, 2023

A bandwidth management system for nodes in a network hierarchy that enables network operators to monitor/control bandwidth allocated for various types of data using existing quality of service (QOS) priorities. In various embodiments, the system may store lower priority data in a mutable queue and drop/overwrite untransmitted data (e.g., after a certain time period, upon receipt of updated data, etc.), select the wide area network best suited to transmit each type of data, change the QoS value of certain data types, and/or dynamically adjust the data prioritization or network selection based on the current mission or phase. In various embodiments, the system may also receive bulk data and distribute it locally to multiple devices, monitor the availability of each node and find the best path around unavailable nodes, and/or cache data output by a transmitting node and forward the cached data when a path to a destination node is available.

1. A bandwidth management system for nodes in communication via disconnected, intermittent, and low bandwidth (DIL) networks, the system comprising: non-transitory computer readable storage media; a network operations server, at a node, that receives data via a local area network and outputs the data for transmission from the node via one or more wide area networks having an available bandwidth; a bandwidth management module that: allocates the available bandwidth to each of a plurality of data types; and temporarily stores data exceeding the allocated bandwidth for that data type in a data buffer in the computer readable storage media; and a graphical user interface that provides functionality to: control the bandwidth allocated to each of the plurality of data types; view the bandwidth used to transmit each of the plurality of data types; and view the amount of data stored in the data buffer.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising: a bandwidth mitigation module that: provides functionality, via the graphical user interface, to specify prioritization settings identifying at least one higher priority data type and at least one lower priority data type; and outputs the data of the higher priority data type for transmission via the one or more wide area networks before outputting the data of the lower priority data type.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein: the data buffer that stores the data exceeding the allocated bandwidth for that data type is a mutable queue; and the bandwidth mitigation module is configured to drop data from the mutable queue in response to a condition specified in the prioritization settings.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the condition comprises expiration of a predetermined time period or receipt of updated data.

5. The system of claim 2, further comprising: an application specific routing module that: stores information specifying one or more preferred wide area networks associated with at least some of the plurality of data types; and outputs data for transmission via the preferred wide area networks associated with each data type.

6. The bandwidth management system of claim 5, wherein: the data comprises network operations data; and the plurality of data types comprises status data, state data, log data, event data, and bulk network operations data.

7. The bandwidth management system of claim 6, wherein the data further comprises user application data.

8. The bandwidth management system of claim 7, wherein: the user application data is received via an application programming interface (API), enabling the network operations server to identify the data type of the user application data.

9. The bandwidth management system of claim 8, wherein at least some of the network operations data is received via the API.

10. The bandwidth management system of claim 7, wherein: the data is transmitted from the node according to a quality of service; the data received by the network operations server is marked with initial quality of service values; and the application-specific routing module: stores an updated quality of service value associated with at least some of the plurality of data types; and marks the data with the updated quality of service value.

11. The bandwidth management system of claim 10, wherein the application-specific routing module: receives bulk data via a wide area network; stores the bulk data in the computer readable storage media; and distributes a copy of the bulk data to each of the user devices via the local area network.

12. The bandwidth management system of claim 10, wherein the node is among a plurality of nodes within a network hierarchy.

13. The bandwidth management system of claim 12, wherein the network operations server at a transmitting node: stores data indicative of the network hierarchy; receives information indicative of the availability of each node in the network hierarchy; and in response to a determination that the shortest path from the transmitting node to a destination node is through an intermediate node that is unavailable, identifies a new path from the node to the destination node that avoids the unavailable intermediate node.

14. The bandwidth management system of claim 12, wherein the network operations server at an intermediate node along a path between a transmitting node and a destination node is configured to: receive data from the transmitting node and forward the received data to the destination node; and in response to a determination that a path to the destination node is unavailable, store the received data and forward the received data when the path to the destination node is available.

15. The bandwidth management system of claim 10, further comprising: a dynamic quality of service module that: stores prioritization settings and one or more preferred wide area networks associated with each of a plurality of missions; receives information indicating a current mission; and outputs the prioritization settings associated with the current mission to the bandwidth mitigation module; and outputs instructions to the application-specific routing module to output the data via the preferred wide area networks associated with the current mission. enabling the system 400 to identify both the source (i.e., the user application 310) and the content of the user application data 330

16. A method for managing bandwidth usage by nodes in communication via disconnected, intermittent, and low bandwidth (DIL) networks, the method comprising: receiving data via a local area network, by a network operations server at a node, for transmission from the node via one or more wide area networks having an available bandwidth; provides functionality, via a graphical user interface, to allocate the available bandwidth to each of a plurality of data types; temporarily storing data exceeding the allocated bandwidth for that data type in a data buffer in non-transitory computer readable storage media.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the data buffer that stores the data exceeding the allocated bandwidth for that data type is a mutable queue, the method further comprising: providing functionality, via the graphical user interface, to specify prioritization settings identifying at least one higher priority data type and at least one lower priority data type; outputting the data of the higher priority data type for transmission via the one or more wide area networks before outputting the data of the lower priority data type; and dropping data from the mutable queue in response to a condition specified in the prioritization settings, the condition comprising expiration of a predetermined time period or receipt of updated data.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising: storing information specifying one or more preferred wide area networks associated with at least some of the plurality of data types; and outputting data for transmission via the preferred wide area networks associated with each data type.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the data is transmitted from the node according to a quality of service, the data received by the network operations server is marked with initial quality of service values, and the method further comprises: storing an updated quality of service value associated with at least some of the plurality of data types; and marking the data with the updated quality of service value.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising: storing prioritization settings and one or more preferred wide area networks associated with each of a plurality of missions; receiving information indicating a current mission; prioritizing the data according to the prioritization settings associated with the current mission; and outputting the data via the preferred wide area networks associated with the current mission.

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edspap.20240250917