A Framework for Qualitative Communications Using Big Packet Protocol

Abstract

In the current Internet architecture, a packet is a minimal or fundamental unit upon which different actions such as classification, forwarding, or discarding are performed by the network nodes. When faced with constrained or poor network conditions, a packet is subjected to undesirable drops and re-transmissions, resulting in unpredictable delays and subsequent traffic overheads in the network. Alternately, we introduce qualitative communication services which allow partial, yet timely, delivery of a packet instead of dropping it entirely. These services allow breaking down packet payloads into smaller units (called chunks), enabling much finer granularity of bandwidth utilization.We propose Packet Wash as a new operation in forwarding nodes to support qualitative services. Upon packet error or network congestion, the forwarding node selectively removes some chunk(s) from the payload based on the relationship among the chunks or the individual significance level of each chunk. We also present a qualitative communication framework as well as a Packet Wash directive implemented in a newly evolved data plane technology, called Big Packet Protocol (BPP).

Enhancing End-to-End Transport with Packet Trimming

“…The trade-off QUCO makes is between losing some information and achieving predictable delays with shallow buffers while minimizing re-transmissions. Our work is inspired from packet-wash by Li et al [1], which uses the concept of selectively dropping chunks in a packet based upon some congestion criteria. However, packet-wash does not specify congestion management aspects.…”

“…The chunks may be encrypted separately to preserve the integrity of the packet. The authors in [1] proposed a header format to inject priority/significance factors, checksum and boundaries of chunks.…”

“…QUCO can be associated with some differentiated levels of QoS. Actually, Li [1] suggests increasing the QoS level of a packet after a trimming operation. This is to ensure that a packet that has been trimmed is less likely to be dropped later on.…”

“…Such scenarios make a compelling case for new means to mitigate packet-drop on bottleneck nodes. One such scheme, qualitative communication, has been proposed by Li et al [1] (Sec. II).…”

Support Precise Latency for Network Based AR/VR Applications with New IP

“…New IP payload provides options to the receiver to consume any residual information in the payload while allowing the network to drop portions of the payload when congestion occurs. This type of communication is named as Qualitative Communication [7], which helps to mitigate retransmission overheads and delays when faced with slow or congested conditions.…”