EPC node selection using custom service types

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10855645-B2
Application number	US-201514593178-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 9, 2015
Priority date	Jan 9, 2015
Publication date	Dec 1, 2020
Grant date	Dec 1, 2020

Abstract

Example implementations described herein are directed to providing one or more service tags in a Domain name service (DNS) response to indicate the availability of user defined services for a particular peer node in an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). DNS clients can process the DNS response for the service tags and facilitate the selection of peer nodes for a User Equipment (UE) based on the processed service tag(s).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a memory configured to store information from one or more Domain Name Service (DNS) responses received in response to a request from a device based on a characteristic of the device, the information comprising a list based on the characteristic,
wherein the list comprises:
a plurality of peer nodes, each of the plurality of peer nodes being associated with one or more service tags, and
the one or more service tags including information indicative of one or more application level capabilities supported by at least a subset of the plurality of peer nodes, the one or more service tags being included in one or more user-defined strings of the one or more DNS responses; and

a processor, configured to:
determine a requested application level capability associated with the request; and
select a peer node from the list if the peer node is associated with a service tag that matches the requested application level capability.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of peer nodes comprises one or more apparatuses selected from a group consisting of: a PDN Gateway (P-GW), a Serving Gateway (S-GW), a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), a Mobility Management Entity (MME), and a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN).

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more service tags comprise information indicative of identifying a peer node as providing Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) service.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the requested application level capability is selected based on a service requested for a User Equipment (UE) associated with the apparatus.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of peer nodes comprises a PDN Gateway (P-GW) and the characteristic of the device comprises one or more Access Point Names (APNs).

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of peer nodes comprises a Serving Gateway (S-GW) and the characteristic of the device comprises one or more Tracking Areas (TAs).

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more service tags is associated with each of the plurality of peer nodes within the DNS.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to refine its selection of a peer node based on a local policy.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the requested application level capability is associated with the one or more service tags within the DNS.

10. A method, comprising:
storing, by one or more processing devices, information from one or more Domain name service (DNS) responses, received in response to a request from a device based on a characteristic of the device, the information comprising a list based on the characteristic, wherein the list comprises:
a plurality of peer nodes, each of the plurality of peer nodes being associated with one or more service tags, and
the one or more service tags including information indicative of one or more application level capabilities supported by at least a subset of the plurality of peer nodes, the one or more service tags being included in one or more user-defined strings of the one or more DNS responses;

determining, by the one or more processing devices, a requested application level capability associated with the request; and
selecting, by the one or more processing devices, a peer node from the list if the peer node is associated with a service tag that matches the requested application level capability.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein each of the plurality of peer nodes comprises one or more apparatuses selected from a group consisting of: a PDN Gateway (P-GW), a Serving Gateway (S-GW), a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), a Mobility Management Entity (MME), and a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN).

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more service tags comprise information indicative of identifying a peer node as providing Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) service.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the requested application level capability is selected based on a service requested from a User Equipment (UE) associated with the apparatus.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein each of the plurality of peer nodes comprises a PDN Gateway (P-GW) and the characteristic of the device comprises one or more Access Point Names (APNs).

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein each of the plurality of peer nodes comprises a Serving Gateway (S-GW) and the characteristic of the device comprises one or more Tracking Areas (TAs).

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processing devices, cause the one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising:
storing information from one or more Domain name service (DNS) responses, received in response to a request from a device based on a characteristic of the device, the information comprising a list based on the characteristic, wherein the list comprises:
a plurality of peer nodes, each of the plurality of peer nodes being associated with one or more service tags, and
the one or more service tags including information indicative of one or more application level capabilities supported by at least a subset of the plurality of peer nodes, the one or more service tags being included in one or more user-defined strings of the one or more DNS responses;

determining a requested application level capability associated with the request; and
selecting a peer node from the list if the peer node is associated with a service tag that matches the requested application level capability.

17. The non-transitory computer readable of claim 16 , wherein each of the plurality of peer nodes comprises one or more apparatuses selected from a group consisting of: a PDN Gateway (P-GW), a Serving Gateway (S-GW), a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), a Mobility Management Entity (MME), and a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN).

18. The non-transitory computer readable of claim 16 , wherein the one or more service tags comprise information indicative of identifying a peer node as providing Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) service.

19. The non-transitory computer readable of claim 16 , wherein the requested application level capability is selected based on a service requested for a User Equipment (UE) associated with the apparatus.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein each of the plurality of peer nodes comprises a PDN Gateway (P-GW) and the characteristic of the device comprises one or more Access Point Names (APNs).

21. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein each of the plurality of peer nodes comprises a Serving Gateway (S-GW) and characteristic of the device comprises one or more Tracking Areas (TAs).

Assignees

• Affirmed Networks Communications Tech Inc
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Rink Fred
• Qian Haibo
• Brown Michael

Classifications

• H04L2101/35

  containing special prefixes · CPC title

• H04W48/18 Primary

  Selecting a network or a communication service · CPC title

• H04L61/4511 Primary

  using domain name system [DNS] · CPC title

• H04W88/18

  Service support devices; Network management devices · CPC title

• H04W76/12

  Setup of transport tunnels · CPC title