Method of processing a data packet relating to a service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017054639-A1
Application number	US-201515306992-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 13, 2015
Priority date	Apr 30, 2014
Publication date	Feb 23, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

Method of processing a data packet relating to a service, said packet being conveyed by an interconnection gateway between a mobile communication network and a packet communication network, destined for said packet communication network, said method comprising a step of obtaining by a virtualized node an identifier of the service to which the packet relates, characterized in that said method furthermore comprises: —a step of obtaining on the basis of the service identifier a sequence of at least one elementary network function for processing said packet; —for processing the packet, the first function of the sequence corresponding at the first iteration to a current function, the packet being transmitted at the input of a virtualized node able to implement a current function: —application of the current function to the input packet so as to obtain an output packet by the virtualized node; —if there exists a function following the current function in the sequence; —selection of a next virtualized node able to implement said function following the current function in the sequence, said function then becoming current function; —dispatching of the output packet to the selected node, the output packet thus becoming input packet for the application of the current function; —if no function following the current function in the sequence exists, transmission of the output packet to the packet communication network.

First claim

1 . A method of processing a data packet relating to a service, said packet being conveyed by an interconnection gateway ( 10 ) between a mobile communication network ( 100 ) and a packet communication network ( 200 ), destined for said packet communication network, said method comprising a step (E 31 ) of obtaining by a virtualized node an identifier of the service to which the packet relates;
characterized in that said method furthermore comprises:
a step (E 32 ) of obtaining, on the basis of the service identifier, a sequence ( 70 ) of at least one elementary network function ( 30 , 40 , 60 ) so as to process said packet;
to process the packet, the first function of the sequence corresponding at the first iteration to a current function, the packet being transmitted as input of a virtualized node ( 32 , 42 , 61 ) able to implement a current function:
application (E 4 ) of the current function to the packet as input so as to obtain a packet as output by the virtualized node;
if there exists (E 6 ) a function following the current function in the sequence:
selection (E 61 , E 62 ) of a next virtualized node able to implement said function following the current function in the sequence, said function then becoming current function;
dispatching (E 63 ) of the output packet to the selected node, the output packet thus becoming input packet for the application of the current function;

if there does not exist (E 6 ) any function following the current function in the sequence, transmission (E 64 ) of the packet as output to the packet communication network.

2 . The processing method according to claim 1 , in which the application of the current function to the packet triggers an updating of said sequence of at least one elementary network function.

3 . The processing method according to claim 1 , in which the sequence is obtained on request, by the current node, from an elementary network functions control entity, said request comprising an identifier of the service.

4 . The processing method according to claim 1 , furthermore comprising a step of obtaining, from an elementary network functions control entity, a lookup table of correspondence between at least one service and a sequence of at least one elementary network function so as to process a packet relating to a service, upon the establishment of a user session between a user terminal and the interconnection gateway.

5 . The processing method according to claim 4 , in which said lookup table of correspondence is determined by the elementary network functions control entity as a function of a profile associated with the user terminal.

6 . The processing method according to claim 1 , furthermore comprising a step of obtaining, from a virtualized nodes control entity, a list of virtualized nodes which are available and able to implement an elementary network function, and in which the next virtualized node is selected on the basis of said list.

7 . The processing method according to claim 1 , furthermore comprising a step of dispatching, by the virtualized node implementing the current function, to a virtualized nodes control entity, a notification indicating a state of loading of the node.

8 . A system ( 300 ) for processing a packet, designed to process a data packet relating to a service, said packet being conveyed by an interconnection gateway ( 10 ) between a mobile communication network ( 100 ) and a packet communication network ( 200 ), destined for said packet communication network, said system comprising at least one virtualized node ( 31 - 32 , 41 - 43 , 51 , 61 - 63 , 80 ), said at least one virtualized node comprising:
a first obtaining module ( 802 ), designed to obtain an identifier of the service to which the packet relates; a second obtaining module ( 804 ), designed to obtain, on the basis of the service identifier, a sequence of at least one elementary network function so as to process said packet;
and the first function of the sequence corresponding at the first iteration to a current function:
a processing module ( 806 ), designed to apply the current function to the input packet so as to obtain an output packet;
a verification module ( 808 ), designed to verify whether there exists a function following the current function in the sequence,

and if appropriate,
a selection module ( 810 ), designed to, when there exists a function following the current function in the sequence, select a next virtualized node designed to implement said function following the current function in the sequence, said function then becoming current function;
a dispatching module ( 812 ), designed to, when there exists a function following the current function in the sequence, dispatch an output packet to a node selected by the selection module, the output packet thus becoming input packet for the application of the current function and designed to, when there does not exist any function following the current function in the sequence, transmit the output packet to the packet communication network.

9 . The system according to claim 8 , comprising in a user plane ( 320 ):
at least one virtualized node ( 31 - 32 , 41 - 43 , 51 , 61 - 63 ) able to implement an elementary network function ( 30 , 40 , 50 , 60 ) so as to process the packet relating to a service;
and in a control plane ( 310 ):
an elementary network functions control entity ( 400 ), designed to control the elementary network functions implemented by virtualized nodes belonging to the user plane, comprising:
a first reception module ( 402 ), designed to receive, from a virtualized node implementing an elementary network function so as to process said packet, an elementary network functions sequence request, said request comprising an identifier of the service;
an obtaining module ( 404 ), designed to obtain the sequence of at least one elementary network function so as to process the packet on the basis of the identifier of the service;
a dispatching module ( 406 ), designed to dispatch to a virtualized node the sequence of at least one elementary network function so as to process the packet.

10 . The system according to claim 8 , furthermore comprising a virtualized nodes control entity ( 500 ), designed to control said at least one virtualized node of the user plane, comprising:
a collection module ( 502 ), designed to collect availability information in respect of at least one virtualized node, for the implementation of an elementary network function; a dispatching module ( 504 ), designed to dispatch to a virtualized node a list of virtualized nodes which are available and able to implement an elementary network function; an updating module ( 507 ), designed to update a list of virtualized nodes which are available and able to implement an elementary network function, the dispatching module then also being designed to dispatch an update of the list.

11 . The system according to claim 8 , in which the elementary network functions control entity furthermore comprises:
a second reception module ( 410 ), designed to receive, from the interconnection gateway 10 , information relating to a context shared between a user terminal that sent the data packet and said interconnection gateway;
the dispatching module ( 406 ) of the elementary network functions control entity then also being designed to dispatch at least one table storing at least one association between a service and a sequence of at least one elementary network function, to a virtualized node, upon the establishment of a user session between a user terminal and the interconnection gateway.

12 . The system according to claim 9 , in which

Assignees

• Orange

Inventors

• Zhou Yu
• He Ruan

Classifications

• H04W76/12

  Setup of transport tunnels · CPC title

• H04L45/306

  Route determination based on the nature of the carried application · CPC title

• H04L12/66

  Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways · CPC title

• H04L45/745 Primary

  Address table lookup; Address filtering · CPC title

• H04W92/02 Primary

  Inter-networking arrangements · CPC title