Method and system for handling subscribers' network traffic

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9660934-B2
Application number	US-201314436122-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 18, 2013
Priority date	Oct 18, 2012
Publication date	May 23, 2017
Grant date	May 23, 2017

Abstract

A method for handling subscribers' network traffic between a CPE (customer premises equipment) and a broadband access network includes establishing a subscriber session between the CPE and a BNG (broadband network gateway, an entity within the broadband access network), to set up a network route between the CPE and the BNG. Data transmitted within the subscriber session are encapsulated into protocol frames. A NCE (network control entity) acquires a state of the subscriber session and updates network policies in at least one network entity on the network route based on the state of the subscriber session. A DEM (dynamic encapsulation module) decides, based on a DEM configuration, whether data sent to the broadband access network are encapsulated data within the subscriber session or are non-encapsulated data outside the subscriber session. The data are transmitted on a part of the network route and are handled according to the network policies.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for handling network traffic of subscribers between a CPE (customer premises equipment) and a broadband access network, the method comprising:
establishing a subscriber session between the CPE and a BNG (broadband network gateway) within the broadband access network thereby setting up a network route between the CPE and the BNG, wherein data transmitted within the subscriber session is encapsulated into protocol frames;
acquiring, by an NCE (network control entity), a state of the subscriber session;
updating, by the NCE based on the state of the subscriber session, network policies for handling of encapsulated data and non-encapsulated data by at least one network entity on the network route;
performing, by a DEM (dynamic encapsulation module), an encapsulation decision based on a DEM configuration, wherein the encapsulation decision determines whether data to be sent to the broadband access network is to be transmitted as encapsulated data within the subscriber session or as non-encapsulated data outside the subscriber session; and
transmitting, on at least a part of the network route, the data to be sent to the broadband access network as at least one of encapsulated data within the subscriber session or non-encapsulated data outside the subscriber session,
wherein an IP address of the CPE is the same for both encapsulated data inside the subscriber session and non-encapsulated data outside the subscriber session.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the protocol frames are tunneling protocol frames.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the protocol frames are PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) or GTP (Generic Transport Protocol).

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the transmitting, on at least a part of the network route, of encapsulated data includes transmitting the encapsulated data to the BNG and de-capsulating, by the BNG, the encapsulated data.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the transmitting, on at least a part of the network route, of non-encapsulated data includes transmitting the non-encapsulated data to at least one of the BNG or an offload-point on the part of the network route.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the transmitting, on at least a part of the network route, of non-encapsulated data is performed only if the subscriber session is alive.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the acquiring a state of the network session includes sending, by the NCE, a query for gathering information about the subscriber session to an authentication server that participated in establishing the subscriber session.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the acquiring a state of the network session includes sniffing, by the NCE, answers sent from an authentication server that participated in establishing the subscriber session so as to obtain information about the subscriber session.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the acquiring a state of the network session includes forwarding, by a NASS (network attached subsystem), session state information to the NCE.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the NASS is a subsystem of the BNG.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the network route is based on a network configuration being used in the transmitting, on at least a part of the network route, of encapsulated data and in the transmitting, on at least a part of the network route, of non-encapsulated data.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the DEM configuration defines static provisioning of network resources to be adapted based on dynamically learned parameters.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the DEM configuration is installed by the NCE.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the DEM configuration is defined on request by a remote policy controller.

15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the transmitting, on at least a part of the network route, of non-encapsulated data is performed according to the state of the subscriber session.

16. A system for handling network traffic of subscribers between a CPE (customer premises equipment) and a broadband access network, the system comprising:
a BNG (broadband network gateway) configured to establish a subscriber session with the CPE and to de-capsulate encapsulated data received via the subscriber session,
a plurality of network entities interconnected to each other and providing a network route for data transmitted in the subscriber session,
an NCE (network controller entity) configured to acquire a state of the subscriber session and to update network policies for handling of encapsulated data and non-encapsulated data by at least one of the network entities,
a DEM (dynamic encapsulation module) configured to perform an encapsulation decision that determines whether data to be sent to the broadband access network is to be transmitted as encapsulated data within the subscriber session or as non-encapsulated data outside the subscriber session,
wherein the data to be sent to the broadband access network as at least one of encapsulated data or non-encapsulated data are transmitted on at least a part of the network route, and
wherein an IP address of the CPE is the same for both encapsulated data inside the subscriber session and non-encapsulated data outside the subscriber session.

17. The system according to claim 16 , wherein the DEM is a part of the CPE or an entity within the broadband access network.

18. The system according to claim 16 , wherein the DEM works as a policy-based router or a policy-based switch, or wherein the DEM is implemented using reactive principles.

19. The system according to claim 16 , wherein the NCE is a part of the broadband access network or is implemented as centralized or distributed system.

Assignees

• Nec Europe Ltd
• Nec Corp

Inventors

• Bifulco Roberto
• Kolbe Hans-Joerg

Classifications

• H04L41/0893

  Assignment of logical groups to network elements · CPC title

• H04L12/2876 Primary

  Handling of subscriber policies (group policies management H04L41/0893) · CPC title

• H04L45/50

  using label swapping, e.g. multi-protocol label switch [MPLS] · CPC title

• H04L47/825 Primary

  Involving tunnels, e.g. MPLS · CPC title

• H04L69/14

  Multichannel or multilink protocols · CPC title