Patent Application
20120191628
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a method and apparatus for controlling network traffic flow. More specifically, embodiments of the invention provide advanced internet protocol (IP) service peering mechanisms for dynamically authenticating, controlling, and billing for network traffic flow between network access service providers.
Peering is the arrangement of traffic exchange between Internet service providers (ISPs). Larger ISPs with their own backbone networks agree to allow traffic from other large ISPs in exchange for traffic on their backbones. They also exchange traffic with smaller ISPs so that they can reach regional end points. Essentially, this is how a number of individual network owners put the Internet together. To do this, network owners and access providers, the ISPs, work out agreements that describe the terms and conditions to which both are subject.
The disclosed embodiments include a method, apparatus, and computer program product for dynamically authenticating, controlling, and billing for network traffic flow between peering network access service providers. For example, the disclosed embodiments include a computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code comprising instructions to: identify a source and a content type associated with a data packet communicated from a first network to a peer network; determine whether the source is a registered peer service; identify, using a registered quality of service peer table, a quality of service level associated with the source in response to a determination that the source is a registered peer service; dynamically mark the data packet associated with the source with the quality of service level; mark the data packet with a user network identifier, wherein the user network identifier is utilized by the peer network to automatically authenticate the source of the data packet; map the data packet to a service point of the peer network using the user network identifier; transmit the data packet to the peer network, wherein the peer network communicates the data packet based on the quality of service level associated with the data packet; monitor an amount of data associated with the source being communicated by the first network; store the amount in a peer usage tracking table, wherein the quality of service level associated with the source dynamically changes in response to the amount stored in the peer usage tracking table exceeding a first predetermined threshold; and calculate a cost associated with the amount of data associated with the source being communicated by the first network based on a cost per unit associated with the source, the cost per unit being stored in the peer usage tracking table, wherein the cost per unit associated with the source dynamically changes in response to the amount of data associated with the source exceeding a second predetermined threshold.
In another embodiment, a computer implemented method for providing advanced IP Service Peering is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes identifying a source and a content type associated with a data packet communicated from a first network to a peer network; determining whether the source is a registered peer service; identifying a quality of service level associated with the source in response to a determination that the source is a registered peer service; dynamically marking the data packet associated with the source with the quality of service level; and transmitting the data packet to the peer network, wherein the peer network communicates the data packet based on the quality of service level associated with the data packet.
Still, in another embodiment, an apparatus for providing advanced IP Service Peering is disclosed. The apparatus includes memory for storing data and executable instructions; a network interface for communicating with at least one network; and a processing unit. The processing unit is operable to execute the executable instructions to identify a source and a content type associated with a data packet communicated from a first network to a peer network; determine whether the source is a registered peer service; identify, using a registered quality of service peer table, a quality of service level associated with the source in response to a determination that the source is a registered peer service; dynamically mark the data packet associated with the source with the quality of service level; transmit the data packet to the peer network, wherein the peer network communicates the data packet based on the quality of service level associated with the data packet; monitor an amount of data associated with the source being communicated by the first network; store the amount in a peer usage tracking table; and calculate a cost associated with the amount of data associated with the source being communicated by the first network based on a cost per unit associated with the source, the cost per unit being stored in the peer usage tracking table.
Illustrative embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the attached figures, which are incorporated by reference herein and wherein:
The disclosed embodiments and advantages thereof are best understood by referring to
The customer equipment 110 may communicate with the access provider 120 via a wired or wireless means. For example, in one embodiment, the customer equipment 110 may be hard-wired to a modem/router 112, which in turn is hard-wired to a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DLSAM) 114. The DLSAM 114 is typically located at a telephone exchange of the service provider. The DLSAM 114 connects multiple customer Digital Subscriber Lines (DSLs) to a high-speed Internet backbone line for enabling communication between the customer equipment 110 and the access provider 120. Of course, the customer equipment 110 may communicate with the access provider 120 using other types of wired communication such as, but not limited to, fiber-optic lines. In addition, in some embodiments, the customer equipment 110 may communicate with the access provider 120 wirelessly via one or more cellular communication towers 116 using any type of wireless network such as, but not limited to, one or more GSM networks, CDMA networks, Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE) networks, PSTN networks, and 3G/4G networks.
The access provider 120 provides network access such as Internet access, e-mail services, or any of the type of network services to the customer equipment 110. As part of providing the network access to the customer equipment 110, the access provider 120 may communicate data packets associated with the customer equipment 110 over one or more third-party/peer networks, such as, but not limited to, peer network 130. The communication of data packets between the access provider 120 and the peer network 130 is controlled by a service controller within each respective network. For example, the access provider 120 may include an IP service controller 122 that communicates with a third party IP service controller 132 of the peer network 130 for enabling communication of data between the two networks.
As shown in
Additionally, in one embodiment, the IP service controller 122 uses deep and shallow packet inspection to understand user data activity in perspective of service destination/source, service type or application content (Layer 7/8), protocols, bandwidth occupied, current location and traffic patterns. Deep packet inspection (DPI) is the ability to examine the application payload of a data packet or traffic stream to identify the content of the data and make decisions on the significance of that data. For instance, in certain embodiments, the IP service controller 122 uses deep packet inspection for identifying data and dynamically assigning a quality of service (QoS) level to each data packet passing through the access provider 120 network. For example, in one embodiment, the IP service controller 122 dynamically marks each data packet communicated between the access network provider and the one or more third-party networks with a QoS marking based on QoS flow parameters for specific types of inbound and outbound traffic flows associated with each peering/partnered company (e.g., a cable company or web-media provider). The IP service controller 122 may store the QoS flow parameters in a registered QoS peer table 300, which is used by the IP service controller 122 for registration of peer service sources. In addition, the IP service controller 122 is able to initiate charging, monitor quotas, invoke dialogue, redirect, filter traffic, allow/deny service access, and control bandwidth per subscriber, peer network, and/or customer equipment with minimum and maximum rates utilizing a registered peer usage tracking table 400.
Alternatively, in some embodiments, the IP service controller 122 transmits all or a portion of the data from the registered QoS peer table and the registered peer usage tracking table to all IP network peering gateways and all pin-hole firewalls to enable the Dynamic or Static QoS marking mechanisms to be configured in the inter-connection elements. For example,
For example, in one embodiment, the access provider network firewall/gateway 124 and the third party peering network firewall/gateway 134 are configured as specialized User Datagram Protocol (UDP) firewalls with Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS) functions. UDP is a set of network protocols used for the Internet. With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol (IP) network without requiring prior communications to set up special transmission channels or data paths. The BRAS functions provides aggregation capabilities (e.g. IP, PPP, ATM) between the access provider 120 network and the one or more third party networks, such as peer network 130. The access provider network firewall/gateway 124 and third party peering network firewall/gateway 134 are also the injection point for policy management and IP QoS in the respective access networks.
Additionally, in certain embodiments, the access provider network firewall/gateway 124 and the third party peering network firewall/gateway 134 may be configured to perform DPI based QoS marking and IP Detail Record (IPDR) based billing using data from the registered QoS peer table 300 and the registered peer usage tracking table 400 (depicted in
Using the registered QoS peer table 300, the access provider network firewall/gateway 124 may recognize data coming from or transmitted to the particular partnered service (e.g., using shallow and/or deep packet inspection). Upon identifying outbound or inbound data packets associated with the particular partnered service, the access provider network firewall/gateway 124 checks the registered QoS peer table 300 to determine whether to apply dynamic QoS marking to the data packets associated with the particular partnered service and if so, which type of QoS marking to apply. Additionally, the registered QoS peer table 300 may be used to apply different billing and different QoS levels on a deeper level than merely differentiating between real-time and non-real-time content. For instance, as indicated in the disclosed embodiment, if the data packet is identified, based on the stored IP address, to be associated with Google's™ paid video broadcast, then a billing cost of 0.0001 is applied per bit and a QoS level of 8 is applied to the data packet. However, if the data packet is identified, based on the stored IP address, to be associated with Google's™ free preview server, then no billing cost is applied to this particular data and a lower QoS level (e.g., 7) is applied to this particular data packet.
The miscellaneous flow attribute 470 includes other attributes that may be used in calculating the cost for a particular partnered service based on a service agreement between the access provider 120 and the particular partnered service. For example, the miscellaneous flow attribute 470 may include such information as, but not limited to, max Kbits in use, average Kbits in use, mode Kbits in use, flows in use, and the type of video encoding. In one embodiment, the miscellaneous flow attribute 470 may indicate a max threshold data amount that if crossed, would dynamically adjusts the cost attribute 450 and/or the QoS marketing attribute 360 in the registered QoS peer table 300. For example, if the amount of data indicated by the traffic amount attribute 460 exceeds the max threshold data amount, the cost attribute 450 amount may increase to, or by, a pre-specified amount and/or the QoS marketing attribute 360 level may decrease for the particular partnered service. As an example, if the amount of data indicated by the traffic amount attribute 460 exceeds the max threshold data amount for data associated with Google's™ free preview server, then the cost attribute 450 may increase from 0 to 0.0001 per bit for data exceeding the threshold amount for a given time period.
Additionally, because the data associated with the registered QoS peer table 300 and the registered peer usage tracking table 400 is also transmitted to all the third party peering network inter-connection elements (e.g., third party peering network firewall/gateway 134), all third party peering networks may use the same data for monitoring communications associated with a particular partnered service that are communicated over the third party peering network. Further, the third party peering network may use the data to dynamically authenticate the data packet associated with the particular partnered service as being associated with the access provider 120 for enabling the data packets associated with the particular partnered service to be communicated over the third party peering network without requiring additional authentication. Moreover, the third party peering network may apply the same QoS level as indicated in the registered QoS peer table 300 for providing a quality of service to the data packet associated with the particular partnered service through the third party peering network.
Additionally, in the depicted embodiment, the peering gateway 500 includes, among other things, a QoS configuration/control stack 510, a QoS usage tracker 520, an IPDR tracking module 530, and a QoS marker module 540. In one embodiment, the QoS configuration/control stack 510 stores the QoS configuration settings for the peering gateway 500. In addition, the QoS configuration/control stack 510 may include one or more buffer queues for storing data packets to be processed and/or to be transmitted. The priority of the data packets to be processed and/or to be transmitted by the peering gateway 500 may be based at least on a QoS marking, if any, associated with the data packets.
The QoS usage tracker 520 monitors the traffic flow and keeps an accounting of the QoS usage for each of the partnered services. For example, the QoS usage tracker 520 may update the registered peer usage tracking table 400 with the number of bits in the traffic amount attribute 460 for each partnered service. In addition, in certain embodiments, the QoS usage tracker 520 may monitor the number of bits associated with a particular priority status (e.g., 8) for a particular partnered service. For example, in some embodiments, a particular partnered service may be limited by the number of bits at a particular priority level that may pass through the peering gateway 500. In such embodiments, the data packets associated with particular partnered service exceeding the threshold may be transmitted at a lower priority (e.g., a lower set priority or using best effort), transmitted at a higher cost, transmitted based on bandwidth availability (e.g., if bandwidth permits, the priority level may stay the same), and/or the peering gateway 500 may block communications of the data packets exceeding the threshold.
Further, in some embodiments, a partnered service may purchase additional priority credits. For example, in one embodiment, the IP service controller 122 may be linked to web server (not depicted), which stores and executes instructions for providing a web interface to a partnered service (or other users) for enabling the purchase of additional priority credits. Additionally, the web interface may be used to configure settings associated with the peering gateway 500 including, but not limited to, setting the cost, priority level, and threshold values associated with partnered services.
The IPDR tracking module 530 utilizes the IPDR protocol to enable the collection of usage data from variety of devices to provide additional information or revenue generating opportunities. For example, in one embodiment, the IPDR tracking module 530 utilizes the data monitored by the QoS usage tracker 520 to generate a detailed record for each of the partnered service. The detailed record provides information about service usage and other activities that can be used by the Operational Support Systems (OSS) and the Business Support Systems (BSS). For instance, the detailed record may be utilized for billing the partnered services.
The QoS marker module 540 includes instructions for dynamically marking data packets with a QoS level as it passes through the peering gateway 500. For example, in some embodiments, the QoS marker module 540 may mark a data packet with a particular QoS level if the data packet does not include any QoS marking. Additionally, the QoS marker module 540 may decrease and/or increase an existing QoS marking for data packets associated with a particular partnered service. For example, in one embodiment, a particular partnered service may have a higher QoS level for data packets communicated in the access provider 120 network. However, the particular partnered service may have a lower QoS level for the same data packets as they are communicated over one or more of the third party peer networks such as peer network 130. Thus, the QoS marker module 540 enables dynamic assignment/adjustments of the QoS level as it passes between the peer networks. In alternative embodiments, the functions disclosed above may be performed further inside the network by other devices, as opposed to being performed directly at the peering gateway 500.
The disclosed embodiments enables the virtual sale of the IP Network by dynamically QoS marking “partner” or “peer” traffic based on the type of traffic and billing based the QoS marking. Additionally, the disclosed embodiments enable mapping of the customer to a third party service point and automatic authentication of customers on one or more third party networks. For instance, in one embodiment, the networks “agree” to authenticate users based on a user network identifier, which also provides a “service point” mapping so that a user can authenticate on a third party access provider network. The user is then mapped to an out of franchise provider via a “user session and control policy” message. For example, in one embodiment, the return message from the service provider indicates what network to network QOS markings to apply and the switch/gateway maps the customer to the third party and applies the QOS markings. Accordingly, the above disclosure describes several embodiments for providing advanced Internet protocol UP) service peering for dynamically authenticating, controlling, and billing for network traffic flow between network access service providers.
The illustrative embodiments can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. Furthermore, the illustrative embodiments can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium can be any tangible apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The previous detailed description discloses several embodiments for implementing the invention and is not intended to be limiting in scope. Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize obvious variations to the embodiments disclosed above and the scope of such variations are intended to be covered by this disclosure. The following claims set forth the scope of the invention.
