Patent Application
20060072482
The invention relates to data networking. Particularly the invention relates to service management and service switching in data communication networking.
The invention relates to service management and service switching. The need for efficient service switching has risen lately. Modern terminal devices are capable of using several different services simultaneously that may be implemented in different networks. For example, in mobile devices it is possible to implement different services, such as video or audio streaming and an Internet connection.
There are several problems to be solved as the number of users and services grow within networks. Provisioning and management of the services within a network and between networks grow in complexity even more rapidly than user and service growth. This rapid growth in complexity is due in part to the combinations of logical service functions and service elements that comprise a service and to that fact that a single service may actually be implemented in multiple instances of the service that are located in geographically different locations. Because of the growth in complexity it quickly becomes difficult to maintain an accurate view of the services in a network as well as accurate view links or routes needed to access those services.
Tracking and monitoring of services becomes also very complex as configuration of a network is manually or automatically adapted to relatively static or dynamic change that naturally occurs in networks. Furthermore, it is hard to maintain accurate information on what services certain network elements provide. For example, different users of the same service, such as video streaming, could use the same network elements or the same subset of network elements for a service, or even use completely different network elements for the same service.
Previously a number of approaches have been used to provide users with an access to services. Access points have been defined as part of mobile networks. An access point is a logical point at which a designated service may be obtained. The concect of access points in general has been introduced in the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Layer model. Typically a single access point is used to access a service available from a packet network. To provide an access to multiple services, multiple access points are configured into a mobile terminal.
To minimize the problems mentioned above hardware vendors have defined service switching in which a single service point is used to access multiple services. This kind of solution is disclosed in
Service switching approaches have been used also within network elements, in which packet classification is performed using layer 3 or 4 triggers or rules. The current solutions do switch traffic to different network elements and the network elements may perform an additional classification but the access to the service as a whole is determined by a single network element. The switching services for these solutions are typically statically configured. The configuration ranges from a single or static destination IP address for the network element to a configuration where the destination IP-address for the network element is determined in a more dynamic fashion such as using load balancing algorithms.
IP routing has been defined in standards. It has been implemented by a large number of vendors. IP routing provides dynamic exchange of routing and forwarding information including reachability of various IP addresses. IP routing primarily deals with information from layer 3 in the OSI network model. Some vendors have also used layer 4 information to differentiate packets for queuing and forwarding. However, layers 5-7 are not typically used as part of forwarding decisions or route determination algorithms.
Thus, there is an obvious need for a solution that allows simple and efficient management of a large number of services.
The invention discloses a system, a method and a device for service switching. The invention is implemented in a communication network wherein a terminal device is capable of using multiple services. According to the invention, the terminal device applies one service access point for connecting to a service switching entity. The service switching entity is arranged into a common network element and has further access to service providers, other service access entities and external service access repositories. After initiating the service, the service access entity dynamically exchanges service access information with other service access entities. After resolving the access to the desired service, the service access entity dynamically exchanges the state of the service provided via the other service access entities. Based on the exchanged information, the service access entity applies a routing algorithm that determines the route to the desired service.
The major benefit of the invention is that it provides an easy solution for using multiple services. The complexity of the configuration is moved from the terminal device to the network. A further benefit of the invention is that the service is always routed to a service provider that is capable of providing the desired service. A further benefit of the invention is that all connectivity information is exchanged dynamically. Thus, there is no need for complex and static route configurations. A further benefit of the invention is that there is a need for accesses from a single network element to all services that are provided to the customer, but the network may access the service via other service switching entities automatically.
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description help to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings:
Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
In
In the system according to the invention terminal devices 30 and 31 are communicating with a single network element 32 or 33. The actual communication may be provided by any known technology. Thus, the direct connection used in the example is purely for simplifying the example. A Person skilled in the art is already familiar with common data communication technologies and is aware that there might be several components between the source and the destination. Furthermore, it is also known to a person skilled in the art that it is possible to arrange communication with several network elements In the example embodiment terminal device 30 is connected to network element 33. The network element the comprises necessary functionality for transferring and routing data. Furthermore, according to the invention network elements are provided with service switching capabilities. Network elements are connected to each other and to a plurality of services. As shown in
In the system according to the invention the terminal device 30 first initiates service by contacting network element 33 and indicating the desired service. Network element 33 has information on other network elements and other service access repositories. The network element solves the route to the desired service by requesting the service access route. Thus, the network element does not need a full list of service access routes but only the information of other network elements. Network element needs only the addresses of network services that are connected directly to the network element. However, it is also possible to add network services dynamically to a network element 33. This is particularly case, for example, when a new service has been introduced. New service may be added manually or automatically. For example, it is possible to implement an internal trigger that searches new services and arranges old ones. It might be beneficial to establish direct connections to popular services that are accessed via other network elements. In the example it is assumed that the network element already knows the address of the desired service.
As modern services are complex, they are typically implemented in multiple instances. In
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In
Based on the service state information, a routing decision will be made, step 53. There are several possible decision-making policies. For example, a service switching entity may choose a service provider with a low load and establish a direct connection to the service. The connection may be established also via other service switching entities. In case there are several possibilities the routing decision may be done according to the user or service provider preferences. For example, if the service provider has multiple instances and the instance with the least load requires a longer route, the route may be established to a service instance that has more load but is closer to the service switching entity. Lastly, the actual routing of the service is initiated and the terminal device is able to use the desired service, step 54.
In
It is obvious to a person skilled in the art that with the advancement of technology, the basic idea of the invention may be implemented in various ways. The invention and its embodiments are thus not limited to the examples described above; instead they may vary within the scope of the claims.
