Methods and apparatus to configure virtual private mobile networks with virtual private networks

• US 10,044,678 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2011
• Issued: 08/07/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Van der Merwe, Jacobus, Baliga, Arati, Chen, Xu, Coskun, Baris, de los Reyes, Gustavo, Lee, Seungjoon, Mathur, Suhas, Xu, Gang
• Primary Examiner(s): Tang, Karen
• Application Number:
  US13/222,876
• Publication Number:
  US 20130054763A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,533 Days
• Field of Search: 709220, 709217, 709224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5038 for local use, e.g. in LAN or USB networks, or in a controller area network [CAN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/03 Protecting confidentiality, e.g. by encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/35 Protecting application or service provisioning, e.g. securing SIM application provisioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/40 Security arrangements using identity modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/12 between location registers or mobility servers

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to configure virtual private mobile networks with virtual private networks are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes logically provisioning, for a client, the virtual private mobile network to process wireless network communications associated with the client that correspond to a specified address space of the client, provisioning at least a portion of a server within a cloud computing data center to host resources for the client, and configuring at least a portion of an edge router of the cloud computing data center to transmit the wireless network communications between the portion of the server and the virtual private mobile network.

Claims

1. A method to configure a virtual private mobile network, the method comprising:

in response to a request to create a virtual private mobile network, scanning a public wireless mobile network, by executing an instruction with at least one processor, to identify network elements of the public wireless network that have available capacity to host the virtual private mobile network;

logically provisioning, by executing an instruction with the at least one processor, the virtual private mobile network to process wireless network communications associated with a client, the virtual private mobile network including partitions of at least some of the network elements identified as having available capacity, the partitions being logically separate from the public wireless mobile network implemented by the network element, the logically provisioning including updating a control plane of the network elements identified as having available capacity with an access point name assigned to the virtual private mobile network, and a portion of the virtual private mobile network provisioned on a local packet delivery network gateway;

provisioning, by executing an instruction with the at least one processor, at least a portion of a first server within a cloud computing data center to host resources for the client, the provisioning of at least the portion of the first server within the cloud computing data center to provision a first virtual machine on the first server;

configuring, by executing an instruction with the at least one processor, at least a portion of an edge router of the cloud computing data center to transmit the wireless network communications between the portion of the server and the virtual private mobile network;

determining whether a request to access an application available at the first virtual machine and available at a second virtual machine is to be transmitted to the first virtual machine or to the second virtual machine, the second virtual machine being provisioned on a second server in communication with the local packet delivery network gateway, the determining of whether the request to access the application is to be transmitted to the first virtual machine or to the second virtual machine includes determining whether the application is a latency sensitive application; and

based on the determining, transmitting the request to access the application to one of the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine.

2. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the transmitting of the request to access the application to one of the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine includes transmitting the request to the second virtual machine when the application is determined to be a latency sensitive application.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the configuring of the at least the portion of the edge router includes storing the specified address space to a routing table of the edge router.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, further including:

determining a mobile device that is communicatively coupled to a wireless network is associated with the client; and

communicatively coupling the mobile device to the virtual private mobile network to enable the mobile device to access the resources.

5. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the at least the portion of the first server is implemented by a virtual machine.

6. The method as defined in claim 5, wherein the resources are to operate enterprise applications to provide mobile platform-as-a-service accessible by mobile devices associated with the client.

7. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the virtual private mobile network is to transmit communications associated with latency sensitive applications.

8. The method defined in claim 7, wherein the communications originate from the mobile device.

9. A tangible computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause at least one machine to perform operations comprising:

in response to a request to create a virtual private mobile network, scanning a public wireless mobile network to identify network elements of the public wireless network that have available capacity to host the virtual private mobile network;

logically provisioning a virtual private mobile network to process wireless network communications associated with a client, the virtual private mobile network including partitions of at least some of the network elements identified as having available capacity, the partitions being logically separate from the public wireless mobile network implemented by the network elements, the logically provisioning including updating a control plane of the network elements identified as having capacity with an access point name assigned to the virtual private mobile network, a portion of the virtual private mobile network provisioned on a local packet delivery network gateway;

provisioning a first virtual machine executed by a first server within a data center to host resources for the client;

provisioning a virtual local area network within the data center and a logical router within an edge router of the data center;

determining whether a request to access an application available at the first virtual machine and available at a second virtual machine is to be transmitted to the first virtual machine or to the second virtual machine, the determining of whether the request to access the application is to be transmitted to the first virtual machine or to the second virtual machine includes determining whether the application is a latency sensitive application, the second virtual machine being provisioned on a second server coupled to the local packet delivery network gateway; and

based on the determining, transmitting the request to access the application to one of the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine.

10. The tangible computer readable medium as defined in claim 9, the operations further including:

updating routing and forwarding tables within network routers between a virtual private network and the virtual private mobile network to create a virtual route between the virtual private network and the virtual private mobile network;

configuring the first virtual machine to communicate with the virtual private mobile network by updating the routing and forwarding tables within the network routers and the logical router to associate the virtual private mobile network with a second address space corresponding to the first virtual machine and the virtual local area network; and

creating a secure virtual route among the network routers between the virtual private mobile network, the virtual private network, and the first virtual machine.

11. The tangible computer readable medium as defined in claim 9, the operations further including:

determining a mobile device that is communicatively coupled to the wireless network is associated with the client; and

configuring the mobile device to enable the mobile device to securely access the virtual private network and the virtual machine.

12. An apparatus to configure a virtual private mobile network, the apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory including machine readable instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations including;

in response to a request to create a virtual private mobile network, scanning a public wireless mobile network to identify network elements of the public wireless mobile network having available capacity to host the virtual private mobile network;

logically provisioning the virtual private mobile network to process wireless network communications associated with a client, the virtual private mobile network including partitions of at least a subset of the network elements identified as having available capacity, the partitions being logically separate from the public wireless mobile network implemented by the at least the subset of the network elements a portion of the virtual private mobile network provisioned on a local packet delivery network gateway;

provisioning at least a portion of a first server within a cloud computing environment to host resources for the client;

configuring at least a portion of an edge router of the cloud computing environment to transmit the wireless network communications between the portion of the server and the virtual private mobile network;

determining whether a request to access an application available at a first virtual machine provisioned on the first server and available at a second virtual machine provisioned on a second server is to be transmitted to the first virtual machine or to the second virtual machine, the determining of whether the request to access the application is to be transmitted to the first virtual machine or to the second virtual machine includes determining whether the application is a latency sensitive application, the second virtual machine provisioned on the second server, the second server coupled to the local packet delivery network gateway; and

based on the determining, transmitting the request to access the application to one of the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine.

13. The apparatus as defined in claim 12, the operations further including configuring the at least the portion of the edge router by storing the specified address space to a routing table of the edge router.

14. The apparatus as defined in claim 12, the operations further including determining a mobile device that is communicatively coupled to a wireless network is associated with the client;

and

coupling the mobile device to the virtual private mobile network to enable the mobile device to access the resources.