Methods and apparatus for aggregating MIP and AAA messages

• US 20040047348A1
• Filed: 05/06/2003
• Published: 03/11/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: OʼNeill, Alan
• Granted Patent: US 7,564,824 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0892 by using authentication-authorization-accounting [AAA] servers or protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/062 Pre-authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/005 Multiple registrations, e.g. multihoming
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/20 Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]

Abstract

Aggregated signaling methods and apparatus which can be used to support the aggregation of Mobile IP binding registration information corresponding to multiple forwarding tunnels are described. Aggregated binding update message are used to enable multiple home addresses from one or more home agents to be installed, refreshed and deleted using a single MIP signaling phase. The single MIP signaling phase may correspond to a single MIP binding update message. Aggregated message techniques can also be used to retrieve multiple home address specific policy profiles via AAA signaling thereby reducing the number of AAA messages required to retrieve AAA information, e.g., profiles, corresponding to multiple home addresses.

Claims

1. A communications method comprising the step of transmitting an aggregated binding message from a first node to a second node, said aggregated binding message for registering address binding information, said message comprising:

a first address, said first address identifying a node;

a second address including a first prefix assigned to the identified node; and

a third address being a binding address associated with the second address, said binding address being for use in establishing a binding entry mapping said second address to the third address in at least the identified node; and

a fourth address with an additional prefix said additional prefix being different from said first prefix, said fourth address establishing an additional binding to said third address.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said first address is a home agent address, said second address is a first home address, said third address is a CoA, and said fourth address is a second home address, said first, second, third and fourth addresses.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional prefix is allocated to the first identified node.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first node is one of a mobile end node and an access node and wherein the second node is said identified node.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

operating said second node to install a single aggregated binding table entry between the third address and both of the second and fourth addresses in response to receiving said message.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the first node is one of an end node and a first access node, and the second node is a second access node.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

operating said second node to install a single aggregated binding table entry between the third address and both of the second and fourth addresses in response to receiving said message.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said message further includes:

a fifth address assigned to a second identified node, said another prefix corresponding to the second identified node, said message further establishing a binding between the third address and the fourth address in the second identified node.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said first node is an end node and said second node is an access node, the method further comprising:

operating said second node to install an aggregated binding table entry establishing a mapping between the third address and the second address, and also a mapping of the third address to the fourth address, said aggregated binding table entry further including said first and fifth addresses,

operating said second node to transmit a binding message to each of said first and fifth addresses.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said second node is an access node, the method further comprising:

operating said access node to receive an aggregated AAA message from a AAA server, said aggregated AAA message including an end node identifier, MIP state dynamically allocated via said AAA server, and a plurality of end node policy profiles, each of said profiles being associated with a different address from a group of addresses comprising;

said second and fourth addresses.

11. A memory device comprising:

an aggregated addresses binding registration message for use in a communications system, said aggregated address binding registration message including;

a plurality of Home Agent Address/Home Address pairs associated with an end node;

a set of common MIP signaling flags which are the same for each of said plurality of Home Agent Address/Home Address pairs;

and additional Home Agent Address/Home Address pair specific signaling information, said pair specific signaling information including information which is not the same for each of said plurality of Home Agent Address/Home Address pairs.

12. The memory device of claim 11, wherein said pair specific signaling information includes at least one MIP signaling flag which is different from the MIP signaling flags included in said set of common MIP signaling flags.

13. The memory device of claim 12, wherein said MIP signaling flags included in said set of common MIP signaling flags are present only once in said message.

14. The memory device of claim 12, wherein said plurality of Home Agent Address/Home Address pairs include a fist Home Agent Address/Home Address pair, and a second Home Agent Address/Home Address pair, said message including a first Home Agent Address corresponding to both of said first and second Home Agent Address/Home Address pairs, said first Home Agent address being present only once in said message.

15. The memory device of claim 14,

wherein a first Home Address corresponds to said first Home Agent Address/Home Address pair and

wherein said second Home Address corresponds to said second Home Agent Address/Home Address pair, said first and second Home Addresses being from different non-contiguous blocks of addresses allocated to a Home Agent to which said first Home Agent Address corresponds.

16. The memory device of claim 15, wherein said message further includes a third Home Agent Address/Home Address pair which includes a Home Agent Address which corresponds to another Home Agent.

17. The memory device of claim 13, wherein said message includes a single Care of Address corresponding to said end node.

18. A memory comprising:

an aggregated addresses binding registration message for use in a communications system, said aggregated address binding registration message including a first Home Agent Address corresponding to a first Home Agent Node, a single Care of Address to be used by said first Home Agent Node to forward packets being directed to an end node and a plurality of different home addresses assigned to said end node by said first Home Agent node, said plurality of different home addresses including at least a first and a second home address, one of said first and second home addresses being separated from each of the other home addresses included in said message by an address value difference greater than one, such that said one of said first and second home addresses is non-contiguous to any other home address in said message.

19. The memory of claim 18, wherein said message further includes at least two different home addresses associated with said first Home Agent Address, each of said first and second home addresses including a different address prefix.

20. The memory of claim 18, wherein said message includes a single set of MIP signaling flags which are associated with each of the first and second home addresses, each MIP signaling flag in said single set of MIP signaling flags being included in said message only once.

21. The memory of claim 20, wherein each Home Agent Address in said message corresponds to one Home Address included in said message thereby forming a plurality of Home Agent Address/Home Address pairs, said message further including

first Home Agent Address/Home Address pair specific signaling state for a first Home Agent Address/Home Address pair;

and

second Home Agent Address/Home Address pair specific signaling state for a second Home Agent Address/Home Address pair.

22. The memory of claim 21,

wherein said first Home Agent Address/Home Address pair includes said first Home Agent Address and said first home address;

and

wherein said second Home Agent Address/Home Address pair includes said first Home Agent Address and said second home address.

23. The memory of claim 19, wherein said message further includes:

a second Home Agent Address and a third home address, said third home address being assigned by said second Home Agent for use in forwarding packets being directed to said end node.

24. The memory of claim 19, wherein said third home address includes a prefix which is different from prefixes included in said first and second home addresses.