METHOD FOR PROCESSING DATA PACKETS WHILE COMMUNICATING WITH A MACHINE VIA ONE OR MORE SECONDARY NETWORKS

• US 20080298377A1
• Filed: 05/23/2008
• Published: 12/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Monarch Networking Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Inventors: Kiessling, Lars, Barranco, Jocelyn, Amour, Francoise
• Granted Patent: US 8,130,765 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/400
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4633 Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2596 Translation of addresses of the same type other than IP, e.g. translation from MAC to MAC addresses

Abstract

An apparatus and associated methodology for processing at least one data packet received by a receiving entity from a machine after transmission via at least one data transmission network. Identification data is obtained of a device involved in the transmission of said data packet. A decoding function associated with said device is identified using the identification data. The decoding function is an inverse function of an encoding function applied by the device to a packet before transmission. The received packet is decoded through the application of the decoding function.

Claims

1. A method for processing at least one data packet received by a receiving entity from a machine after transmission via at least one data transmission network, said method comprising:

obtaining identification data of a device involved in the transmission of said data packet,

identification of a decoding function associated with said identification data, said decoding function being an inverse function of an encoding function applied by said device to a packet before transmission,

decoding the received packet through the application of said decoding function.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, in which the decoding step is applied iteratively to the current packet which comprises the packet obtained as a result of the preceding decoding step, through the application on each iteration of the decoding function associated with identification data of each device of a succession of devices which are involved in the transmission of said packet from said machine to the receiving entity,

wherein the order of the devices respectively associated with the decoding functions applied during the successive decoding steps is the reverse order of the order in which the devices are involved during the transmission of said packet from said machine to the receiving entity.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, comprising, if said packet has been transmitted successively by a first device, then by a second device, a storage step to store, in a table recording in association with identification data of a first machine identification data of a second machine via which a secondary network to which the first machine belongs is accessible, identification data of the second device in association with identification data of the first device.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said identification data are extracted from said packet.

5. A method for processing at least one data packet to be transmitted by a transmitting entity to a machine via a data transmission network, said method comprising:

obtaining identification data of a device to be involved in the transmission of said data packet,

identification of an encoding function associated with said identification data, said encoding function being an inverse function of a decoding function applied by said device to a packet before transmission,

encoding of said packet through the application of said encoding function,

dispatching to said device by said transmitting entity of the packet obtained as a result of the encoding step, for the purpose of transmitting said packet to said machine.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, in which the encoding step is applied iteratively to the current packet which comprises the packet obtained as a result of the preceding encoding step, through the application on each iteration of the encoding function associated with identification data of each device of a succession of devices which are intended to be involved in the transmission of said packet from the transmitting entity to said machine,

wherein the order of the devices respectively associated with the encoding functions applied during the successive encoding steps is the inverse order of the order in which the devices are involved during the transmission of said packet from the transmitting entity to said machine.

7. The method as claimed in claim 5 wherein said identification data of said device are obtained from identification data of said machine by reading in a table recording in association with identification data of a first machine identification data of a second machine via which a secondary network to which the first machine belongs is accessible.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, comprising, if said packet is intended to be transmitted successively by a first device then by a second device, obtaining identification data of said first device from data stored in said table in association with identification data of said second device.

9. A communications device suitable for receiving at least one data packet originating from a machine after transmission via at least one data transmission network, said device comprising:

means for obtaining identification data of a device involved in the transmission of said data packet,

means for identifying a decoding function associated with said identification data, said decoding function being an inverse function of an encoding function applied by said device to a packet before transmission,

means for decoding the received packet through application of said decoding function.

10. A communications device suitable for transmitting at least one data packet to a machine via a data transmission network, said device comprising:

obtaining identification data of a device to be involved in the transmission of said data packet,

means for identifying an encoding function associated with said identification data, said encoding function being an inverse function of a decoding function applied by said device to a packet before transmission,

means for encoding said packet through the application of said encoding function,

dispatching means for dispatching the packet obtained in the encoding step to said device, for the purpose of transmitting said packet to said machine.