RELAY NETWORK SYSTEM AND TERMINAL ADAPTOR APPARATUS

• US 20100020738A1
• Filed: 06/05/2006
• Published: 01/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Inouchi, Hidenori, Konishi, Katsumi, Ohnishi, Koh
• Granted Patent: US 8,159,989 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/315
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4666 Operational details on the addition or the stripping of a tag in a frame, e.g. at a provider edge node
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/5692 Selection among different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/50 using label swapping, e.g. multi-protocol label switch [MPLS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1458 Denial of Service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security

Abstract

The optimum relay route is selected out of a plurality of relay routes to a server. In order to solve a multirouting problem, introduced is a multi routing system for determining a relay route on the basis of a label corresponding to a terminal of an access source and a server type of an access destination instead of using an IP address as a key to select the relay route. A VPN using L2TP is also introduced. A CE router A (101) maps MAC addresses of terminals (103, 104) that it accommodates on the L2TP-VPN session. The session ID of the L2TP is used as the session ID of VPN, which is used as the key to select a relay route.

Claims

1. A relay network system comprising:

a terminal adaptor apparatus that has a management table where a transmission-source address of a packet, destination information indicating a destination address or a destination domain name of the packet, and relay path information indicating either through a fixed network or through a mobile network are stored in advance in association with each other, and that relays packets sent from a fixed terminal and a mobile terminal to the fixed network and the mobile network; and

a termination network apparatus that accommodates a server for providing services for the fixed terminal and the mobile terminal, and that terminates a session through the fixed network and a session through the mobile network with the terminal adaptor apparatus;

wherein the terminal adaptor apparatus

receives session establishment request which includes a transmission source address and destination information indicating the server, from either the fixed terminal or the mobile terminal;

refers to the management table according to the transmission source address and the destination information to acquire corresponding relay path information;

establishes session with the termination network apparatus through the fixed network or the mobile network according to the acquired relay path information;

stores session identifier for identifying the session in the management table in association with the transmission source address and the destination information of the session establishment request;

when receiving packet that includes transmission source address and destination information, from the fixed terminal or the mobile terminal, refers to the management table to acquire the session identifier corresponding to the transmission source address and the destination information; and

relays the packet to the termination network apparatus by using the session through either the fixed network or the mobile network according to the acquired session identifier.

2. A relay network system according to claim 1, wherein the session is a virtual closed-network session.

3. A relay network system according to claim 2, wherein the virtual closed-network session is a session specified by Layer-2 Tunneling Protocol.

4. A relay network system according to claim 1, wherein, in the management table, a MAC address of the fixed terminal or the mobile terminal is stored as the transmission source address, an IP address or a domain name of the server is stored as the destination information, and data type information of a capsulated frame is stored as the relay path information.

5. A relay network system according to claim 1,

wherein the management table stores in advance

first path information that includes a transmission source address of a first fixed terminal, first destination information used by the server to provide a first service, and relay path information indicating through the fixed network,

second path information that includes a transmission source address of a second fixed terminal, second destination information used by the server to provide a second service, and relay path information indicating through the mobile network,

third path information that includes a transmission source address of a first mobile terminal, the second destination information used by the server, and the relay path information indicating through the mobile network, and

fourth path information that includes a transmission source address of a second mobile terminal, the first destination information used by the server, and the relay path information indicating through the fixed network.

6. A relay network system according to claim 1,

wherein the termination network apparatus

has a second management table that stores in advance a virtual network identifier for identifying a virtual network with the server, in association with a session identifier with the terminal adaptor apparatus,

receives a packet that includes a session identifier from the terminal adaptor apparatus,

refers to the second management table according to the session identifier included in the received packet to convert the session identifier of the packet to a corresponding virtual network identifier,

relays the packet through a virtual network corresponding to the virtual network identifier to the server.

7. A relay network system according to claim 1, wherein the termination network apparatus accommodates the server, which provides a first service for the fixed terminal and the mobile terminal through a first virtual network and provides a second service for the fixed terminal and the mobile terminal through a second virtual network.

8. A relay network system according to claim 1,

wherein the termination network apparatus accommodates

a first server that provides a first service for the fixed terminal and the mobile terminal through a first virtual network, and

a second server that provides a second service for the fixed terminal and the mobile terminal through a second virtual network.

9. A relay network system according to claim 1,

wherein the termination network apparatus stores an address of the server in advance, and

the terminal adaptor apparatus acquires the address of the server in advance through a virtual closed network from the termination network apparatus and sends the address of the server in advance to the fixed terminal or the mobile terminal.

10. A relay network system according to claim 9,

wherein the terminal adaptor apparatus

stores the acquired address of the server in association with a session identifier, and

when receiving a packet that includes a transmission source address and the address of the server from the fixed terminal or the mobile terminal, capsulates the received packet by using a header that includes the corresponding session identifier to relay the packet.

11. A relay network system according to claim 9, wherein, when receiving an address solution request for the server from the fixed terminal or the mobile terminal, the terminal adaptor apparatus sends the acquired address of the server to the fixed terminal or the mobile terminal.

12. A relay network system according to claim 9,

wherein the terminal adaptor apparatus

acquires an address of a first server that provides a service for the fixed terminal, from the termination network apparatus, and

sends the address of the first server to the mobile terminal.

13. A relay network system according to claim 9,

wherein the terminal adaptor apparatus

acquires an address of a second server that provides a service for the mobile terminal, from the termination network apparatus, and

sends the address of the second server to the fixed terminal.

14. A terminal adaptor apparatus comprising:

a management table where a transmission-source address of a packet, destination information indicating a destination address or a destination domain name of the packet, and relay path information indicating either through a fixed network or through a mobile network are stored in advance in association with each other;

a signal processor that establishes a session through the fixed network and a session through the mobile network with a termination network apparatus that accommodates a server for providing services for a fixed terminal and a mobile terminal and terminates the sessions; and

a transfer processor that relays packets sent from the fixed terminal and the mobile terminal to the fixed network and the mobile network;

wherein the signal processor

receives session establishment request which includes a transmission source address and destination information indicating the server, from either the fixed terminal or the mobile terminal;

refers to the management table according to the transmission source address and the destination information to acquire corresponding relay path information;

establishes session with the termination network apparatus through the fixed network or the mobile network according to the acquired relay path information;

stores session identifier for identifying the session in the management table in association with the transmission source address and the destination information of the session establishment request; and

the transfer processor,

when receiving packet that includes transmission source address and destination information, from the fixed terminal or the mobile terminal, refers to the management table to acquire the session identifier corresponding to the transmission source address and the destination information; and

relays the packet to the termination network apparatus by using the session through either the fixed network or the mobile network according to the acquired session identifier.