Home Gateway Device for Providing Multiple Services to Customer Devices

• US 20100061364A1
• Filed: 12/28/2006
• Published: 03/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonktiebolaget L.M. Ericsson
• Inventors: Kölhi, Johan, Damola, Ayodele, Olsson, Jonathan
• Granted Patent: US 8,351,427 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2834 Switching of information between an external network and a home network access arrangements H04L12/2856
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/5692 Selection among different networks

Abstract

A telecommunication node such as a home gateway and a method of routing data packets received from customer premises devices connected to the node. The node includes an operator-configurable service profile table for storing service profiles and a user-configurable customer devices table for storing the source addresses of the customer premises devices and associations between each source address and at least one of the service profiles. The operator controls service provisioning while the user can freely allocate the customer premises devices to different service profiles and can access a plurality of services from the same device.

Claims

1-34. -34. (canceled)

35. The method in a telecommunication node for routing data packets received from a customer premises device having a source address towards a service node having at least one destination address, said method comprising the steps of:

determining a destination address and a source address of a received data packet;

determining by analyzing the destination address, an output interface for forwarding the received data packet;

identifying a service profile that is associated with the output interface, wherein the service profile includes at least one service parameter;

determining whether the service profile is associated with the source address; and

forwarding the data packet towards the service node over the output interface if the service profile is associated with the source address.

36. The method as recited in claim 35, further comprising attaching a value of the at least one service parameter to the data packet before forwarding the packet.

37. The method as recited in claim 36, wherein the at least one service parameter is a Quality of Service parameter.

38. The method as recited in claim 35, wherein the source address comprises a MAC address of the customer premises device.

39. The method as recited in claim 35, wherein the at least one destination address comprises a MAC address of the service node.

40. The method as recited in claim 35, wherein the at least one destination address comprises an IP address of the service node.

41. The method as recited in claim 40, wherein the at least one destination address also includes a destination port number.

42. The method as recited in claim 35, wherein the output interface is a virtual LAN interface.

43. The method as recited in claim 35, wherein the telecommunication node is a home gateway, and the customer premises device is located in a local area network connected to the home gateway.

44. A telecommunication node for routing data packets from at least one customer premises device towards at least one service node, the telecommunication node comprising:

a service profile table;

a customer premises device table;

a table interface over which the service profile table and the customer premises device table are associated with each other; and

an input interface for the customer premises device;

wherein the service profile table, the customer premises device table, and the table interface provide means for enabling the customer premises device to access a plurality of services via the input interface.

45. The telecommunication node as recited in claim 44, wherein the service profile table includes at least one configurable service profile comprising at least one service parameter.

46. The telecommunication node as recited in claim 45, wherein the customer premises device table includes a source address of at least one customer premises device.

47. The telecommunication node as recited in claim 46, wherein the table interface provides an association between the source address and at least one service profile.

48. The telecommunication node as recited in claim 45, wherein the service profile table is operator-configurable.

49. The telecommunication node as recited in claim 48, further comprising means for connecting over a management protocol to a Remote Management System (RMS) from where an operator can configure the service profile table.

50. The telecommunication node as recited in claim 47, wherein the customer premises device table and the table interface are user-configurable.

51. The telecommunication node as recited in claim 50, further comprising a web interface accessible from the at least one customer premises device from where the user can configure the customer premises device table and the table interface.

52. The telecommunication node as recited in claim 45, further comprising at least one set of meters for storing traffic measurement data.

53. The telecommunication node as recited in claim 52, wherein the at least one service profile is associated with the at least one set of meters.

54. A telecommunication node as recited in claim 53, further comprising means for connecting over a management protocol to a remote management system RMS from where content of at least one meter in the at least one set of meters can be read or altered by the operator.