METHOD, APPARATUS AND SYSTEM FOR MOBILITY MANAGEMENT AND EFFICIENT INFORMATION RETRIEVAL IN A COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

• US 20100177699A1
• Filed: 07/04/2008
• Published: 07/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mashmobile Sweden AB
• Original Assignee: Mashmobile Sweden AB
• Inventors: Ahlfors, Ulf, Klefter, Marc
• Granted Patent: US 8,879,522 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4552 Lookup mechanisms between a plurality of directories; Synchronisation of directories, e.g. metadirectories
• 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 8/02 Processing of mobility data, e.g. registration information at HLR [Home Location Register] or VLR [Visitor Location Register]; Transfer of mobility data, e.g. between HLR, VLR or external networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]

Abstract

A method and apparatus of forming a generic overlay network for efficient information retrieval in a communications network, comprising receiving in a domain router a register request from a mobile communications apparatus, the register request including an identification of said mobile communications apparatus; looking-up an address to a next-hop router associated with the identification; sending the register request to the next-hop router; receiving a reply from the next-hop router; and if the reply includes an address to a home router, sending a reply to the mobile communications apparatus including the address of the home router, said reply initiating the establishment of a connection between the mobile communications apparatus and the home router.

Claims

1. A method of forming a generic overlay network for efficient information retrieval in a communications network, comprising the steps of:

receiving in a domain router a register request from a mobile communications apparatus, the register request including an URI or logical name of said mobile communications apparatus;

looking-up an address to a next-hop router associated with the URI or logical name;

sending the register request to the next-hop router;

receiving a reply from the next-hop router; and

if the reply includes an address to a home router, sending a reply to the mobile communications apparatus including the address of the home router, said reply initiating the establishment of a connection between the mobile communications apparatus and the home router.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step looking-up comprising the further step of:

identifying the network address of the home router in the communications network.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step looking-up is based on network proximity, or geographical location, or capacity and traffic measurements, or peering collaboration agreements set up based on communities and known interpersonal relationships for the home router.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the network proximity is determined based on one or more of a number of hops, ping/trace-route latency, and overlapping routes for the home router.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the geographical location is based on GPS data of the mobile communications apparatus.

22. A computer program comprising computer program code means adapted to perform all the steps of the method of claim 1, when said program is run on a computer.

23. A computer program as claimed in claim 22 embodied on a computer readable medium.

24. A computer program on a carrier and comprising computer executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the method according to claim 1, when said program is run on a computer.

25. A computer program according to claim 24, wherein said carrier is a record medium, computer memory, read-only memory or an electrical carrier signal.

26. A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium, having thereon:

computer program code means, when said program is loaded, to make the computer execute the process of claim 1.

6. A domain router for forming a generic overlay network for efficient information retrieval in a communications network, comprising:

a receiver adapted to receive a register request from a mobile communications apparatus, the register request including an URI or logical name of said mobile communications apparatus;

a controller adapted look-up an address to a next-hop router associated with the URI or logical name,

a transmitter adapted to send the register request to the next-hop router;

wherein, the receiver is adapted to receive a reply from the next-hop router;

the controller is adapted to determine if the reply includes a network address to a home router; and

the transmitter is adapted to send a reply message to the mobile communications apparatus including the address of the home router, said reply message initiating the establishment of a connection between the mobile communications apparatus and the home router.

7. The domain router according to claim 6, wherein the network address is a domain name and the domain router is registered as an agent for a set of domain names searchable in the electronic communications network.

8. The domain router according to claim 6, wherein the receiver is adapted to receive a look-up request for a logical identifier from one or more clients, the controller is adapted to look-up a home router or foreign router associated with the logical identifier and to control the transmitter to send the look-up query to the looked-up home router, the receiver is adapted to receive a redirect address of a relay node responsible for handling the request from the looked-up home router, and the transmitter is adapted to reply to the requesting client with the redirect address of the relay node.

9. The domain router according to claim 6, comprising a routing table of addresses to home routers and foreign routers.

10. The domain router according to claim 6, wherein the receiver is adapted to receive registration or update information from one or more home routers and/or foreign routers, and the controller is adapted to store the registration information in the routing table.

11. The domain router according to claim 10, wherein the routing table is adapted to store alternative addresses of home routers and/or foreign routers for one or more logical identifiers.

12. The domain router according to claim 6, wherein the controller is adapted to maintain connections on a transport layer with all routers in the routing table.

13. The domain router according to claim 6, comprising a list of logical identifiers associated with one or more other domain routers, and the controller is adapted to redirect queries for names in the list of logical identifiers to one of the other domains.

14. The domain router according to claim 6, comprising a list of domains that are allowed to send queries generated by home routers to home routers stored in the routing table of the domain router.

15. The domain router according to claim 6, comprising a table of addresses to clients with currently outstanding, non-answered look-up queries for an URI in the domain controlled by the domain router, and the controller is adapted to—

in response to receiving a first query response for a certain URI from a next-hop home router/foreign router—

reply to all clients with currently outstanding queries.

16. A method of forming a generic overlay network for efficient information retrieval in a communications network, comprising the steps of:

receiving in a home router a register request for a mobile communications apparatus from a domain router, the register request including an URI or logical name of said mobile communications apparatus;

looking-up a home-router address associated with the URI or logical name, wherein the home-router address is an address of a home router to which the mobile communications apparatus may be registered;

in response to the register request, generating a reply including the address of the home router to which the mobile communications apparatus may be registered; and

sending the reply to the domain router to initiate a forward reply to the mobile communications apparatus including the address of the home router to which the mobile communications apparatus may be registered.

17. The method according to claim 16, comprising:

receiving a register request from the mobile communication apparatus; and

in response to the register request from the mobile communication apparatus, establishing connection between the home router and the mobile communications apparatus.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the connection is a transport layer connection.

19. A home router for forming a generic overlay network for efficient information retrieval in a communications network, comprising

a receiver adapted to receive a register request for a mobile communications apparatus from a domain router, the register request including an URI or logical name of said mobile communications apparatus;

a controller adapted to, looking-up a home-router address associated with the URI or logical name, wherein the home-router address is an address of a home router to which the mobile communications apparatus may be registered, and in response to the register request, generating a reply including the home router address; and

a transmitter adapted to send the reply to the domain router to initiate a forward reply to the mobile communications apparatus including the address of the home router to which the mobile communications apparatus may be registered.

20. The home router according to claim 19, wherein the receiver is adapted to receive a register request from the mobile communication apparatus;

and

the controller is adapted to, in response to the register request from the mobile communication apparatus, establishing a connection between the home router and the mobile communications apparatus.

21. A method of forming a generic overlay network for efficient information retrieval in a communications network, comprising the steps of:

requesting by a mobile communication apparatus a connection to a home router by sending an inquiry to a domain name server;

receiving an address to a domain router connected to the home router;

requesting to register at the home router by sending from a mobile communications apparatus a register request including an URI or logical name of said mobile communications apparatus to the domain router of the received address for looking-up a home-router address associated with the URI or logical name, wherein the home-router address is an address of the home router to which the mobile communications apparatus may be registered;

receiving a register reply from the domain router with reference to the home router, wherein the reference is the address of the home router to which the mobile communications apparatus may be registered;

generating and sending a register request directly to the home router; and

establishing a connection between the home router and the mobile communications apparatus.