APPLICATION INTEGRATED GATEWAY

• US 20110078320A1
• Filed: 12/03/2010
• Published: 03/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Grayson, Mark, Iyer, Jayaraman
• Granted Patent: US 8,856,362 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/228
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/164 at the network layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1034 Reaction to server failures by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1038 Load balancing arrangements to avoid a single path through a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

In one embodiment, a network application may offload stateful operations to a user-plane application. In one embodiment, the network application receives state information for a user device. The network application then sends the state information to a user-plane application, which can maintain the state information. The network application may then offload a stateful operation to the user-plane application. For example, the network application may have the user-plane application perform stateful operations. Also, the network application may use the state information maintained at the user-plane application for error recovery after the network application fails. For example, the network application may recover the state information from the user-plane application after failure.

Claims

1-52. -52. (canceled)

53. A method, comprising:

receiving state information for a user device associated with a session, wherein the state information is provided to a gateway that includes a user plane application, which is configured to maintain the state information for the session;

communicating with a network device that includes a network application to be used in conjunction with the session; and

receiving a request from the network device to recover at least a portion of the state information, wherein the request is triggered by a failure associated with the network application.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the user plane application is configured to support an autonomous release of the session, and wherein cached session credentials are used to release the session and to remove corresponding session state.

55. The method of claim 53, wherein the gateway is configured to execute a deep packet inspection operation.

56. The method of claim 53, further comprising:

communicating an internet protocol (IP) address to a user agent after the session has been activated, wherein the user agent is associated with a session initiation protocol (SIP).

57. The method of claim 53, wherein the gateway is configured to provide a security mechanism for the session.

58. The method of claim 53, wherein the network application is a proxy call server control function (P-CSCF).

59. The method of claim 53, further comprising:

receiving a service route request from the network device for an IP source address associated with the session.

60. Logic encoded in non-transitory media that includes code for execution and when executed by a processor is operable to perform operations comprising:

receiving state information for a user device associated with a session, wherein the state information is provided to a gateway that includes a user plane application, which is configured to maintain the state information for the session;

communicating with a network device that includes a network application to be used in conjunction with the session; and

receiving a request from the network device to recover at least a portion of the state information, wherein the request is triggered by a failure associated with the network application.

61. The logic of claim 60, wherein the user plane application is configured to support an autonomous release of the session, and wherein cached session credentials are used to release the session and to remove corresponding session state.

62. The logic of claim 60, the operations further comprising:

communicating an internet protocol (IP) address to a user agent after the session has been activated, wherein the user agent is associated with a session initiation protocol (SIP).

63. The logic of claim 60, the operations further comprising:

providing a security mechanism for the session.

64. The logic of claim 60, the operations further comprising:

receiving a service route request from the network device for an IP source address associated with the session.

65. A gateway, comprising:

a user plane application, wherein the gateway is configured for;

receiving state information for a user device associated with a session, wherein the user plane application is configured to maintain the state information for the session;

communicating with a network device that includes a network application to be used in conjunction with the session; and

receiving a request from the network device to recover at least a portion of the state information, wherein the request is triggered by a failure associated with the network application.

66. The gateway of claim 65, wherein the network device is a selected one of a group of network devices, the group consisting of a server, an edge proxy, a switch, and a router.

67. The gateway of claim 65, wherein the gateway is configured to execute a deep packet inspection operation.

68. The gateway of claim 65, wherein the gateway is further configured for:

communicating an internet protocol (IP) address to a user agent after the session has been activated, wherein the user agent is associated with a session initiation protocol (SIP).

69. The gateway of claim 65, wherein the gateway is configured to provide a security mechanism for the session.

70. The gateway of claim 65, wherein the network application is a proxy call server control function (P-CSCF).

71. The gateway of claim 65, wherein the gateway is configured to receive a service route request from the network device for an IP source address associated with the session.

72. The gateway of claim 65, wherein the user plane application is configured to support an autonomous release of the session, and wherein cached session credentials are used to release the session and to remove corresponding session state.