Flow tagging for service policy implementation

• US 20120215911A1
• Filed: 01/24/2012
• Published: 08/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Headwater Research LLC (Greg Raleigh)
• Original Assignee: Headwater Partners I LLC (Greg Raleigh)
• Inventors: Raleigh, Gregory G., Green, Jeffrey, Lavine, James, Nguyen, Phuong D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,606,911 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5025 by proactively reacting to service quality change, e.g. by reconfiguration after service quality degradation or upgrade
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5029 Service quality level-based billing, e.g. dependent on measured service level customer is charged more or less
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5032 Generating service level reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/026 using flow identification
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/66 Policy and charging system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8016 based on quality of service [QoS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0188 Network monitoring; statistics on usage on called/calling number
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

A flow tagging technique includes tagging a data flow at a plurality of points in the data flow. For example, the data flow can be tagged at a socket and at a proxy manager API. By tagging the data flow at multiple points, it becomes possible to map network service usage activities to the appropriate initiating applications.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a traffic stack;

a proxy manager coupled to the traffic stack;

a socket manager coupled to the traffic stack;

a traffic classification and enforcement engine coupled to the traffic stack;

wherein, in operation;

the proxy manager tags a network activity traffic flow at a first point in the flow, wherein the first point is associated with an API call to the proxy manager for a thread;

the proxy manager registers the thread at the traffic stack;

the socket manager tags the network activity traffic flow at a second point in the flow, wherein the second point is associated with a socket call to the socket manager for the thread;

the socket manager registers the socket at the traffic stack;

the traffic classification and enforcement engine uses the registration of the thread and the registration of the socket to determine that the network activity traffic flow is associated with an initiator of the network activity, wherein the initiator of the network activity is not the proxy manager;

the traffic classification and enforcement engine enforces service policies associated with the initiator of the network activity for the network activity traffic flow.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a system manager for launching the initiator of the network activity.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a network policy manager for providing a filter to a firewall based on policy and state associated with the initiator of the network activity.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein state includes an indication of whether the network activity traffic flow is that of a process executing in the background.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising an activity manager coupled to the traffic stack, wherein, in operation:

the activity manager registers an activity of the initiator at the traffic stack;

the traffic classification and enforcement engine uses the registration of the activity, the registration of the thread, and the registration of the socket to determine that the network activity traffic flow is associated with the initiator of the network activity, wherein the initiator of the network activity is not a control application that made the API call to the proxy manager for the thread.

6. A method comprising:

tagging a network activity traffic flow at a first point in the flow, wherein the first point is associated with an API call to a proxy manager for a thread;

registering the thread;

tagging the network activity traffic flow at a second point in the flow, wherein the second point is associated with a socket call to a socket manager for the thread;

registering the socket;

using the registration of the thread and the registration of the socket to determine that the network activity traffic flow is associated with an initiator of the network activity, wherein the initiator of the network activity is not the proxy manager;

enforcing service policies associated with the initiator of the network activity for the network activity traffic flow.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising launching the initiator of the network activity.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising providing a filter to a firewall based on policy and state associated with the initiator of the network activity.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining that the network activity traffic flow is for a network activity that is a background process.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

registering an activity of the initiator;

using the registration of the activity, the registration of the thread, and the registration of the socket to determine that the network activity traffic flow is associated with the initiator of the network activity, wherein the initiator of the network activity is not a control application that made the API call to the proxy manager for the thread