MOBILE GATEWAY HAVING DECENTRALIZED CONTROL PLANE FOR ANCHORING SUBSCRIBER SESSIONS

• US 20130007237A1
• Filed: 06/29/2011
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Mehta, Apurva, Chaganti, Srinivasa, Krishna, Gopi, Sankaran, Krishna, Doshi, Sanjiv
• Granted Patent: US 8,650,279 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/082 for traffic bypassing of mobility servers, e.g. location registers, home PLMNs or home agents

Abstract

In general, techniques are described for decentralizing handling of subscriber sessions within a gateway device of a mobile network. A mobile network gateway comprises a data plane having a plurality of forwarding components to receive session requests from a mobile service provider network in which the mobile network gateway resides. A control plane comprises a plurality of distributed subscriber management service units coupled by a switch fabric to the data plane. Each of the subscriber management service units serve as anchors for communication sessions for mobile devices that are accessing one or more packet data network by the mobile service provider network. A request delegation module within each of the forwarding components directs the session requests to the subscriber management service units unit to provide management services for the sessions requested by the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method of managing subscriber sessions with a mobile gateway device comprising:

receiving a session request with one of a plurality of forwarding units of a mobile network gateway of a mobile service provider network that provides access to services of one or more packet data networks, wherein the session request identifies a mobile device and requests the mobile network gateway to serve as an anchor for a communication session for the mobile device when accessing one of the packet data networks;

selecting, with the forwarding unit, a first one of a plurality of subscriber management service units of the mobile network gateway in response to the session request, wherein the plurality of subscriber management service units provide present a uniform interface to nodes within the mobile service provider network; and

sending the session request from the forwarding unit to the first subscriber management service unit to provide management services for the session requested by the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing the session corresponding to the session request for the mobile device with the first subscriber management service unit to anchor the session; and

sending an message from the first subscriber management service unit to the other subscriber management service units of the mobile gateway device to indicate that the first subscriber management service unit anchors the session corresponding to the session request.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein establishing the session comprises programming one of the forwarding units with the first subscriber management service unit to install a subscriber specific forwarding path within the forwarding unit for processing and forwarding data traffic from the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein establishing the session comprises providing services with the first subscriber management service unit necessary for managing the session from the mobile device including authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) and fee charging for the subscriber.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the session request includes a mobile device identity for a subscriber, the method further comprising:

associating the session request with the first subscriber management service unit based at least on the mobile device identity.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

applying a hash function to the mobile device identity with the forwarding component to produce a hash value; and

mapping the hash value to one of the number of subscriber management service units with the forwarding component to select one of the plurality of subscriber management service units.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the session request with the first one of a plurality of subscriber management service units;

accessing a location table of the first subscriber management service unit having one or more location table entries that each specify an anchoring one of the subscriber management service units for a session to determine whether the location table includes a matching location table entry for a session corresponding to the session request; and

upon determining the location table includes a matching location table entry that specifies an anchoring service unit that is not the first subscriber management service unit, redirecting the session request from the first subscriber management service unit to the anchoring service unit specified by the matching location table entry.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

matching session request keys to location table entry keys to determine the matching location table entry, wherein the session request keys include a mobile device identity.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

upon determining the location table includes a matching location table entry that specifies an anchoring service unit that is the first subscriber management service unit, deleting a session context for the session; and

exchanging control messages with downstream nodes of the content access network to establish a new session responsive to the session request.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, with the first subscriber management service unit, a session load for the first subscriber management service unit; and

sending the session request to a second one of the subscriber management service units when the session load for the first subscriber management service unit is at a session capacity for the first subscriber management service unit.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

accessing a load table of the first subscriber management service unit to determine the session load for the second service unit is less than a session capacity for the second service unit.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

establishing the session corresponding to the session request with the first subscriber management service unit when the session load for the first subscriber management service unit is less than the session capacity.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

sending an message from the first subscriber management service unit to the other subscriber management service units to communicate the session load of the first subscriber management service unit.

14. A mobile network gateway comprising:

a data plane having a plurality of forwarding components to receive session requests from a mobile service provider network in which the mobile network gateway resides; and

a control plane comprising a plurality of distributed subscriber management service units coupled by a switch fabric to the data plane, wherein the subscriber management service units serve as anchors for communication session for mobile devices when accessing one or more packet data network by the mobile service provider network; and

a request delegation module within each of the forwarding components to direct the session requests to the subscriber management service units unit to provide management services for the sessions requested by the mobile device.

15. The mobile network gateway of claim 14, wherein each of the plurality of subscriber management service units includes a session control module to establish the sessions by programming the forwarding units to install subscriber specific forwarding paths within the forwarding units for processing and forwarding data traffic from the mobile devices.

16. The mobile network gateway of claim 14, wherein the session control modules of the subscriber management service units exchange messages to indicate the subscriber sessions anchored by each of the subscriber management service units.

17. The mobile network gateway of claim 14, wherein each of the session control modules of the subscriber management service units provides services that are necessary for managing the sessions from the mobile device including authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) and fee charging for the subscribers.

18. The mobile network gateway of claim 14, wherein the request delegation module of each of the forwarding components applies a hash function to mobile device identities within each of the session requests to produce hash values and maps the hash values to the subscriber management service units.

19. The mobile network gateway of claim 14, wherein each of the subscriber management service units comprise:

a location table having one or more location table entries that each specify an anchoring one of the subscriber management service units for each of the subscriber sessions; and

a service unit selection module that accesses the location table in response to each session request to determine whether the location table includes a matching location table entry for a session corresponding to the session request and, upon determining the location table includes a matching location table entry that specifies an anchoring service unit that is not the first subscriber management service unit, redirect the session request from the first subscriber management service unit to the anchoring service unit specified by the matching location table entry.