APPARATUS, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR ROUTING DATA PACKETS

• US 20140328204A1
• Filed: 10/09/2012
• Published: 11/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Klotsche, Ralf, Haberland, Bernd
• Granted Patent: US 10,708,171 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/028 by filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/16 Multipoint routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/00 Communication routing or communication path finding

Abstract

Embodiments can provide an apparatus, a method and/or a computer program for routing data packets in a radio access network. The apparatus 10 comprises means for receiving 12 a data packet 804 from a source network node, the data packet comprises a data packet header and a data packet payload. The apparatus 10 further comprises means for inspecting 14 the data packet. The means for inspecting 14 is operative to perform a first packet inspection on the data packet header to determine information on a source or a destination of the data packet from the data packet header, and the means for inspecting 14 is operative to perform a second packet inspection on the data packet payload based on the information on the source or the destination of the data packet to determine information on an identification of the destination of the data packet. The apparatus 10 further comprises means for determining 16 information on a subsequent network node based on the information on the identification of the destination of the data packet.

Claims

1. An apparatus for routing data packets in a radio access network, the apparatus comprising

means for receiving a data packet from a source network node, the data packet comprising a data packet header and a data packet payload;

means for inspecting the data packet, the means for inspecting being operative to perform a first packet inspection on the data packet header to determine information on a source or a destination of the data packet from the data packet header, and the means for inspecting being operative to perform a second packet inspection on the data packet payload based on the information on the source or the destination of the data packet to determine information on an identification of the destination of the data packet; and

means for determining information on a subsequent network node based on the information on the identification of the destination of the data packet.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising means for forwarding the data packet to the subsequent network node.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the source network node corresponds to one or more elements of the group of a network edge node, a network gateway, a mobility management entity, a radio network controller, a serving gateway, a control plane data packet processing entity, or a user plane data packet processing entity.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the radio access network comprises a plurality of baseband processing units for processing baseband data for subsequent radio transmission, wherein a baseband processing unit is assigned to process data of a service of the destination of the data packet, and wherein the subsequent network node corresponds to the baseband processing unit which is assigned to a service the data packet payload relates to.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the plurality of baseband processing units comprises control data processing units and payload data processing units, and wherein the means for inspecting is operative to determine whether the data packet is a control data packet or a payload data packet based on the information on the source or the destination of the data packet.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the means for inspecting is operative to perform one or more operations on the data packet as the second packet inspection based on the information on the source or destination of the data packet, wherein the one or more operations are in sequence, and wherein a subsequent operation is based on the result of a prior operation, wherein the one or more operations correspond to one or more elements of the group of a masking operation, a look-up operation in a look-up table, a replacement operation on address information, or a replacement of routing information.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the means for inspecting is operative to select one of one or more look-up tables, wherein the one or more look-up tables are selected based on the information on the source or the destination determined with the first packet inspection, wherein the means for inspecting is further operative to perform the second packet inspection based on the one look-up table.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the one or more look-up tables comprise information on a subsequent operation on the data packet and wherein the second packet inspection comprises the subsequent operation, wherein the operation corresponds to one or more elements of the group of a masking operation, a look-up operation in a look-up table, a replacement operation on address information, or a replacement of routing information.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein a look-up table comprises multiple rows and wherein each row comprises a key-value as an input value, an action or operation to be performed as second packet inspection as a first output value, and a second output value as input value for the second packet inspection for the action or operation to be performed with.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the look-up table comprises at least two rows with differing entry sizes.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the means for inspecting comprises a look-up core unit, which is operative to look-up a subsequent operation and an input value for the subsequent operation from a look-up table based on a key-value, wherein the means for inspecting is operative to iteratively run the look-up core, starting with the information on the source or destination as a first key value determined with the first packet inspection, to determine the information on the identification of the destination.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the means for determining is operative to determine the subsequent network node using one of a plurality of look-up tables, the one look-up table being selected from the plurality of look-up tables based the information on the identification of the destination of the data packet.

13. A method for routing data packets in a radio access network, the method comprising

receiving a data packet from a source network node, the data packet comprising a data packet header and a data packet payload;

inspecting the data packet by

performing a first packet inspection on the data packet header to determine information on a source or a destination of the data packet from the data packet header, and

performing a second packet inspection on the data packet payload based on the information on the source or the destination of the data packet to determine information on an identification of the destination of the data packet; and

determining information on a subsequent network node based on the information on the identification of the destination of the data packet.

14. A computer program having a program code for performing the method of claim 13, when the computer program is executed on a computer or processor.