DOMAIN-LESS SERVICE SELECTION

• US 20150372836A1
• Filed: 12/30/2014
• Published: 12/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ericsson AB (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Original Assignee: Ericsson AB (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Becker Hof, Onno Mark
• Granted Patent: US 9,419,815 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2876 Handling of subscriber policies group policies management H04L41/0893
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/04 Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing domainless service selection (DLSS) are described. According to one embodiment of the invention, there is a service selection network element used to provide access of computing devices to a set of one or more services provided by a set of one or more providers. In addition, a web portal allows subscribers to log in and/or select/switch between the services and providers. Responsive to such action by a given subscriber, the web portal causes a record of that subscriber to be altered to reflect the action and causes the service selection network element to attempt to connect the subscriber accordingly. According to certain embodiments of the invention, subscribers'"'"' domainless user identifiers are merged by the service selection network element with domain names (stored in a database) of services/providers to form network addresses (e.g., Internet addresses).

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a web portal server operable to implement a web portal, to be coupled to a service selection network element coupled to a plurality of computing devices over an access network and coupled to a set of one or more services provided by a set of one or more providers, where network connectivity to the set of one or more services provided by a set of one or more providers is limited to connecting through the service selection network element, to allow a plurality of subscribers at said plurality of computing devices to perform one or more activities that include the ability to;

login,

select after login between the set of one or more services provided by the set of one or more providers, and

switch after login between the set of one or more services provided by the set of one or more providers,

wherein responsive to the one or more activities performed by a given one of said plurality of subscribers, the web portal to cause a domainless service selection (DLSS) record of that subscriber, which includes a domainless user identifier of the subscriber and a domain name, to be altered to reflect the one or more activities performed including updating the DLSS record to include an IP address assigned to the subscriber'"'"'s computing device and to cause the service selection network element to attempt to connect the subscriber accordingly, wherein there are at least two in at least one of the set of services and the set of providers, and wherein the domainless user identifier is based on one or more of a MAC address of that subscriber'"'"'s computing device, a domainless PPP username of that subscriber, and a circuit identifier for that subscriber'"'"'s computing device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said web portal causes the record to be altered to include a domain name of one or more of the selected service, selected provider, switched service, and switched provider and authentication to occur using a domainless user identifier based on data in said record merged with said domain name to form a network address.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said web portal causes the record to be altered to indicate a successful login.

4. A method comprising:

receiving, at a web portal, login information of a subscriber including a portal username and a portal password, said subscriber being at one of a plurality of computing devices communicating with said web portal through an access network coupled to a service selection network element coupled to said web portal, wherein the subscriber is associated with a domainless service selection (DLSS) record that includes a domainless user identifier of the subscriber, a domain name of a service provider, and a set of one or more policies, wherein the domainless user identifier is destination independent and is based on one or more of a MAC address of the subscriber'"'"'s computing device, a domainless PPP username of the subscriber, and a circuit identifier for the subscriber'"'"'s computing device, wherein the DLSS record is stored in a remote database server with respect to the web portal, wherein the remote database server is coupled to said service selection network element, the set of policies including one or more of, one or more filters, bandwidth, type of usage, and access control lists;

transmitting a record update to the remote database server coupled to said service selection network element to update the DLSS record to include an IP address assigned to the subscriber'"'"'s computing device; and

transmitting a subscriber reauthorize from the web portal to said service selection network element to reauthorize the subscriber to update the subscriber'"'"'s connection in the service selection network element, wherein the subscriber reauthorize command causes the service selection network element to connect the subscriber according to the updated DLSS record.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the IP address of the subscriber'"'"'s computing device is captured by the web portal.

6. The method of claim 4, where:

said method further includes receiving a selection of one of a plurality of services provided by a set of one or more providers coupled to said service selection network element, wherein the set of providers providing the selected service includes a different domain name than currently in the DLSS record; and

said transmitting said record update includes said service selection to update the DLSS record to reflect the service selection including changing the domain name in the DLSS record to the different domain name without changing the domainless user identifier to allow the subscriber to use the same domainless user identifier regardless of changes of services.

7. A method comprising:

receiving, at a web portal, login information of a known subscriber including a portal username and a portal password of said known subscriber, said known subscriber being at one of a plurality of computing devices communicating with said web portal through an access network coupled to a service selection network element coupled to said web portal;

verifying said known subscriber based on said received login information;

receiving a selection of one of a plurality of services provided by a set of one or more providers;

transmitting a record update to a remote database server coupled to said service selection network element reflecting the successful login and the selection to update a domainless service selection (DLSS) record for the known subscriber including updating the DLSS record to include an IP address assigned to the subscriber'"'"'s computing device, wherein the DLSS record includes a domainless user identifier of the subscriber and a domain name of a provider, wherein the domainless user identifier is destination independent and is based on one or more of a MAC address of the subscriber'"'"'s computing device, a domainless PPP username of the subscriber, and a circuit identifier for the subscriber'"'"'s computing device; and

transmitting a subscriber reauthorize from the web portal to said service selection network element to reauthorize the subscriber to update the subscriber'"'"'s connection in the service selection network element.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the IP address of the known subscriber'"'"'s computing device is captured by the web portal.