System and Method for Implementing Network Experience Shifting

• US 20170308395A1
• Filed: 07/12/2017
• Published: 10/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cook, Charles I., McBride, Kevin M., Post, Matthew J., Walker, William R.
• Granted Patent: US 10,481,938 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/27 Arrangements for networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/28 characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks] wireless communication networks H04W ; arrangements for dividing the transmission path H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/64 using an overlay routing layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/12 Access point controller devices

Abstract

Novel tools and techniques are provided for implementing network experience shifting, and, in particular embodiments, using either a roaming or portable hypervisor associated with a user or a local hypervisor unassociated with the user. In some embodiments, a network node in a first network might receive, via a first network access device in a second network, a request from a user device to establish roaming network access, and might authenticate a user associated with the user device, the user being unassociated with the first network access device. Based on a determination that the user is authorized to access data, content, profiles, and/or software applications that are accessible via a second network access device, the network node might establish a secure private connection through a hypervisor or container communicatively coupled to the first network access device to provide the user with access to her data, content, profiles, and/or software applications.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a network node in a first network and via a first network access device in a second network, a request from a first user device to establish roaming network access, a first user of the first user device being associated with a second network access device in the first network and being unassociated with the first network access device, the second network access device being located in a different geographical location from the first network access device;

authenticating, with the network node, the first user;

determining, with the network node, whether the first user is associated with the second network access device;

determining, with the network node, whether the first user is authorized to access at least one of data, content, profiles, software applications, one or more first virtual network functions (“

VNFs”

), or one or more subscribed-to services that are accessible by the second network access device;

based on a determination that the first user is associated with the second network access device and that the first user is authorized to access at least one of data, content, profiles, software applications, one or more first VNFs, or one or more subscribed-to services that are accessible by the second network access device, providing, with the network node, one or more second VNFs to one of a hypervisor or a container that is in communication with the first network access device and executing instances of the one or more second VNFs on the one of the hypervisor or the container; and

establishing, with the network node, access connection to a data store by executing the instances of the one or more second VNFs on the one of the hypervisor of the container, the data store containing the at least one of data, content, profiles, software applications, one or more first VNFs, or network configuration information for one or more subscribed-to services that are accessible by the second network access device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data store comprises at least one of one or more databases local to a home local area network (“

LAN”

) that is associated with the first user, one or more databases local to a work LAN that is associated with the first user, one or more databases disposed within the network node, one or more databases external yet communicatively coupled to the network node, one or more databases communicatively coupled to a profile server, a data library, a content library, a profile library, a contingency profile library, a VNF library, or a network configuration library.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the network node comprises one of a gateway device, a network switch, a network functions virtualization (“

NFV”

) entity, or a software defined network (“

SDN”

) controller, wherein the NFV entity comprises at least one of a NFV orchestrator, a network functions virtualization infrastructure (“

NFVI”

) system, a NFV management and orchestration (“

MANO”

) system, a VNF manager, a NFV resource manager, a virtualized infrastructure manager (“

VIM”

), a virtual machine (“

VM”

), a macro orchestrator, or a domain orchestrator.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network and the second network are associated with the same network service provider.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network and the second network are associated with different network service providers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user device and the one of the hypervisor or the container are associated with the first user and unassociated with the first network access device or any network nodes in the second network.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the one of the hypervisor or the container comprises a hypervisor, wherein the hypervisor and the first user device are the same device, and are embodied as a roaming hypervisor, wherein the one or more second VNFs that are provided to the roaming hypervisor are VNFs that are already subscribed to by the first user.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the one of the hypervisor or the container comprises a container, wherein the container is embodied as a roaming device with the container, wherein the roaming device and the first user device are the same device, wherein the one or more second VNFs that are provided to the roaming device are VNFs that are already subscribed to by the first user.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein authenticating, with the network node, the first user comprises:

establishing, with the one of the hypervisor or the container, a communication link with the second network access device via the network node; and

authenticating the one of the hypervisor or the container using one of the second network access device or the network node.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein authenticating, with the network node, the first user comprises:

establishing a communication link with a portal;

receiving, at the portal, authentication information from at least one of the first user or the first user device; and

authenticating, via the portal, the first user based on the received authentication information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the one of the hypervisor or the container comprises a compute resource, a memory, and a storage.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the one of the hypervisor or the container is one of integrated with the first network access device, communicatively coupled to a host port of the first network access device, communicatively coupled to a universal serial bus (“

USB”

) port of the first network access device, communicatively coupled to a local area network (“

LAN”

) port of the first network access device, or communicatively coupled to a communication port of the first network access device that is different from any of the host port, the USB port, and the LAN port.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user device comprises one of a tablet computer, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a portable gaming device, a laptop computer, a portable hypervisor, a roaming device with a container, a modem, a radio device, or a token chip device.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network access device and the second network access device each comprises at least one of a customer premises equipment (“

CPE”

), a router, a switch, a network element, a demarcation device, a WiFi gateway device, a hypervisor platform, one or more virtual machine-based host machines, or a network node capable of hosting a hypervisor or a container.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the CPE comprises at least one of an optical network terminal (“

ONT”

), a network interface device (“

NID”

), an enhanced NID (“

eNID”

), a residential gateway (“

RG”

) device, a business gateway (“

BG”

) device, a virtual gateway (“

vG”

) device, an integrated cable modem/gateway, an integrated radio/gateway, or an integrated transceiver gateway device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the request from the first user device is automatically sent from the first user device via the first network access device, without user input from the first user.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first user device and the first network access device communicate with each other using at least one of machine-to-machine (“

M2M”

) communication, M2M protocols, Internet of Things (“

IoT”

) communication, IoT protocols, or IoT proxy functions.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request from the first user device to establish roaming network access comprises receiving, at the network node, the request from the first user device to establish roaming network access via the first network access device and via a docking station that is communicatively coupled to the first network access device.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

based on a determination that the first user is associated with the second network access device and that the first user is authorized to access at least one of data, content, profiles, software applications, one or more first VNFs, or one or more subscribed-to services that are accessible by the second network access device, establishing, with the network node, a secure private LAN between the first network access device and the second network access device over the first network and the second network.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, with the network node, an application programming interface (“

API”

) with access to the one of the hypervisor or the container over the at least one of the first network or the second network.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

mapping, with the network node, one or more virtual extensible local area networks (“

VXLANs”

) to the one of the hypervisor or the container.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein mapping one or more VXLANs to the one of the hypervisor or the container comprises mapping one or more VXLANs to one or more LAN ports of the first network access device, wherein the one of the hypervisor or the container is communicatively coupled to at least one of the one or more LAN ports.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

implementing, with the network node, one or more network service headers (“

NSH”

) in headers of data packets to route the one or more second VNFs to the one of the hypervisor or the container that is in communication with the first network access device.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the one of the hypervisor or the container that is in communication with the first network access device is one of a roaming hypervisor associated with the first user, a roaming device with a container associated with the first user, a roamed-to hypervisor that is local to the first network access device and that is unassociated with the first user, or a roamed-to container that is local to the first network access device and that is unassociated with the first user.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the one or more second VNFs to the one of the hypervisor or the container comprises one of pushing, with the network node, the one or more second VNFs to the one of the hypervisor or the container or enabling, with the network node, the one of the hypervisor or the container to pull the one or more second VNFs.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more first VNFs and at least one of the one or more second VNFs are the same VNF.

27. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to determining that the first user is authorized to access one or more subscribed-to services that are accessible by the second network access device:

determining, with the network node, whether implementation of the one or more subscribed-to services exceeds physical limitations of the first network access device;

based on a determination that implementation of the one or more subscribed-to services is within capabilities of the first network access device, reconfiguring, with the network node, at least one of network configurations or network settings to provide the first user with the one or more subscribed-to services via the first network access device; and

based on a determination that implementation of the one or more subscribed-to services exceeds physical limitations of the first network access device, reconfiguring, with the network node, at least one of network configurations or network settings to provide the first user with the one or more subscribed-to services via the first network access device, up to the limits of the first network access device.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

based on a determination that the first user device is no longer in communication with the first network access device, reverting, with the network node, the at least one of network configurations or network settings to previous configurations or settings.

29. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

based on a determination that implementation of the one or more subscribed-to services exceeds physical limitations of the first network access device, sending, with the network node, a notification to the user providing an indication of the physical limitations and providing the user with at least one of options or recommendations for actions to take to mitigate the physical limitations.

30. A network node in a first network, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, the non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer software comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the network node to;

receive, via a first network access device in a second network, a request from a first user device to establish roaming network access, a first user of the first user device being associated with a second network access device in the first network and being unassociated with the first network access device, the second network access device being located in a different geographical location from the first network access device;

authenticate the first user, by determining whether the first user is associated with the second network access device and determining whether the first user is authorized to access at least one of data, content, profiles, software applications, one or more first virtual network functions (“

VNFs”

), or one or more subscribed-to services that are accessible by the second network access device;

based on a determination that the first user is associated with the second network access device and that the first user is authorized to access at least one of data, content, profiles, software applications, one or more first VNFs, or one or more subscribed-to services that are accessible by the second network access device, provide one or more second VNFs to one of a hypervisor or a container that is in communication with the first network access device and executing instances of the one or more second VNFs on the one of the hypervisor or the container; and

establish access connection to a data store by executing the instances of the one or more second VNFs on the one of the hypervisor or the container, the data store containing the at least one of data, content, profiles, software applications, one or more first VNFs, or network configuration information for one or more subscribed-to services that are accessible by the second network access device.

31. The network node of claim 30, wherein the network node comprises one of a gateway device, a network switch, a network functions virtualization (“

NFV”

) entity, or a software defined network (“

SDN”

) controller, wherein the NFV entity comprises at least one of a NFV orchestrator, a network functions virtualization infrastructure (“

NFVI”

) system, a NFV management and orchestration (“

MANO”

) system, a VNF manager, a NFV resource manager, a virtualized infrastructure manager (“

VIM”

), a virtual machine (“

VM”

), a macro orchestrator, or a domain orchestrator.

32. A system, comprising:

a first network access device in a first network, comprising;

a first transceiver;

at least one first processor; and

a first non-transitory computer readable medium communicatively coupled to the at least one first processor, the first non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer software comprising a first set of instructions that, when executed by the at least one first processor, causes the first network access device to;

receive, via the first transceiver, a request from a first user device to establish roaming network access, a first user of the first user device being associated with a second network access device in a second network and being unassociated with the first network access device, the second network access device being located in a different geographical location from the first network access device; and

authenticate the first user, by sending, via the first transceiver, a request to a network node in the second network to authenticate the first user; and

the network node, comprising;

at least one second processor; and

a second non-transitory computer readable medium communicatively coupled to the at least one second processor, the second non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer software comprising a second set of instructions that, when executed by the at least one second processor, causes the network node to;

receive, from the first network access device in the first network, the request from the first user device to establish roaming network access;

authenticate the first user, by determining whether the first user is associated with the second network access device and determining whether the first user is authorized to access at least one of data, content, profiles, software applications, one or more first virtual network functions (“

VNFs”

), or one or more subscribed-to services that are accessible by the second network access device;

based on a determination that the first user is associated with the second network access device and that the first user is authorized to access at least one of data, content, profiles, software applications, one or more first virtual network functions (“

VNFs”

), or one or more subscribed-to services that are accessible by the second network access device, provide one or more second VNFs to one of a hypervisor or a container that is in communication with the first network access device and executing instances of the VNFs on the one of the hypervisor or the container; and

establish access connection to a data store by executing the instances of the one or more second VNFs on the one of the hypervisor or the container, the data store containing the at least one of data, content, profiles, software applications, one or more first VNFs, or network configuration information for one or more subscribed-to services that are accessible by the second network access device.