Applying session services based on packet flows

• US 6,888,807 B2
• Filed: 06/10/2002
• Issued: 05/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: IPR Licensing Incorporated (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: IPR Licensing Incorporated (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Inventors: Proctor, James A. Jr., Heller, Howard A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Huy D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ryman, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US10/166,576
• Publication Number:
  US 20030227880A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,058 Days
• Field of Search: 370/244, 370/246, 370/248, 370/338, 370/356, 370/390, 370/392, 370/395, 370/397, 370/399, 370/409, 370/428, 709/223, 709/238, 709/243, 709/232, 709/228
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

Session services are employed in a networked computing environment to apply specific processing to an exchange of data between processes. In a wireless communication network, a single wireless link is typically shared among multiple users through wireless channels, which are allocated and switched among the users on a demand basis. Packets sent over the wireless link need to be signaled and tagged accordingly to initiate and employ the session service for the intended packets which comprise the flow. A method for identifying and applying session services to a wireless link includes identifying a packet flow over the wireless link corresponding to a received message by employing a flow identifier and filter. The packet flow corresponds to a session, and is mapped to at least one session service. The mapped session service is then applied to the received message. A session service may therefore be transparently applied to a packet flow over a wireless link independently of the other packet flows which may also be transmitted over the wireless link.

Claims

1. A method for identifying and applying session services bidirectionally to a wireless link comprising:

establishing a connection including the wireless link, the wireless link being terminated at one end by an access terminal and at another end by a base station;

at both the access terminal and the base station,

receiving a message for transmission via the connection;

attempting to identify a packet flow over the wireless link corresponding to the received message from a plurality of transmission profiles, each of the plurality of transmission profiles defining a packet flow and mapping the packet flow to at least one session service that is to be applied to messages of the packet flow;

selecting the at least one session service mapped to the identified packet flow of a corresponding transmission profile;

applying the mapped session service to the received message;

wherein if a packet flow fails to be identified for the received message, the method further comprises;

generating a first transmission profile and a second transmission profile, the first and second transmission profiles each defining a new packet flow corresponding to the received message, the first transmission profile mapping the new packet flow to a first set of session services, the second transmission profile mapping the new packet flow to a second set of session services that are complementary to the first set of session services; and

sending a traffic flow mapping message to an opposing end of the wireless link, the traffic flow mapping message including the second transmission profile, thereby enabling the opposing end of the wireless link to identify messages of the new packet flow and to apply a complementary set of session services to the messages of the new packet flow.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless link further comprises a plurality of packet flows, each of the packet flows independently corresponding to at least one session service.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the packet flow further comprises comparing the message to a transmission profile.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing a flow ID indicative of the packet flow, and appending the flow ID to the message.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein establishing a flow ID further comprises a traffic flow mapping message adapted to provide traffic flow mapping signaling over the wireless link.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the packet flow further comprises examining a flow ID indicative of the packet flow.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the packet flows corresponds to a stream of messages between a sending process and a receiving process.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the stream of messages corresponds to a common context.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising creating a new packet flow if no existing packet flows corresponding to the received message are identified.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising sending a traffic flow mapping message indicative of a flow ID.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising sending via the wireless link, the traffic flow mapping message between an access terminal and a base station.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein mapping the packet flows further comprises referencing a session service index indicative of a particular session service.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising referencing a list of session services from a common repository, and mapping the packet flows further comprises indexing into the list from the common repository.

14. A method for identifying and applying session services bidirectionally to a wireless link, the wireless link being terminated at one end by an access terminal and at another end by a base station, the method comprising:

at both the access terminal and the base station,

receiving a traffic flow mapping message from an opposing end of the wireless link, the traffic flow mapping message including a transmission profile that defines a packet flow and at least one complementary session service to be applied to messages of the packet flow, the at least one complementary session service being complementary to a session service applied to the messages of the packet flow at the originating end of the wireless link;

receiving a message via the wireless link;

identifying a packet flow over the wireless link corresponding to the received message from a plurality of transmission profiles including the transmission profile provided in the traffic flow mapping message;

mapping the packet flow to the at least one complementary session service according to the transmission profile of the packet flow; and

applying the at least one mapped complementary session service to the received message.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the identifying further comprises

examining a flow ID in the message;

and

indexing, via the flow ID, into a flow table of flow IDs.

16. A method for identifying and applying session services bidirectionally to a connection including a wireless link, the wireless link being terminated at one end by an access terminal and at another end by a base station, the method comprising:

at both the access terminal and the base station,

receiving a message via the connection for transmission via the wireless link;

identifying a packet flow over the wireless link corresponding to the received message from a plurality of transmission profiles, each of the plurality of transmission profiles defining a packet flow and mapping the packet flow to at least one session service that is to be applied to messages of the packet flow;

selecting the at least one session service mapped to the packet flow from a corresponding transmission profile;

applying the mapped session service to the message for transmission;

wherein if a packet flow fails to be identified for the received message, the method further comprises;

generating a first transmission profile and a second transmission profile, the first and second transmission profiles each defining a new packet flow corresponding to the received message, the first transmission profile mapping the new packet flow to a first set of session services, the second transmission profile mapping the new packet flow to a second set of session services that are complementary to the first set of session services; and

sending a traffic flow mapping message to an opposing end of the wireless link, the traffic flow mapping message including the second transmission profile, thereby enabling the opposing end of the wireless link to identify messages of the new packet flow and to apply a complementary set of session services to the messages of the new packet flow.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein identifying further comprises:

examining transmission parameters of the message;

comparing the transmission parameters to a transmission profile of known packet flows; and

matching, based on the transmission parameters, one of the transmission profiles.

18. A method for identifying and applying session services bidirectionally to a wireless link comprising:

establishing a wireless link between an access terminal and a base station;

at both the access terminal and the base station,

receiving a packet for transmission via the wireless link;

identifying a plurality of packet flows within the wireless link, each packet flow corresponding to a packet stream context;

comparing the packet flow to the plurality of packet stream contexts;

matching the received packet to a packet stream context based on the comparing;

identifying at least one session service corresponding to the packet stream context;

applying the at least one session service to the packet;

wherein if a packet stream context fails to be matched to the received packet, the method further comprises;

generating a first transmission profile and a second transmission profile, the first and second transmission profiles each defining a new packet flow with a packet stream context that corresponds to the received message, the first transmission profile mapping the new packet flow to a first set of session services, the second transmission profile mapping the new packet flow to a second set of session services that are complementary to the first set of session services; and

sending a traffic flow mapping message to an opposing end of the wireless link, the traffic flow mapping message including the second transmission profile, thereby enabling the opposing end of the wireless link to identify messages of the new packet flow and to apply a complementary set of session services to the messages of the new packet flow.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising applying the session service to other packets in the packet flow.

20. A system for identifying and applying session services bidirectionally to a wireless link comprising:

an access terminal and a base station, the wireless link being terminated at one end by the access terminal and at another end by the base station;

a connection including the wireless link, the wireless link having at least one packet flow corresponding to a flow context;

both the access terminal and the base station further comprising;

a flow table;

a flow mapper operable to receive a message via the connection and attempt to identify a packet flow corresponding to the received message from a plurality of transmission profiles stored in the flow table, each of the plurality of transmission profiles defining a packet flow and mapping the packet flow to at least one session service that is to be applied to messages of the packet flow;

the flow table in the flow mapper operable to select the at least one session service mapped to the identified packet flow from a corresponding transmission profile; and

a system service manager operable to apply the at least one session service to the received message;

wherein if the flow mapper fails to identify a packet flow for the received message, then;

the flow mapper generates a first transmission profile and a second transmission profile, the first and second transmission profiles each defining a new packet flow corresponding to the received message, the first transmission profile mapping the new packet flow to a first set of session services and stored in the flow table, the second transmission profile mapping the new packet flow to a second set of session services that are complementary to the first set of session services; and

the flow mapper further sends a traffic flow mapping message to an opposing end of the wireless link, the traffic flow mapping message including the second transmission profile, thereby enabling the opposing end of the wireless link to identify messages of the new packet flow and to apply a complementary set of session services to the messages of the new packet flow.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the wireless link further comprises a plurality of packet flows, each of packet flows independently corresponding to at least one session service.

22. The system of claim 20 further comprising a transmission profile table wherein the flow mapper is further operable identify the packet flow by comparing the message to the transmission profile table.

23. The system of claim 20 wherein the message further comprises a flow ID indicative of the packet flow.

24. The system of claim 23 further comprises a traffic flow mapping message operable to provide traffic flow mapping signaling of the flow ID over the wireless link.

25. The system of claim 23 wherein the flow table further includes the flow ID and the flow mapper is further operable to identify the packet flow by indexing the flow ID.

26. The system of claim 20 further comprising a sending process and a receiving process wherein each of the packet flows corresponds to a stream of messages between the sending process and the receiving process.

27. The system of claim 20 wherein each of the at least one of the packet flows further comprises a stream of packets corresponding to a common context.

28. The system of claim 20 wherein the flow mapper is further operable to create a new packet flow if no existing packet flows correspond to the received message are identified.

29. The system of claim 20 wherein the traffic flow mapper is further operable to create a new packet flow in response to a traffic flow mapping message.

30. The system of claim 20 further comprising a session service index indicative of a particular session service.

31. The system of claim 20 further comprising a session service table including a list of session services wherein the flow mapper is further operable to map the packet flow by examining the session service table.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein the flow mapper is further operable to access the session service table from a common repository.

33. A computer program product having computer program code for identifying and applying session services bidirectionally to a wireless link, the wireless link being terminated at one end by an access terminal and at another end by a base station, at both the access terminal and the base station the computer program product comprising computer program code for:

receiving a message for transmission via the connection;

identifying a packet flow over the wireless link corresponding to the received message from a plurality of transmission profiles, each of the plurality of transmission profiles defining a packet flow and mapping the packet flow to at least one session service that is to be applied to messages of the packet flow;

selecting the at least one session service mapped to the identified packet flow from a corresponding transmission profile;

applying the mapped session service to the received message;

wherein if a packet flow fails to be identified for the received message, the method further comprises;

generating a first transmission profile and a second transmission profile, the first and second transmission profiles each defining a new packet flow corresponding to the received message, the first transmission profile mapping the new packet flow to a first set of session services, the second transmission profile mapping the new packet flow to a second set of session services that are complementary to the first set of session services; and

sending a traffic flow mapping message to an opposing end of the wireless link, the traffic flow mapping message including the second transmission profile, thereby enabling the opposing end of the wireless link to identify messages of the new packet flow and to apply a complementary set of session services to the messages of the new packet flow.

34. A system for identifying and applying session services bidirectionally to a wireless link comprising:

means for establishing a connection including the wireless link, the wireless link being terminated at one end by an access terminal and at another end by a base station;

both the access terminal and the base station further comprising;

means for receiving a message for transmission via the connection;

means for identifying a packet flow over the wireless link corresponding to the received message from a plurality of transmission profiles, each of the plurality of transmission profiles defining a packet flow and mapping the packet flow to at least one session service that is to be applied to messages of the packet flow;

means for selecting the at least one session service to the identified packet flow from a corresponding transmission profile; and

means for applying the mapped session service to the received message;

wherein if a packet flow fails to be identified for the received message, the system further comprises;

means for generating a first transmission profile and a second transmission profile, the first and second transmission profiles each defining a new packet flow corresponding to the received message, the first transmission profile mapping the new packet flow to a first set of session services, the second transmission profile mapping the new packet flow to a second set of session services that are complementary to the first set of session services; and

means for sending a traffic flow mapping message to an opposing end of the wireless link, the traffic flow mapping message including the second transmission profile, thereby enabling the opposing end of the wireless link to identify messages of the new packet flow and to apply a complementary set of session services to the messages of the new packet flow.

35. An apparatus for applying session services bidirectional to individual packet flows traversing a wireless link comprising:

a forward link communication interface, for one of receiving or transmitting messages via a forward wireless link;

a reverse link communication interface, for one of receiving or transmitting messages via a reverse wireless link; and

a flow table, being operable to map a first set of session services for a packet flow traversing the reverse wireless link and a second set of session services for the packet flow traversing the forward wireless link;

the flow table capable of being updated upon receipt of a traffic flow mapping message from an opposing end of the wireless link, the traffic flow mapping message identifying new packet flows and complementary session services to be applied to the new packet flows originating from the opposing end of the wireless link.

36. The apparatus of claim 35 wherein the first set of session services for the reverse link is complementary to the second set of session services for the forward link.