GPRS tunneling protocol path integrity protocol
First Claim
1. A method for providing improved GTP path integrity assurance in a UMTS/GPRS network, the method comprising:
- defining a path based on a first node IP address, a second node IP address and a UDP port number;
receiving, at a first node, a first GTP message from a second node;
extracting one or more of;
the first node IP address, the second node IP address and the UDP Port number, from the first GTP message;
determining an operational state of the path based on the first received message; and
storing the operational state of the path in a path integrity protocol table, in association with the path definition and a time stamp related to a time the first GTP message was received.
9 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Network efficiency is improved by building and maintaining path integrity tables in nodes of a network. The tables include path integrity information for paths associated with the nodes. A path is defined by a source address, a destination address and a port or version number. Once a node is made aware of a path, either by handling network message traffic associated with the path or through manual entry, the node maintains path status information with information provided by normal network message traffic, or absent the normal network message traffic, by transmitting Echo Request messages and processing information related to Echo Response messages or the lack thereof. Information related to paths that are disabled for longer than a disabled path duration limit is deleted from the tables. A Gratuitous GTP Echo Response message can notify other nodes of an administrative state change in a node.
-
Citations
32 Claims
-
1. A method for providing improved GTP path integrity assurance in a UMTS/GPRS network, the method comprising:
defining a path based on a first node IP address, a second node IP address and a UDP port number; receiving, at a first node, a first GTP message from a second node; extracting one or more of;
the first node IP address, the second node IP address and the UDP Port number, from the first GTP message;determining an operational state of the path based on the first received message; and storing the operational state of the path in a path integrity protocol table, in association with the path definition and a time stamp related to a time the first GTP message was received. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
15. A method for providing improved GTP path integrity assurance in a UMTS/GPRS network, the method comprising:
-
receiving GTP messages; building a path integrity protocol table of records from information included in the GTP messages, each record in the path integrity protocol table including a path definition, an operational state entry and a time stamp entry, the path definition including at least a source IP address, a destination IP address and a port number, the operational state entry having a value selected from -Enabled-, -Disabled- -Unknown-, the time stamp entry having a value indicative of a time information in the record was last updated; updating records in the path integrity protocol table when additional GTP messages associated with path definitions having records in the table are received based on information included in the additional messages, or when expected messages are not received, updating the records based on the lack of reception of the expected messages; and making information in the path integrity protocol table available to call processing and OAM subsystems of the GPRS network. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
-
-
24. A UMTS/GPRS network node comprising:
-
main network node functional blocks; a GTP Echo Request/Response processor that is operative to transmit GTP Echo Requests to other nodes in a UMTS/GPRS network when directed to do so by other components of the UMTS/GPRS network node and receive and process GTP Echo response messages from the other nodes in the UMTS/GPRS network as directed by the other components of the UMTS/GPRS network node; a path integrity protocol module that is operative to build a path integrity protocol table by extracting path integrity information from network message traffic associated with the node and record the extracted information in the path integrity protocol table, update the information recorded in the table by extracting updated path integrity information from additional network message traffic associated with the node and recording the extracted updated information in the table, monitor the age of recorded information stored in the table and update old information in the table by directing the GTP Echo Request/Response processor to transmit GTP Echo Requests over paths associated with the old table information and to provide information to the path integrity protocol module regarding the reception or lack of reception of GTP Echo Response messages associated with the GTP Echo Requests, the path integrity protocol module being further operative to replace the old recorded information with new information based on the information provided to the path integrity protocol module by the GTP Echo Request/Response processor. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
-
Specification