Method for performing network services

• US 7,443,867 B2
• Filed: 08/13/2004
• Issued: 10/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Yuhn, James, El-Beik, Essam, Smith, Robert, MaClean, Ian, Horlacher, Greg
• Primary Examiner(s): Kizou, Hassan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Moutaouakil, Mounir
• Application Number:
  US10/917,856
• Publication Number:
  US 20050117595A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,537 Days
• Field of Search: 455405-408, 370465-467, 370/395.52, 370/474, 379/114.03, 379/114.1, 37911421-11502, 379/121.03
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1425 involving dedicated fields in the data packet for billing purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/32 Involving wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

The methods of the present invention enable wireless gateway nodes to support mobile node services, such as content based billing, when a data treatment server is present in the system. Using one of a defined Content Flow Label (CFL), an Application Program Interface (API), and a compression protocol header, the present invention provides content based billing by exchanging content and byte count information with the data treatment server. In one embodiment, a new compression protocol header type is defined. In a second embodiment, a content flow label with a byte count field is inserted in a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) header. In an alternate embodiment, the wireless gateway node implements an API to transfer the content flow label and byte count information over a signaling link. In yet another embodiment, the data treatment server performs the content based billing and similar mobile node services.

Claims

1. A method in a wireless gateway node for performing services in a wireless network comprises:

receiving at least one data packet containing an untreated payload from a data packet network;

inserting a content flow label in a header of the at least one data packet to classify and identify the untreated payload;

routing the at least one untreated data packet to a data treatment server wherein the data treatment server converts the untreated payload to a treated payload;

receiving the at least one treated data packet that includes the treated payload from the data treatment server wherein the header includes the content flow label and a corresponding byte count of the treated payload;

transmitting the treated data packet that includes the treated payload to a wireless node; and

performing services for the wireless node based on the content flow label and the corresponding treated payload byte count.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein inserting the content flow label in the untreated data packet includes encapsulating the untreated data packet to create a data packet tunnel.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the services comprises one of:

content based billing, pre-paid wireless, and firewall services.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the treated payload comprises one of:

optimized data and compressed data.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless gateway node comprises one of:

a Gateway GPRS Service Node (GGSN), a data treatment server, and a load balancer.

6. A method in a wireless gateway node for performing services in a wireless network comprises:

receiving at least one data packet from a data packet network, wherein the at least one data packet includes an untreated payload;

classifying and identifying for content the untreated payload;

generating a content flow label corresponding to the classified and identified content of the untreated payload;

routing the at least one data packet to a data treatment server over a data link wherein the data treatment server converts the untreated payload to a treated payload;

sending signaling messages to the data treatment server over a signaling link wherein the signaling messages include the content flow label;

receiving the at least one data packet including the treated payload from the data treatment server and transmitting the at least one data packet including the treated payload to a wireless node;

receiving signaling messages from the data treatment server, wherein the signaling messages include the content flow label and a corresponding treated payload byte count; and

performing services for the wireless node based on the content flow label and the corresponding treated payload byte count.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the signaling message comprises out-of-band signaling over at least one of:

an SS7 network, an ATM network, and an IP network.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the signaling messaging executes an Application Program Interface (API) to transmit the content flow label and treated payload byte count.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the services comprises one of:

content based billing, pre-paid wireless, and firewall services.

10. A method in a wireless gateway node for performing services in a wireless network comprises:

receiving at least one data packet from a mobile node, wherein the at least one data packet includes a treated payload;

routing the at least one data packet to a data treatment server over a data link wherein the data treatment server converts the treated payload to an untreated payload;

receiving the at least one data packet that includes the untreated payload from the data treatment server;

classifying and identifying the untreated payload of the at least one data packet based on at least one of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), a telephone number, a File Transport Protocol (ftp) address, and a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) address;

routing the at least one data packet that includes the untreated payload to a destination in the data packet network;

sending signaling messages over a signaling link to the data treatment server wherein the signaling messages include a content flow label corresponding to the untreated payload;

receiving signaling messages from the data treatment server over a signaling link, wherein the signaling messages include a byte count corresponding to the byte count of the treated payload; and

performing services for the wireless node based on the content flow label and the corresponding byte count of the treated payload.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the data treatment server creates a content flow label and sends the content flow label identifier to the wireless gateway node.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the signaling link comprises out-of-band signaling over at least one of:

an SS7 network, an ATM network, and an IP network.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the signaling messaging executes an Application Program Interface (API) to transmit the content flow label and treated payload byte count.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the treated payload comprises one of:

optimized data and compressed data.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the wireless gateway node comprises one of:

a Gateway GPRS Service Node (GGSN), a data treatment server, and a load balancer.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein the services comprises one of:

content based billing, pre-paid wireless, and firewall services.

17. A method in a wireless gateway node for performing services in a wireless network comprises:

receiving at least one data packet that includes a treated payload from a wireless node;

inserting a content flow label in a header of the at least one data packet to classify and identify the treated payload by content;

routing the at least one data packet including the treated payload over a data link to a data treatment server wherein the data treatment server converts the treated payload to an untreated payload;

receiving the at least one data packet that includes the untreated payload from the data treatment server with the content flow label and a corresponding byte count of the transmitted treated payload;

transmitting the at least one data packet that includes the untreated payload to a data packet network; and

performing data services for the wireless node based on the content flow label and the corresponding transmitted treated payload byte count.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein inserting the content flow label in the at least one data packet includes encapsulating the treated payload to create a data packet tunnel.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the data services comprises one of:

content based billing, pre-paid wireless, and firewall services.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein the treated payload comprises one of:

optimized data and compressed data.

21. The method of claim 17 wherein the classifying and identifying is based on information identified by any type of ID or label in layers 3 through 7 of the OSI stack including at least one of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), a telephone number, a File Transport Protocol (FTP) address, and a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) URL.

22. The method of claim 17 wherein the wireless gateway node comprises one of:

a Gateway GPRS Service Node (GGSN), a data treatment server, and a load balancer.