Arrangements and methods in an access system

• US 7,711,824 B2
• Filed: 01/07/2003
• Issued: 05/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Larsson, Ulf, Tönnby, Ingmar, Sol, Egbert-Jan, Hjelmestam, Eric, Rindborg, Tom, Halén, Joacim
• Primary Examiner(s): Dharia; Rupal D
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Van Kim T
• Application Number:
  US10/503,184
• Publication Number:
  US 20050163131A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,674 Days
• Field of Search: 709/220, 709/223, 709/225, 709/227, 709/228, 709/229, 709/230, 709/245
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2861 Point-to-multipoint connection from the data network to the subscribers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/287 Remote access server, e.g. BRAS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4645 Details on frame tagging routing of packets H04L45/00; support for virtual LAN H04L49/354
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/467 Arrangements for supporting untagged frames, e.g. port-based VLANs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/10 of different types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5014 using dynamic host configuration protocol [DHCP] or bootstrap protocol [BOOTP]

Abstract

An access system (ACC1) for relating service providers (SP1-SPn) to users (U11-Um1) includes an edge access server (EAS) connecting the service providers and penults (P1-Pk) connecting the users. User devices (UD11-UD14) are connected via VLAN:s to a user ports (UP11) on the penult. The edge access server has service agents (SA1-SAn), an administrator (AD1) and a broadcast handler (BH1), which forms a handling system together with handlers (H1-Hk) in the penults. A user (U11) decision including VLAN, service (SP1) and user port (UP11) is sent to the administrator (AD1), which dynamically allocates to the relevant service agent (SA1) a MAC address, defining a relation (R11). A user device (UD11) broadcasts a DHCP request unicasted together with user port (UP11) to the braoadcast handler (BH1). The user device (UD11) gets its IP address and IP address to the service agent (SA1). The device (UD11) broadcasts an ARP request which is unicasted by the penult (P1), to get the MAC address to the service agent (SA1). The relations (R11, R21) are secure and can easily be controled.

Claims

1. A method in an access system for establishing service access relations at the Layer 2 (L2) level between service providers and movable devices of users, the system having:

an edge access server having at least one service agent with a connection for one of the service providers;

at least one penult having user ports for connecting the users; and

an interconnecting arrangement, supporting exchanging of Ethernet frames, interconnecting the edge access server and the penults,

the method including the steps of;

selecting a set of the user ports for use with the movable user devices;

reserving a set of unassigned Ethernet MAC addresses for establishing service access relations at the L2 level to said movable user devices;

dynamically allocating in the edge access server, unique Ethernet MAC addresses, selected from said reserved set of unassigned MAC addresses, to at least a part of the service agents;

binding each of the unique service agent MAC addresses to a different L2 service access relation, said L2 service access relations being provided between the service agents and the user ports in the selected set of ports, wherein each L2 service access relation is provided between one of the service agents and at least one of the user ports in the selected set of ports;

attaching one of the movable user devices to an alternative one of the user ports of the selected set of ports; and

determining in the edge access server, the L2 service access relation associated with said attached movable user device.

2. A method in an access system for establishing service access relations at the Layer 2 (L2) level between service providers and movable devices of users, the system having:

an edge access server having at least one service agent with a connection for one of the service providers;

at least one penult having at least one user port for connecting the users; and

an interconnecting arrangement, supporting exchanging of Ethernet frames, interconnecting the edge access server and the penults,

the method including the steps of;

selecting a set of the user ports for use with the movable user devices;

reserving a set of unassigned Ethernet MAC addresses for establishing service access relations at the L2 level to said movable user devices;

dynamically allocating in the edge access server at least one Ethernet MAC address to each one of at least a part of the service agents, the MAC addresses being selected from said reserved set of unassigned MAC addresses;

binding said Ethernet MAC addresses to at least each one of the service access relations which include the user ports in the selected set of ports;

binding relation identifiers to said service access relations, wherein each identifier appears in a header of a transmitted Ethernet frame;

attaching one of the movable user devices to an alternative one of the user ports of the selected set of ports; and

determining in the edge access server at least one service access relation associated with said attached movable user device.

3. A method in an access system for establishing service access relations at the Layer 2 (L2) level between service providers and movable devices of users, the system having:

an edge access server having at least one service agent with a connection for one of the service providers;

at least one penult supporting multicast access having at least one user port for connecting at least one user Ethernet VLAN; and

an interconnecting arrangement, supporting exchanging of Ethernet frames, interconnecting the edge access server and the penults, said arrangement including switches supporting multicast,

the method including the steps of;

selecting a set of the user port for use with the movable user devices;

reserving a set of unassigned Ethernet MAC addresses for establishing service access relations at the L2 level to said movable user devices;

dynamically allocating in the edge access server, Ethernet MAC addresses to at least one of the service agents, each Ethernet MAC address defining a multicast L2 service access relation with at least one of the user ports, the MAC addresses being selected from said reserved set of unassigned MAC addresses;

binding an identification of one of the user Ethernet VLANs to the multicast L2 service access relation, said relation including one of the user ports in the selected set of ports and said user Ethernet VLAN identification being intended for the users participating in the multicast service;

attaching one of the movable user devices to an alternative one of the user ports of the selected set of ports; and

determining in the edge access server the L2 service access relation associated with said attached movable user device.

4. An access system for establishing service access relations at the Layer 2 (L2) level between service providers and movable devices of users, the system including:

an edge access server having at least one service agent with a connection for one of the service providers;

at least one penult having at least one user port for connecting one of the users, wherein a selected set of the user ports is provided for movable user devices;

an interconnecting arrangement, supporting exchanging of Ethernet frames, interconnecting the edge access server and the penults;

wherein the edge access server includes means for dynamically allocating unique Ethernet MAC addresses to at least a part of the service agents, said MAC addresses being allocated from a reserved set of unassigned Ethernet MAC addresses, the unique Ethernet MAC addresses defining each L2 service access relation with one of the user ports and being intended for L2 service access relations to said movable user devices,

wherein when at least one of the movable user devices on one of the service access relations is attached to an alternative one of the user ports of the selected set of ports, the edge access server is arranged to determine the mobile service access relation associated with said attached movable user device.

5. An access system for establishing service access relations at the Layer 2 (L2) level between service providers and movable devices of users, the system including:

an edge access server having at least one service agent with a connection for one of the service providers;

at least one penult having at least one user port for connecting one of the users, wherein a selected set of the user ports is provided for movable user devices;

an interconnecting arrangement, supporting exchanging of Ethernet frames, interconnecting the edge access server and the penults;

wherein the edge access server includes means for dynamically allocating at least one Ethernet MAC address to each one of at least a part of the service agents, said MAC addresses being allocated from a reserved set of unassigned Ethernet MAC addresses, intended for service access relations to said movable user devices, the edge access server also including means for binding the Ethernet MAC addresses to the service access relations to the user ports and means for binding relation identifiers to the service access relations, said identifier appearing in a header of a transmitted Ethernet frame,

wherein when at least one of the movable user devices on one of the service access relations is attached to an alternative one of the user ports of the selected set of port, the edge access server is arranged to determine the mobile service access relation associated with said attached movable user device.

6. An access system for establishing service access relations at the Layer 2 (L2) level between service providers and movable user devices of users, the system including:

an edge access server having at least one service agent with a connection for one of the service providers;

at least one penult supporting multicast access having at least one user port for connecting at least one user Ethernet VLAN; and

an interconnecting arrangement, supporting exchanging of Ethernet frames, interconnecting the edge access server and the penults, said arrangement including switches supporting multicast,

wherein the edge access server includes;

means for dynamically allocating Ethernet MAC addresses to at least one of the service agents, said MAC addresses being allocated from a reserved set of unassigned Ethernet MAC addresses intended for L2 service access relations to said movable user devices, wherein each Ethernet MAC address defines a multicast L2 service access relation with at least one of the user ports; and

means for binding an identification of one of the user Ethernet VLANs to the multicast L2 service access relation, said user Ethernet VLAN identification being intended for the users participating in the multicast service,

wherein when at least one of the movable user devices on one of the service access relations is attached to an alternative one of the user ports of the selected set of ports, the edge access server is arranged to determine the mobile service access relation associated with said attached movable user device.