Packet filtering/classification and/or policy control support from both visited and home networks

• US 7,844,728 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2007
• Issued: 11/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Gemalto SA (Thales SA)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Anderson, Thomas W., Mathai, Stinson S., Lassers, Harold A., Liu, Chung-Zin
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan; Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Miah; Razu A
• Application Number:
  US11/888,175
• Publication Number:
  US 20090037999A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,218 Days
• Field of Search: 709230-237
• US Class Current: 709/233
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/082 for traffic bypassing of mobility servers, e.g. location registers, home PLMNs or home agents
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/10 adapted for application session management, e.g. SIP [Session Initiation Protocol] connection management H04W76/00; arrangements for session management H04L67/14

Abstract

A method of supporting access to a selected Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia application via an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is provided for a roaming mobile node (MN)—i.e., user equipment (UE)served by a wireless telecommunications system. The method includes: includes establishing a first IP tunnel between the UE and a local access gateway of a visited network, the first tunnel being anchored at the local access gateway; establishing a second IP tunnel between the UE and a home gateway of a home network, the second tunnel being anchored at the home gateway; receiving data packets at the local access gateway for the UE; filtering the packets received at the local access gateway to suitably classify corresponding traffic into one of a plurality of data flows supported within the first tunnel at varying Quality of Service (QoS) levels; and filtering the received packets.

Claims

1. A method for providing a roaming mobile node (MN) served by a wireless telecommunications system access to a selected Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia application via an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), said method comprising:

(a) establishing a first IP tunnel between the MN and a local access gateway of a visited network in which the MN is roaming, said first tunnel being anchored at said local access gateway;

(b) establishing a second IP tunnel between the MN and a home gateway of a home network to which the MN belongs, said second tunnel being anchored at said home gateway;

(c) receiving data packets at the local access gateway for the MN;

(d) filtering the packets received at the local access gateway to classify corresponding traffic into one of a plurality of data flows supported within the first tunnel at varying Quality of Service (QoS) levels;

(e) receiving data packets at the home gateway for the MN;

(f) filtering the packets received at the home gateway to classify corresponding traffic into one of a plurality of data flows supported within the second tunnel at varying QoS levels; and

(g) communicating from the home gateway to at least one of a network or network subsystem through which the second tunnel is established a QoS indication reflecting the QoS for one or more of the data flows currently supported within the second tunnel; and

(h) providing policy enforcement at the home gateway in accordance with one or more policy rules that regulate at least one of access permission to the IP multimedia application and establishment of Qos levels for the data flows supported within the second tunnel.

2. The method of claim 1, said method further comprising:

providing policy enforcement at the local access gateway in accordance with one or more policy rules that regulate at least one of access permission to the IP multimedia application and establishment of QoS levels for the data flows supported within the first tunnel.

3. The method of claim 2, said method further comprising:

promulgating the policy rules to an enforcement function implemented at the local access gateway to provide said policy enforcement, said policy rules being promulgated from at least one of a Subscriber Policy Repository (SPR) containing a subscription profile associated with the MN, a Policy Control Rule Function (PCRF) of the home network, and a PCRF of the visited network.

4. The method of claim 1, said method further comprising:

promulgating the policy rules to an enforcement function implemented at the home gateway to provide said policy enforcement, said policy rules being promulgated from at least one of a Subscriber Policy Repository (SPR) containing a subscription profile associated with the MN and a Policy Control Rule Function (PCRF) of the home network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said communicating comprises:

copying a QoS level from inside the second tunnel to a Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) outside the second tunnel in order to apply a corresponding QoS level in at least one of the network or network subsystem through which the second tunnel is established.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtering of packets at the home gateway is based upon a 5-tuple address containing in a header of each packet, said 5-tuple address including:

a source IP address,

a source port,

a destination IP address,

a destination port and

a protocol identification.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtering of packets at the local access gateway is executed using a Traffic Flow Template (TFT) comprising a series filters that allows traffic that matches the filters to be routed on a particular Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context, said PDP context being a data structure representing a logical association between the MN and a PDN (Public Data Network) which defines aspects of the association, said aspects relating to at least one of traffic routing and QoS.

8. A wireless telecommunications network providing roaming mobile user equipment (UE) served by the wireless telecommunications network access to a selected Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia application via an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), said network comprising:

a local access gateway, said local access gateway being part of a visited network in which the UE is roaming;

a first IP tunnel is established between the UE and the local access, said first tunnel being anchored at said local access gateway;

a home gateway, said home gateway being part of a home network to which the UE belongs,

a second IP tunnel established between the UE and the home gateway, said second tunnel being anchored at said home gateway;

a first packet classification function implemented at the local access gateway, said first packet classification function being operative to filter data packets received at the local access gateway for the UE so as to classify corresponding traffic into one of a plurality of data flows supported within the first tunnel at varying Quality of Service (QoS) levels; and

a second packet classification function implemented at the home gateway, said second packet classification function being operative to filter data packets received at the home gateway for the UE so as to classify corresponding traffic into one of a plurality of data flows supported within the second tunnel at varying QoS levels; and

a policy enforcement function implemented at the home gateway, said policy enforcement function being operative to regulate in accordance with policy rules at least one of access permission to the IP multimedia application and establishment of QoS levels for the data flows supported within the second tunnel;

wherein the second tunnel is established through at least one of an external network or an external network subsystem such that the data flows supported in the second tunnel are transparent thereto;

wherein the home gateway is provisioned to inform at least one of the external network or the external network subsystem of the QoS level of at least one of the data flows currently being supported within the second tunnel.

9. The network of claim 8, said network further comprising:

a policy enforcement function implemented at the local access gateway, said policy enforcement function being operative to regulate in accordance with policy rules at least one of access permission to the IP multimedia application and establishment of QoS levels for the data flows supported within the first tunnel.

10. The network of claim 9, said network further comprising:

at least one of a Subscriber Policy Repository (SPR) containing a subscription profile associated with the UE, a Policy Control Rule Function (PCRF) of the home network, and a PCRF of the visited network, from which the policy rules are promulgating to the policy enforcement function.

11. The network of claim 8, said network further comprising:

at least one of a Subscriber Policy Repository (SPR) containing a subscription profile associated with the UE, and a Policy Control Rule Function (PCRF) of the home network, from which the policy rules are promulgating to the policy enforcement function.

12. The network of claim 8, wherein the home gateway copies a QoS level from inside the second tunnel to a Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) employed by at least one of the external network or the external network subsystem such that a corresponding QoS is applied outside the second tunnel.

13. The network of claim 8, wherein the second packet classification function filters packets at the home gateway based upon a 5-tuple address contained in a header of each packet, said 5-tuple address including:

a source IP address, a source port, a destination IP address, a destination port and a protocol identification.

14. The network of claim 8, wherein the first packet classification function filters packets at the local access gateway using a Traffic Flow Template (TFT) comprising a series filters that allows traffic that matches the filters to be routed on a particular Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context, said PDP context being a data structure representing a logical association between the UE and a PDN (Public Data Network) which defines aspects of the association, said aspects relating to at least one of traffic routing and QoS.

15. The wireless telecommunications network of claim 8, further comprising:

filtering the packets received at the home gateway to classify corresponding traffic into one of a plurality of data flows supported within the second IP tunnel at varying QoS levels.

16. A method for providing a mobile node (MN) access to a selected Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia application, comprising:

(a) establishing a first bi-directional IP tunnel between the MN and a local access gateway of a visited network in which the MN is roaming, the first tunnel being anchored at the local access gateway;

(b) establishing a second bi-directional P tunnel between the MN and a home gateway of a home network to which the MN belongs, the second tunnel being anchored at the home gateway;

(c) receiving data packets at the local access gateway for the MN;

(d) filtering the packets received at the local access gateway to classify corresponding traffic into one of a plurality of data flows supported within the first tunnel at varying Quality of Service (QoS) levels;

(e) receiving data packets at the home gateway for the MN; and

,

(f) providing policy enforcement at the home gateway in accordance with one or more policy rules that regulate at least one of access permission to the IP multimedia application and establishment of QoS levels for the data flows supported within the second tunnel.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

(g) filtering the packets received at the home gateway to classify corresponding traffic into one of a plurality of data flows supported within the second tunnel at varying QoS levels.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

(g) communicating from the home gateway to at least one of a network or network subsystem through which the second tunnel is established a QoS indication reflecting the QoS for one or more of the data flows currently supported within the second tunnel.