DPI-driven bearer termination for short-lived applications

• US 8,179,846 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2008
• Issued: 05/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Rusmisel, Jason, Dolganow, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Jianye
• Application Number:
  US12/206,364
• Publication Number:
  US 20100062781A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,345 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/00 Local resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/38 triggered by timers

Abstract

Based on application information received from a DPI device, a downstream device, such as a Radio Network Controller (RNC), optimally implements a dormancy timer policy for short-lived applications, such as email and MMS. In particular, the RNC may initially use a large value for the dormancy timer for these applications. When the RNC receives an indication of the end of the application from the DPI device, the RNC may terminate the connection, thereby immediately freeing up resources. Alternatively, should the DPI device fail to recognize the end of the application, the initial dormancy timer serves as a fail-safe, such that the radio network resources are still released for allocation to another device in the radio network.

Claims

1. A device for managing termination of radio channels in a mobile network, the device comprising:

a receiver that receives a request for establishment of a radio channel, the radio channel used for transmission of data packets associated with a flow;

a channel establishment block that establishes the radio channel and sets a value of a corresponding dormancy timer; and

a dormancy timer controller that receives an end-of-application indication from a Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) device, the end-of-application specifying that an application associated with the flow has ended wherein the end-of-application indication is located in one of key field and a sequence number field of a GRE packet header and triggering termination of the radio channel associated with the flow upon receipt of either the end-of-application indication from the DPI device or expiration of the dormancy timer.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the DPI device sends the end-of-application indication to the dormancy timer controller by inserting information into a data packet associated with the flow.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the DPI device sends the end-of-application indication to the dormancy timer controller using a message separate from data packets associated with the flow.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the end-of-application indication includes an identification of a user endpoint that initiated the flow.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the end-of-application indication includes an identification of the radio channel.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the end-of-application indication includes an Internet Protocol (IP) 5-tuple associated with the flow.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the device is a radio network controller (RNC) in a Third Generation (3G) network.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the device is selected from a group consisting of a mobile management entity (MME), a Serving Gateway, and a Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the application is selected from a group consisting of email, a Short Message Service (SMS), and a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the radio channel is used for transmission of data packets associated with a plurality of flows, and the dormancy timer controller triggers termination of the radio channel upon either receipt of the end-of-application indication for a last active flow in the channel or expiration of the dormancy timer.

11. A method for managing termination of radio channels in a mobile network, the method comprising:

receiving a request for establishment of a radio channel for transmission of packets associated with a flow;

establishing the radio channel and setting a value of a corresponding dormancy timer;

performing deep packet inspection (DPI) using a DPI device on at least one packet belonging to the flow to determine whether an application associated with the flow has ended;

receiving an end-of-application indication from the DPI device, the end-of-application indication specifying that an application associated with the flow has ended wherein the end-of-application indication is located in one of key field and a sequence number field of a GRE packet header;

overwriting the dormancy timer after receipt of the end-of-application indication; and

terminating the radio channel in response to either receipt of the end-of-application indication from the DPI device or expiration of the dormancy timer.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

sending, with the DPI device, the end-of-application indication by inserting information into a data packet associated with the flow.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

sending, with the DPI device, the end-of-application indication using a message separate from data packets associated with the flow.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the end-of-application indication includes an identification of a user endpoint that initiated the flow.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the end-of-application indication includes an identification of the radio channel.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the end-of-application indication includes an Internet Protocol (IP) 5-tuple associated with the flow.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

using the radio channel for transmission of data packets associated with a plurality of flows; and

terminating the radio channel only upon receipt of the end-of-application indication for a last active flow in the channel.

18. A mobile network configured for efficient termination of radio channels, the mobile network comprising:

a user node that receives and transmits data packets;

a deep packet inspection (DPI) device that examines information contained in Layers 2 through 7 of data packets in a flow initiated by the user node, the DPI device detecting when an application associated with the flow has ended; and

a device that manages allocation of bandwidth in the mobile network, the device comprising;

a receiver that receives a request for establishment of a radio channel for transmission of data packets associated with the flow,

a channel establishment block that establishes the radio channel and sets a value of a corresponding dormancy timer, and

a dormancy timer controller that receives an end-of-application indication from the DPI device wherein the end-of-application indication is located in one of key field and a sequence number field of a GRE packet header and triggers termination of the radio channel associated with the flow upon receipt of either the end-of-application indication from the DPI device or expiration of the dormancy timer.

19. The mobile network of claim 18, wherein the DPI device sends the end-of-application indication to the dormancy timer controller by inserting information into a data packet associated with the flow.

20. The mobile network of claim 18, wherein the DPI device sends the end-of-application indication to the dormancy timer controller using a message separate from data packets associated with the flow.

21. The mobile network of claim 18, wherein the end-of-application indication includes an identification of the user node.

22. The mobile network of claim 18, wherein the end-of-application indication includes an identification of the radio channel.

23. The mobile network of claim 18, wherein the radio channel is used for transmission of data packets associated with a plurality of flows, and the dormancy timer controller triggers termination of the radio channel upon the first of receipt of the end-of-application indication for a last active flow in the channel and expiration of the dormancy timer.