Apparatus for flow control

• US 8,249,086 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2007
• Issued: 08/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Hirano, Jun, Aso, Keigo, Lim, Chun Keong Benjamin, Ng, Chan Wah, Koh, Tien Ming Benjamin, Tan, Pek Yew
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo, Ricky
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, CHANDRAHAS B
• Application Number:
  US12/302,845
• Publication Number:
  US 20090238111A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,895 Days
• Field of Search: 370/338, 370/331, 370/328, 370/401, 455/422.1
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/38 Flow based routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2491 Mapping quality of service [QoS] requirements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5014 using dynamic host configuration protocol [DHCP] or bootstrap protocol [BOOTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5061 Pools of addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/005 Multiple registrations, e.g. multihoming
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/005 Moving wireless networks

Abstract

Disclosed is a technique which enables a mobile node (MN) connected to a mobile router (MR) to carry out flow filtering in a mobile network. This technique allows an MN 25 in a mobile network 24 to set a policy needed for the flow filtering in an MR 10 and, in the present invention, an MR inserts an egress characteristic thereof into, for example, a router advertisement message so that the egress characteristic, a node in a mobile network cannot grasp originally, can be advertised to the interior of the mobile network. Thus, the MN can grasp a characteristic of an access network (characteristic of access system 20) even in a case in which it is connected to the MR, which achieves intelligent flow filtering.

Claims

1. An apparatus for flow control which is located in a mobile router having a mobile network as a subordinate, comprising:

a plurality of egress interfaces used for communication with a node existing in the exterior of said mobile network, each of the plurality of egress interfaces having a different traffic characteristic;

one or a plurality of ingress interfaces used for communication with a node connected to said mobile network;

a filter policy list storing a flow filter policy describing at least an association between traffic of the node connected to said mobile network and identification information of one of said egress interfaces to be used for the traffic among the plurality of egress interfaces; and

a matching unit for, when a packet is transferred from the node connected to said mobile network, retrieving the flow filter policy of the node connected to said mobile network from said filter policy list to select the egress interface to be used for transferring the packet by referring to the retrieved flow filter policy,

a characteristic information inserting unit for inserting information indicative of a network characteristic, with which the egress interface of said mobile router is in connection, into a router advertisement message to be transmitted through one of the ingress interfaces into the interior of said mobile network,

a virtual identifier information setting unit for setting virtual identifier information for identifying the information indicative of the network characteristic;

a virtual identifier information storing unit for storing an association between the virtual identifier information and the network characteristic; and

a virtual identifier information updating unit for, when a variation of the network characteristic occurs, re-establishing the association between the virtual identifier information and the network characteristic so as to update the association between the virtual identifier information and the network characteristic.

2. An apparatus for flow control which is located in a mobile router having a mobile network as a subordinate, comprising:

a plurality of egress interfaces used for communication with a node existing in the exterior of said mobile network, each of the plurality of egress interfaces having a different traffic characteristic;

one or a plurality of ingress interfaces used for communication with a node connected to said mobile network;

a filter policy list storing a flow filter policy describing at least an association between traffic of the node connected to said mobile network and identification information of one of said egress interfaces to be used for the traffic among the plurality of egress interfaces; and

a matching unit for, when a packet is transferred from the node connected to said mobile network, retrieving the flow filter policy of the node connected to said mobile network from said filter policy list to select the egress interface to be used for transferring the packet by referring to the retrieved flow filter policy,

wherein each of said plurality of egress interfaces is associated with a value of a specified one bit of an address prefix for use in said mobile network, and information containing the address prefix set so that the packet is transmitted through each of said plurality of egress interfaces according to the specified one bit value associated with each of said egress interfaces is inserted into a router advertisement message transmitted through the ingress interface to the interior of said mobile network.

3. An apparatus for flow control which is located in a mobile router having a mobile network as a subordinate, comprising:

a plurality of egress interfaces used for communication with a node existing in the exterior of said mobile network, each of the plurality of egress interfaces having a different traffic characteristic;

one or a plurality of ingress interfaces used for communication with a node connected to said mobile network;

a virtual identifier information setting unit for setting virtual identifier information for identifying information indicative of a network characteristic, with which one of the egress interfaces of said mobile router is in connection;

a virtual identifier information storing unit for storing an association between the virtual identifier information and the network characteristic; and

a virtual identifier information updating unit for, when a variation of the network characteristic occurs, re-establishing the association between the virtual identifier information and the network characteristic so as to update the association between the virtual identifier information and the network characteristic.