Enhanced encapsulation mechanism using GRE protocol

• US 8,259,737 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2010
• Issued: 09/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Moussa, Hachem, Serrano, Ricardo, Keith, Kory, El-Beik, Essam, Muhanna, Ahmad
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Ayaz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Moutaouakil, Mounir
• Application Number:
  US12/779,614
• Publication Number:
  US 20100220627A1
• Time in Patent Office: 845 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

Wireless gateway nodes are enabled 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, content based billing is provided such as by exchanging content and byte count information with the data treatment server.

Claims

1. A method in a data treatment server for providing services in a communications network, the method comprising:

receiving, by the data treatment server, at least one encapsulated data packet having a standard Internet Protocol (IP) header and a treated payload;

untreating, by the data treatment server, the at least one encapsulated data packet treated payload to produce an untreated payload to permit inspecting and classifying of the untreated payload for content and a number of bytes;

forwarding, to a wireless gateway node, the at least one encapsulated data packet that includes the untreated payload for routing to the data packet network, wherein a content flow label is designated for the content; and

providing services based on the content flow label and the number of bytes.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the data treatment server comprises at least one of:

a Traffic Protocol Optimizer (TPO); and

a load balancer.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the services include at least one of content based billing, pre-paid wireless, and content based routing.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one encapsulated data packet is encapsulated using Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE).

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications network comprises at least one of a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one encapsulated data packet untreated payload is produced by at least one of:

un-optimizing the data packet treated payload; and

decompressing the data packet treated payload.

7. A data treatment server to provide services in a communications network functions to:

receive, by the data treatment server, at least one encapsulated data packet having a standard Internet Protocol (IP) header and a treated payload;

untreat, by the data treatment server, the at least one encapsulated data packet treated payload to produce an untreated payload to permit inspecting and classifying of the untreated payload for content and a number of bytes;

forward, to a wireless gateway node, the at least one encapsulated data packet that includes the untreated payload for routing to the data packet network, wherein a content flow label is designated for the content; and

provide services based on the content flow label and the number of bytes.

8. The data treatment server of claim 7 comprises at least one of:

a Traffic Protocol Optimizer (TPO); and

a load balancer.

9. The data treatment server of claim 7 wherein the services include at least one of content based billing, pre-paid wireless, and content based routing.

10. The data treatment server of claim 7 wherein the at least one encapsulated data packet is encapsulated using Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE).

11. The data treatment server of claim 7 wherein the communications network comprises at least one of:

a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); and

a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network.

12. The data treatment server of claim 7 wherein the at least one encapsulated data packet untreated payload is produced by at least one of:

un-optimizing the data packet treated payload; and

decompressing the data packet treated payload.