Secure dynamic quality of service using packetcable multimedia

• US 8,959,218 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2010
• Issued: 02/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cox Communications Incorporated (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Cox Communications Incorporated (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Inventors: Finkelstein, Jeff, Coppola, John J., Greenfield, Nicolas Emil
• Primary Examiner(s): SALAD, ABDULLAHI ELMI
• Application Number:
  US12/820,068
• Publication Number:
  US 20110314086A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,702 Days
• Field of Search: 709227-228, 709/203, 370/230, 726/1
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/103 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/756 adapting media to device capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6118 involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82

Abstract

A secure mechanism for third party hosted services to communicate with networks to allow dynamic quality of service to be provisioned for content of the third parties is disclosed. By authenticating the third party hosted services, the service provider is able to enter into business arrangements to share revenue with the third party content providers based on the premium service. A subscriber issues a request to a third party server. In response to issuing the request to the third party server, a dynamic quality of service request is received from the third party server. The dynamic quality of service request is validated and a session is provisioned between the client and the third party server implementing the requested dynamic quality of service.

Claims

1. A method for securely provisioning Dynamic Quality of Service (DQOS) with an external third party, comprising:

issuing, for a subscriber of an internal network, a request to a third party server that is external to the internal network of the subscriber;

hosting content externally on the third party server of the external third party;

in response to issuing the request to the third party server, receiving a dynamic quality of service request from the third party server;

validating the dynamic quality of service request from the third party server at an edge proxy server; and

in response to receiving and validating the dynamic quality of service request from the third party server;

determining resources needed to implement the dynamic quality of service request from the third party server;

determining if the subscriber needs more bandwidth than currently available and moving the subscriber to a different flow to provide more capacity to the subscriber; and

provisioning a session between a client and the third party server implementing the requested dynamic quality of service wherein the external third party manipulates a customer'"'"'s token bucket by overriding the rate cap assigned to the customer for receiving content internally over the internal network by preloading the customer'"'"'s token bucket to capacity and dynamically enlarging the token bucket or an aperture hole of the token bucket, thereby allowing the subscriber to experience an increased bandwidth over the internal network while receiving content from the external third party over the internal network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the validating the dynamic quality of service request comprises:

upon validation by the edge proxy server, sending the dynamic quality of service request to an application manager;

translating the dynamic quality of service request at the application manager to Packet Cable MultiMedia (PCMM);

sending the translated dynamic quality of service request to a policy manager; and

validating the translated dynamic quality of service request at the policy manager and determining resources needed to implement the dynamic quality of service request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the provisioning the session between the client and the third party server implementing the requested dynamic quality of service further comprises:

routing a Packet Cable MultiMedia (PCMM) gate set to a cable modem termination system;

determining resource availability at the cable modem termination system;

creating a Packet Cable MultiMedia (PCMM) gate for the session; and

communicating with the cable modem to set up a communication path between the third party server and the client and establishing a service flow with the requested dynamic quality of service for the session using the communication path.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprises:

determining completion of the session;

tearing down a communication path and the established service flow between the third party server and the client; and

resetting the client to a standard rate cap.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the tearing down the communication path and the established service flow further comprises:

sending a signal from a policy manager to an edge proxy server for the edge proxy server to shut down the connection; and

sending a notification of completion of the session to the third party server.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining completion of the session comprises receiving a close session notification from the third party.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining completion of the session comprises determining a predetermined period of time allotted to the session has elapsed.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining completion of the session comprises determining a number of allowed bytes for the session has been met.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the issuing the request to the third party server further comprises:

issuing the request from the client to a cable modem;

sending the request from the cable modem to a cable modem termination system; and

routing the request from the cable modem termination system to the third party server.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the dynamic quality of service request from the third party server further comprises receiving the dynamic quality of service request according to a first protocol and transforming the dynamic quality of service request according to the first protocol to a second protocol within Packet Cable MultiMedia (PCMM).

11. A system for securely provisioning Dynamic Quality of Service (DQOS) with an external third party, comprising:

hosting content externally on a third party server of the external third party;

a cable modem termination system configured to route a request for content to the third party server;

an edge proxy server configured to receive a dynamic quality of service request from the third party server in response to issuance of the request to the third party server by the cable modem termination system and to validate the dynamic quality of service request; and

in response to receiving and validating the dynamic quality of service request from the third party server, a policy manager communicating with the cable modem termination system to provision a session with the third party server implementing the requested dynamic quality of service, the policy manager determines if a subscriber needs more bandwidth than currently available and moves the subscriber to a different flow to provide more capacity to the subscriber, and implements the requested dynamic quality of service wherein the external third party manipulates a customer'"'"'s token bucket by overriding the rate cap assigned to the customer for receiving content internally over an internal network of the subscriber and dynamically enlarging the token bucket or an aperture hole of the token bucket assigned to the customer thereby allowing the subscriber to experience an increased bandwidth over the internal network while receiving content from the external third party over the internal network.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the edge proxy server generates a validated dynamic quality of service request.

13. The system of claim 12 further comprising an application manager for receiving the validated dynamic quality of service request and translating the dynamic quality of service request to Packet Cable MultiMedia (PCMM).

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the edge proxy server receives the translated dynamic quality of service request, validates the translated dynamic quality of service request, determines resources needed to implement the dynamic quality of service request, and routes a Packet Cable MultiMedia (PCMM) gate set to the cable modem termination system for establishing a communication path between the third party server and a client and establishing a service flow with the requested dynamic quality of service for the session using the communication path.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the policy manager determines completion of the session, tears down a communication path and the established service flow between the third party server and a client and resets the client to a standard rate cap.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the policy manager determines completion of the session based on receiving a close session notification from the third party.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the policy manager determines completion of the session based on determining a predetermined period of time allotted to the session has elapsed.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the policy manager determines completion of the session based on determining a number of allowed bytes for the session has been met.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein an application manager is disposed between the policy manager and the edge proxy server, the application manager receiving the dynamic quality of service request according to a first protocol from the edge proxy server and transforms the dynamic quality of service request according to the first protocol to a second protocol for use within Packet Cable MultiMedia (PCMM).

20. A computer-readable memory having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for securely provisioning Dynamic Quality of Service (DQOS) with an external third party, the computer-executable instructions, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

issue, for a subscriber of an internal network, a request to a third party server that is external to the internal network of the subscriber and hosting content of the external third party;

in response to issuing the request to the third party server, receive a dynamic quality of service request from the third party server;

validate the dynamic quality of service request from the third party server at an edge proxy server; and

in response to receiving and validating the dynamic quality of service request from the third party server;

determine resources needed to implement the dynamic quality of service request;

determine if the subscriber needs more bandwidth than currently available and moving the subscriber to a different flow to provide more capacity to the subscriber; and

provision a session between a client and the third party server implementing the requested dynamic quality of service wherein the external third party manipulates a customer'"'"'s token bucket by overriding the rate cap assigned to the customer for receiving content internally over the internal network by preloading the customer'"'"'s token bucket to capacity and dynamically enlarging the token bucket or an aperture hole of the token bucket, thereby allowing the subscriber to experience an increased bandwidth until the token bucket is exhausted over the internal network while receiving content from the external third party over the internal network.

21. The computer-readable memory of claim 20, wherein the validating the dynamic quality of service request comprises:

validate the dynamic quality of service request at an edge proxy server;

upon validation by the edge proxy server, send the dynamic quality of service request to an application manager;

translate the dynamic quality of service request at the application manager to Packet Cable MultiMedia (PCMM);

send the translated dynamic quality of service request to a policy manager; and

validate the translated dynamic quality of service request at the policy manager and determining resources needed to implement the dynamic quality of service request.

22. The computer-readable memory of claim 20 further comprises:

determine completion of the session;

tear down a communication path and the established service flow between the third party server and the client; and

reset the client to a standard rate cap.