System, apparatus for content delivery for internet traffic and methods thereof

• US 9,628,579 B2
• Filed: 05/11/2011
• Issued: 04/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Li, Sanqi, Qian, Tao, Han, Houxiao, Tian, Hongbo, Lin, Kui
• Primary Examiner(s): BEDNASH, JOSEPH A
• Application Number:
  US13/105,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20110280143A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,169 Days
• Field of Search: 709218, 709219, 455450, 370356
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1435 volume-based
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1439 time-based
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1485 Tariff-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1489 dependent on congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5029 Service quality level-based billing, e.g. dependent on measured service level customer is charged more or less
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5067 Customer-centric QoS measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/30 for supporting lawful interception, monitoring or retaining of communications or communication related information circuit switched telephony call monitoring H04M3/2281
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/306 intercepting packet switched data communications, e.g. Web, Internet or IMS communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1063 Application servers providing network services systems providing special services to telephonic subscribers H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/143 Termination or inactivation of sessions, e.g. event-controlled end of session
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2885 Hierarchically arranged intermediate devices, e.g. for hierarchical caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/324 : in the data link layer [OSI layer 2], e.g. HDLC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/325 : in the network layer [OSI layer 3], e.g. X.25 H04L69/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 : for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/83 : Notification aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/84 : Types of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/844 : Message, e.g. SMS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/85 : characterised by the type of condition triggering a notification
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/852 : Low balance or limit reached
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/88 : Provision for limiting connection, or expenditure
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/888 : severing connection after predetermined time or data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/80 : Arrangements enabling lawful interception [LI]

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method of serving media includes receiving a delivery log of traffic use after every first time interval for an user equipment. The user equipment is part of a hot billing class of users. The traffic use comprises data usage by the user equipment during communication with a media server in a layer2 access network. A user traffic information computed from the delivery log is transmitted to a billing center. A account status information is received from the billing center. The account status information is received if the user equipment exceeds a user account metric. A session termination information based on the account status information is transmitted.

Claims

1. A method of media streaming, the method comprising:

receiving, at an inter working function (IWF) deployed in a layer2 access network, a first message from a user equipment (UE), the first message comprising a first protocol type;

repackaging, by the IWF, the first message into a second message having a second protocol type if the first protocol type of the first message matches a third protocol type and a destination IP address of the first message matches an address in an IP table indicating that content requested by the first message is cached in a local layer3 based media server deployed in the layer2 access network;

forwarding, by the IWF, the second message to the local layer3 based media server;

determining, by the IWF, whether the local layer3 based media server has failed; and

responsive to a determination that the local layer3 based media server has failed, forwarding, by the IWF, the second message to a network component.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network component comprises a media controller, the media controller configured to select a new media server to replace the failed local layer3 based media server.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the new media server comprises a second local layer3 based media server deployed in the layer2 access network.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the new media server comprises a media server deployed in a non-access network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first protocol comprises a General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) tunneling protocol for carrying user data (GTP-U).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second protocol comprises a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining if the local layer3 based media server has failed comprises maintaining a heart beat with the local layer3 based media server.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining if the local layer3 based media server has failed comprises monitoring a time difference between a reply from the local layer3 based media server after forwarding the second message to the local layer3 based media server.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transparently forwarding the first message to a destination if the first protocol type does not match a second protocol type.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forwarding the first message to a destination if the first protocol type of the first message does not match a third protocol type, the first message being unmodified.

11. A interworking function (IWF) for facilitating media streaming to a user equipment (UE), the IWF comprising:

a first database configured to maintain a list of local layer3 based media servers deployed in a layer2 access network, the local layer3 based media servers sharing an internet protocol (IP) address for communications to and from the layer2 access network;

a receiver that receives a request from the user equipment to serve media content;

a determinator is configured to determine if the media content is stored in a cache of the a first one of the local layer3 based media servers;

a failure monitor configured to determine if the first one of the local layer3 based media servers has failed;

a repackager to reformat the request from a first protocol format to a second protocol format; and

a forwarder configured to forward the request from the UE to a media controller if the first one of the local layer3 based media servers has failed and to forward the request from the UE to the first one of the local layer3 based media servers when the first one of the local layer3 based media servers has not failed.

12. The IWF of claim 11, wherein the media controller selects a new media server to provide requested media content to the UE.

13. The IWF of claim 12, wherein the new media server comprises a second local layer3 based media server deployed in the layer2 access network.

14. The IWF of claim 12, wherein the new media server comprises a media server deployed in a non-access network.

15. The IWF of claim 11, wherein the first protocol format comprises a General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) tunneling protocol for carrying user data (GTP-U).

16. The IWF of claim 11, wherein the second protocol format comprises a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).

17. The IWF of claim 11, wherein failure monitor is configured to monitor a heart beat with the local layer3 based media server and wherein the failure monitor is configured to determine if the first one of the local layer3 based media servers has failed according to the heart beat.

18. The IWF of claim 11, wherein failure monitor is configured to monitor a time difference between a reply from the local layer3 based media server after forwarding request to the local layer3 based media server and wherein the failure monitor is configured to determine if the first one of the local layer3 based media servers has failed according to whether the reply is received within a specified time period.

19. The IWF of claim 11, wherein the forwarder is further configured messages received from the UE to a destination without modifying the message when the message is not a request for media content.