Systems and methods for data path control in a wireless network

• US 9,961,609 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2014
• Issued: 05/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telsima Corp. (Aviat Networks Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Telsima Corp. (Aviat Networks Incorporated)
• Inventors: Beser, Nurettin Burcak, Carlton, Mike, Krishna, Santhosh
• Primary Examiner(s): Kao, Jutai
• Application Number:
  US14/567,752
• Publication Number:
  US 20150092667A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,237 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/42 Centralised routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/563 Software download or update
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/566 Routing instructions carried by the data packet, e.g. active networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/00 Communication routing or communication path finding
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

In various embodiments, the data plane may be abstracted from a control plane in a wireless network such as WiMax, WiFi, LTE or the like. In some embodiments, a method comprises a receiving control data at a control server from a source device, generating routing instructions at the control server regarding routing network data based on the control data, providing the routing instructions to a routing device, configuring the routing device based on the routing instructions, receiving network data from the source device, and routing the network data from the source device to a target device using the configured routing device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving control data in a control plane protocol at a control server from a mobile station, the control server configured to perform control plane functions;

generating routing instructions at the control server regarding routing network data based on the control data, the routing instructions comprising a packet classification rule and an address of a target device that is to receive at least a portion of the network data, the packet classification rule identifying actions to be taken for the at least a portion of the network data that is to be received and identified by a routing device to route the at least a portion of the network data to the target device; and

providing the routing instructions to the routing device to configure the routing device using the routing instructions to perform data plane functions and to receive the network data from the mobile station, to recognize the at least a portion of the network data, and to provide the at least a portion of the network data to the target device using the packet classification rule.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the control server is a WiMAX server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the control server is an LTE server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the control server is an access server network (ASN) server and wherein providing the routing instructions comprises providing the routing instructions from the ASN server over an R7 interface to the routing device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the routing instructions comprise instructions to forward matching incoming traffic arriving on a specific ingress interface to a specific egress interface.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the specific ingress interface comprises a specific generic routing encapsulation (GRE) tunnel and the specific egress interface comprises an IP to IP tunnel.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the routing instructions comprise instructions to drop matching incoming traffic arriving on a specific ingress interface.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the routing instructions comprise instructions to duplicate outgoing traffic to two or more egress interfaces.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the routing instructions comprise instructions to buffer packets at an egress interface according to hierarchical quality of service (QoS) policies.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising matching the network data using packet classification rules to determine a routing function.

11. A system, comprising:

a control server configured to receive control data in a control plane protocol from a source device, the control server configured to perform control plane functions, generate routing instructions regarding routing network data based on the control data, the routing instructions comprising a packet classification rule and an address of a target device that is to receive at least a portion of the network data, the packet classification rule identifying actions to be taken for the at least a portion of the network data that is to be received and identified by a routing device to route the at least a portion of the network data to the target device, and provide the routing instructions to the routing device to configure the routing device using the routing instructions to perform data plane functions and to receive the network data from the mobile station, to recognize the at least a portion of the network data, and to provide the at least a portion of the network data to the target device using the packet classification rule.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the control server is a WiMAX server.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the control server is an LTE server.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the control server is an access server network (ASN) server and the routing device communicates with the ASN server over an R7 interface.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the routing instructions comprise instructions to forward matching incoming traffic arriving on a specific ingress interface to a specific egress interface.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the specific ingress interface comprises a specific generic routing encapsulation (GRE) tunnel and the specific egress interface comprises an IP to IP tunnel.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the routing instructions comprise instructions to drop matching incoming traffic arriving on a specific ingress interface.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the routing instructions comprise instructions to duplicate outgoing traffic to two or more egress interfaces.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the routing instructions comprise instructions to buffer packets at an egress interface according to hierarchical quality of service (QoS) policies.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the routing device is further configured to match the network data using packet classification rules to determine a routing function.

21. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, the instructions executable by a processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving control data in a control plane protocol at a control server from a mobile station, the control server configured to perform control plane functions;

generating routing instructions at the control server regarding routing network data based on the control data, the routing instructions comprising a packet classification rule and an address of a target device that is to receive at least a portion of the network data, the packet classification rule identifying actions to be taken for the at least a portion of the network data that is to be received and identified by a routing device to route the at least a portion of the network data to the target device; and

providing the routing instructions to the routing device to configure the routing device using the routing instructions to perform data plane functions and to receive the network data from the mobile station, to recognize the at least a portion of the network data, and to provide the at least a portion of the network data to the target device using the packet classification rule.