System and method of transferring communications between networks

• US 7,965,721 B1
• Filed: 03/21/2008
• Issued: 06/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nextel Communications (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Nextel Communications (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Gunasekara, Don
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah; Chirag G
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, MINH TRANG T
• Application Number:
  US12/052,903
• Time in Patent Office: 1,187 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 47/196 Integration of transport layer protocols, e.g. TCP and UDP
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/36 by determining packet size, e.g. maximum transfer unit [MTU]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion

Abstract

Systems and methods of providing data from a first network to a second network are provided. When a first packet is received from the first network, it is determined whether the first packet includes state information. When the packet includes state information, a packet is transmitted to the first network in response to receipt of a first packet. The first packet can then be transmitted to the second network. The method can also involve removing the state information from the first packet prior to transmission to the second network and conversion of a transport layer of the first packet from a first protocol to a second protocol prior to transmission to the second network.

Claims

1. A method of providing data from a first network to a second network, the method comprising:

receiving, by a gateway node, a first packet from the first network;

determining, by the gateway node, whether the first packet includes state information;

converting, by the gateway node, TCP protocol transport layer information of the first packet into User Datagram Protocol (UDP) transport layer information if the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information;

generating, by the gateway node, a control message including context information regarding the conversion of TCP protocol transport layer information into UDP transport layer information if the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information;

transmitting, by the gateway node to the first network, a TCP protocol-specific state-related response in response to receipt of the first packet if the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information which requires a TCP protocol-specific state-related response;

transmitting, by the gateway node to the second network, the converted first packet to the second network if the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information, wherein the transmitting occurs subsequent to the transmitting of the TCP protocol-specific state-related response if the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information which requires a TCP protocol-specific state-related response;

transmitting, by the gateway node to the second network, the generated control message including context information regarding the conversion of TCP protocol transport layer information into UDP transport layer information if the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information; and

transmitting, by the gateway node to the second network, the first packet if the first packet does not include TCP protocol-specific state information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

removing, by the gateway node, the TCP protocol-specific state information from the first packet prior to transmission to the second network if the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the TCP protocol-specific state-related response required in response to receipt of the first packet is an acknowledgement receipt packet.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the TCP protocol-specific state-related response required in response to receipt of the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information associated with TCP protocol-specific state information in the first packet.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information comprises:

examining transport layer protocols of the first packet.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information is performed independent of application layer information in the first packet.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing a link status record to determine a datagram size for transmission of the converted first packet to the second network, wherein the converted first packet has a size equal to the determined datagram size.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first packet is part of a stream of packets received from an application server.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the stream of packets is associated with audio information, video information, located-based services information, or electronic mail information.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network is a terrestrial wireless network and the second network is a satellite wireless network.

11. A hardware gateway node that is coupled between a first network and a second network, the gateway comprising:

a first communication interface to communicate with the first network;

a second communication interface to communicate with the second network;

a protocol processing unit configured to implement Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) protocol layers and process a first packet received by the first communication interface from the first network;

a filter processing unit configured to determines whether the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information;

a transport protocol conversion processing unit configured to convert TCP protocol transport layer information of the first packet into User Datagram Protocol (UDP) transport layer information if the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information;

a first transmission unit configured to transmit the TCP protocol-specific state-related response to the first network if the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information which requires a TCP protocol-specific state-related response; and

a second transmission unit configured to transmit the converted first packet to the second network if the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information, and to transmit the first packet to the second network if the first packet does not include TCP protocol-specific state information, wherein the transmitting occurs subsequent to the transmitting of the TCP protocol-specific state-related response if the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information which requires a TCP protocol-specific state-related response.

12. The hardware gateway node of claim 11, wherein the filter removes the TCP protocol-specific state information from the first packet prior to transmission to the second network if the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information.

13. The hardware gateway node of claim 11, wherein the filter processing unit determines whether the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information by examining transport layer protocols of the packet.

14. The hardware gateway node of claim 11, wherein the filter processing unit determines whether the first packet includes TCP protocol-specific state information independent of application layer information in the first packet.

15. A system comprising:

an application server coupled to a terrestrial-based wireless communication network;

a communication device that receives signals from a satellite-based communication network; and

a gateway coupled to the terrestrial-based wireless communication network and the satellite-based communication network in order to exchange packets between the application server and the communication device through the terrestrial-based wireless communication network and the satellite-based communication network, the gateway comprising

a filter processing unit configured to determine whether a first packet received from the application server through the terrestrial-based wireless communication network is formatted in accordance with Transmission Control Protocol (TCP),

wherein, when the first packet is formatted in accordance with transmission control protocol (TCP), a response packet is transmitted to the terrestrial-based wireless communication network in response to receipt of the first packet, a transport layer of the first packet is converted from TCP to universal control protocol (UDP), and the converted packet is transmitted to the satellite-based communication network,

wherein the response packet transmitted to the first network in response to receipt of the first packet is transmitted prior to the hardware gateway node receiving a response packet from the second network in response to receipt of the converted packet, and

wherein at least one of the application server, the communication device, and the gateway is implemented in hardware and includes processor.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the communication device is integrated in a motor vehicle.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the application server is one of a streaming media server, web server, audio music server or e-mail server.