Patent ID: 9736111
Date: 2017-08-15
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method for the creation, modification and removal of a distributed virtual customer home gateway, wherein at least one distributed virtual customer home gateway comprises: an association between an access line identifier and a customer identifier, wherein said association is stored in at least one Line Configuration Server; and state and configuration information relative to said association, wherein said state and configuration information is stored: partly, in at least one IP Edge node, acting in a provider edge, that provides tunneling forwarding of customer end devices traffic destined to public IPv4 internet to at least one Carrier Grade network address translation (NAT) node, partly in the at least one Carrier Grade NAT node that provides NAT translation to public source IPv4 addresses to customer traffic, and partly in at least one User Configuration Server that provides: IP configuration parameters selected by a customer corresponding to the customer identifier of the at least one IP Edge node, enabling it to act as an IP gateway address for customer end devices corresponding to the customer, connected to an access line corresponding to the access line identifier through a bridging device, NAT configuration parameters to the at least one Carrier Grade NAT node, enabling it to conduct said NAT translation according to customer preferences, and IP configuration parameters dynamically to the customer end devices, the method comprises the following steps: creating said state information of the at least one distributed virtual home gateway, by the at least one IP Edge node, upon a reception of traffic from a home in the access line corresponding to said access line identifier and after the at least one IP Edge node having obtained the customer identifier associated to said access line identifier from the at least one Line Configuration Server and after the at least one IP Edge node having provided relaying of control traffic from customer end devices tagged with the access line identifier and said customer identifier to said at least one User Configuration Server, said at least one User Configuration Server providing the IP, NAT and IP configuration parameters based on the access line identifier and the customer identifier introduced in the control traffic from the customer end devices by the at least one IP Edge node; establishing a tunnel from said at least one IP Edge node to said at least one Carrier Grade NAT node making use of said access line identifier and said customer identifier as part of an encapsulation header to forward the customer end devices traffic destined to the public IPv4 internet from said at least one IP Edge node towards said at least one Carrier Grade NAT node, said at least one Carrier Grade NAT node providing the NAT translation to public source IPV4 addresses to customer traffic based on said encapsulation header; modifying said configuration information of the at least one distributed virtual customer home gateway, by said at least one User Configuration Server, upon a customer request; and removing said state information of the at least one distributed virtual customer home gateway, either by said at least one IP Edge Node upon a traffic inactivity timeout detected in said access line or by said at least one Line Configuration Server upon an administrative command, wherein said association stored in the at least one Line Configuration Server is termed virtual customer home gateway context, and is known partially or totally by the at least one IP Edge node, the at least one Carrier Grade NAT, the at least one User Configuration Server and the at least one Line Configuration Server, and is kept active during a whole life cycle of said distributed virtual customer home gateway from the creation to the removal.