Patent ID: 7023820
Filing Date: 2006-04-04
Classification: A62C,H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. In a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network comprising a plurality of GPRS Support Nodes (GSNs), including at least one Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) in communication with at least one Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) via an Internet Protocol (IP)-based network comprising a plurality of intermediate nodes, a method for communicating data across the IP-based network according to a plurality of traffic classes, the method comprising steps of: defining a plurality of delay-differentiated paths within the IP-based network between each of the at least one SGSN and each of the at least one GGSN, wherein each of the plurality of traffic classes has at least one delay-differentiated path of the plurality of delay-differentiated paths corresponding thereto; determining, by an ingress GSN of the plurality of GSNs, a traffic class of the plurality of traffic classes corresponding to the data; assigning, by the ingress GSN, a label to at least a portion of the data according to the traffic class to provide labeled data; and routing, by the ingress GSN to an egress GSN of the plurality of GSNs, the labeled data through a first delay-differentiated path of the plurality of delay-differentiated paths based on correspondence of the label to the first delay-differentiated path, wherein the step of routing further comprises: transmitting, by the ingress GSN, the labeled data to one of the plurality of intermediate nodes; handling, by the one of the plurality of intermediate nodes, the labeled data based on the traffic class, wherein each of the plurality of traffic classes has a unique correspondence to one of a plurality of per-hop behavior (PHB) groups, further comprising a step of assigning, by the ingress GSN, a PHB group of the plurality of PHB groups to the labeled data based on the traffic class, wherein the step of handling further comprises handling the labeled data according to the per-hop behavior group assigned to the labeled data, wherein the plurality of traffic classes comprises conversational, streaming, interactive and background traffic classes, and wherein the conversational class corresponds to an Expedited Forwarding PHB group, the streaming class corresponds to a First Assured Forwarding (AF