Patent ID: 7020084
Filing Date: 2006-03-28
Classification: H04L,Y02D

Abstract:
1. A communication system having tunnels formed on a physical communication line and having a plurality of sessions in each tunnel, comprising: an authentication unit which authenticates a user using a plurality of said tunnels to determine if said user is a customer of a service of reserving sessions in a smaller number of tunnels in exchange for a specified service fee; a decision unit for, when said user is authenticated as a customer of said service by said authentication unit, monitoring the state of use of tunnels and sessions used by said user and deciding whether or not the sessions currently used by said user can be reserved in fewer tunnels; a tunnel control unit which controls the tunnels such that a plurality of sessions used by said user are gathered in a specified tunnel when said decision unit decides that said sessions can be reserved in fewer tunnels; and a charging unit which charges usage fees according to the number of tunnels or the number of physical communication lines.