Multiplexing multiple mobile services on a single mobile access point name

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for multiplexing multiple mobile services on a single mobile access point name (APN). A method includes, in a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network, examining Internet Protocol (IP) packets that traverse a mobile GN link of a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN), and applying a combination of packet protocols coupled with a carrier defined set of work flow rules to route the IP packets to their next destination and earmark billing CDRs for mediation and correlation by back office IT systems residing with a carrier in the mobile network.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention generally relates to cellular networks, and more specifically to multiplexing multiple mobile services on a single mobile access point name (APN).

In general, an access point name (APN) identifies an internet protocol (IP) packet data network (PDN), which a mobile data user wants to communicate with. In addition to identifying a PDN, an APN may also be used to define the type of service, e.g., connection to a wireless application protocol (WAP) server or a connection to a multimedia messaging service (MMS), which is provided by the PDN.

In today's mobile networks the APN convention is used to provide mobile carriers with an ability to differentiate mobile services from each other and to properly route and bill for their use. In order to facilitate the mobile device making requests to the network, the APNs must be provisioned in the mobile device and in the various network elements. This must be done for each APN the carrier plans to offer service over its network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for multiplexing multiple mobile services on a single mobile APN.

In general, in one aspect, the invention features a method including, in a mobile network, receiving a flow of Internet Protocol (IP) packets having a generic access point name (APN) at a traffic steering server, the generic APN assigned by a carrier in the mobile network and representing a plurality of services, identifying a specific service multiplexed on the generic APN, and routing the flow of IP packets to an application service element based on the identification.

In another aspect, the invention features a method including, in a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network, examining Internet Protocol (IP) packets that traverse a mobile GN link of a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN), and applying a combination of packet protocols coupled with a carrier defined set of work flow rules to route the IP packets to their next destination and earmark billing CDRs for mediation and correlation by back office IT systems residing with a carrier in the mobile network.

In another aspect, the invention features a method including, in a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network, assigning a generic access point name (APN) to a plurality of services, and routing a flow of Internet Protocol (IP) packets having the APN to a traffic steering server for routing the flow of IP packets to an application service element based on an identification of the IP packets.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Moreover, terms like “user equipment,” “mobile station,” “mobile,” “subscriber station,” “communication device,” “access terminal,” “terminal,” “handset,” and similar terminology, refer to a wireless device (e.g., cellular phone, smart phone, computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), set-top box, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), electronic gaming device, printer, etc.) utilized by a subscriber or user of a wireless communication service to receive or convey data, control, voice, video, sound, gaming, or substantially any data-stream or signaling-stream. The foregoing terms are utilized interchangeably in the subject specification and related drawings. Likewise, the terms “access point,” “base station,” “Node B,” “evolved Node B,” “home Node B (HNB),” and the like, are utilized interchangeably in the subject application, and refer to a wireless network component or appliance that serves and receives data, control, voice, video, sound, gaming, or substantially any data-stream or signaling-stream from a set of subscriber stations. Data and signaling streams can be packetized or frame-based flows.

Furthermore, the terms “user,” “subscriber,” “customer,” and the like are employed interchangeably throughout the subject specification, unless context warrants particular distinction(s) among the terms.

The development and institution of the APN concept among wireless carriers unified the manner in which subscribers are provided services in their home network and seamlessly roam to foreign networks while maintaining access to their home based services. It also streamlined the billing and revenue reconciliation process among wireless carriers by implementing a service routing model where all service requests are routed over the GPRS Roaming Exchange (GRX) back to the home PDN. This facilitated a charging model where billing records are created in both the serving PDN (Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN)-based CDRs, i.e., accounting records) and the home PDN (Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) providing the service). While the APN fulfilled a much required traffic steering and billing capability among wireless carriers, the growth and emergence of new wireless carrier based services and smart phones brought about another challenge. Scalability of the APN both in the network and the device became an issue with the introduction of smart phones such as the Apple iPhone®. With the introduction of smart phones the carriers allowed open network architectures where the content providers began to control many of the services on the device. These open networks architectures created a situation where additional APN's needed to be provisioned into the device in order to resolve to the proper PDN providing the new service. Generally, the maximum number of APN's that can be programmed into a device is four (4) entries, therefore the APNs had to be managed carefully. The wireless carriers used the four entries to define the proper PDN and the proper application server inside the carrier networks that provides the service for that particular APN.

Principles of the present invention apply to 3G and 4G mobile networks. 3G (3rd generation mobile telecommunications) is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specifications by the International Telecommunication Union. 4G is the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. It is a successor to the 3G and 2G families of standards. In 2009, the ITU-R organization specified the IMT-Advanced (International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced) requirements for 4G standards, setting peak speed requirements for 4G service at 100 Mbit/s for high mobility communication (such as from trains and cars) and 1 Gbit/s for low mobility communication (such as pedestrians and stationary users).

As shown inFIG. 1, a network10includes a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) mobile device12that communicates wirelessly with tower14to a base station (BS)16. The BS16is linked to a base station controller (BSC)18. The BSC18is linked to a telephony network20and a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN)22. The SGSN22is linked to a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN)23which in turn is linked to a traffic steering server24. The traffic steering server24is linked to one or more provider servers26,28,30.

General packet radio service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data service on the 2G and 3G cellular communication systems global system for mobile communications (GSM). The GPRS mobile device12supports Internet protocol (IP), Point-to-point protocol (PPP) and X.25 connections.

The BS16is responsible for handling traffic and signaling between a mobile phone, such as GPRS mobile device12, and a network switching subsystem. The BS16carries out transcoding of speech channels, allocation of radio channels to mobile phones, paging, transmission and reception over the air interface and many other tasks related to the radio network.

The BSC18handles allocation of radio channels, receives measurements from the mobile phones, and controls handovers from base transceiver station (BTS) to BTS. The BSC18includes a packet control unit (PCU)32that performs some of the processing tasks of the BSC18, but for packet data. The allocation of channels between voice and data is controlled by the BS16, but once a channel is allocated to the PCU32, the PCU32takes full control over that channel.

The SGSN22takes care of some important tasks, including routing, handover and IP address assignment. The SGSN22has a logical connection to the GPRS device12. As an example, if you where in a car traveling up the highway on a long journey and were browsing the Internet on the GPRS device12, you will pass through many different cells. One job of the SGSN22is to make sure the connection is not interrupted as you make your journey passing from cell to cell. The SGSN22works out which BSC to “route” your connection through. If the user moves into a segment of the network that is managed by a different SGSN it will perform a handoff of to the new SGSN, this is done extremely quickly and generally the user will not notice this has happened. Any packets that are lost during this process are retransmitted. The SGSN22converts mobile data into IP and is connected to the traffic steering server24via a tunneling protocol.

The GGSN23acts as gateway, router and firewall rolled into one. In a traditional mobile network, a GGSN is responsible for the interworking between the GPRS network and an external packet switched network, like the Internet. In the network10, unlike traditional networks, the GGSN23is traffic agnostic and relies on the the traffic steering server24to perform traffic steering.

The traffic steering server24multiplexes multiple services on a single access point name (APN). The traffic steering server24uses deep packet inspection and subscriber information obtained carrier databases to identify the specific unique services that are commingled or multiplexed onto a single APN and earmark them for routing and billing purposes. The traffic steering server24examines packets (i.e., the flow) that traverse the mobile GN link of the GGSN23and use a combination of packet protocols coupled with carrier defined work flow rates (database dips and policy queries) to properly route the packets to their next destination and earmark the billing CDRs for mediation and correlation by back office IT systems so the services can receive differentiated billing.

The traffic steering server24includes a processor50and memory52. Memory52includes an operating system54, such as Linux® or Windows®, and a traffic steering process100, fully described below.

The one or more provider servers26,28,30handle different services, such as, for example, Internet Browsing, Messaging, Voice Mail, Voice over IP (VoIP) and Video Streaming.

The operation of the the traffic steering server24and how it multiplexes multiple services on a single access point name (APN) is best illustrated by an example.

Because of the fact that the APN concept was purposefully designed for carrier network selection and routing and not service application selection, carriers are looking at alternative approaches to how APNs are used in delivering 3G and LTE services. A majority of the carriers for both their 3G and 4G infrastructure are considering the use of a single APN to run all service on the mobile device. For example, a single APN in the LTE 4G domain might take on the following construct: SmartPhone.ATT.mnc012.mcc345.LTE

Whereas Smartphone.ATT is a generic APN name followed by the Mobile Network Code, Mobile Country Code and LTE to represent it is a 4G based service. This APN would be provisioned in all 3G and 4G Smartphone's as a single way to get subscribers to the network that host their services. Once the subscriber's packets get to their home network, other means would be needed to get the packets routed to the proper application server. For example, LTE will host multiple services within the single APN such as:1. LTE based Internet Browsing2. LTE based Messaging3. LTE based Voice Mail4. LTE based Voice Over IP5. LTE based Video Streaming

In order for a single APN to be implemented, the network10must be capable of steering the traffic to the proper application server using something other than the APN. The single APN continues to perform network selection as it does today, but is augmented with service logic rules implemented in the various network elements and service nodes. Service logic rules (Service Orchestration) are used to logically steer the traffic to the appropriate service node responsible for instantiating the service application. Considering the devices will continue to have the ability to run multiple concurrent applications across the single APN, multiple TCP sessions will exist between the device and the network.

Use of a single APN does not resolve to any one service application. To get the service to the proper application service platform, some form of Packet Inspection (not necessarily DPI) coupled with rules based routing is implemented. Rules are placed in each of the responsible network elements along the path of the new APN to steer (path branching) the traffic towards the application server providing the specific service.

The following example better illustrates the operation of the network10, which describes how a post-paid subscriber's packets traverses all the servers necessary to properly access the network, firewall, packet inspect, charge, content filter, and terminate the service on the application server and then onto the internet. The steps below depict how an example service with the APN name Wap.Cingular.mnc012.mcc345.gprs gets service in the home network.

A subscriber turns on the device12and the device12establishes a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context with the SGSN22and the SGSN22begins tracking his mobility. This is the point where rules in the SGSN22give the device an SGSN-based PDP context and takes on responsibility for mobility management as the device moves across the network.

The subscriber then launches a browser, the browser chooses the underlying APN Wap.Cingular.mnc012.mcc345.gprs and requests a PDP Context Activation towards the SGSN22.

The SGSN22performs a Domain Name System (DNS) query to determine which GGSN23hosts the internet browse service that is a “proxied” browse service.

After receiving the DNS response the packets are then forwarded to GGSN23which then forwards the packet to firewall and a set of firewall access rules are invoked to inspect the traffic.

The firewall then sends the packets to a load balancer that serves all of the GGSNs that host the APN Wap.Cingular.mnc012.mcc345.gprs.

The load balancer sends the traffic to the GGSN23and on to the traffic steering server24that performs packet inspection at Layer 4 (this Transport layer provides transparent transfer of data between end systems, or hosts, and is responsible for end-to-end error recovery and flow control) to determine the specific service being requested. The results of the packet inspection are used to determine next hop forwarding and select a route that gets the packets to the specific application service element, such as26,28or30. In the case of the Internet Browsing Service, the traffic steering server24may itself host the service and handle the traffic. For other cases such as Multimedia Messaging Service, the traffic steering server24chooses a path to the MMSC which hosts the service.

The traffic steering server24assigns the mobile device12an IP address and then forwards the packets to a content filter and a charging gateway where a set of content filtering and charging rules can be applied.

The subscriber gets a connection to the walled garden content source and the Firewall, Content Filter, and the Charging Gateway's begin looking at the http traffic flow to properly inspect, charge, and bill for the internet browse service.

As shown inFIG. 2, the traffic steering process100includes, in a mobile network, receiving (102) a flow of Internet Protocol (IP) packets having a generic access point name (APN) at a traffic steering server, the generic APN assigned by a carrier in the mobile network and representing a number of services. The flow of Internet Protocol (IP) packets can represent a service request from a mobile device in the mobile network. The number of services can include general browsing, multimedia messaging, visual voice mail and open internet access.

Process100identifies (104) a specific service multiplexed on the generic APN. Identifying (104) can include applying deep packet inspection (DPI) to the flow of IP packets and can be combined with subscriber information associated with the flow from a carrier database residing in the network.

Process100routes (106) the flow of IP packets to an application service element based on the identification. The application service element can include a server for general browsing, multimedia messaging, visual voice mail or open internet access.

Process100earmarks (108) billing CDRs for mediation and correlation by back office IT systems residing with the carrier in the network so the service receives billing.

The foregoing description does not represent an exhaustive list of all possible implementations consistent with this disclosure or of all possible variations of the implementations described. A number of implementations have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the systems, devices, methods and techniques described here. For example, various forms of the flows shown above may be used, with steps re-ordered, added, or removed. Accordingly, other implementations are within the scope of the following claims.