Patent ID: 8032639

Claim:
An apparatus for providing data session source device information, the apparatus comprising: one or more processors; a network interface communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and configured to communicate digital data among the one or more processors in the network; and a computer readable volatile or non-volatile storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions for providing data session source device information which, when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform: storing a plurality of data session identifiers that can be selected to be associated only with a particular source device and not with any other device; receiving data traffic from the particular source device, said traffic comprises a native data session identifier and, as a source identifier, a source device identifier; based on the source device identifier of the particular source device that sent the data traffic, selecting a particular data session identifier from the plurality of data session identifiers that can be associated only with the particular source device and not with any other device; translating said native data session identifier to the particular data session identifier; and forwarding said data traffic including the particular data session identifier as the data session source device information to a service aggregation device; wherein said native data session identifier comprises a source port number; wherein said particular data session identifier comprises a port number.