Patent ID: 8649266

Claim:
A method comprising: a. receiving one or more communication packets indicative of a commencement of a new packet flow in a packet subnet, said new packet flow comprising one packet or a plurality of packets; b. monitoring the new packet flow to obtain a monitored information about the new packet flow, the monitored information about the new packet flow comprises: i. packet header information associated with the new packet flow at any level of encapsulation, ii. signaling information related to the identity of the new packet flow, iii. physical link information of a physical link on which the one packet or the plurality of packets associated with the new packet flow arrived or will depart, iv. a first measured rate representing a flow rate of the new packet flow, or a measured jitter in the first measured rate, and v. a second measured rate characterizing a flow aggregate encompassing the new packet flow or a measured jitter in the second measured rate, wherein the flow aggregate comprises a plurality of packet flows directed to an end point; and c. detecting the commencement of the new packet flow based on the received one or more communication packets and responsive to the detection of the commencement of the new packet flow: vi. storing a flow identifier, the flow identifier representing an identity of the new packet flow; vii. retrieving a policy information for determining an initial or a sustained QoS treatment of the new packet flow, wherein the retrieved policy information comprises an identity of one or more network functions configured to receive information related to the new packet flow, wherein the network functions are located at one or more different locations throughout the packet subnet, and wherein the determining of the initial or the sustained QoS treatment is performed using the retrieved policy information and the monitored information about the new packet flow; and viii. forwarding information related to the new packet flow to the one or more network functions based on the retrieved policy information, the information being forwarded to the one or more network functions by the packet subnet or through one or more dedicated links, wherein the forwarded information comprises: ix. the identity of the new packet flow, x. information on the flow aggregate associated with the new packet flow, and xi. the monitored information about the new packet flow.