WO2015199340A1 - Network device and terminal for multi-path communication, operation method thereof, and program implementing operation method - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for performing multi-path communication by a terminal through a gateway comprises the steps of: storing a whitelist including applications to be subject to multi-path communication; and generating the gateway and at least one path, using at least one multi-communication interface, when a first application included in the whitelist is executed.

Description

Network device and terminal for multipath communication, operation method thereof, and program implementing the method

The present invention relates to multipath communication.

Aggregation transmission (aggregation transmission) is a technique for transmitting data using a plurality of wireless networks at the same time, and processes the data transmitted in each path as a session. Through a merge transmission technology, a terminal may be connected to a plurality of access networks at a time, and one service / application may merge and communicate a plurality of networks as one network regardless of network type or number of networks. Therefore, the merge transmission system can quickly transmit and receive a large amount of data using a plurality of available network resources.

Multi-path TCP (MPTCP) technology is an L4 technology for using multiple IP interfaces simultaneously. A terminal having a plurality of physical interfaces may be connected to a plurality of access networks at one time through the MPTCP technology, and end-to-end communication is generated by creating a session in subflow units.

As such, researches on a technology for transmitting data using a plurality of wireless networks at the same time have been conducted, but not all servers support multipath communication. Therefore, there is a limit in that a terminal having a multi-communication interface currently does not have multi-path communication with all servers.

The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a network device and a terminal for multi-path communication, an operation method thereof, and a program implementing the operation method.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a terminal performs a multipath communication through a gateway, the method comprising: storing a whitelist including applications corresponding to a multipath communication target, and executing a first application included in the whitelist And generating at least one path with the gateway using at least one of multiple communication interfaces.

The multi-path communication method may further include determining whether the first application is an application included in the whitelist based on an identifier of the first application when the first application is executed.

The generating of the at least one path with the gateway may include generating a subflow connected to the gateway through each of a plurality of networks, and if the connection with any one of the plurality of networks is lost, the sub-network of the maintained network is connected. The method may further include processing traffic of the first application through a flow.

The storing of the white list may include receiving at least one application list from a network device, and storing the received application list in the white list.

The multi-path communication method may further include setting a routing table so that traffic generated from an application included in the white list is relayed to the gateway.

The multi-path communication method may further include transmitting traffic of the second application through a path not passing through the gateway when a second application not included in the whitelist is executed.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method for multi-way communication with a terminal by a gateway, the method comprising: generating a first session with the terminal through a first network for traffic processing of an application executed in the terminal; Generating a second session with the terminal through a second network for traffic processing; and processing the application traffic through the first session and the second session.

The processing of the application traffic may include determining the type of the first network based on the first session information, and if the first network is a designated preferred network, restricting traffic processing through the second session. It may include.

The designated preference network may be a WiFi network.

The processing of the application traffic may include monitoring a communication state of the first network, and if the first network provides a substandard quality as a result of the monitoring, releasing the restriction of traffic processing through the second session. It may include.

The processing of the application traffic may control traffic processing through the first session and the second session based on a rate plan of the terminal.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method for operating a policy distribution device and a terminal for multipath communication, comprising: generating, by the policy distribution device, a proxy policy including proxy server access information and white list information; Distributing the proxy policy to a terminal by the policy distributing device, and transmitting, by the terminal, traffic of an arbitrary application to a designated proxy server based on the proxy policy, wherein the whitelist information is multi-path communication. List of applications corresponding to the target.

The transmitting to the designated proxy server may include: setting, by the terminal, a routing table so that traffic of the first application included in the whitelist is relayed to the first proxy server, and applying the proxy policy to identify the executed application. Identifying the first application based on the information, and transmitting the traffic of the first application to the first proxy server with reference to a routing table related to the first application.

In the transmitting of the first proxy server, the traffic of the first application may be transmitted through multiple paths connected to the first proxy server.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method in which a terminal operates for multipath communication, comprising: setting a source address used when a socket of an application is created as a first communication interface, wherein the application sources the first communication interface; Mapping information of the first socket created using the address and information of the second socket created using the at least one communication interface set in the routing table as a source address, and storing the mapped information in the mapping table; And transmitting and receiving the traffic of the application through at least one communication interface set in the routing table based on the mapping table.

The operation method may further include updating the mapping table based on the changed interface information when the communication interface used by the second socket as the source address is changed.

The first communication interface may be an interface for accessing a mobile communication network.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method in which a terminal operates for multipath communication, comprising: monitoring generation of a subflow for multipath communication, activating a WiFi interface when the subflow is generated, and Deactivating the WiFi interface if the flow is destroyed.

The operation method may further include: setting a flag to a first value when activating or deactivating the WiFi interface based on the subflow, checking the flag when a WiFi on / off event occurs, If the value is 1, changing the flag to a second value; and if the flag is not the first value, determining the WiFi on / off event by a user.

A terminal for performing multipath communication according to another embodiment of the present invention, a multipath management unit for managing multipath communication related settings and policy information, and a user for determining an application-specific routing policy based on the settings and policy information A kernel interface unit, and a multipath processor for transmitting traffic of each application through at least one communication interface based on the routing policy.

The multipath manager may manage a whitelist including applications corresponding to a multipath communication target.

The user-kernel interface unit determines whether a first application is included in the whitelist based on application identification information, and when the first application is included in the whitelist, traffic of the first application is determined by the setting and policy information. The routing table can be set to relay to the gateway specified by.

The multi-path processing unit may generate at least one path connected to the gateway through the at least one communication interface, and transmit traffic of the first application to the gateway through the at least one path.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, data transmitted through each path may be merged into one using a plurality of available wireless networks simultaneously. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a large amount of data can be quickly transmitted and received using a plurality of available network resources.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a terminal may be connected to a plurality of access networks at a time, and one service / application may merge and communicate a plurality of networks as one network regardless of the type of network or the number of networks.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the terminal may be connected to a general server that does not support the multipath through the multipath.

1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating network merge transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram of a multi-path transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a diagram illustrating traffic flow according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 to 6 are diagrams exemplarily illustrating a user setting screen provided by the MPTCP management unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a multi-path transmission method when a session is started with WiFi according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a multipath transmission method when a session is started with LTE according to an embodiment of the present invention.

9 and 10 are diagrams for explaining the traffic control for each terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

11 is a block diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

12 and 13 are flowcharts illustrating a WiFi control method of a multipath transmission terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

14 is a diagram illustrating a conventional socket communication method.

15 to 17 are diagrams illustrating a socket communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

18 is a diagram for explaining a general proxy communication method.

19 is a diagram illustrating a proxy communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

20 is a flowchart of a proxy communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

21 is a hardware block diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily implement the present invention. As those skilled in the art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. In the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted in order to clearly describe the present invention, and like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the specification.

Throughout the specification, when a part is said to "include" a certain component, it means that it can further include other components, without excluding other components unless specifically stated otherwise. In addition, the terms “… unit”, “… unit”, “module”, etc. described in the specification mean a unit that processes at least one function or operation, which may be implemented by hardware or software or a combination of hardware and software. have.

In the present specification, a terminal is a mobile station (MS), a mobile terminal (MT), a subscriber station (SS), a portable subscriber station (PSS), a user equipment (UE) It may also refer to an access terminal (AT) and the like, and may include all or some functions of a mobile station, a mobile terminal, a subscriber station, a portable subscriber station, a user device, an access terminal, and the like.

The terminal of the present specification includes a base station (BS), an access point (Access Point, AP), a radio access station (Radio Access Station, RAS), a Node B (Node B), an advanced NodeB (evolved NodeB, eNodeB), A network device such as a base transceiver station (BTS), a mobile multihop relay (MMR) -BS, or the like may be connected to a remote server.

The terminal of the present specification may be a mobile terminal such as a smartphone, a tablet terminal such as a smart pad / tablet PC, a computer, a television, or other various types of communication terminals, and may include a plurality of communication interfaces.

The communication interface may vary. For example, the communication interface may be a short-range wireless network interface such as Wi-Fi / WLAN / Bluetooth, and a mobile network interface such as 3G / LTE (Long Term Evolution) / LTE-A (LTE-A). It may include, and the terminal manufacturer may add various communication interfaces. In the present specification, a WiFi interface and an LTE interface are described as an example, but the communication interface is not limited thereto.

1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating network merge transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a network merge transmission is a technology for transmitting data by merging a plurality of communication networks, and splits and transmits data transmitted through one path into a plurality of homogeneous networks or a plurality of heterogeneous networks. Data transmitted through a path can be bundled and transmitted. Network merge transmission may be referred to as multipath transmission in the sense of simultaneously transmitting data through multiple paths.

The terminal 100 may include multiple communication interfaces, and may be connected to a plurality of networks (for example, a WiFi network and an LTE network) at one time through the multiple communication interfaces.

The gateway 200 receives data transmitted from the server 300 to the terminal 100. Here, it is assumed that the server 300 does not support multiple communication interfaces. The gateway 200 is a network device for multipath transmission.

The gateway 200 divides the data to transfer the received data to the multiple communication interfaces of the terminal 100. The gateway 200 may transmit some data to the terminal 100 through the LTE network, and transmit the remaining data to the terminal 100 through the WiFi network. The terminal 100 merges the data received through the plurality of communication interfaces. In a similar manner, the gateway 200 may merge the data transmitted by the terminal 100 using the multiple communication interface and transmit the merged data to the server 300.

The merging technology of the WiFi network and the LTE network may be classified as follows according to the merging point.

L2 / link layer merging creates a dedicated tunnel to the WiFi AP at the boundary point of the LTE core and access network (ie, eNB).

L3 / network layer merging creates virtual IP tunnels to consolidate IP addresses used independently in LTE and WiFi networks.

L4 / Transport layer merging can create a session over a single access network and then participate in data transmission regardless of the IP addressing system, if additional access networks are available. At this time, the communication subject at the application level supports a structure capable of data communication based on a single session using one or more access networks.

L7 / application layer merging is a dedicated application / agent to recombine data received via the LTE network and WiFi network itself or transmit application protocol data separately.

As described above, various merge transmissions are possible according to the merge transport layer. The following description will focus on merge transmission through multi-path TCP (MPTCP).

2 is a block diagram of a multi-path transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the multipath transmission system includes a terminal 100 and a gateway 200 as a network device. The terminal 100 and the gateway 200 transmit and receive data based on MPTCP. The terminal 100 may transmit / receive data with the server 300 through the gateway 200, and the terminal 100 may transmit / receive data with the server 400 without passing through the gateway 200. Here, the server 300. 400 is assumed to be a general server that performs TCP communication through a single path.

The terminal 100 supporting the MPTCP includes software including the MPTCP management unit 110 and the MPTCP processing unit 130, and includes a plurality of physical communication interfaces 150 and 160. For example, the communication interface 150 may be an interface for accessing an LTE network, and the communication interface 160 may be an interface for accessing a WiFi network.

The MPTCP management unit 110 is an application that a user can access to set or manage MPTCP. In addition, the MPTCP management unit 110 may manage various setting information or policy information related to MPTCP applied to the terminal 100. The MPTCP management unit 110 may be called, for example, a Giga path manager.

The MPTCP processor 130 communicates with an application of the terminal 100 and performs a socket, and transmits data based on a routing table. The MPTCP processor 130 may transmit MPTCP and some applications may transmit general TCP based on the transmission information for each application.

The gateway 200 relays MPTCP data and TCP data. The gateway 200 may be a proxy server that supports transmission and reception of data through MPTCP when the terminal 100 communicates with a general TCP server. The gateway 200 may be located at a contact point of a multiple network, for example, at a contact point of an LTE network and a WiFi network. The gateway 200 may be referred to as a multi-network aggregation gateway (MA-GW).

The gateway 200 includes software including the MPTCP relay 210 and includes a plurality of physical communication interfaces 230, 240, and 250. For example, the communication interface 230 is an interface for transmitting and receiving data over the LTE network, the communication interface 240 is an interface for transmitting and receiving data over the WiFi network, and the communication interface 250 transmits and receives data with the server 300. It is an interface.

MPTCP is an L4 technology that sends and receives data using more than one IP / interface at the same time. Therefore, the application of the terminal 100 attempts to communicate through general TCP, but actually, the MPTCP processing unit 130 of the terminal 100 generates a session in subflow units and outputs data to at least one communication interface.

As such, network merge transmission such as MPTCP can use two networks simultaneously by merging physically separated LTE networks and WiFi networks logically as one network. In particular, MPTCP can split a session created for a service into a plurality of subflows, thereby dynamically adding or releasing access networks. Accordingly, MPTCP can provide stable service regardless of physical environment change by increasing traffic speed by merging two networks when merge transmission is possible, and by transmitting traffic to other wireless network when the status of one wireless network becomes poor. Can be.

As a result, the MPTCP system can efficiently use the communication resources, thereby increasing the transmission speed, and can flexibly cope with the failure of the communication section. In particular, since the gateway 200 relays the MPTCP data and the TCP data in the MPTCP system, the terminal 100 may access the general server through the MPTCP even if a general TCP server does not support the MPTCP.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating traffic flow according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 4 to 6 are views illustrating a user setting screen provided by an MPTCP management unit according to an embodiment of the present invention. .

Referring to FIG. 3, the terminal 100 includes a plurality of communication interfaces (eg, an interface connecting to an LTE network and an interface connecting to a WiFi network) and support MPTCP.

The terminal 100 may select a transmission path of each application based on the setting for each application. For example, the terminal 100 communicates with a server of some applications (for example, a messenger application) through an LTE network, and the TCP through a WiFi network with a server of some applications (for example, a social network service application). In communication with the server of some applications (eg, a video service application), an MPTCP communication may be performed through the gateway (MA-GW) 200. That is, the terminal 100 may set the LTE network and the WiFi network as an available transmission network at the same time for some applications.

The list of applications for MPTCP communication through the gateway 200 may be referred to as a multipath application list or whitelist, and in the future simply referred to as a whitelist. The white list may be set by user selection or carrier policy.

The terminal 100 and the gateway 200 operate as proxy clients and proxy servers. The terminal 100 routes only the traffic generated by the whitelisted application to the gateway 200 using proxy technology. The gateway 200 may dynamically manage the proxy policy including the white list and distribute the proxy policy to the terminal 100. Alternatively, a separate policy distribution device may create and distribute a proxy policy.

4 to 6, the terminal 100 includes an MPTCP management unit that is an application that allows a user to access and set a communication environment, and set a communication path for each application. The application may be called, for example, a Giga path manager.

First, referring to FIG. 4, the MPTCP management unit is executed in the terminal 100 and displays a screen on which a user can access and set a communication environment on a display. The MPTCP management unit displays a screen that allows you to configure WiFi settings, mobile data settings, and multipath (eg, gigapath) settings. The MPTCP management unit may display the image 10 representing the multi-path setting on the screen of the terminal 100.

When the image 10 is selected, the MPTCP management unit displays a screen for setting a multipath (gigapath) application as shown in FIG. 5. The MPTCP management unit displays the applications 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25 capable of multipath transmission. The MPTCP management unit may display an image 30 to which an application may be added. Referring to FIG. 3, the basic application is an application that communicates using either an LTE network or a WiFi network.

When the image 30 is selected, the MPTCP management unit displays the applications included in the white list as shown in FIG. The user can add a new application to the whitelist and exclude the whitelisted application from the whitelist.

Referring to FIG. 3 again, the terminal 100 allows only traffic of the application included in the white list to pass through the gateway 200, and when an application not included in the white list is executed, the LTE network / WiFi is set according to the setting of the corresponding application. Send and receive traffic through the network.

The terminal 100 may distinguish whether the traffic of the application included in the white list is based on the application identifier (for example, user identification (UID)).

Meanwhile, the white list may be selected by the user through an application such as the MPTCP management unit, or may be set by a carrier policy. The terminal 100 may receive a white list policy from a network device, for example, the gateway 200, and determine a transmission path for each application based on the received white list policy. Naturally, the terminal 100 may receive a white list policy from a separate network server.

The terminal 100 and the gateway 200 may synchronize the whitelist policy through a push / pull scheme or separately defined signaling.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a multi-path transmission method when a session is started with WiFi according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 7, the terminal 100 accesses a WiFi network (S110). First, the primary path is set to WiFi. When the user starts a session with WiFi in this way, it can be said to be a WiFi preferred state.

When the terminal 100 executes a non-whitelist service that is not included in the whitelist, the terminal 100 is connected to the server 400 through a WiFi network (S120). Traffic of the whitelist not included service does not pass through the gateway 200. Here, the server 400 is a server related to a whitelist non-service / application.

When the terminal 100 executes a service / application included in the whitelist, the terminal 100 starts a session with the server 300 through a WiFi path passing through the gateway 200 (S130). That is, when the terminal 100 starts a session of the whitelist service / application in the WiFi network, the terminal 100 and the gateway 200 are connected by a WiFi path, and the traffic included in the whitelist is connected to the gateway 200. To pass.

For multipath transmission, the terminal 100 activates the LTE interface (S140). LTE / WiFi Dual On / off may be set in the terminal 100, and when the LTE / WiFi Dual On is performed, the terminal 100 may simultaneously access the LTE network and the WiFi network.

The terminal 100 adds an LTE path connected to the gateway 200 (S150). At this time, the primary access path is still the WiFi path, and the secondary access path (secondary path) is the added LTE path. Although the terminal 100 and the gateway 200 maintain a subflow session on the LTE path, the traffic (whitelist traffic) of a service included in the white list may mainly transmit and receive on the WiFi path. That is, when the UE is in a WiFi preferred state where the UE starts a session with WiFi, the gateway 200 may control to minimize the use of LTE data even though the LTE path is added.

If it is difficult to transmit and receive data via the WiFi path at any point, the terminal 100 first switches the access path to the LTE path (S160). For example, when the quality of the WiFi path is lowered or the terminal 100 is out of the WiFi region, LTE / WiFi Dual off is set in the terminal 100. Then, the terminal 100 supports a seamless service by converting the LTE path set as the auxiliary access path to the priority access path. In this case, the terminal 100 releases the WiFi connection by deleting the WiFi path, but may maintain the WiFi interface in an activated state.

As such, the traffic passing through the gateway 200 may be transmitted to the terminal 100 in a multi-path (MPTCP) state, and thus, even if any one path is deleted due to a change in the access network of the terminal 100, the data is disconnected. It may be transmitted to the terminal 100 without. On the other hand, after the terminal 100 is connected to the server 400 through the WiFi network without passing through the gateway 200, when the terminal 100 leaves the WiFi area, the connected session is disconnected and a new session must be connected through the LTE network.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a multipath transmission method when a session is started with LTE according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 8, the terminal 100 accesses an LTE network (S210). The preferred access path is then set to LTE. The state of starting a session with LTE may be referred to as LTE-WiFi Aggregation MPTCP.

When the terminal 100 executes a service / application included in the white list, the terminal 100 starts a session with the server 300 on the LTE path passing through the gateway 200 (S220). The terminal 100 and the gateway 200 are connected by an LTE path. When the whitelist-free service / application is executed, the terminal 100 and the server 400 are connected through the LTE network, but the traffic does not pass through the gateway 200.

When the terminal 100 moves to the WiFi region, the terminal 100 searches for an accessible WiFi AP (S230). The terminal 100 checks the quality of the WiFi AP and attempts to access the WiFi network according to the setting. In this case, the terminal 100 may automatically turn on the WiFi communication module to search for the surroundings.

The terminal 100 activates the WiFi interface for multipath transmission (S240). When LTE / WiFi Dual On is set in the terminal 100, the terminal 100 may simultaneously access the LTE network and the WiFi network. In this case, the WiFi path is set as the priority access path, and the LTE path is changed to the auxiliary access path. Meanwhile, depending on the configuration, the preferred access path may still be maintained as the LTE path.

The terminal 100 adds a WiFi path connected to the gateway 200 (S250). The terminal 100 merges and transmits the already connected LTE path and the added WiFi path. Accordingly, an application included in the white list may transmit and receive data through subflows of the LTE path and the WiFi path. If there is a session connected through the LTE network without passing through the gateway 200, the session is disconnected, and a new session is started by the WiFi path (seamless not supported). In this case, the whitelist-free service / application starts a session in the WiFi network, but the traffic does not pass through the gateway 200.

If it is difficult to transmit and receive data via the WiFi path at any point, the terminal 100 first switches the access path to the LTE path (S260). For example, when the quality of the WiFi path is lowered or the terminal 100 is out of the WiFi region, LTE / WiFi Dual off is set in the terminal 100. The terminal 100 simultaneously uses the LTE path and the WiFi path, and then switches the priority access path to the LTE path, thereby supporting seamless service. In this case, the terminal 100 releases the WiFi connection by deleting the WiFi path, but may maintain the WiFi interface in an activated state. The terminal 100 may automatically turn off the WiFi communication module.

9 and 10 are diagrams for explaining the traffic control for each terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 9, merge transmission may increase transmission speed and provide a seamless and stable service. However, the user pays a fee according to the data usage. If the merged transmission is always performed for the service / application included in the whitelist, the data usage may increase.

Accordingly, the gateway 200 classifies the class of the terminal based on the user's plan information or the user access information, and adjusts the data usage related to the rate, that is, the LTE data usage, for each terminal based on the class. Grades can be divided into multiple grades, but they are briefly described as gold grades and silver grades. When the MP200 is applied to the gold grade terminal, the gateway 200 transmits traffic using the LTE network and the WiFi network at the same time. When the MP200 is applied to the silver grade terminal, the gateway 200 reduces the traffic transmitted to the LTE network to a predetermined level or less (LTE throttling).

The gateway 200 may classify the class of the terminal 100 based on the plan information of the terminal 100. For example, when the terminal 100 is an unlimited number of LTE data, the gateway 200 determines the terminal 100 as a gold grade. If the terminal 100 is a subscriber with a predetermined amount of available LTE data, the gateway 200 determines the terminal 100 as a silver grade. Or, even if the subscriber is available LTE data amount determined, the gateway 200 may variably determine the class of the terminal 100 based on the remaining LTE data amount.

The gateway 200 may classify the class of the terminal 100 based on the initial access network of the terminal 100.

When the terminal 100 executes the application in the LTE network (LTE-WiFi merged state), the gateway 200 determines the terminal 100 as a gold grade and transmits traffic using the LTE network and the WiFi network simultaneously. . That is, the gateway 200 assumes that the user agrees to use LTE data, and provides a speed increase service through LTE-WiFi merging when necessary. The terminal 100 turns on both communication interfaces of the LTE network and the WiFi network, and simultaneously uses the LTE network and the WiFi network. Therefore, when using a video / file transfer service in the LTE-WiFi merged state, it is possible to guarantee the video quality and to increase the file transfer speed.

When the terminal 100 executes the application in the WiFi network (WiFi preferred state), the gateway 200 may determine the terminal 100 as a silver grade and reduce the traffic transmitted to the LTE network to a predetermined level or less. That is, the gateway 200 determines that the user intends to minimize the LTE data use since the user intentionally connected to WiFi. The terminal 100 turns on both communication interfaces of the LTE network and the WiFi network, and maintains a TCP subflow session through the LTE network between the terminal 100 and the gateway 200, but uses data through the LTE path. No transmission or reception, or only traffic below a certain level can be sent and received. Through this, the terminal 100 may process as much traffic as possible in the WiFi network. In addition, since the terminal 100 maintains the LTE communication interface in an active state even without transmitting data through a subflow session through the LTE network, the UE 100 may support full seamless mobility by switching traffic paths to the LTE network when WiFi quality deteriorates. . Therefore, when using a video / file transfer service in a WiFi preferred state, seamless video playback and file transfer are possible.

The gateway 200 may know whether the terminal IP is the LTE network or the WiFi network, that is, the access network, based on the information of the TCP session that the terminal 100 has made through the initial TCP SYN in MPTCP. The gateway 200 may classify the terminal into a gold grade and a silver grade based on the access network information. That is, when the terminal IP is the IP of the LTE network, the gateway 200 determines that the terminal 100 is initially connected to the LTE network, and sets the gold level. If the terminal IP is the IP of the WiFi network, the gateway 200 determines that the terminal 100 is initially connected to the WiFi network, and sets the silver level.

Referring to FIG. 10, when the terminal 100 executes an application in a WiFi network (a preferred state of WiFi), the terminal 100 or the gateway 200 may determine the path of the WiFi path through a retransmission detection algorithm when transmitting data through the WiFi path. Monitor the status. In addition, the gateway 200 restricts / restricts LTE traffic throttling based on the state of the WiFi path.

For example, in the WiFi preference state, if the quality of the WiFi path is good, the gateway 200 restricts traffic processing over the LTE path. If, at some point, the quality of the WiFi path is poor, the gateway 200 temporarily allows traffic processing over the LTE path. When the quality of the WiFi path is restored to a good state again, the gateway 200 limits the traffic processing through the LTE path.

11 is a block diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 11, the terminal 100 is configured of a hardware including a plurality of communication modules, a plurality of applications, and an operating system stack for processing applications by controlling hardware between the hardware and the applications.

The operating system stack serves as an interface between the hardware and the application, and may be composed of a plurality of software stacks divided according to functions. For example, the terminal 100 may include a Linux kernel and an Android framework, but it may be variously implemented by the terminal manufacturer.

The terminal 100 supporting the MPTCP includes the MPTCP management unit 110, the MPTCP processing unit 130, and the user-kernel interface unit 140.

The MPTCP management unit 110 is an application mounted in the application layer and may be referred to as a giga path manager. The MPTCP management unit 110 may manage various setting information or policy information related to MPTCP applied to the terminal 100. The MPTCP management unit 110 may provide a user UI that a user may access to set or manage MPTCP.

The MPTCP management unit 110 may implement an MPTCP usage control function, a white list management function, a specific AP access check function, an MPTCP support AP selection function, and a WiFi on / off control function.

The MPTCP management unit 110 may determine whether to use MPTCP by selecting a user through an MPTCP usage control function, and may determine whether to use MPTCP for each service / application. That is, the user may select the use of MPTCP by selecting the image 10 representing the multipath setting as described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6, and add the application to the whitelist on the screen for setting the multipath application. Can be excluded. The MPTCP management unit 110 may control LTE / WiFi Dual On / off. The MPTCP usage control unit may control the LTE / WiFi Dual On / off according to the MPTCP mode (full mesh) and the TCP mode (default). MPTCP mode and TCP mode may be set as shown in Table 1, for example.

Table 1

Support Mode	MPTCP Mode	TCP mode
Characteristic	Multi session subflow communication by interface	Single session-generated (TCP) communication per interface
Settings	-LTE / WiFi Dual On (MPTCP enabled)	-LTE / WiFi Dual off (MPTCP disabled)

The MPTCP management unit 110 manages white list information (MPTCP target service / application list) through a white list management function. The MPTCP management unit 110 may manage the MPTCP application service / application based on the service provider policy by synchronizing the MPTCP policy including the white list information with the gateway 200 or the service provider policy server (not shown). The white list information synchronized with the gateway 200 or the carrier policy server may be in HTTP-based xml or json format.

The MPTCP management unit 110 may check whether a specific AP is connected based on identification information such as SSID / BSSID. The MPTCP management unit 110 may select an MPTCP support AP. The MPTCP management unit 110 may activate / deactivate the MPTCP function for the priority access AP. The preferred access AP may be applied based on a carrier AP (eg, ollehWiFi), personal / company AP (user preference registration), SSID, or BSSID.

The MPTCP management unit 110 provides a priority use categorization function of the LTE network / WiFi network. For example, some applications / groups / category services make use of LTE network preferentially, and another applications / groups / category service make use of WiFi network or LTE / WiFi network simultaneously. Route determination).

The MPTCP management unit 110 provides a WiFi on / off control function. WiFi on / off may be controlled by user determination, WiFi connection manager (CM) determination, or automatic determination depending on whether WiFi is used in MPTCP.

The MPTCP processor 130 performs socket communication with an application and transmits data based on a routing table. The MPTCP processing unit 130 may transmit some applications to MPTCP and some applications may transmit general TCP. The MPTCP processor 130 includes an MPTCP protocol family and is mounted in an operating system, for example, the Linux kernel. The MPTCP processor 130 may mount the MPTCP / IP protocol family in which the TCP / IP protocol family is changed. The MPTCP protocol family can be implemented in the Linux kernel using MPTCP open source for the Android platform.

The MPTCP processor 130 provides a port for MPTCP support to the Linux kernel and maintains compatibility with existing TCP. The MPTCP processor 130 may apply MPTCP code to the Linux kernel version of the terminal and change the kernel configuration to configure the MPTCP-specific congestion control algorithm, the TCP congestion control algorithm, and the MPTCP path manager algorithm. have.

The user-kernel interface unit 140 provides various interfaces (APIs) for controlling the user and the kernel, such as system authority setting and command setting. In particular, the user-kernel interface unit 140 provides an interface for the MPTCP management unit 110 to acquire / set / change information / parameters of various functional modules implemented in the kernel area. The information / parameters of the various functional modules may be process processing information, routing information, kernel parameters, and the like.

The user-kernel interface unit 140 may include a WiFi connection manager (CM), and the MPTCP manager 110 provides an interface for controlling WiFi on / off through the WiFi connection manager.

The user-kernel interface unit 140 may include a control interface of the MPTCP processing unit 130 and specifically provides a parameter control function of the MPTCP / IP protocol family. The user-kernel interface unit 140 may change / add TCP system parameters (tx / rx memory allocation, etc.), change / add MPTCP system parameters (MPTCP activation / deactivation, operation mode, syn_retry_limit, etc.). The user-kernel interface unit 140 may add TCP / MPTCP parameter information and, for example, add destination address / port information of original data in the TCP option.

The user-kernel interface unit 140 may manage routing information, and the MPTCP management unit 110 may provide an interface for controlling a routing path according to MPTCP / TCP. The user-kernel interface unit 140 provides a function for determining whether to use or not use a proxy server for each application, a routing table management function (path, rule, etc.), a parameter control function of the MPTCP / IP protocol family, and the like. The user-kernel interface unit 140 determines whether to use a proxy server for each application based on the application identification information (for example, UID). The user-kernel interface unit 140 determines that the application included in the white list passes through the proxy server and transmits data with reference to the routing table.

The user-kernel interface unit 140 classifies applications included in the white list and provides an exception handling setting function. The user-kernel interface unit 140 performs a general routing process using a combination of an UID (Android App ID) and a PID (Process ID), and routes the traffic generated by an application included in the white list to the gateway 200. The user-kernel interface unit 140 may manage the conditional routing table for each service scenario (eg, add / modify / delete paths and rules).

12 and 13 are flowcharts illustrating a WiFi control method of a multipath transmission terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 12, the terminal 100 supporting MPTCP performs multipath transmission using a plurality of communication interfaces. Therefore, when the terminal 100 is set in the MPTCP mode, the WiFi interface is always enabled even when no traffic is generated. As a result, due to the WiFi interface activation, there is a problem that the battery of the terminal is unnecessary.

In order to solve this problem, the terminal 100 includes a WiFi on / off manager. The WiFi on / off manager monitors MPTCP traffic, enables WiFi if MPTCP traffic is present, and disables WiFi if MPTCP traffic is not present. That is, the WiFi on / off manager reduces the battery consumption by controlling WiFi (WiFi auto on / off control) only when the MPTCP application terminal is needed. The WiFi on / off manager is mounted in an area that can monitor MPTCP traffic and control the WiFi module. For example, the WiFi on / off manager may be included in at least a part of the MPTCP management unit 110 / user-kernel interface unit 140 or may be separately mounted in some areas of the Android framework / Linux kernel, and may be developed as an application. Can be.

The WiFi on / off manager is driven (S310). If the access path is LTE, the WiFi on / off manager may be driven.

The WiFi on / off manager monitors the MPTCP subflow (S320). The WiFi on / off manager may run a thread periodically inspecting the MPTCP subflow and a thread receiving an event related to the WiFi interface in the background of the terminal.

The WiFi on / off manager activates the WiFi interface when the MPTCP subflow is generated (S330). When the application included in the white list operates in the terminal 100, a subflow is generated.

The WiFi on / off manager deactivates the WiFi interface when the MPTCP subflow expires (S340). When the application included in the white list is terminated in the terminal 100, the subflow is destroyed.

The program for driving the WiFi on / off manager may be terminated. When the WiFi on / off manager is terminated, the WiFi auto on / off control is stopped. If the WiFi on / off manager is running, if the user activates / deactivates the WiFi, the WiFi on / off manager stops the WiFi auto on / off control.

Referring to FIG. 13, the WiFi on / off manager is driven (S410). When the WiFi on / off manager is driven, the WiFi on / off manager operates. When the WiFi event occurs, the WiFi event manager operates. Here, the WiFi on / off management unit is a thread for performing WiFi on / off, and the WiFi event management unit is a thread for managing WiFi events (WiFi broadcast receiver). At this time, the WiFi event manager receives the WiFi event occurrence information from the user as well as the WiFi on / off manager. The WiFi on / off manager and the WiFi event manager operate in the background of the terminal.

The WiFi on / off management unit monitors the generation of the MPTCP subflow (S420). The WiFi on / off management unit may periodically check whether an MPTCP subflow is generated.

When the MPTCP subflow is generated, the WiFi on / off management unit sets the flag to on (WiFi_MANAGER_FLAG = on) (S430). The flag in the default state is set to off (WiFi_MANAGER_FLAG = off). Here, the flag (WiFi_MANAGER_FLAG) is information indicating that the event that the WiFi interface is turned on or off is caused by the WiFi on / off management unit.

The WiFi on / off management unit turns on WiFi (S432). The WiFi on / off manager notifies the WiFi event manager that an event has occurred in WiFi. The flag set to on is transmitted to the WiFi event manager.

The WiFi on / off management unit monitors the disappearance of the MPTCP subflow (S440). The WiFi on / off management unit may periodically check whether the MPTCP subflow is destroyed.

The WiFi on / off management unit sets the flag to on (WiFi_MANAGER_FLAG = on) when the MPTCP subflow expires (S450).

The WiFi on / off management unit turns off WiFi (S452). The WiFi on / off manager notifies the WiFi event manager that an event has occurred in WiFi. The flag set to on is transmitted to the WiFi event manager.

When an event occurs in WiFi, the WiFi event manager operates, and the WiFi event manager determines whether the subject that generated the event is the WiFi on / off manager or the user (S460) based on the flag (WiFi_MANAGER_FLAG).

If the flag is on (WiFi_MANAGER_FLAG = on), the WiFi event manager initializes the flag (WiFi_MANAGER_FLAG = off) (S470). That is, the WiFi event manager determines that the WiFi event has occurred by the WiFi on / off manager as an application and sets the flag to off.

If the flag is off (WiFi_MANAGER_FLAG = off), the WiFi event manager stops the operation of the WiFi on / off manager (S480). That is, the WiFi event manager determines that the WiFi event has occurred by the user. In this case, since the user turned off the WiFi, the WiFi automatic on / off function should be stopped because the WiFi on / off must be controlled regardless of whether the MPTCP subflow is generated.

As such, the WiFi on / off manager is mounted on the terminal 100, and thus the battery consumption of the terminal is reduced since the WiFi on / off manager is activated / deactivated when the MPTCP subflow is created / deleted.

14 is a view for explaining a conventional socket communication method, Figures 15 to 17 are views for explaining a socket communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 14, as a method for seamlessly providing socket communication in a terminal supporting multiple communication interfaces, there are technologies such as a tunneling scheme through a virtual address, a mobile IP, and a handover. However, due to the resource limitation of the terminal (such as limited battery provision state according to the network interface), the current mobile terminal is set to allow only a communication connection through one interface at a time. In particular, a terminal manufacturer or a terminal operating system provider sets a communication interface having a higher priority at one time, for example, a WiFi interface as a preferred network, and provides a technology for handing over to another network if the WiFi network cannot be accessed. do.

That is, when an application is executed in the terminal, the application creates a network stack and a socket, and transmits and receives traffic through the socket. At this time, the application and the network stack create a socket through the designated communication interface 2 (eg, WiFi), and the network stack is connected to the communication interface 2 to process traffic.

As such, if communication interface 2 is fixed to the upper interface (high interface = 2) in the system global routing table, the application uses a socket created based on WiFi, which is a high priority communication interface. Therefore, when the terminal moves and communication interface 2 becomes difficult to connect, the session created through communication interface 2 is no longer available, and the application is temporarily suspended. As a result, if a socket created through one communication interface cannot use the corresponding communication interface, there is a limit that the socket cannot be changed without change to another communication interface.

That is, until now, the communication socket that an application requests to connect is unconditionally determined by the system global routing table. Therefore, in the conventional socket communication method, a socket is bound based on an interface set to higher routing throughout the system at the time of an application's communication socket request. Then, if a part of the end-to-end communication section is deteriorated (for example, WiFi communication error), and a communication is no longer possible, a notification of disconnection of the corresponding socket communication is made at the system level. Inform the user of abnormal termination and other information. The application service is in a state of being unavailable. This is a problem that occurs with normal Unix / Linux-based communication structures.

15 to 17, in a structure in which a terminal having multiple communication interfaces performs data communication using one communication network at a time point, when the communication is changed to a state where communication is not possible through a communication interface being used, The following describes in detail how to use the created communication session continuously and seamlessly. Here, the communication session mainly deals with the socket communication structure of the network stack corresponding to the connection oriented service such as TCP, but it is natural that the communication session can be extended to similar transport layer protocols.

The socket interworking manager 500 separates a socket (application socket) viewed by an application of the terminal 100 and a socket (system socket) viewed by the network stack of the terminal 100. The socket interworking manager 500 fixes the communication interface of the socket viewed by the application to a specific communication interface (for example, LTE), and connects to the actual access network through the communication interface set based on a routing table set system-wide. That is, the socket interworking manager 500 fixes a communication interface capable of anytime and anywhere in an always-on state, such as LTE, to a communication interface of a socket bound to an application, thereby always establishing an IP address and providing global mobility. Support.

The socket interworking manager 500 includes an application socket communication unit 510, a routing information checking unit 530, and an interface connection unit 550. The socket interworking manager 500 may be included in the MPTCP management unit 110 / user-kernel interface unit 140 as software, or may be separately installed in some areas of the Android framework / Linux kernel, and may be developed as an application. . Here, although the socket interworking manager 500 is described as being included in the MPTCP management unit 110 to operate, it is natural that the terminal mounting area of the socket interworking manager can be changed as necessary.

The application socket communication unit 510 is connected to the application by the socket generated by the programming code of the application. The socket may be created by a general socket application programming interface (API). The application socket communication unit 510 does not create a socket based on a routing table set system-wide, but creates a socket using a designated communication interface among multiple interfaces as a source address. For example, the session requested by the application may use the source address assigned to the LTE interface as the socket creation address. Accordingly, the session requested by the application may include the same source address as the communication interface set as default gateway information among the information in the routing table set system-wide, or may include a source address of another communication interface. In this case, the application socket communication unit 510 may generate a socket through the LTE interface for all applications of the terminal, and generate the socket through the LTE interface only for a specific application (for example, an application included in the white list). .

The routing information checking unit 530 checks the routing information by accessing a routing table managed by the network stack included in the operating system of the terminal. The routing table may be a system global routing table managed by the user-kernel interface unit 140. The routing information checking unit 530 determines the actual source address through the routing table for the session of the application requested to be created through the application socket communication unit 510 before the actual socket is created.

The interface connector 550 maps and manages global routing information referenced by the routing information checker 530 and socket information generated by the application socket communication unit 510, and connects the sockets to a communication interface based on the mapping information. The interface connector 550 regenerates the socket so that the application socket communication unit 510 actually communicates with the communication interface of the higher rank referred to by the routing information checking unit 530 instead of the fixed communication interface.

Referring to FIG. 15, when the application is executed in the terminal 100, the application requests the socket generation to be connected to the fixed communication interface 1 (eg, LTE interface) to the application socket communication unit 510.

 The interface connector 550 refers to the routing table through the routing information checker 530. When communication interface 2 (for example, WiFi) is set as an upper interface in the routing table, the interface connection unit 550 maps and stores the interface of the application socket as interface 1 and the interface of the system socket as interface 2 in the mapping table. . The interface connector 550 connects the interface 1 viewed by the application socket and the interface 2 viewed by the system socket based on the mapping table.

Although the application has created a session with the communication interface 1, the socket interworking manager 500 connects the communication interface 1 of the application socket and the communication interface 2 of the system socket so that actual traffic is transmitted through the communication interface 2.

Referring to FIG. 16, the terminal 100 may be in a state capable of merge transmission through multiple paths such as MPTCP. In this case, the routing table may store dual socket interface information that can be connected to the communication interface 1 and the communication interface 2.

When the merge transmission is possible, the interface connector 550 adds interface 1 to the interface of the system socket. That is, a subflow through communication interface 1 is added. The interface connection unit 550 refers to the routing table, and the interface of the application socket is interface 1, and the interface of the system socket is stored in the mapping table as interface 1 and interface 2.

The application maintains the session connected to the communication interface 1, but the socket interworking manager 500 connects the communication interface 1 of the application socket, the communication interface 1 and the communication interface 2 of the system socket, and the actual traffic is communicated with the communication interface 1 and the communication interface. To be transmitted through at least one of two.

Referring to FIG. 17, network connection by the communication interface 2 may be released by the same situation as when the terminal moves. At this time, the routing table changes the interface of the upper rank to the communication interface 1.

The interface connector 550 updates the mapping table that the interface socket of the application socket is interface 1 and the interface of the system socket is interface 1.

The application maintains the session connected to the communication interface 1, but the socket interworking manager 500 connects the communication interface 1 of the application socket and the communication interface 1 of the system socket, so that actual traffic is transmitted through the communication interface 1. In other words, the communication interface socket that the application looks at is maintained regardless of the actual connection interface, so that the communication session can be maintained seamlessly.

As described above, the socket interworking manager 500 distinguishes communication interfaces of the application sockets and the system sockets, and connects the communication interfaces of the application sockets and the system sockets based on the mapping table. The interface used for the actual communication refers to the routing table set system-wide, but the communication interface of the socket bound to the application is always-on such as LTE, and can be used anytime and anywhere communication interface as the communication interface of the socket bound to the application. Fix it.

Therefore, even if the communication interface of the system socket connected to the actual access network is different, the application can maintain the session with the socket created by the communication interface 1 (for example, LTE) that is always accessible. So, even if the terminal 100 is difficult to use the WiFi network, the socket interworking manager 500, instead of the WiFi of the system socket, simply switch the LTE of the system socket to the LTE interface of the application socket, the session information that the application looks at It is possible to maintain application-level sessions between LTE and WiFi without interruption. The socket interworking manager 500 may solve an application level session disconnection problem occurring when the access network is changed in the conventional manner, and also reduce overhead for additional signaling such as tunneling.

18 is a diagram illustrating a general proxy communication method, FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating a proxy communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 20 is a flowchart of a proxy communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention. .

Referring to FIG. 18, in general, traffic generated from a wired / wireless terminal is an intermediate node based on a source address and a destination address, which are IP (Internet Protocol) header information, which is a third layer of seven OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) layers. Routed by a router or switch. However, depending on the situation, it is necessary to make the traffic through the intermediate node that wants to do this. For example, if it is necessary to forward certain traffic from the mobile network to the outside of the mobile network, change the settings or rules / policies of the gateway device (for example, P-GW, GGSN, etc.), which is the mobile network equipment, to direct traffic to the specific router Forced forwarding

 Meanwhile, a proxy technology exists as a terminal client technology for routing specific traffic to a specific node without the help of an intermediate node. Proxy technology is typical of technologies such as SOCKS and HTTP. The proxy client forwards the traffic to a proxy server on the network, but notifies the proxy server of its original destination address. The proxy server forwards the traffic received from the terminal to the original destination address.

However, the general proxy communication method has a disadvantage in that it must accommodate a large amount of traffic included in the proxy technology itself. If the traffic of all mobile terminals interworking with the mobile communication network is to be delivered to the proxy server, a large amount of traffic generated by the terminal should be considered.

To solve this problem, it is possible to apply proxy to specific traffic type (for example, http protocol) only, but not to all kinds of applications, and only limited types of applications such as web browser application to proxy server. There is a limit to routing.

In addition, the proxy client used in the mobile terminal transmits the traffic to the proxy server based on the information of the proxy server, wherein the administrator who manages the proxy server (for example, the mobile network operator) needs the proxy information and the proxy. There is a limitation that there is no way to dynamically distribute application information (whitelist).

3 and 19, in the following, the terminal 100 and the gateway 200 operate as proxy clients and proxy servers. To this end, the terminal 100 includes a policy applying unit 610 and a proxy agent 630. The function of the policy applying unit 610 and the proxy agent unit 630 may be implemented in the user-kernel interface unit 140. However, the functions of the policy applying unit 610 and the proxy agent 630 may be implemented in the MPTCP management unit 110 or the MPTCP processing unit 130, or may be separately installed in some areas of the Android framework / Linux kernel, It may be developed as, but it will be described by the operation of the policy application unit 610 and the proxy agent 630.

The policy distribution apparatus 700 distributes a policy including proxy information to the terminal 100. The policy includes various information such as proxy server connection information, white list information, and execution method. The proxy server access information and the white list information may be managed as one piece of data or separated data, and are based on the information of the terminal receiving the policy (that is, the subscription type of the terminal, the access path, and various information for the convenience of the user). Policy can be applied differently. The policy distribution device 700 synchronizes the policy information with the policy application unit 610 of the terminal. The policy distribution apparatus 700 may distribute the policy in a push / pull manner. The policy distribution device 700 may be implemented in a device separate from the gateway 200, or may be implemented in the gateway 200.

The policy applying unit 610 receives a policy distributed by the policy distribution device 700. The policy applying unit 610 determines whether to route the traffic to the proxy server (ie, the gateway 200) or the original destination server based on the policy. In this case, the policy applying unit 610 applies the policy to be delivered to the gateway 200 through the proxy agent 630 to the application included in the white list. The policy applying unit 610 parses the policy information and processes the policy information to correspond to the distributed structure of the proxy server. The policy applying unit 610 parses the white list included in the policy information to control the operation of the proxy agent 630. The communication function for communicating with the policy distributing apparatus 700 and the function for executing the policy may be separately implemented according to the terminal design, and for example, may be divided into an application area and an operating system kernel area.

The proxy agent 630 transmits the traffic of the application determined to proxy communication according to the policy applying unit 610 to the designated proxy server. The proxy agent 630 connects to the proxy server address (gateway 200 address) included in the policy information and performs proxy communication.

Referring to FIG. 20, the policy distribution apparatus 700 generates a policy including proxy server access information and white list information (S510).

The proxy server connection information is dynamically provided information and includes one or more proxy server connection information including an IP address, a domain address, port information, and the like. Proxy server connection information provides a bypass path in case of redundancy, load balancing, and failover. The policy distribution apparatus 700 may determine the access path of the terminal by assigning proxy priority. The terminal 100 may attempt to connect to the lower rank proxy server by the proxy agent 630 when the upper rank proxy server is difficult to access according to the priority of the proxy server.

Proxy server connection information may be configured as follows.

Proxy Server Connection Information = {Proxy Server Accessible Number (n), {Proxy Server URI.1, Procedure Server Port Information.1} ... {Proxy Server URI.n, Procedure Server Port Information.n}}

Proxy server access information may be configured as a URI IP address or domain information.

When the proxy server is distributed in the following manners: 1.1.1.1:1111, 2.2.2.2:2222, and 3.3.3.3:3333, the proxy server connection information may be configured as follows.

 Proxy server connection information = {3, {1.1.1.1, 1111}, {2.2.2.2, 2222}, {3.3.3.3, 3333}}

The whitelist information includes information about the application group or the application itself for applying proxy communication. That is, the white list information may be information of MPTCP application target applications via the gateway 200. The application information includes information such as a package name (eg, YouTube's package name is com.google.youtube) that is unique to each application, an application attribute group (eg, web browser, media streaming), and the like.

In the terminal 100, there is a case in which the application does not create a communication session by itself and entrusts the session creation to another application registered in the system. For example, file download through a web browser may be entrusted to a download manager application, or execution of video / audio streaming content may be entrusted to a media player application. For this case, the whitelist information may be configured to include information of related applications as sub information when configuring application information.

The white list information may be configured as follows. Here, the type is information for distinguishing whether an application package, an application attribute group, and sub information are included.

Whitelist information = {number of target groups (n), {type, package name / attributes}, ... {type, package name / attributes}}

For example, since the YouTube application uses the mediaplayer application, the type can be classified as "package + sub-application", and the white list information of two cases that apply the entire web browser type attribute group to the white list can be as follows. have.

Whitelist information = {2, {package + sub-application, com.google.youtube, mediaplayer}, {property group, web browser}}

The policy distribution device 700 distributes policy information to the terminal 100 (S520). The terminal 100 receives policy information from the policy distribution device 700 when a specific event occurs or periodically to update the policy information.

The terminal 100 sets the received policy information so that the white list traffic is transmitted to the proxy server (S530). The terminal 100 resets the routing table of the traffic occurring in the corresponding application based on the application package included in the white list information. The package name in the form of a string may be converted into an identifier in the terminal, for example, a UID, and the sub-application information may be converted into a UID or a system ID to obtain a unique value throughout the terminal. The obtained application identifier may be used as a filter value when referencing a routing table. That is, the terminal 100 may determine whether to apply the routing path via the gateway 200 based on the application identifier. Common applications that are not included in the white list are established based on the system routing information according to the existing method, and performs data communication.

The terminal 100 sets a routing table based on the policy information. For example, referring to Table 2, if the application with the package name com.google.youtube is included in the whitelist, the terminal 100 is not the application's original destination address / default gateway address but the access address of the proxy server (eg For example, change the routing table to 1.1.1.1/1111).

TABLE 2

com.google.youtube	UID = 99999
Before applying policy: Destination = * / *-> 192.168.0.1/*
After applying the policy: Destination = * / * && UID == 99999-> 1.1.1.1/1111

When an application included in the white list generates traffic, that is, when the application generates a communication session (eg, TCP handshaking) by a user's input or a programmed code, the terminal 100 generates policy information. An application included in the whitelist is identified based on the reference, and the routing table is referred to (S540).

The terminal 100 transmits the white list traffic to the proxy server 200 (S550). As a result of referring to the routing table, the terminal 100 obtains an access address of the proxy server and communicates with the proxy server 200 through the proxy agent 630. The terminal 100 may attempt to connect to at least one proxy server included in the policy information, but may attempt to connect to the lower priority proxy server when the access proxy server is inaccessible. The terminal 100 transmits and receives white list traffic by securing a data path with the proxy server 200 according to a proxy method (SOCKS, HTTP, etc.). The session created between the proxy agent 630 and the proxy server 200 is maintained in proxy communication.

As such, when using the policy distributing apparatus 700, unlike a proxy communication based on a global destination based on a conventional destination address or a specific application, a proxy communication structure may be provided for each application. Thus, the service provider can divert traffic to any proxy server according to the purpose and purpose of the application. In particular, through such proxy-based communication, it is possible to flexibly implement a merge point (gateway) of multi-path transmission, and a carrier can control and manage application-specific merged transmission.

21 is a hardware block diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 21, the terminal 100 includes a processor 810, a memory device 820, a storage device 830, a display 840, a communication device 850, and a speaker / microphone 860. It is composed of hardware and stores a program executed in combination with hardware in a designated place. The hardware has the configuration and performance to implement the method of the present invention. The operation method of the present invention described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 20 is written as a software program in a program language. The program executes the present invention in combination with hardware such as processor 810 and memory device 820.

The network device including the gateway 200 and the policy distribution device 700 is also composed of hardware including a processor, a memory device, a storage device, a communication device, and the like, and stores a program executed in combination with the hardware at a designated place. . The hardware has the configuration and performance to implement the method of the present invention. The operation method of the present invention described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 20 is written as a software program in a program language. The program executes the present invention in combination with hardware such as a processor and a memory device.

As described above, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, data transmitted through each path may be processed as one session using a plurality of available wireless networks simultaneously. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a terminal may be connected to a plurality of access networks at a time, and one service / application may merge and communicate a plurality of networks as one network regardless of the type of network or the number of networks. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a large amount of data can be quickly transmitted and received using a plurality of available network resources. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the terminal may perform multipath TCP-based data communication with a general server that does not support multipath transmission.

The embodiments of the present invention described above are not only implemented through the apparatus and the method, but may be implemented through a program for realizing a function corresponding to the configuration of the embodiments of the present invention or a recording medium on which the program is recorded.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications and improvements of those skilled in the art using the basic concepts of the present invention defined in the following claims are also provided. It belongs to the scope of rights.

Claims (17)

1. As a method for the terminal to multi-path communication through the gateway,

   Storing a white list including applications corresponding to a multi-path communication target, and

   Generating at least one path with the gateway using at least one of multiple communication interfaces when the first application included in the whitelist is executed;

   Multipath communication method comprising a.
2. In claim 1,

   If the first application is executed, determining whether the first application is an application included in the whitelist based on the identifier of the first application

   Multipath communication method further comprising.
3. In claim 1,

   Creating at least one route with the gateway

   Create a subflow connected to the gateway through each of a plurality of networks,

   If the connection with any one of the plurality of networks is lost, processing traffic of the first application through a subflow of the maintained network;

   Multipath communication method further comprising.
4. In claim 1,

   Storing the white list

   Receiving at least one application list from a network device, and

   Storing the received application list in the white list

   Multipath communication method comprising a.
5. In claim 1,

   Setting a routing table so that traffic generated from an application included in the whitelist is relayed to the gateway;

   Multipath communication method further comprising.
6. In claim 1,

   If a second application not included in the whitelist is executed, transmitting traffic of the second application via a path not passing through the gateway;

   Multipath communication method further comprising.
7. In claim 1,

   Creating at least one route with the gateway

   Setting a source address used when creating a socket of the first application as a first communication interface,

   Mapping information of a first socket generated by the first application using the first communication interface as a source address, and information of a second socket generated using at least one communication interface set in a routing table as a source address; Storing the mapped information in a mapping table, and

   Transmitting and receiving the traffic of the first application through at least one communication interface configured in the routing table based on the mapping table;

   Multipath communication method comprising a.
8. In claim 7,

   Creating at least one route with the gateway

   When the communication interface used by the second socket as a source address is changed, updating the mapping table based on information on the changed interface.

   Operation method further comprising.
9. In claim 7,

   And the first communication interface is an interface for a mobile communication network connection.
10. The gateway is a multi-path communication with the terminal,

    Generating a first session with the terminal through a first network to process traffic of an application executed in the terminal;

    Generating a second session with the terminal through a second network to process the traffic of the application, and

    Processing the application traffic through the first session and the second session

    Multipath communication method comprising a.
11. In claim 10,

    Processing the application traffic

    Determining the type of the first network based on the first session information, and

    If the first network is the designated preferred network, restricting traffic processing through the second session

    Multipath communication method comprising a.
12. In claim 11,

    The designated preferred network is a WiFi network multi-path communication method.
13. In claim 11,

    Processing the application traffic

    Monitoring the communication status of the first network, and

    Releasing the restriction of the traffic handling through the second session if the first network provides substandard quality

    Multipath communication method comprising a.
14. In claim 10,

    Processing the application traffic

    And controlling traffic processing through the first session and the second session based on a rate plan of the terminal.
15. A method of operating a policy distribution device and a terminal for multipath communication,

    Generating, by the policy distribution device, a proxy policy including proxy server access information and whitelist information;

    The policy distributing device distributing the proxy policy to a terminal; and

    Sending, by the terminal, traffic of an arbitrary application to a designated proxy server based on the proxy policy;

    The white list information is an application list corresponding to a multi-path communication target.
16. The method of claim 15,

    The step of transmitting to the designated proxy server

    Setting, by the terminal, a routing table so that traffic of a first application included in the whitelist is relayed to a first proxy server, and applying the proxy policy;

    Identifying the first application based on identification information of an application to be executed, and

    Transmitting traffic of the first application to the first proxy server by referring to a routing table related to the first application;

    Operation method comprising a.
17. The method of claim 16,

    The step of transmitting to the first proxy server

    And transmitting traffic of the first application in a multipath connected with the first proxy server.

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