JP7026085B2 - Network connection system and its method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a network connection system used in a mobile network, and in particular, a network connection system for specifically preferentially controlling / bandwidth control of the connection communication band of a specific application installed in a terminal device on the mobile network. It's about the method.

In recent years, the performance of mobile information terminals, so-called smartphones, has improved, and users can freely select and install necessary application software. Here, many application software are configured to connect to a specific service server placed on the Internet and receive various information from this service server to present the information requested by the user on the smartphone. ..

Here, in a normal network connection configuration, IP packets from application software are forwarded with best effort, and it is not possible to preferentially control IP packets so that they are selected for each application. Therefore, for example, it is not possible to control the communication of application software that handles voice information such as an IP phone to be prioritized over other application software, which leads to dissatisfaction of smartphone users.

On the other hand, it is possible to set the IP address of a specific smartphone in the router in advance and preferentially control the connection from that smartphone, but in that case, not only the IP phone but all the applications of that smartphone are prioritized and controlled. Will be done. In addition, although it is possible to preferentially control only connections addressed to a specific service server, for example, recent IP telephone services are provided by linking multiple servers, so these multiple servers are provided. It is difficult to grasp all the IP addresses of the above and set them in the router in advance.

That is, in the conventional mobile carrier network connection system, it is difficult to meet the desire to provide high-quality telephone services to users by, for example, priority control / bandwidth control of only IP packets of IP telephone applications. ..

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and provides high-quality services with a very simple configuration even when a plurality of different applications are executed on a mobile information terminal. The purpose is to provide a network connection system that can be used.

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first main aspect of the present invention, there is a bandwidth control router placed between the mobile network and the Internet.
A network connection system in which a plurality of application software installed on a personal digital assistant on a mobile network is configured to be connected to a service server on the Internet via the bandwidth control router.
This system
An application communication environment management server installed on the Internet that detects the type of application that is trying to connect to the above service server from a specific mobile information terminal, and has a connection policy (band control, priority communication) according to the type of application. , Compression conversion method, etc.) has an application communication environment management server that sets the band control router together with the information (IP address, port number, etc.) that identifies the mobile information terminal.
The bandwidth control router is characterized in that it transfers a packet from the specified mobile information terminal in priority control or a predetermined priority communication band according to a connection policy received from the application communication environment management server. A network connection system is provided.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the application connection server actively displays the detection of the type of application trying to connect to the service server from a specific mobile information terminal on the mobile information terminal in the foreground. It is done by receiving the type of application that is being used.

According to another embodiment of the invention, the application connection server includes detection of the type of application attempting to connect to the service server from a particular mobile information terminal in a packet transmitted from the mobile information terminal. It is based on the tags that are used.

According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, the tag is a process ID of the application generated by the OS of the mobile information terminal or an identifier related to the process ID.

According to still another embodiment of the present invention, when a plurality of types of the above applications are detected at the same time, the bandwidth control router has a different IP address and / or port number for each application contained in the packet. Accordingly, according to the individual connection policy, the packet from the specified mobile information terminal is forwarded by priority control or a predetermined priority communication band.

According to still another embodiment of the present invention, the bandwidth control router may detect a plurality of types of the application at the same time, and the IP address and / or port number of each application included in the packet may be detected. According to the individual connection policy, the packet from the specified mobile information terminal is forwarded by priority control or a predetermined priority communication band.

According to still another embodiment of the present invention, the application connection environment management server refers to a table in which the type of application to be preferred connection or bandwidth control and the connection policy of the application are stored, and the application is referred to. The connection policy according to the type of software is fetched from the above table and transmitted to the above bandwidth control router.

According to another embodiment, in the system of the present invention, the connection policy includes setting a communication priority or a communication band different for each specific application.

According to yet another embodiment, the system of the present invention monitors the amount of data communication for each mobile communication terminal by the band control router, and downloads for each application according to the type of application active in the mobile information terminal. It has a data communication amount recording unit for recording data communication amount. In this case, a communication amount upper limit determination unit for determining whether the data communication amount for each application recorded by the data communication amount recording unit has reached a predetermined upper limit value is provided according to the type of application active in the mobile information terminal. This system preferably has a communication limiting unit that restricts the transfer of packets from the mobile information terminal by the band limiting router according to the determination of the communication amount upper limit determination unit.

Further, based on the data communication amount for each application recorded by the data communication amount recording unit, the line communication congestion degree for each application is calculated, and a congestion degree display interface for displaying the congestion degree to the user who displays the congestion degree is generated. It is preferable to have a congestion degree display unit. Further, it is preferable to have a communication amount display unit that generates a data communication amount display interface for displaying the data communication amount for each application recorded by the data communication amount recording unit to the user. Further, it is preferable to charge the user based on the data communication amount for each application recorded by the data communication amount recording unit.

According to yet another embodiment, in the system of the present invention, the connection policy includes setting different data compression degrees for each specific application.

According to yet another embodiment, the system of the present invention includes setting the data compression degree of the connection policy to be different for each specific application.

According to yet another embodiment, in the system of the present invention, the connection policy includes setting a communicable time zone and place different for each specific application.

According to yet another embodiment, in the system of the present invention, the information specifying the mobile information terminal is the IP address of the information mobile information terminal.

According to yet another embodiment, the system of the present invention has a user billing information acquisition unit that receives user billing information and associates it with a mobile information terminal.

According to yet another embodiment, in the system of the present invention, the type of application received from the mobile information terminal specifies the type of service provided by the application.

According to yet another embodiment, the system of the present invention causes the user to generate a setting interface for setting connection conditions and set the setting through the interface.

According to yet another embodiment, in the system of the present invention, the application software to be preferentially connected or the type of service provided by the application software includes at least the application software or service for voice communication.

According to yet another embodiment, the system of the invention is installed on the personal digital assistant and causes the personal digital assistant to detect the type of application actively displayed on the display of the personal digital assistant. Means; Means for causing the mobile information terminal to acquire mobile information terminal specific information for uniquely identifying the mobile information terminal on a communication network; It has an application management software program having a means for transmitting to the band control system together with specific information.

According to yet another embodiment, the system of the present invention is installed on the mobile information communication terminal and causes the mobile information terminal to detect the process ID of the application launched on the mobile information terminal. A means for causing the mobile information terminal to acquire mobile information terminal specific information for uniquely identifying the mobile information terminal on a communication network; the process ID in a packet transmitted from the application to the mobile information terminal. Alternatively, it has an application management software program that includes a specific tag that differs for each process and has a means for transmitting to the band control system together with information that identifies a personal digital assistant.

According to yet another embodiment, the system of the present invention is installed in the mobile information communication terminal.
As a means for causing the mobile information terminal to detect the IP address and / and port number of the application launched on the mobile information terminal; for the mobile information terminal to uniquely identify the mobile information terminal on a communication network. As a means for acquiring the mobile information terminal specific information; the mobile information terminal includes the IP address and / or the port number in the packet transmitted from the application, and the band control system together with the information for identifying the mobile state terminal. It has an application management software program having a means for transmitting to.

According to yet another embodiment, the system of the present invention is installed in the portable information communication terminal, and causes the mobile information terminal to receive the communication state of each application from the band control system of the portable information communication terminal. It has an application management software program having means for displaying on a display.

According to the second main aspect of the present invention, a plurality of application software having a bandwidth control router placed between the mobile network and the Internet and installed on a mobile information terminal on the mobile network has the above-mentioned bandwidth. A method executed by a network connection system configured to be connected to the service server on the Internet via a control router, which is an application connection environment management server provided on the Internet and is a specific mobile device. The type of application to be connected to the server is detected from the information terminal, and the connection policy (control band, compression presence / absence, etc.) according to the type of application software is banded together with the information (IP address, etc.) that identifies the mobile information terminal. Depending on the process of transmitting to the control router and the connection policy (control band, compression presence / absence, etc.) received from the application connection environment management server by the bandwidth control router, priority control or priority control of packets from the specified mobile information terminal is performed. Provided is a method comprising a step of transferring in a predetermined priority communication band.

Other features not described in the claims of the present invention will be revealed in the best embodiments and drawings of the invention that follow.

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic configuration diagram showing a data communication environment through a mobile network. FIG. 2 is an overall schematic configuration diagram showing a data communication environment according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is also a schematic configuration diagram showing the application management software. FIG. 4 is also a flowchart showing the processing process of the application management software. FIG. 5 is also a schematic configuration diagram showing an application / infrastructure cooperation server. FIG. 6 is also a flowchart showing the processing process of the application / infrastructure cooperation server. FIG. 7 is also a conceptual diagram for explaining the bandwidth control connection policy. FIG. 8 is also a conceptual diagram for explaining the bandwidth control connection policy. FIG. 9 is also a conceptual diagram for explaining the bandwidth control connection policy. FIG. 10 is also a conceptual diagram for explaining the bandwidth control connection policy. FIG. 11 is also a flowchart showing the processing process of the application / infrastructure cooperation server. FIG. 12 is also a diagram showing an example of a display screen of a mobile information terminal. FIG. 13 is also a diagram showing an example of a display screen of a mobile information terminal. FIG. 14 is also a flowchart showing a billing processing process by the billing server. FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram showing a band control method showing another embodiment.

In this embodiment, the network connection system including the bandwidth control router is a virtual mobile network operator (Mobile Virtual Network).
The case provided by the Operator (hereinafter referred to as "MVNO operator") will be described as an example.

An MVNO operator does not have a physical mobile network called a mobile network in-house, but borrows it from a mobile communication operator (Mobile Network Operator, hereinafter referred to as "MNO operator") that actually owns it, and owns its own brand. Refers to a business operator that provides communication services.

Before explaining the characteristic configuration of the present invention, for convenience of understanding of the present invention, first, an example of a data communication environment through a mobile network will be described with reference to FIG.
(Data communication environment as a premise of the present invention)
In FIG. 1, 1 is the mobile network of the MNO operator, and 2 is the network connection system of the MVNO operator.

The user's mobile information terminal 3 contracted with the MVNO operator is connected to the mobile network 5 of the MNO operator via the base station 4, and then from the service gateway 6 (SGW) on the MVNO operator side to the MVNO operator side. It is routed to the network connection system 2 of the MVNO operator via the packet data network gateway 7 (PGG), and then connected to various Internet servers 10a to 10e by the router 8 provided in the network connection system 2. It has become. Between the service gateway 6 on the MVO operator side and the packet gateway 7 on the MVNO operator side, a communication band based on the contract between the MVO operator and the MVNO operator, for example, 100 Mbps is configured to be secured. There is.

The user's mobile information terminal 3 is a so-called smartphone, and has a CPU, RAM, and ROM (not shown). An operating system software program (hereinafter referred to as "OS") such as iOS (product name) and Android (product name) and various application software programs (hereinafter simply referred to as "application") 3a to 3e are installed in the ROM. In addition, data used by these OSs and applications 3a to 3e are stored.

Applications 3a to 3e installed on the user's mobile information terminal 3 include video software 3a, IP phone 3b, SNS3c, browser 3d, mailer 3e, etc., but the user can freely add additional applications according to his / her preference. It can be installed. The apps 3a to 3e on the mobile information terminal 3 are appropriately called on the RAM by the CPU, deployed, and executed, and are executed via the mobile network 5 of the MNO operator and the network connection system 2 of the MVNO operator. , Various processes are performed by connecting to various servers 10a to 10e on the Internet 9 and appropriately performing necessary data communication with these servers 10a to 10e.

As shown in this figure, the applications 3a to 3e of the mobile information terminal are connected to a plurality of servers 10a to 10e having different IP addresses when executed. In this case, the router 8 provided in the network connection system 2 appropriately sends the packets 3a to 3e to the destination servers 10a to 10e based on the destination IP address included in the header information of the packet from the mobile information terminal 3. It is designed to be transferred.

The router 8 has a bandwidth control function 12 for controlling the transfer order and transfer rate of packets passing through based on the IP address of the mobile information terminal 3. The band control function is also called a QoS function and can be broadly divided into "priority control" and "band control". When applied to the present invention, the priority control method is a method of distinguishing application types according to the source IP address for packets flowing on the network and assigning absolute priority to each application. What is a bandwidth control function? , It is a method to allocate the upper limit of the communication band that can be used for each application.

According to this bandwidth control, packets of high-priority applications can always be output with priority, or a larger communication band can be used, and packets related to high-priority services can be stably forwarded. Will be possible.

In these QoS controls, it is important to accurately identify the type of application from the received IP packet. In general, video / audio packets from video software and IP phone software need to be preferentially controlled or transferred in a wide communication band in order to maintain quality. In this case, the router 8 needs to specify only the IP packet of the video software or the IP phone from the many received packets. The identification of this IP packet is generally performed based on the source or destination IP address or forwarding port number.

For example, when a specific terminal device such as an IP phone dedicated device or VoIP gateway is used with a fixed IP address, by specifying the IP address of the terminal measure of the source, the target packet can be reliably identified. Be done.

However, this method cannot be used in a case where a plurality of applications having different priorities are running on the same terminal such as the mobile information terminal 3 described above. That is, if an attempt is made to identify a packet based only on the IP address information, priority control / bandwidth control will be performed even for communication that does not need to be prioritized. Further, in the case of an environment in which an IP address is automatically assigned to a mobile information terminal by DHCP, it is not possible to determine which terminal by looking at the IP address in the first place.

On the other hand, it is also conceivable to identify the application type based on the IP addresses of the destination servers 10a to 10e. For example, when a packet from the mobile information terminal 3 is always connected to a specific IP telephone server 10b, by specifying the IP address of the IP telephone server 10b, it is possible to reliably determine which service type the target packet belongs to. You can tell. However, some recent applications connect to many different servers with one application, and it has been difficult and practically impossible to specify the addresses of all of these servers.

As described above, the present invention has been made in view of such circumstances.
(Characteristic configuration of the present invention)
Hereinafter, an example in which the characteristic configuration of the present invention is applied to the mobile communication environment described with reference to FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 14. However, for the same components as those in FIG. 1, the same reference numerals are used and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

First, as shown in FIG. 2, in this embodiment, the MVNO operator's system 2 is the present invention in addition to the band control router 8 having basically the same configuration and function as that shown in FIG. Application / infrastructure cooperation server 14 (“application connection environment management server” of the present invention) corresponding to the above functions, line status / usage sensing server 15 for monitoring the line market status, and billing according to the band used. It is characterized by having a billing server 17 to be managed, a compression conversion proxy server 19, and an application management software 16 installed in the mobile information terminal 3. In the present invention, the system 2 on the MVNO operator side, including the bandwidth control router 8, is referred to as a "bandwidth control system".

First, the application management software 16 is installed on the mobile information terminal 3. The application management software 16 provides information on the types of applications 3a to 3e activated on the mobile information terminal 3 together with an IP address / port number for identifying the mobile information terminal 3 and the application / infrastructure cooperation server. It is to be transmitted to 14.

The application / infrastructure cooperation server 14 is provided in the system 2 of the MVNO operator and is designed to cooperate with the application management software 16 installed in the mobile information terminal 3. The types of applications 3a to 3e that are active on the information terminal 3 are detected, and the connection policy according to the types of applications 3a to 3e is applied to the band control router 8 together with the IP address and port number for identifying the mobile information terminal 3. It has a function to set.

The bandwidth control router 8 transfers the packet from the specified mobile information terminal 3 in priority control or a predetermined priority communication band according to the connection policy received from the application / infrastructure cooperation server 14. As a result, communication is performed in priority control or a predetermined priority communication band according to the types of applications 3a to 3e.

The line status / usage monitoring server 15 monitors packets passing through the packet gateway 7 (PGW) provided in the system 2 on the MVNO operator side, and associates them with the IP address / port number of the mobile information terminal 3. It outputs the amount of data communication and notifies the above-mentioned application / infrastructure cooperation server 14.

Hereinafter, the configurations of the application / infrastructure cooperation server 14 and the application management software 16 of the present invention will be described in detail.
(App management software)
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a user's mobile information terminal 3.

An OS (not shown), a plurality of different applications 3a to 3e, and the application management software 16 of the present invention are installed in the mobile information terminal 3.

The application management software 16 includes an application detection module 22 that detects that a specific application has been started and activated in cooperation with an OS (not shown) of the mobile information terminal 3, and a GPS or the like mounted on the mobile information terminal 3. The position detection module 23 that detects the geographical position of the mobile information terminal 3 in cooperation with the position detection device 21, and the terminal IP address / port number that detects the IP address and port number of the mobile information terminal 3 in cooperation with the OS. The detection module 24, the application parameter detection unit 25 that detects the parameters of the applications 3a to 3e, the active application state change determination module 26 that determines the state change of the active application based on the detection results of the detection modules 22 to 25, and the active application state change determination module 26. The server communication module 27 that transmits the state change determined by the active application state change determination module 25 to the application / infrastructure cooperation server 14, the communication state of the active application of the mobile information terminal 3, and each application received from the server 14. It has an application communication status display unit 28 that displays the communication status and the line congestion status of the mobile information terminal 3 on the display screen 29 of the mobile information terminal 3. In this embodiment, the application management software 16 is implemented in the form of an API for the OS.

Hereinafter, the basic operation of the application management software 16 will be described with reference to FIG. Reference numerals S1 to S6 in the figure are for reference to the process, and correspond to steps S1 to S6 in the following description.

First, when the management software 16 is activated, the application activation detection module 22 operates, any of the applications 3a to 3e installed on the mobile information terminal 3 is activated, and is active on the display screen 29 of the mobile information terminal 3. It is monitored whether or not it has become (step S1 shown in the figure). In this embodiment, "active" means that the launched application is displayed in the foreground of the display screen 29 of the terminal 3 and has acquired the user's focus. Once the application is launched, the app launch detection module 22 monitors at regular time intervals whether the application is active or another application is launched and activated. When a specific application is active, the application start detection module 22 outputs the application name (unique name of the application output by the OS) and sends it to the state change determination module 26 of the active application.

The active application state change determination module 26 determines that "the state change of the active application" has occurred when the application name received from the application start detection module 22 changes, that is, when the active application changes (the active application state change determination module 26). Step S2).

On the other hand, the position detection module 23 monitors the signal from the location signal detection device 21 (step S3), and sends the current position coordinates of the mobile information terminal 3 to the active application state change determination module 26. The active application state change determination module 26 determines that "active application state change" has occurred when the position coordinate information received from the position detection module fluctuates by a certain amount or more or when certain conditions are met (step). S2).

Further, the terminal IP address / port number detection module 24 monitors the current IP address of the mobile information terminal 3 and the number of the communication port currently used in conjunction with the communication module 30 of the mobile information terminal 3. Then (step S4), the acquired information is sent to the state change determination module 26 of the above-mentioned active application. The active application state change determination module 26 determines that an "active application state change" has occurred when the IP address or port name received from the terminal IP address / port number detection module changes (step S2).

Further, the application parameter acquisition module 25 interlocks with a specific application, acquires parameters associated with the application (step S5), and sends the parameters to the state change determination module 26 of the active application described above. As an example of the parameter, the connection destination URL corresponds to the case of the browser, and the connection destination telephone number corresponds to the case of the IP phone. The active application state change determination module 26 determines that "the state change of the active application" has occurred when the parameter fluctuates (step S2).

When the active application state change determination module 26 determines whether or not it is an "active application state change" as described above based on the information received from each of the above modules 22 to 25, and determines that it is a state change. Only, the determination result is sent to the application / infrastructure cooperation server 14 (step S6).

The information sent to the application / infrastructure cooperation server 14 at this time is, for example, an application name, a domain name base, coordinate positions, application parameters, an IP address of a mobile terminal, and a port number used. This information is sent only when it is determined that a state change has occurred in order to secure the bandwidth used by the line.
(App / infrastructure cooperation server)
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the application / infrastructure cooperation server 14 that receives the state change state.

The application / infrastructure cooperation server 14 has an OS, RAM, various input / output interfaces (not shown), and a data storage unit 30 and a program storage unit 31 shown in this figure.

The data storage unit 30 stores user information 32, application information 33 whose bandwidth is controlled by this system, and user / application bandwidth control connection policy 34 set based on the state change determination information of the terminal. There is.

The program storage unit 31 contains the application state change information acquisition module 36 that receives change information of the communication state of the application on the terminal 3 from the mobile information terminal 3 and the information acquired by the application state change information acquisition module 36. Based on this, the communication volume of the terminal 3 is acquired from the policy setting unit 38 that acquires the communication band control / connection policy 34 for each user / application and transmits it to the communication band control router 8 and the line status / usage amount sensing server 15. The data communication amount recording unit 39 associated with the user application and stored in the data storage unit 30, and the communication amount for each application are applied to the communication band control connection policy for each user application, and the communication upper limit is determined. The determination unit 40, the data communication status display processing unit 41 that generates an interface for displaying the data communication status to the mobile terminal 3, and the server transmission of the application management software 16 in order to cooperate with the application management software 16. It has an application management software communication module 42 that communicates with the module 27, and a billing processing module 43 for performing billing processing according to the band used and the amount of communication for each application of the user.

Hereinafter, the basic operation of the application / infrastructure cooperation server 14 will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and below. The reference numerals of S7 to S17 in the figure correspond to steps S7 to S17 in the following description.

In the application / infrastructure cooperation server 14, the application management software communication module 42 communicates with the server communication module 27 to communicate with the mobile information terminal 3.

First, in step S7 of FIG. 6, the application state change information acquisition module 36 receives the state change information transmitted from the application management software 16 of the mobile information terminal 3 through the application management software communication module 42. As described above, this state information includes the application name, domain name base, coordinate position, application parameters, IP address / port number used of the mobile terminal 3 of the application active on the user's terminal 3. Then, in step S8, the communication band control policy setting unit 38 sets the control band connection policy for each user / application based on the state change information.

Here, the user information 32 (FIG. 5) is information for associating the mobile information terminal 3 with the attributes of the user, and such user information includes the IP address and port number received from the terminal 3 above. Is stored, and it is possible to include information on whether or not the user has a specific contract regarding the communication band. Further, when the specific contract is charged, the billing server 17 performs billing processing for the user through the billing processing module 43 as described later. The communication band control policy setting unit 38 recognizes that the state change information received from the terminal 3 is linked to a specific user by the user information 32.

Further, the application information 33 (FIG. 5) stores identification information of a specific application to be bandwidth-controlled and connected in this system. In this embodiment, only a part of the applications installed in the mobile information terminal 3 are identified and bandwidth-controlled and connected, and the application name of the band-controlled target is registered in the application information 33. In this embodiment, information unique to this application information 33 so as to recognize each software of web browser, youtube, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo (all of which are registered trademarks), and 050 (IP phone). Is stored. The communication band control policy setting unit 38 recognizes whether the application is a controlled target application based on the application information 33.

The communication band control policy setting unit 38 specifies the connection policy for each user / application from the extension band control connection policy 34 for each user / application by referring to the state change information, the user information 32, and the application information 33. Then, it is set in the band control router 8 (compression conversion proxy 19 for the degree of compression (hereinafter, the setting of the compression conversion proxy 19 is included in the band control setting and the description thereof is omitted)). In this embodiment, the specific connection policy 34 includes a communication band 34a, a data compression degree 34b, a communication possible time zone 34c, a communication possible place 34d, a data communication amount upper limit 34e, and a data communication remaining amount 34f.

7 to 10 are schematic views for explaining the concept of the connection policy set in this embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing a policy setting example regarding the user application and the line speed (communication band) (34a). The default connection speed (connection band) other than the specific application described above is set to 100 kbps, and the LTE speed is set for the specific application. Further, in this example, mobile connection is not permitted for some applications and only Wifi connection is possible.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of policy setting regarding the remaining download amount (34e, 34f) for each user application and application. The default is unlimited, but for certain applications where the connection speed is set to LTE speed, it is initially set to 100MB. In this embodiment, the user himself / herself can set an option to increase this upper limit, and in this case, the billing server 17 is configured to be able to perform billing processing for the usage amount exceeding the initial setting. ing. The billing method is not limited to this, and various methods can be adopted.

The main connection policy is the setting of the above-mentioned line speed (bandwidth control) and the remaining amount of download, but in this embodiment, in addition to the above-mentioned line speed, various policies (the above-mentioned data compression degree 34b, communicable time zone 34c, The communicable location 34d) can be set. FIG. 9 comprehensively shows an example.

As shown in FIG. 9, by default (indicated by all), 100 kbps, compression degree "medium", remaining amount of download is 100 MB, there is no fixed time zone and place, and monthly capacity is set to 100 MB. .. Also, for specific applications, it is set as shown in this table.

Further, in this example, as shown in the conceptual diagram of FIG. 10, bandwidth control based on parameters specific to the application can also be performed. In this example, the line speed is defined for each connection destination URL of the browser. This information is also stored in the data storage unit 30 as the connection policy 34.

As shown in FIG. 6, when such a policy 34 is set in the band control router 8, the server 14 is a state change signal received by the application state change information acquisition module 36 from the application management software 16. (Step S7), identify the user from the IP address and port number, apply the application name and user name to the above user information 32, application information 33 and policy 34, and specify the connection policy for the application (step). S8).

Specifically, initially, the connection policy shown by default above is set, and the communication speed is set to 100 kbps and the communication upper limit is set to unlimited regardless of the location and time. However, when it is detected that youtube is activated and activated in the mobile information terminal 3, the connection policy specified by youtube in FIG. 9 is specified (step S8).

Next, the communication band control policy setting unit 38 checks other conditions, that is, the communication remaining amount in this embodiment (step S9), and when the conditions are cleared, the connection policy determined above is transferred to the band control router 8. Send and set (step S10). This policy is set in the bandwidth control router 8 together with the information identifying the terminal 3, in this example the IP address and the port number.

The bandwidth control router 8 executes bandwidth control based on the IP address and port number of the source included in the packet and based on the corresponding connection policy. The bandwidth control router 8 collectively controls the bandwidth of all packets from the specific mobile information terminal 3, but the bandwidth is based on the application (in this case, youtube) actively used by the user at that time. Since it is a control, as a result, a speed band matching the type of the above application is secured.

In this case, the time lag from when the user switches the active application on the terminal 3 until the bandwidth control is set becomes important, but the length of the time lag is 10 seconds or less under the environment of this embodiment. Yes, new bandwidth will be set while the application is loaded, so users will not experience any delay in the set.
(Operation during bandwidth control communication)
Next, the operation of the application / infrastructure cooperation server 14 during bandwidth control communication will be described with reference to FIGS. 11 and 11 and below.

During communication, the data traffic recording unit 39 (shown in FIG. 5) of the server 14 monitors the communication status through the line status / usage sensing server 15, and the unit time of the mobile information terminal 3 of the specific user. The amount of communication for each is recorded in association with the application that is communicating at that time (steps S11 and S12). As shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. 8, this recording is executed by appropriately updating the communication remaining amount (currently 50 MB in the example of youtube) of the communication band control connection policy 34 for each user / application.

Next, the communication upper limit determination unit 40 determines whether the communication remaining amount of the communication band control connection policy 34 for each user / application has reached the upper limit (1G in the example of youtube) (step S13), and if it has not reached the upper limit. Continues the current communication, and if it has reached, returns the bandwidth control to the default value and sets it in the control band server (step S14). As a result, the priority bandwidth control (75 Mbps in this example) of the application (youtube in this example) is terminated, and the line speed is limited to the initial setting (default) of 100 kbps.

If another application becomes active during communication, the operations shown in FIGS. 4 and 6 are executed even during communication, and bandwidth control suitable for different applications is executed. ..
(Display of line status)
Further, in this embodiment, the data communication status display processing unit 41 shown in FIG. 5 has a function of presenting the data communication amount and the line congestion degree for each application to the user's mobile information terminal 3. Specifically, the data communication status display processing unit 41 transmits time-series data for each application to be presented to the user at the request of the user's terminal 3. This data is displayed on the screen as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13 by the communication status display unit 28 for each application provided in the application management software of the user's terminal 3.

FIG. 12 is an interface showing the degree of line congestion for each application. According to this figure, it can be seen that the Web connection is congested, but YouTube still has room. By looking at such an interface, the user can know which software can be used for comfortable communication.

FIG. 13 is a user interface for setting a connection policy for each application. From this screen, the user can set the connection speed, data compression degree, and download remaining amount for each application. That is, each setting value can be selected and set in a pull-down manner, and the setting can be made by pressing the OK button on this screen. The set value is written and updated in the data storage unit 30 (34) by the communication band control policy setting unit 38 of the application / infrastructure cooperation server 14.
(Billing process)
In this embodiment, the billing server 17 is configured to charge according to the amount of data used by the user and the bandwidth used.

In this case, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 14, the billing server 17 cooperates with the billing processing module 43 of the application / infrastructure cooperation server 14, and the bandwidth control / connection policy for each user / application in the data storage unit 30. Search for 34 and acquire the registered communication band and usage amount (remaining amount) (S15). The billing processing module 43 transmits the information to the billing server 17 together with the information for identifying the user.

The billing server 17 holds a billing policy (shown by 17a in FIG. 2), and specifies a billing policy for each user based on the user information acquired from the linked server 14 (step S16). As a billing policy, for example, it is possible to set a low data communication charge for moving images such as user YouTube and a high data communication charge for WEB. As a result, it is possible to perform billing processing for the user according to the connection band and usage amount for each application (step S17).

According to the configuration described above, even when a plurality of applications for network information communication are installed in the mobile information terminal 3, it is possible to perform communication control in a control band different for each application.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and can be variously modified without changing the gist of the invention.

First, in the above embodiment, the connection band of the terminal 3 is controlled based on the type of the application that is actively displayed on the foreground of the display screen 29 of the terminal 3 and has the user's focus, but the present invention is limited to this. As shown in FIG. 15, bandwidth control may be performed based on the types of a plurality of applications 3a and 3b including applications operating in the background. Hereinafter, the control in this case will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

When the OS of the mobile information terminal 3 (for example, Android (registered trademark) or the like) starts an application on the terminal 3, the process is also started and a unique process ID for each application is output. This process ID is detected by the IP address / port number detection module 25 of the application management software 50, and based on this, the process-specific communication tagging module shown by 50 in FIG. 15 assigns a different tag to the packet for each process number. do. This tag may be the process ID itself of the above embodiment, the application name, or another identifier related to the process ID. By tagging the packet in this way, it becomes possible to determine which application sent the packet even if the same session is communicated by the same terminal 3, and the packet is sent from the front of the terminal 3. In addition to running apps, even if an app running in the background is sending a packet, it will be possible to determine which app is running in the background. Then, this connection is terminated by the tag release module 51 provided in the system 2 of the MVNO operator, and is configured to delete the tag after bandwidth control.

According to such a configuration, even when a plurality of applications are communicating on the terminal 3 at the same time, it is possible to perform bandwidth control / priority control based on different connection policies for each connection. Specifically, in step S7 of FIG. 6, the application state change information acquisition module 36 transmits the state change information transmitted from the application management software 16 of the mobile information terminal 3 through the application management software communication module 42. receive. In this state information, as described above, a tag assigned based on the process ID of each application started on the user's terminal 3 (in the above embodiment, the application name is output based on whether it is active or not). ), Domain name base, coordinate position, application parameters, process name, IP address of mobile terminal 3 / port number used are included. Then, in step S8, the communication band control policy setting unit 38 sets the control band connection policy for each user / application based on the state change information. In addition, in order to determine which application the packet is by based on the tag, it is necessary to transmit the association between the tag and the application name to the application infrastructure cooperation server 14 in advance, but in this embodiment, this transmission is performed. Is executed by the state change determination module 26.

According to the above configuration, since it is possible to identify which application sent the packet by the tag included in the specific packet, not only the application actively displayed in the foreground of the terminal 3 but also the background. It is also possible to control the bandwidth of the communication with, for example, to narrow down the bandwidth or cut off the connection.

Not only when a tag is attached to each application, a tunnel connection may be established by assigning a different port number or a different IP address (virtual IP address). This function is executed by the function 50 of the tagging module and the network stack. According to such a configuration, even when a plurality of applications are communicating on the terminal 3 at the same time, the communication band of the packet of each application can be individually controlled (bandwidth control, priority control). When deciding the priority among the applications, the connection policy decided on the management server side is used. Further, in this case, the tunnel connection is executed by the tag release module 51, and the IP address and / and the port number for each application are deleted from each packet. Further, as yet another embodiment, the connection policy 34 is not limited to that of the above embodiment, and may include other policies. For example, it is also possible to specify a specific image conversion method or moving image conversion method as the data compression method executed by the compression proxy server 19. For example, after converting to black and white, it is possible to convert to high definition or set.

Further, in the above embodiment, the bandwidth control function is provided by a method of assigning a specific line speed value by bandwidth control, but instead of bandwidth control, priority control (relative rather than absolute value of line speed) is provided. This function may be provided by (priority assignment).
Further, in the above embodiment, the connection policy is set directly to the bandwidth control router 8, but the present invention is not limited to this. It may be performed indirectly, such as via PGW7.

Further, in the operation during the bandwidth control communication (FIG. 11), in the above embodiment, when the communication remaining amount of the communication bandwidth control connection policy 34 for each user / application reaches the upper limit (1G in the example of youtube). Although the bandwidth control was returned to the default value (100 kbps) and set in the control bandwidth server 8 (step S14 in FIG. 11), the communication (routing) itself may be blocked.

3 ... Mobile information terminals 3a to 3e ... Various applications 2 ... Network connection system 4 ... Base station 5 ... Mobile network 6 ... SWG
7 ... PWG
8 ... Band control router 9 ... Internet 10a-10e ... Various service servers 14 ... App / infrastructure cooperation server 15 ... Line status / usage sensing server 16 ... App management software 19 ... Compression conversion proxy server

Claims (16)

It has a bandwidth control router located between the mobile network and the Internet,
A plurality of application software installed on a personal digital assistant on a mobile network is configured to be connected to a specific service server on the Internet via the bandwidth control router according to the type of service. It ’s a network connection system.
This system
A means for storing the connection policy according to the type of service set for each user's mobile information terminal in the data storage unit, and
The type of service to be connected when connecting from a specific mobile information terminal to the service server is detected, the connection policy regarding the detected service of the mobile information terminal is taken out from the data storage unit, and the mobile information terminal is used. Communication band control policy setting means to send to the band control router together with the information that identifies
Have,
The bandwidth control router transfers a packet from the specified mobile information terminal and a packet to the specified mobile information terminal in priority control or a predetermined priority communication band based on the transmitted connection policy. can be,
The communication band control policy setting means receives the detection of the type of service that is trying to connect to the service server from a specific mobile information terminal, and the type of application that is actively displayed in the foreground on the mobile information terminal. A network connection system characterized by being done by. In the network connection system according to claim 1,
It refers to the table that stores the type of service to be prioritized or bandwidth controlled and the connection policy of that service, extracts the connection policy according to the type of service from the table, and sends it to the bandwidth control router. A network connection system characterized by being. In the network connection system according to claim 1,
The connection policy is a network connection system characterized in that it includes setting a communication priority or a communication band different for each specific service. In the network connection system according to claim 1,
Based on the amount of data communication for each mobile information terminal by the bandwidth control router, the line communication congestion degree for each service is calculated.
A network connection system comprising a congestion degree display unit for generating a congestion degree display interface for displaying the line communication congestion degree to a user. In the network connection system according to claim 1,
A network connection system characterized by having a traffic volume display unit that generates a data traffic volume display interface for displaying the data traffic volume of each mobile information terminal by a bandwidth control router to the user. In the network connection system according to claim 1,
A network connection system characterized by charging users based on the amount of data communication for each mobile information terminal by a bandwidth control router. In the network connection system according to claim 1,
The connection policy is a network connection system characterized in that it includes a setting of a different degree of data compression for each specific service. In the network connection system according to claim 7,
A network connection system characterized in that the data compression degree of the connection policy includes a setting of a data conversion method different for each specific service. In the network connection system according to claim 1,
The network connection system is characterized in that the connection policy includes setting of a communicable time zone and a place different for each specific service. In the network connection system according to claim 1,
A network connection system characterized in that the information that identifies the mobile information terminal is the IP address of the mobile information terminal. In the network connection system according to claim 1,
A network connection system characterized by having a user billing information acquisition unit that receives user billing information and associates it with a personal digital assistant. In the network connection system according to claim 1,
A network connection system characterized in that the detection of the type of service is performed by the connection destination URL to which the application connects. In the network connection system according to claim 1,
A network connection system characterized in that the type of service to be prioritized or bandwidth controlled includes at least a service for voice calls. In the network connection system according to claim 1,
Installed on the mobile information terminal,
As a means for causing the mobile information terminal to detect the type of service actively displayed on the display of the mobile information terminal;
A means for causing the mobile information terminal to acquire information for identifying the mobile information terminal, and the specifying information is for uniquely identifying the mobile information terminal on a communication network. ;
The mobile information terminal has a management software program having a means for transmitting the type of service to the communication band control policy setting means together with information specifying the mobile information terminal, and the communication band control policy setting. A network connection system characterized in that detection of a type of service by means is performed based on information received from the mobile information terminal. In the network connection system according to claim 1,
A network connection system characterized in that a connection policy according to the type of service set for each user's mobile information terminal is set by a setting interface generated on the user's mobile terminal. Having a bandwidth control router placed between the mobile network and the Internet, a plurality of application software installed on a mobile information terminal on the mobile network can be installed via the bandwidth control router according to the type of service. A method performed on a network connection system that is configured to connect to a specific service server on the Internet.
This method
The process of storing the connection policy according to the type of service set for each user's mobile information terminal in the data storage unit, and
The type of service to be connected when connecting from a specific mobile information terminal to the service server is detected, the connection policy regarding the detected service of the mobile information terminal is taken out from the data storage unit, and the mobile information terminal is used. Communication band control policy setting process to be sent to the band control router together with the information that identifies
Have,
The bandwidth control router transfers a packet from the specified mobile information terminal and a packet to the specified mobile information terminal in priority control or a predetermined priority communication band based on the transmitted connection policy. can be,
The communication bandwidth control policy setting process receives the detection of the type of service that is trying to connect to the service server from a specific mobile information terminal, and the type of application that is actively displayed in the foreground on the mobile information terminal. A method of doing with a network connection system, which is characterized by being done by.

Images