KR100978471B1 - A hybrid network apparatus for combining an endpoint-oriented networking and a content-oriented networkding, and method of using thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

We propose a hybrid network system that combines an endpoint-oriented network and a content-oriented network. Conversation-oriented networking, such as Internet access or web surfing, is connected via a terminal-centric network. When transmitting large amounts of content data such as movies and music, the content-oriented network is connected.

Hybrid network

Description

Hybrid network device combining device-centric and content-oriented networking and a method of connecting the network {A HYBRID NETWORK APPARATUS

Advances in wireless networking technology have greatly alleviated the space constraints on users' access to the Internet. A user can access an access point (AP) installed around the terminal through his or her terminal without limitation of space and access the Internet through the terminal. The end-user and the network may be connected through various wireless environments (IEEE 802.11 WiFi WLAN, IEEE 802.15.1 Bluetooth, UWB, etc.).

Meanwhile, in order to provide such a wireless Internet service universally in a wider area, the number of APs installed in each region must be increased, which burdens the investment cost on the wireless Internet service provider. In addition, when the provider provides the infrastructure of such a wireless Internet service, the user is required to pay for the use of the wireless Internet service in return for the investment cost. The burden of these costs is an obstacle for users to use the wireless Internet service, and the burden on users to pay the cost eventually leads to a decrease in the expected profits of the wireless Internet service providers, thus allowing the wireless Internet service providers to invest in facilities. It acts as a burden.

Therefore, in order to make the wireless Internet service more general, a wireless Internet system that users can use without any cost is required.

In response to this demand, attempts have been made to establish a wireless Internet access network using a wireless AP in a general user's home based on user participation. A user participation-based network is one in which users provide their own Home AP to form a network, which allows other users to access the Internet through their personal Home AP and similarly uses their mobile terminals. You can access the Internet through another user's Home AP. As described above, a user participation-based network in which users share their Home AP has an advantage of not having to pay for wireless network access because the users directly provide the AP.

However, accessing the Internet directly through another user's Home AP is vulnerable to security problems. That is, since the guest accesses the Internet through another user's Home AP (hosting AP), there is a problem that the credit problem between the hosting AP and the guest terminal accessing it remains to be solved.

N. Sastry et al. "Architecting citywide ubiquitous wi-fi access" HotNets-VI , November 2007, proposed a method to solve security problems by using a secure tunnel. Users form a common alliance, allowing registered users to share their APs. The AP of the other user the guest connects to is called the host gateway. The host gateway is connected to the guest's Home AP (Virtual Private Network) and VPN (Virtual Private Network) tunnel. In this case, most security or legal issues can be solved because all Internet access of the guest is treated as if the guest is connecting through his home gateway.

However, such a network has the following problems.

First, since all traffic is bypassed through tunneling, additional traffic delays and traffic burdens occur, thereby decreasing network efficiency when the traffic volume increases. Second, there is a lack of motivation to voluntarily participate in such network alliance. For example, if a guest downloads large amounts of data, such as video files, through a host gateway, this may delay traffic from the host server and further disrupt the host owner's Internet flow. Therefore, it is difficult to provide a host gateway voluntarily.

Third, there is a problem that user management is performed in a centralized manner. In order to use the above network federation, the user must join the network federation before use, and the joined members are managed through a kind of central server. In this case, the management server is likely to be a target of hacking and DoS attacks, and subscribers must go through cumbersome subscription procedures. In addition, the user's use of wireless networking is possible only in an area where another subscriber's Home AP exists, so the area is limited.

Thus Sastry et al. The model can solve the security problem on the network, but since all network traffic is transmitted through the tunnel, there is a problem that additional traffic is generated, transmission speed is delayed, and motivation to attract subscribers is weak. In particular, if the Internet traffic such as the general web, there may not be a big problem, but in the case of large content data traffic such as movies, music, etc., the traffic volume of the entire network is rapidly increased, and thus the transmission speed is delayed. Can be.

There is a need for providing a more universal and accessible wireless Internet service. To do this, there should be no charge for Internet access itself, no security problems with the use of the Internet, and the traffic to be transmitted must be provided efficiently. There is a need for a network system to solve these problems.

The present application proposes a hybrid network system in which two networks are combined. More specifically, the present invention proposes a hybrid network system in which an endpoint-oriented network and a content-oriented network are combined.

Terminal-oriented networks are used in conversation-oriented networks such as Internet access or web surfing. For example, when a guest accesses the Internet through another user's Home AP, the host gateway and the guest's home gateway are connected through a VPN tunnel. The user can access the Internet through the host gateway, select the URL of the desired web site, or download the file via an FTP server. This traffic flow is relayed through the guest's home gateway. Here, the term guest refers to a user other than the owner of the host gateway that provides access of the wireless network, and the user attempts to access the host gateway using a user device such as a mobile terminal.

As for the content-centric network, the participant's AP configures an overlay network for content distribution. Each user AP has a storage system capable of holding content. If the user wants to access a particular file, the user will retrieve the file through the overlay network. In this way, a user can not only bypass his home gateway but also obtain a file from another host. Still, large volumes of traffic are due to content distribution through P2P systems. Therefore, if the desired file is delivered from a closer host, transmission delay can be reduced and network burden can be reduced.

  Also, in many cases, content is copyright protected in such a way as Digital Rights Management (DRM). In this case, the user can securely obtain a license using his home gateway. The user's request for a license is obtained through the VPN tunnel, which is simply traffic to the signal, and content data is not transmitted over the VPN tunnel.

A first embodiment disclosed by the present application includes receiving a request for a network connection from a guest at a host, selecting, by the host, one of terminal-centric networking or content-centric networking according to the request content from the guest, And the guest is connected to the network through the selected networking.

In this case, the selecting step selects content-centric networking when the guest request is searching for content or downloading content, and selects terminal-centric networking when visiting other web sites. In case of selecting the terminal-centric networking, the host connects to the network through the guest's home gateway, and thus the guest has the same effect as connecting through his home gateway.

Obtaining a license from the guest's home gateway if authentication of the license is required for downloading of the content, including paying the payment server through the guest's home gateway, and licensing from the content license server Obtaining a step.

The second embodiment disclosed by the present application is a machine-readable medium in which a program is recorded, and stores a program for implementing the method implemented in the first embodiment.

A third embodiment disclosed by the present application is an apparatus for providing a connection of a wireless network in response to a request of a user terminal held by a guest, comprising: means for receiving a connection request of a wireless network from a user terminal, and a request from a user terminal Means for selecting either terminal-centric networking or content-centric networking, wherein the device connects to the wireless network through the home gateway of the guest for terminal-centric networking, and the device differs for content-centric networking. It is a device that connects to devices through an overlay network.

The third embodiment represents a host gateway or AP provided by each user, and the users provide their own APs as host gateways to allow other users to access the network, and at the same time, they can access the wireless network through other users' APs. Can be accessed.

In this case, the selecting means included in the apparatus selects the content-oriented networking when the request from the user terminal is the retrieval of the content or the transmission of the content. In addition, the device and the guest's home gateway are connected through a VPN (Virtual Private Network) tunnel. In addition, the apparatus may further comprise storage means for storing the content.

If a license is required for the transfer of content, the device obtains a license from the guest's home gateway, where the license pays to and obtains from the content license server via the guest's home gateway.

By providing a hybrid network in which a content-centric network and a terminal-centric network are mixed, a more efficient wireless network system can be realized by connecting through a network suitable for a user's connection intention.

Hereinafter, with reference to the drawings will be described a specific embodiment of the present invention.

Embodiments of the present invention disclosed in the present application are disclosed by way of example to describe the technical idea of the present invention, and the technical idea of the present invention is not limited to the embodiments. Those skilled in the art will clearly understand that various modifications, substitutions, adjustments, and the like are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Network formation based on user participation

Hereinafter, a method of forming a user participation based network will be described. The following description discloses an embodiment by way of example, and it is apparent to those skilled in the art that the present application is not limited thereto.

In a user participation-based network, each user provides his or her Home AP as a host. That is, users provide a home AP provided as a host, and each user can access a wireless network using another user's home AP as a host. In this way, users share their Home AP as a host, allowing wireless Internet access at no additional charge for wireless Internet access.

Sharing of a host (or host gateway) may be through some sort of association between users. For example, by managing the information of the users participating in the host sharing through the central server, it is possible to receive a registration from the users with a subscription intention and share the host only between registered users. When there is a request for network connection from the guest, the host uses the data of the management server to determine whether the guest is a registered guest who can use the service, and rejects the connection if the guest is an unregistered guest. In addition, in the case of a registered guest, the guest's network connection is allowed.

More preferably, the host may be shared between users without a central server managing users who use the service, or without a separate subscription procedure for the service. For this purpose, the following connection method may be provided as an example.

First, when a guest sends a request for a network connection to a host, the host receives the request. At this time, the guest sends the network address of his home gateway and the network addresses of the hosts he has connected to in the past to the host requesting the current connection. The network address sent from the guest allows the host to obtain the network address of the guest's home gateway and / or the network addresses of other hosts. The host may use the obtained network address to transmit its network address to other hosts and ask the other host whether it is shared. When the partner host responds to the sharing, the host and the partner host share network addresses of other hosts they have. In this way, users can form a network between hosts without going through a separate subscription process.

In addition, such a user participation-based network system may be more efficiently formed through hierarchy. For example, one portal may be configured to manage a plurality of individual hosts, and one border portal may be configured to manage a plurality of portals. Each individual host stores the network address of its own portal, and each portal stores the network address of its own border portal.

When a guest passes the network address of a host that has connected in the past to the host requesting a current connection, the host asks whether the guest has shared the host with which it has previously connected. In addition, at this time, one host may ask whether to join a portal to which the other host belongs, or the portal managing each host may ask whether information is shared between portals. Similarly, one portal may subscribe to another border portal and share information between border portals. In addition, communication between hosts included in different border portals is performed only through the border portal, so that the network can be made in a range unit included in one border portal, and thus traffic can be efficiently managed. .

Hybrid network that mixes terminal-centric and content-oriented networks

1 is a diagram schematically showing a hybrid network system of the present application.

The user terminal 11 connects to the host gateway 12, and the host gateway 12 is connected to the terminal-centric network or to the content-centric network according to the content requested by the user terminal 11. The terminal-centric network may mean a user's connection with the home gateway 13, and the content-centric network may mean a connection between the host gateway 12 and other host gateways (APs) 14. In addition, the user's home gateway 13 may be connected to the content license server 16 and the payment server 15, thereby solving the licensing problem for the content that the user wishes to download. Hereinafter, the specific operation of the hybrid network will be described.

The user (or guest) uses the user terminal 11 to transmit a host gateway 12 connection request signal located nearby. The host gateway 12 corresponds to the home gateway of another user, and another user installs a program to perform the functions of the present application in the existing AP or through a separate device. You can also implement the functionality.

The user terminal 11 of the user may include network address information of the home gateway 13 of the user. The user terminal 11 may transmit the network address information of the home gateway 13 of the user to the host gateway 12. The host gateway 12 may access the home gateway 13 of the user through the network address of the received home gateway 13.

In general, Internet traffic, for example, visiting a web site or downloading a simple file, etc., uses a terminal-oriented network network through the user's home gateway 13. That is, the host gateway 12 and the home gateway 13 are connected via a line secured, for example, a VPN tunnel, and the user terminal 11 connects to the Internet via its home gateway 13. Since it is connected, it has the same effect as directly connecting to the network via its home gateway 13. Therefore, security problems that may be a problem when a user connects using a host gateway of another person can be solved.

On the other hand, when transmitting a large amount of data such as movies, music, etc. using a content-centric network centered on the host gateway (12).

The content-oriented network is an overlay network in which the host gateway 12 and APs of other users are connected on a peer-to-peer (P2P) basis. Each AP may include a medium capable of storing content data, or may include metadata indicating content that is held. The host gateway 12 may search metadata among other hosts for metadata about content desired by a user, and download the matching content when it is found.

In addition, searching and downloading of content may be hierarchical. 2 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a content search performed hierarchically.

First, the host gateway 21 retrieves the content requested by the user from the surrounding peer APs (type 1). If it finds the content, it downloads it, and if it does not find it in Type 1, it searches for the content in all the lower APs of the portal 22 to which the host gateway 21 belongs (type 2). If not found by the type 2 search, the content is searched for by all of the lower APs of the border portal 23 to which the portal 22 belongs (type 3). After searching in the border portal 23, the content is searched using the external border portal 24 (type 4). As such, when hierarchical search is used, the target and range of the search are properly managed according to the search condition, thereby enabling more efficient content search.

License Authorization Management

Most digital content providers use technologies such as Digital Rights Management (DRM) to protect their digital content rights. This prevents illegal access to digital content and ensures that only authorized users can use the digital content.

Even when contents are transmitted through a content-centric network, the legal rights of content providers must be guaranteed. To this end, there is a need for a method that allows only a user who has obtained a legitimate license for the content to download the content. However, in the case of obtaining such a license through the host gateway, there is a problem in that the user must obtain the license again when the user wants to download the corresponding content using another host gateway.

In the hybrid network disclosed in the present application, a license for downloading content is obtained through a user's home gateway, so that any host can be authenticated.

Referring back to FIG. 1, the user's home gateway 13 is connected with the content license server 16 and the payment server 15. The content license server 16 is a server that provides a license that allows downloading of the corresponding content. The payment server 15 is a server for which the user pays an amount necessary to obtain a license for the content. Specific operations and structures of the content license server 16 and the payment server 15 will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and detailed descriptions thereof will be omitted.

The user connects to the host gateway 12 and then retrieves the desired content through the content centric network. If DRM is applied to the content, the user must obtain a license to download the content. The host gateway 12 connects to the user's home gateway 13 through a terminal-centric network. The user pays the necessary amount to the payment server 15 via his home gateway 13, and when the payment is completed, the payment server 15 reports the completion of the payment to the content license server. The content license server 16 provides the user's home gateway 13 with a license to download the corresponding content.

In this way, since the user manages the license for the content in his home gateway 13, even if the user accesses a host gateway other than the host gateway 12 to which he is currently connected, the user is stored in his home gateway 13. Licenses are available.

3 is a flowchart schematically illustrating a process of a hybrid network disclosed by the present application.

First, a user connects to an adjacent host gateway via a terminal (step 302). The host gateway determines whether the user requires a general Internet connection, such as a visit to a website, or a search for content (step 304). When the user does not want to search for the content, the user accesses a terminal-centric network such as connecting to the user's home gateway through a VPN tunnel and uses the Internet (step 306). If the user wants to search for content, the host gateway searches for content desired by the user using a content-centric network such as a P2P overlay network (step 308).

When the user completes the search for the desired content, it is determined whether a license is required for downloading the corresponding content (step 310). If the content is content that does not require a separate license, the user can download it immediately (step 316). If a license is required, the user accesses the user's home gateway to check whether the user has a license for the content (step 312). If a license for the content is stored in the user's home gateway, the content can be downloaded using the license. If there is no corresponding license, the payment server and the content license server are accessed through the user's home gateway (step 314). In step 314, the user pays for the license through the payment server and obtains a license for the content from the content license server. At this time, the obtained license is stored in the user's home gateway.

1 schematically illustrates a hybrid network system of the present application.

2 illustrates an embodiment of a content search that is hierarchical.

3 is a flowchart schematically illustrating a process of a hybrid network disclosed by the present application.

* Drawing symbol *

11: user terminal 12: host gateway

13: user's home gateway 14: AP

15: Payment Server 16: Content License Server

21: Host Gateway 22: Portal

23: border portal 24: outer border portal

Claims (13)

Receiving at the host a request for a network connection from a guest; Selecting, by the host, one of terminal-centric networking or content-centric networking according to a request from the guest; And The guest connecting to a network via the selected networking. The method of claim 1, Wherein the selecting step selects content-centric networking when the guest's request is a search for content or a transfer of content. The method of claim 1, If the terminal-centric networking is selected, the host connects to the network through the home gateway of the guest. The method of claim 3, wherein The terminal-centric networking is connected via a VPN (Virtual Private Network) tunnel, network connection method. The method of claim 1, Wherein said content-centric networking is such that said host is connected to other hosts through an overlay network. The method of claim 2, Acquiring a license from the guest's home gateway if authentication of a license is required for the transmission of the content. The method of claim 6, Acquiring the license, Paying a payment server through the guest's home gateway; And Obtaining a license from a content license server. A machine-readable medium having recorded thereon a program for performing the network connection method according to any one of claims 1 to 7. A network device that provides a connection to a wireless network at the request of a user terminal held by a guest. Means for receiving a connection request of a wireless network from the user terminal; And Means for selecting either terminal-centric networking or content-centric networking in response to a request from the user terminal, Upon receiving a request for access of a wireless network from the user terminal, the selecting means selects the networking to be connected according to a request from the user terminal, and the network device determines the home gateway of the guest when the terminal-centric networking is performed. Connect to a wireless network through the network, and wherein the network device connects with other network devices through an overlay network during content-centric networking. The method of claim 9, And the means for selecting selects content-centric networking if the request from the user terminal is a search of content or a transmission of content. The method of claim 9, The connection of the network device and the guest home gateway is connected through a virtual private network (VPN) tunnel. The method of claim 9, The network device further comprises storage means for storing content. The method of claim 10, Obtain a license from the guest's home gateway if a license is required for the transmission of the content, the license paying a payment server through the guest's home gateway and obtaining from a content license server.

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