KR20090052724A - Method and apparatus for controlling upstream traffic of ip packet network - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a technical method for automatically detecting network end equipment for controlling uplink traffic of an IP packet network. An uplink traffic control method of an IP packet network performed by an access network policy control server of the present invention includes: detecting network end equipment connected to a subscriber station authorized for IP packet network access; And instructing control of upstream traffic for the multimedia service to the detected network end equipment. As a result, network end equipment that controls upstream traffic for the subscriber station can be automatically detected, and the quality of service can be guaranteed by controlling upstream traffic with the detected equipment.

Description

Method and apparatus for controlling upstream traffic of IP packet network

The present invention relates to traffic control in an IP packet network, and more particularly to a control technique for upstream traffic.

This study is derived from the research conducted as part of the IT new growth engine core technology development project of the Ministry of Information and Communication and the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications Research and Development. Management technology]

There is an increasing demand for multimedia IP communication services such as VoIP, MMoIP, VoD, and IPTV of the same quality as that of IP packet networks and circuit networks. In order to guarantee the end-to-end interval of high quality IP communication service, traffic control of the access network interval with the highest aggregation rate of traffic is required. Traffic control in the access network section is divided by downstream traffic and upstream traffic.Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS) or edge router, which is a network access device, performs subscriber recognition and traffic control. For upstream traffic, the subscriber station or the network end equipment that controls the upstream traffic is controlled.

In the conventional downlink traffic, the quality of service required through the policy application and the QoS processing of the network access equipment by the control of the policy control server of the control layer is guaranteed. In addition, due to the lack of the functions of the subscriber station and the network end equipment, the uplink traffic was classified by the static configuration of the aggregation equipment, which is the equipment constituting the access network, and the QoS control function was performed. However, the uplink traffic control method of the aggregation equipment by the fixed configuration function is a partial control scheme in which traffic control for the section from the subscriber terminal / network termination equipment to the aggregation equipment in the access network section is impossible.

Recently, service control technology for upstream traffic in subscriber station / network termination equipment has been developed, and information related to service profile from a customer network gateway configuration function (CNGCF) at start-up of subscriber station / network termination equipment. It is in the stage of applying and executing static service profile by learning and setting automatically.

However, the static information managed by the operator does not reflect the subscriber's mobility. Therefore, if the information managed in the terminal control server is not useful due to the change of the subscriber's network access position, it is impossible to control the upstream traffic in the access network. As a result, the control method for the upstream traffic in the access network is partially limited due to the undefined state of the control method according to the movement of the subscriber's network access position.

The present invention is derived from this background, and aims to improve the uplink traffic control scheme for multimedia services in an access network. To this end, the present invention specifically provides an apparatus and method for real time recognizing a network end equipment connected to a subscriber, and further to provide an apparatus and method for controlling uplink traffic for IP communication service through the recognized network end equipment. do.

According to the present invention, a) detecting a network end equipment connected to a subscriber station authenticated IP network connection; And b) instructing the detected network end equipment to control the upstream traffic for the multimedia service, by the uplink traffic control method of the IP packet network performed by the access network policy control server.

Wherein step a) comprises: a1) receiving an IP address of a subscriber station authorized to access an IP packet network; a2) tracing a route to the subscriber station by using the received IP address of the subscriber station as a destination; And a3) detecting network end equipment connected to the subscriber station through the result of the route tracking.

On the other hand, the technical problem described above is a subscriber IP address receiving unit for receiving the IP address of the subscriber station whose network connection is authenticated according to the present invention; A route tracking unit tracking a route to the subscriber station by using the received IP address of the subscriber station as a destination; An equipment detector for detecting network end equipment connected to the subscriber station from the route tracking result; And a traffic controller for instructing control of upstream traffic for a multimedia service to the detected network end equipment.

The present invention provides a method of automatically identifying the network end equipment connected by the subscriber in the network access authentication step of the subscriber, thereby eliminating the burden of management that the operator must statically manage the connectivity between the subscriber and the network end equipment. In other words, it is possible to eliminate the data management burden on the network terminal equipment association by subscribers by the operator.

Furthermore, the present invention can provide a quality guaranteed IP communication service by performing policy control on uplink traffic for an IP communication service to a network end device detected when a subscriber accesses a network.

As such, the present invention proposes a network control-based technology capable of providing multimedia IP communication services such as VoIP, MMoIP, and VoD in the same quality as a circuit in an IP packet network, thereby providing a variety of new types of services through differentiated services. Business models and revenue generation will be possible.

The foregoing and further aspects of the present invention will become more apparent through the preferred embodiments described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail to enable those skilled in the art to easily understand and reproduce the present invention.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a network according to the present invention.

The subscriber station 100 may be a wired terminal or a wireless terminal. A wired terminal is a terminal in a home such as a PC, a set-top box, or a VoIP phone, and a wireless terminal is a terminal such as a PC or PDA in a home or an external device connected through a wireless communication interface, for example, a WiFi interface. to be.

The network termination equipment (Network Termination / Residential Gateway, NT / RG) 200 is a device that connects the subscriber station 100 and the network 10, which is an IP packet network, to a device such as a modem or a home gateway. The network end equipment 200 that can control the policy for the uplink traffic of the multimedia IP communication service is a router capable of handling three or more layers of protocols, and includes routing management, traffic filtering and forwarding management, port, and 5-tuple based protocols. It is a high-performance device that can provide QoS management function for service flow.

The subscriber aggregation equipment 300 is a switch equipment such as a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) or Fast Ethernet Switch (FES) such as ADSL and VDSL. The subscriber aggregation equipment 300 is responsible for accessing the subscriber terminal 100 and concentrating the traffic from the subscriber terminal 100 and delivering the traffic to the metro network 10. In addition, the subscriber aggregation equipment 300 plays a role of a DHCP relay agent in the process of Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

The network access device 400 is a device such as a BRAS (Broadband Remote Access Server) in charge of subscriber management, IP granting, and subscriber service provision. The network access device 400 also performs a DHCP proxy or relay function and also performs an AAA client function for authentication.

The network connection equipment 400 from the network termination equipment 200 to the subscriber aggregation equipment 300 is called an access network. The access network performs IP allocation and service control so that the subscriber station 100 is connected to the network and communicates through various interfaces, and delivers the traffic received from the subscriber station 100 to the network, and the traffic transmitted from the network. It is responsible for the function to deliver to the subscriber station (100).

The subscriber information management server 700 stores and manages subscriber service profile information in the subscriber DB 710 and performs network access authentication for the subscriber terminal 100. The policy control server 500 determines an access network policy to be applied to the subscriber station 100 and performs resource management and service control of the access network. And the terminal control server 600 manages the network terminal equipment 200 as a whole through the terminal DB (610) management. Finally, the call establishment server 800 performs IP communication call setting for the subscriber station 100 in association with the policy control server 500.

2 is a diagram illustrating an overall procedure for controlling uplink traffic policy of an IP packet network according to the present invention.

When the subscriber station 100 requests access authentication to the network 10 through various access interfaces and protocols such as PPP, DHCP, and 802.1x (step S200), the network connection equipment 400 receives the request to manage subscriber information. The authentication request is made to the server 700 (step S202). The subscriber information management server 700 searches the subscriber database 710 to determine whether the network connection is authenticated to the subscriber, and returns the result to the network attached equipment 400 (step S206).

If the network 10 connection is authenticated, the network attaching equipment 400 assigns an IP address to the subscriber station 100 to allow the network 10 access (step S208). In step S208, the network attached equipment 400 mainly allocates an IP address for accessing the network 10 to the subscriber station 100 by using its own IP pool or by interworking with an external DHCP server. Then allow network 10 access.

On the other hand, the state in which the subscriber is connected to the network 10 and the assigned IP address information are recorded in the subscriber DB 710 by the subscriber information management server 700 (step S210). In addition, the subscriber information management server 700 transmits the access to the authenticated subscriber terminal 100 and the allocated IP address information to the policy control server 500. Accordingly, the policy control server 500 performs a trace route function for tracing the route to the subscriber station 100 using the transferred IP address information of the subscriber station 100 (step S212).

The trace route function sets the IP address of the subscriber station 100 as the destination address, adjusts the TTL value small, transmits the ICMP echo request message, and the routers in the network through which the packet is delivered to the destination perform error processing. It is a function to search for routers participating in the path from the source of the packet to the destination by inducing a packet to be sent. Specifically, the first packet is detected by setting the TTL (Time To Live) value to '0' for the first packet so that the router that first receives the packet returns an ICMP destination unreachable message of 'Time exceeded'. Next, set the TTL value to '1' so that the second router that receives this packet also returns an ICMP destination unreachable message that says 'Time exceeded' to detect the second router. Continue to do this and return an ICMP destination unreachable message with an error value of 'Destination port unreachable' (an error message indicating that the destination has arrived but a valid application port is not open), confirming that the message has arrived at the destination. IP information of routers participating from the destination to the destination can be detected.

The policy control server 500 performs the above-described trace route function and determines that the router that finally returned 'Time exceeded' is the router that is located last in the path to the subscriber station 100, that is, the network end device 200. The IP address information is stored and managed (step S214). Then, when the subscriber station 100 attempts an IP communication service by interworking with the call setup server 800, the call setup server 800 access network for providing IP communication service to the subscriber through the policy control server 500. Check whether the resource is available (step S216) (step S218) (step S220).

If the access network resources are available, the policy control server 500 instructs the network attached equipment 400 to allocate resources and set policy for downstream (step S222). In addition, the policy control server 500 instructs the network terminal equipment 200 to directly allocate resource allocation and policy setting for upstream traffic (step S224) or through the terminal control server 600 (step S226). . When instructed through the terminal control server 600, the terminal control server 600 uses the IP address transmitted from the policy control server 500 to resource allocation and policy setting for upstream traffic to the network end equipment 200. Instruction (step S228).

The network end device 200 changes and sets the flow profile for the corresponding subscriber station 100 according to resource allocation and policy setting for uplink traffic indicated in step S224 or step S228 (step S230). Next, the network end equipment 200 directly responds to completion of resource allocation and policy setting for uplink traffic to the policy control server 500 or through the terminal control server 600 (step S232) (step S234). (Step S236). The policy control server 500 notified of the completion of resource allocation and policy setting for uplink traffic informs the call establishment server 800 of the completion of resource availability investigation and policy setting for the requested call (step S238), whereby the call establishment server 800 finally completes the call and responds to the successful attempt to IP communication service to the subscriber station 100 (step S240).

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of controlling an uplink traffic policy of an IP packet network performed by an access network policy control server according to the present invention.

The policy control server 500 receives information indicating that the subscriber station 100 has connected to the network 10 and IP address information allocated to the subscriber station 100 from the subscriber information management server 700 (step S300). . The policy control server 500 performs the trace route function as described above by using the received IP address of the subscriber station 100 as a destination (step S302). If the content of the ICMP destination unreachable message received by the policy control server 500 according to the trace route is 'Time exceeded', the source IP address of the router that returned the error response is temporarily stored as the address of the network end device. . The trace route function is repeated until the error response of 'port unreachable' is received, and the source IP address of the error message with the 'Time exceeded' value received in this process is changed to the IP address of the network end device. (Step S304) (Step S306). When finally receiving an error response of 'port unreachable' according to the trace route execution process, the finally changed and stored IP address is determined as the IP address of the network terminal equipment 200 connected to the corresponding subscriber station and stored in the management table (step) S308). 4 shows a management table managed by the policy control server 500, and according to step S308, the IP address of the network end device 200 is stored in the management table.

Meanwhile, the policy control server 500 receives a resource availability survey and policy setting request from the call establishment server 800 according to the IP communication service request of the subscriber station 100 connected to the network 10 (step S310). The policy control server 500 checks the IP address of the network attached equipment 400 by inquiring the management table shown in FIG. 4 and instructs the identified network attached equipment 400 for resource allocation and policy setting for downlink traffic. (Step S312).

In addition, according to a characteristic aspect of the present invention, the policy control server 500 checks the IP address of the network end equipment 200 by querying the management table shown in FIG. 4, and checks the uplink traffic to the identified network end equipment 200. Resource allocation and policy setting are instructed (step S314). As described above, the policy control server 500 may instruct resource allocation and policy setting for uplink traffic directly to the network end equipment 200 or through the terminal control server 600. After the resource allocation and policy setting for the downlink traffic and the uplink traffic is completed, the policy control server 500 responds to the call setup server 800 (step S316).

5 is a block diagram showing an access network policy control apparatus (server) according to the present invention.

The access network policy control server 500 according to the present invention includes a subscriber IP address receiver 510, a route tracker 520, an equipment detector 530, and a traffic controller 540. The subscriber IP address receiving unit 510 receives from the subscriber information management server 700 IP address information of the subscriber station 100 allocated during the network 10 connection authentication process, where the subscriber station 100 is an IP packet network. The route tracer 520 sets the IP address of the subscriber station 100 received by the subscriber IP address receiver 510 as a destination to perform a trace route function as described above.

The device detector 530 detects the network termination equipment 200 connected to the subscriber station 100 through an error message returned from the router located in the path to the subscriber station 100 according to the trace route. In detail, the device detecting unit 530 detects the IP address of the router which finally returned the ICMP destination unreachable message, which is an error message having a 'Time exceeded' value, as the IP address of the network end device 200. The detected IP address of the network termination equipment 200 is stored in the management table as shown in FIG.

The traffic controller 540 controls a policy for providing an IP communication service for the subscriber station 100. As described above, when the call establishment server 800 requests resource availability investigation and policy setting from the policy control server 500 according to the IP communication service attempt of the subscriber station 100, the traffic controller 540 transmits to the management table. Instructs resource allocation and policy setting for downlink traffic to the network attached device 400 with the stored IP address of the network access device. In addition, the traffic control unit 540 instructs resource allocation and policy setting for uplink traffic to the corresponding network end device 200 with the detected IP address of the network end device 200. According to such a policy control of the traffic controller 540, the network indirect equipment 400 sets resource allocation and policy for downlink traffic, and the network end equipment 200 sets resource allocation and policy for uplink traffic.

So far I looked at the center of the preferred embodiment for the present invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be implemented in a modified form without departing from the essential features of the present invention. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. The scope of the present invention is shown in the claims rather than the foregoing description, and all differences within the scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.

1 is a schematic structural diagram of a network according to the present invention;

2 is a diagram illustrating the overall procedure for uplink traffic policy control of an IP packet network according to the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of controlling an uplink traffic policy of an IP packet network performed by an access network policy control server according to the present invention.

4 is an exemplary data table to be managed in an access network policy control server according to the present invention.

5 is a block diagram showing an access network policy control apparatus according to the present invention;

Claims (8)

a) detecting network end equipment connected to a subscriber station authorized for IP packet network connection; And b) instructing control of upstream traffic to the detected network end equipment; The uplink traffic control method of the IP packet network performed by the access network policy control server comprising a. The method of claim 1, wherein step a) is: a1) receiving an IP address of a subscriber station authorized to access an IP packet network; a2) tracing a route to the subscriber station by using the received IP address of the subscriber station as a destination; And a3) detecting network end equipment connected to the subscriber station through the result of the route tracking; The uplink traffic control method of the IP packet network performed by the access network policy control server comprising a. The method of claim 2, Step a2) is to transmit a packet to the subscriber station while increasing the time to live (TTL) value from 0, The step a3), the method of upstream traffic policy control of the IP packet network performed by the access network policy control server, characterized in that for detecting the network end equipment through the error message received by the step a2). The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, The step b) instructs the control of the upstream traffic indirectly through the terminal control server managing the network end devices configuring the access network directly or to the network end device using the detected IP address of the network end device. The uplink traffic control method of the IP packet network performed by the access network policy control server. Receiving an IP address of a subscriber station authorized to access an IP packet network; Tracing a route using the received IP address of the subscriber station as a destination; And Detecting network termination equipment connected to the subscriber station through the route tracking result to control upstream traffic of an IP packet network; Network end equipment recognition method for controlling the uplink traffic of the IP packet network performed in the access network policy control server comprising a. The method of claim 5, Step a2) is to transmit a packet to the subscriber station while increasing the time to live (TTL) value from 0, The step a3) is a network end equipment recognition method for controlling uplink traffic of an IP packet network performed by an access network policy control server, characterized in that for detecting the network end equipment through the error message received by the step a2). . A subscriber IP address receiver configured to receive an IP address of a subscriber station authorized for network connection; A route tracking unit tracking a route to the subscriber station by using the received IP address of the subscriber station as a destination; An equipment detector for detecting network end equipment connected to the subscriber station from the route tracking result; And A traffic controller for instructing control of an uplink traffic of an IP packet network to the detected network end equipment; Access network policy control device comprising a. The method of claim 7, wherein The route tracking unit transmits a packet to the subscriber station while increasing a time to live (TTL) value from 0, And the device detecting unit detects the network end device through an error message received by the packet transmission.

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