KR20160049705A - Apparatus and method for managing roaming traffic - Google Patents

Abstract

According to the present invention, in roaming traffic management, characteristic information for each traffic type, such as a region, business provider, user, data type or like of roaming traffic, is analyzed with respect to roaming traffic generated in a foreign roaming network. The amount of roaming traffic generated for each traffic type is monitored. Furthermore, traffic control for roaming traffic is performed so that a bandwidth assigned to the foreign roaming network can be managed in balance. Accordingly, the bandwidth assigned to the foreign roaming network is prevented from being excessively occupied by roaming traffic of a specific traffic type.

Description

 [0001] APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MANAGING ROAMING TRAFFIC [0002]

The present invention relates to roaming traffic management, and more particularly, to a roaming traffic management system and a method thereof, and more particularly to a roaming traffic management system and a method thereof, type), and monitors the amount of traffic of the roaming traffic generated by each traffic type to perform traffic control on the roaming traffic so that the bandwidth allocated to the foreign roaming network can be balanced. Thus, To a roaming traffic management apparatus and method capable of providing a fair-share environment of roaming traffic by preventing excessive bandwidth occupation of the foreign roaming network due to roaming traffic of the roaming network.

In general, the roaming service in mobile communication allows a subscriber to use mobile communication services anywhere and across borders, and in particular, international roaming allows a subscriber to use his / Which is a service that allows mobile communication services to be used in other countries. In recent years, as the number of users visiting overseas for travel, business, and the like continues to increase, the number of users using roaming services continues to increase.

For such international roaming, a roaming policy can be established between a local network operator and an overseas roaming network provider through mutual agreement. The roaming policy may include a billing policy for roaming charges (international line costs) have. That is, when a roaming terminal which has gone abroad uses a data service or the like, a local network operator collects the determined international line cost from the user of the roaming terminal according to the roaming charging policy, and then pays the international roaming network operator to the roaming network operator.

Meanwhile, such a foreign roaming network is allocated a bandwidth of a certain band for providing roaming service, and the bandwidth thus allocated is reallocated to a plurality of foreign roaming networks existing for each region and each company, and is used for transmission of roaming traffic .

However, when excessive traffic is generated by a specific region, a business operator, a user, or a traffic type (application, etc.) in a state where a bandwidth for transmission of roaming traffic allocated to an overseas roaming network is limited as described above, .

Therefore, there is a need for a technology that can balance the bandwidth allocated to foreign roaming networks by controlling roaming traffic generated from foreign roaming networks. However, there is still a need for techniques for managing roaming traffic by region, There is no proposal or development of technology to control roaming traffic by monitoring the amount of traffic per star.

(Patent Literature)

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2012-0112958 (Published date October 12, 2012)

Accordingly, in the present invention, characteristic information on a traffic type such as a region, a business operator, a user, and a data type of the roaming traffic is analyzed for roaming traffic generated from an overseas roaming network, and the amount of traffic of the roaming traffic Thereby preventing excessive bandwidth occupation of the foreign roaming network due to roaming traffic of a specific traffic type by performing traffic control on the roaming traffic so that the bandwidth allocated to the foreign roaming network can be balanced, And to provide a roaming traffic management apparatus and method capable of providing a fair-share environment.

The present invention relates to a roaming traffic management apparatus, comprising: a traffic detector for receiving roaming traffic generated from a roaming terminal connected to a plurality of foreign roaming networks; and a processor for dividing the roaming traffic by traffic type, And a traffic management unit for monitoring the roaming traffic generated for each of the classified traffic types and performing traffic control on the roaming traffic based on a reference value of a predetermined amount of traffic for each traffic type, .

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for managing roaming traffic, comprising the steps of: receiving roaming traffic generated from a roaming terminal connected to a plurality of foreign roaming networks; classifying the roaming traffic by traffic type; Performing monitoring for the roaming traffic generated for each of the classified traffic types, and performing traffic control for the roaming traffic based on a preset traffic amount reference value for each traffic type, .

According to the present invention, in the management of roaming traffic, characteristic information on a traffic type such as a region, a carrier, a user, and a data type of the roaming traffic is analyzed for roaming traffic generated from an overseas roaming network, By monitoring traffic amount of traffic, traffic control for roaming traffic is performed so that the bandwidth allocated to the foreign roaming network can be balancedly managed, so that the bandwidth allocated to the foreign roaming network is excessively occupied by roaming traffic of a specific traffic type There is an advantage that it can be prevented. In addition, there is an advantage that the roaming traffic control can provide a fair-share environment of roaming traffic.

1 is a schematic diagram of a mobile communication system of an overseas roaming network and a local network including an intelligent roaming traffic management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention,
FIGS. 2A to 2C are conceptual diagrams of traffic control by region, business operator, and data type according to an embodiment of the present invention,
3 is a detailed block diagram of a roaming traffic management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a flowchart of a roaming traffic optimization service in a roaming traffic management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, the operation principle of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear. The following terms are defined in consideration of the functions of the present invention, and these may be changed according to the intention of the user, the operator, or the like. Therefore, the definition should be based on the contents throughout this specification.

1 is a schematic diagram of a mobile communication system of an overseas roaming network and a local network including an intelligent roaming traffic management apparatus according to embodiments of the present invention.

1, the mobile communication system may include an overseas roaming network 110, a local network 120, the Internet 130, and a target server 140. Here, the foreign roaming network 110 may include a roaming terminal 112, a serving gateway (S-GW) 114, and the local network 120 may include a packet processing node (P-GW) A PDN gateway 121, a roaming traffic management device 122, a plurality of traffic processing devices 123, 124, 125 and 126, and a NAT (Network Address Translation) 128. Here, the foreign roaming network 110 may mean a mobile communication network operated by a foreign operator, and the local network may mean a mobile communication network operated by a domestic operator.

The roaming terminal 112 may be a mobile terminal, a smart phone, a PMP, a smart pad, a smart book, a tablet PC, a netbook, A voice roaming service, a data roaming service, a wireless Internet access roaming service, and the like can be provided through roaming between the mobile terminals 120 and the network 120, and an intelligent roaming traffic management service realized according to various embodiments of the present invention can be provided .

Herein, the serving gateway 114 is a terminal for processing payload traffic according to a predetermined session based on a roaming policy in the network provided through the packet processing node 121 in the local network 120 U-interface with a base station (not shown) as a user plane node on the foreign roaming network 110 side performing session control and the like. In addition, it can support handoff in the LTE mobile communication system and the 3GPP, and can configure the packet processing node 121 and the EPS bearer (Evolved Packet System bearer) on the local network 120 side , And transferring a PDU (Packet Data Unit) using tunneling.

In addition, the packet processing node 121 allocates an IP to a communication terminal according to a communication and charging policy (or a roaming communication and a charging policy), and performs a session control with the external network and the non-3GPP network And can maintain routing information with the external network and the serving gateway 114 on the foreign roaming network 110 side for packet service. In addition, the packet processing node 121 may provide tunneling and IP routing functions, may forward the PDU to the serving gateway 114 and the external network, and may transmit policy priority information to the serving gateway 114, (Not shown), and the like.

Although the local network 120 is not shown in the drawings, the local network 120 may be a 2G (2G) wireless network (e.g., CDMA mobile communication system), a 3G wireless network A wireless network including a combination of at least two wireless networks, a wired Internet, etc., which are any one of a 4th generation (4G) wireless network (e.g., LTE mobile communication system and the like) Lt; / RTI > network.

The roaming traffic management apparatus 122 performs traffic control based on a fair-share policy for roaming traffic generated from the roaming terminal 112 connected to the foreign roaming network 110 .

Hereinafter, the traffic control performed by the roaming traffic management device 122 will be described in more detail.

First, the roaming traffic management device 122 divides roaming traffic (inbound roaming traffic) generated from the roaming terminal 112 connected to the foreign roaming network 110 into traffic types (regions, operators, users, data types) , And traffic amount per traffic type is analyzed.

At this time, the roaming traffic management device 122 identifies a region, a business operator, a user, and a data type of the roaming traffic of the foreign roaming network 110 that transmitted the roaming traffic as a traffic type The characteristics of the roaming traffic can be distinguished. That is, the traffic type means information classified according to various characteristics of the roaming traffic, and may include various types of information selected according to needs, in addition to a region, a business operator, a user, and a data type.

Here, the local information is information on the area where the roaming terminal 112 is located, and can be broadly classified into regional information classified into continents such as Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Africa. Japan, and so on. In addition, the provider information is information on a communication carrier to which the roaming terminal 112 is connected. For example, when the roaming terminal 112 is located in Japan, the provider information may be information of a carrier such as NTT DoCoMo or SoftBank have. The traffic type information may indicate data type information such as whether the roaming traffic generated from the roaming terminal 112 is for a web connection or a P2P connection.

Then, the roaming traffic management device 122 performs monitoring on the roaming traffic originating from the identified specific traffic type based on the analysis result of the roaming traffic, and based on the reference value of the traffic type predetermined traffic amount, Lt; RTI ID = 0.0 > roaming < / RTI >

The reference value of the amount of traffic may mean a preset amount of traffic in order that the total amount of traffic allocated to the foreign roaming network 110 is allocated and managed according to the traffic type of the roaming traffic.

The reference value may be set by a local network communication provider for balanced management of traffic volume of the foreign roaming network 110 according to an embodiment of the present invention. In addition, the reference value may be a reference value defining an upper limit value of the traffic amount to prevent excessive bandwidth occupation for the roaming traffic by a specific traffic type, and may be a minimum value of quality of experience : QoE) of the traffic volume. These reference values may be set to the same amount of traffic for each traffic type, or may be determined differently depending on the characteristics of each traffic type.

In other words, as shown in FIG. 2A, when the traffic generated in Europe is larger than the first reference value set as the upper limit, the roaming traffic management device 122 performs traffic control on the roaming traffic generated in Europe, The amount of traffic is controlled to be smaller than the first reference value. If the traffic generated in the United States is smaller than the second reference value set as the lower limit, traffic control is performed on the roaming traffic in the United States, .

As shown in FIG. 2B, the roaming traffic management device 122 performs traffic control on the roaming traffic generated by the business entity 1, for example, when the traffic generated by the business entity 1 is larger than the first reference value, When the traffic generated by the third party 3 is smaller than the second reference value, traffic control is performed on the roaming traffic generated by the third party 3 so that the amount of traffic is controlled to be larger than the second reference value can do.

2C, when the traffic generated in the application 1 is larger than the first reference value, for example, the roaming traffic management device 122 performs traffic control on the roaming traffic generated in the application 1, When the traffic generated in the application 3 is smaller than the second reference value, traffic control is performed on the roaming traffic generated in the application 3 so that the amount of traffic increases to be equal to or greater than the second reference value Can be controlled.

In addition, the roaming traffic management device 122 selects a data processing method for traffic control of roaming traffic based on the reference values such as the first reference value and the second reference value, It is possible to control the traffic amount of the roaming traffic to be adjusted to the desired amount of traffic through the corresponding traffic processing equipment by requesting traffic control to the selected traffic processing equipment. For example, the traffic processing equipment 123, the traffic compressing equipment 124, the TCP acceleration equipment 125, the web / video optimization Equipment 126, and the like.

For example, if the roaming traffic management apparatus 122 determines that compression of the roaming traffic is necessary to lower the amount of traffic of the roaming traffic to a first reference value or less based on the analysis result of the roaming traffic, To allow the roaming traffic to be compressed through the traffic compression device 124. [ In addition, for example, when the roaming traffic management device 122 determines that the speed control for the roaming traffic is required to lower the amount of traffic of the roaming traffic to a first reference value or lower, the traffic control device 123 requests traffic control So that the traffic processing speed of the roaming traffic can be made slow through the traffic speed control device 123. [

In addition, for example, when the roaming traffic management device 122 determines that acceleration of the roaming traffic is necessary to increase the amount of traffic of the roaming traffic to a second reference value or more, it requests traffic control to the TCP acceleration device 125, The traffic can be processed through the TCP accelerator 125 to speed up the traffic processing.

As another embodiment of the traffic control, the roaming traffic management device 122 extracts the traffic type information of the roaming traffic to check whether it is the predetermined traffic control target traffic type, The traffic control can be performed according to the priority of the roaming traffic of the control target traffic type. At this time, the control target traffic type that requires traffic control as described above may be traffic such as P2P, FTP, video stream, etc., which are likely to cause network load or the like, and the roaming traffic management device 122 may transmit the control target traffic It is possible to perform traffic control for reducing the amount of traffic or blocking roaming traffic through compression or rate control for the type of roaming traffic. For roaming traffic such as P2P, FTP, and video streams, which are controlled traffic, traffic control is performed by setting the highest amount of traffic with the highest amount of traffic as a high priority based on the amount of traffic that is caused by the network load by each traffic can do.

Therefore, excessive traffic of roaming traffic due to a specific traffic type may be generated by the traffic control, and the bandwidth allocated to the foreign roaming network is excessively occupied, thereby preventing the user's perceived quality of the roaming service from deteriorating.

FIG. 3 shows a detailed block configuration of the roaming traffic management apparatus 122 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, operation of each component of the roaming traffic management apparatus 122 of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

First, the traffic detection unit 200 receives roaming traffic generated from a roaming terminal 112 connected to a plurality of foreign roaming networks.

When the roaming traffic generated from the roaming terminal 112 is received through the traffic detection unit 200, the traffic analysis unit 202 may classify the roaming traffic according to the traffic type or analyze the amount of traffic for each traffic type.

At this time, the traffic analyzing unit 202 divides the roaming traffic into traffic such as local information, business information, user information, and data type information of the roaming traffic of the foreign roaming network 110 that has transmitted roaming traffic to the roaming traffic The type of roaming traffic can be identified by checking information about the type. Here, the local information is information on the area where the roaming terminal 112 is located, and can be broadly classified into regional information classified into continents such as Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Africa. Japan, and so on. In addition, the provider information is information on a communication carrier to which the roaming terminal 112 is connected. For example, when the roaming terminal 112 is located in Japan, the provider information may be information of a carrier such as NTT DoCoMo or SoftBank have. In addition, the data type information may indicate data type information such as whether the roaming traffic generated from the roaming terminal 112 is for a web connection or a P2P connection.

The traffic management unit 204 analyzes traffic information received from a specific traffic type based on information on the traffic type (region, business, user, data type, etc.) of the roaming traffic analyzed from the traffic analyzing unit 202, Performs monitoring on roaming traffic, and performs traffic control for roaming traffic based on a reference value of a predetermined amount of traffic for each traffic type.

In this case, the reference value of the traffic amount may mean the amount of traffic that is set in advance so that the total amount of traffic allocated to the foreign roaming network 110 is allocated and managed according to the traffic type. In addition, the reference value may mean a reference value defining an upper limit value of the traffic amount for preventing the bandwidth for the roaming traffic from being excessively occupied by the specific roaming traffic, The lower limit of the amount of traffic for the mobile station may be referred to as the reference value.

That is, the traffic management unit 204 monitors the amount of traffic of the roaming traffic generated from the roaming terminal 112, for example, in performing the traffic control as described above. Then, based on the preset reference value, And controls the traffic amount of the roaming traffic to be adjusted to a desired amount of traffic through the corresponding traffic processing equipment by requesting traffic control to the selected traffic processing equipment.

For example, if the traffic management unit 204 determines that the compression of the roaming traffic is necessary to lower the amount of traffic of the roaming traffic to a value lower than the upper limit, based on the analysis result of the roaming traffic, 124 to request the traffic control to cause the roaming traffic to be compressed through the traffic compression equipment 124. [ For example, if the traffic management unit 204 determines that the speed control for the roaming traffic is required to lower the amount of traffic of the roaming traffic to a value lower than the upper limit, the traffic management unit 204 requests traffic control to the traffic rate control equipment 123 So that the traffic processing speed of the roaming traffic can be made slow through the traffic speed control device 123.

For example, when the traffic management unit 204 determines that the acceleration of the roaming traffic is needed to increase the amount of traffic of the roaming traffic to a value lower than the lower limit, the traffic management unit 204 requests traffic control to the TCP acceleration equipment 125, And the traffic processing speed can be made faster through the TCP accelerator 125.

The traffic management unit 204 extracts traffic type information of the roaming traffic to check whether the traffic type is a previously set traffic control target traffic type, It is possible to perform traffic control according to the priority for the roaming traffic. In this case, the control target traffic type that requires traffic control as described above may be traffic such as P2P, FTP, video stream, etc., which are likely to cause network load, etc., It is possible to perform traffic control for reducing the amount of traffic or blocking roaming traffic through compression or rate control for roaming traffic.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a roaming traffic optimization service processing flow in the roaming traffic management device 122 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 4. FIG.

First, when roaming traffic is generated from the roaming terminal 112 connected to the foreign roaming network 110 and received in the local network 120 (S400), the roaming traffic is detected by a traffic detection unit (not shown) of the roaming traffic management apparatus 122 200).

Next, the traffic analyzing unit 202 of the roaming traffic management apparatus 122 may classify the roaming traffic according to the traffic type or analyze the amount of traffic for each traffic type (S402).

The traffic management unit 204 of the roaming traffic management device 122 then transmits information on the traffic type (region, business, user, data type, etc.) of the roaming traffic analyzed from the traffic analysis unit 202, In step S404, monitoring is performed on the roaming traffic originating from a specific traffic type based on the analysis result. In step S406, it is determined whether traffic control for the roaming traffic is required based on the reference value of the predetermined amount of traffic for each traffic type.

If it is determined that the traffic control for the roaming traffic is necessary, the traffic management unit 204 performs traffic control for the roaming traffic based on the traffic amount reference value (S408). In this case, the reference value of the traffic amount may mean the amount of traffic that is set in advance so that the total amount of traffic allocated to the foreign roaming network 110 is allocated and managed according to the traffic type. The reference value may mean a reference value defining an upper limit value of the traffic amount for preventing excessive bandwidth occupation for the roaming traffic or a traffic amount for ensuring a minimum roaming service degradation quality for a specific traffic type And may mean a reference value defining a lower limit value.

That is, the traffic management unit 204 monitors the amount of traffic of the roaming traffic generated from the roaming terminal 112, for example, in performing the traffic control as described above. Then, based on the preset reference value, And controls the traffic amount of the roaming traffic to be adjusted to a desired amount of traffic through the corresponding traffic processing equipment by requesting traffic control to the selected traffic processing equipment.

For example, if the traffic management unit 204 determines that the compression of the roaming traffic is necessary to lower the amount of traffic of the roaming traffic to a value lower than the upper limit, based on the analysis result of the roaming traffic, 124 to request the traffic control to cause the roaming traffic to be compressed through the traffic compression equipment 124. [ For example, if the traffic management unit 204 determines that the speed control for the roaming traffic is required to lower the amount of traffic of the roaming traffic to a value lower than the upper limit, the traffic management unit 204 requests traffic control to the traffic rate control equipment 123 So that the traffic processing speed of the roaming traffic can be made slow through the traffic speed control device 123.

For example, when the traffic management unit 204 determines that the acceleration of the roaming traffic is needed to increase the amount of traffic of the roaming traffic to a value lower than the lower limit, the traffic management unit 204 requests traffic control to the TCP acceleration equipment 125, And the traffic processing speed can be made faster through the TCP accelerator 125.

The traffic management unit 204 extracts traffic type information of the roaming traffic to check whether the traffic type is a previously set traffic control target traffic type, Traffic control may be performed according to the priority for the roaming traffic (S410). In this case, the control target traffic type that requires traffic control as described above may be traffic such as P2P, FTP, video stream, etc., which are likely to cause network load, etc., It is possible to perform traffic control for reducing the amount of traffic or blocking roaming traffic through compression or rate control for roaming traffic.

Therefore, excessive traffic of roaming traffic due to a specific traffic type may be generated by the traffic control, and the bandwidth allocated to the foreign roaming network is excessively occupied, thereby preventing the user's perceived quality of the roaming service from deteriorating.

As described above, according to the present invention, in the management of roaming traffic, the roaming traffic generated from the foreign roaming network is analyzed for characteristic information of each type of traffic such as a region, a business operator, a user, By monitoring the amount of traffic of roaming traffic generated by each type, traffic control for roaming traffic is performed so that the bandwidth allocated to the foreign roaming network can be balancedly managed, so that the roaming traffic allocated to the foreign roaming network It is possible to prevent an excessive occupation of the bandwidth.

While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should not be limited by the described embodiments but should be defined by the appended claims.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the management of roaming traffic, characteristic information for each type of traffic such as a region, a carrier, a user, and a data type of roaming traffic is analyzed for roaming traffic generated from an overseas roaming network, By monitoring the amount of traffic of the generated roaming traffic, it is possible to provide a management technique in which the bandwidth allocated to the foreign roaming network can be balancedly managed.

110: overseas roaming network 112: roaming terminal
114: S-GW 120: Local network
121: P-GW 122: Roaming traffic management device
123: traffic speed control equipment 124: traffic compression equipment
125: TCP Acceleration Equipment 126: Web / Video Optimization Equipment
128: NAT 130: Internet
140: target server 200: traffic detection unit
202: traffic analysis unit 204: traffic management unit

Claims (6)

A traffic detection unit for receiving roaming traffic generated from a roaming terminal connected to a plurality of foreign roaming networks,
A traffic analyzer for classifying the roaming traffic according to the traffic type and analyzing the amount of traffic for each traffic type;
A traffic management unit for monitoring the roaming traffic generated for each of the classified traffic types and performing traffic control for the roaming traffic based on a reference value of a predetermined amount of traffic for each traffic type,
The roaming traffic management apparatus comprising:
The method according to claim 1,
The traffic management unit,
Selecting a data processing mode for the traffic control for the roaming traffic based on the reference value and requesting the traffic control device to request the traffic control device to control the roaming traffic to be processed through the traffic processing device To the roaming traffic management device.
3. The method of claim 2,
The traffic management unit,
Wherein the control unit controls the roaming traffic to be compressed through the selected traffic processing equipment or controls the traffic processing speed of the roaming traffic.
The method according to claim 1,
The traffic management unit,
The traffic control method according to claim 1, further comprising: extracting traffic type information of the roaming traffic to check whether the traffic type is a previously set traffic control target traffic type; checking roaming traffic of the control target traffic type based on the total amount of traffic allocated to the foreign roaming network And performs traffic control based on the amount of traffic of the roaming traffic according to a priority.
5. The method of claim 4,
The traffic management unit,
And performs compression or speed control on the roaming traffic of the control target traffic type or blocks the roaming traffic.
Receiving roaming traffic generated from a roaming terminal connected to a plurality of foreign roaming networks,
Dividing the roaming traffic by traffic type;
Analyzing the amount of traffic for each traffic type;
Performing monitoring for the roaming traffic generated for each of the classified traffic types;
Performing traffic control on the roaming traffic based on a reference value of a traffic amount preset for each traffic type
/ RTI >

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