KR20180005076A - Apparatus for multinet aggregation transmission, and operating method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for operating a network device located at the edge of a first network includes a step of generating a first sub flow to be connected to a terminal via the base station of the first network, a step of determining whether to add a second sub flow based on a traffic characteristic transmitted through the first sub flow, and a step of adding the sub flow to the terminal when the second sub flow is added. The function of a multinet aggregation transmission apparatus can be dispersed to a network edge and a core.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a multi-network merging transmission system and an operation method thereof,

The present invention relates to multi-network merging transmission.

Aggregation transmission is a technique of transmitting data using a plurality of communication networks at the same time, and processes data transmitted through each path into one session. Through a merge transmission technique, a terminal can be connected to a plurality of communication networks at a time, and one service / application merges a plurality of networks as a single network, regardless of the number of networks or networks. Therefore, the merge transmission apparatus can quickly transmit and receive a large amount of data using a plurality of usable network resources. It can be called MultiNet Aggregation in the sense of merging a plurality of networks.

There are multi-path TCP (MPTCP) technologies that combine multiple TCP flows in a merge transmission technique. MPTCP is an L4 technology for simultaneously using multiple IP interfaces. A terminal having a plurality of physical interfaces can be connected to a plurality of communication networks at a single point through MPTCP technology, and creates a session on a subflow basis to perform end-to-end communication.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a multi-network merging processing method and a usage amount processing method in a system in which a function of a multi-network merging transmission apparatus is distributed to a network edge (Edge) and a core.

A method of operating a network device disposed at an edge of a first network, the method comprising: generating a first sub-flow to be connected to a terminal via a base station of the first network; Determining whether to add a second subflow based on a traffic characteristic transmitted through the subflow, and requesting the terminal to add a subflow when the second subflow is added.

Wherein the step of determining whether to add the second sub-flow includes determining to add the second sub-flow when the traffic characteristic corresponds to a sub-flow addition criterion, wherein the sub- , And traffic directed to the designated destination server.

A network device located at an edge of the first network may be connected to a second network in which the second sub-flow is generated, and the second sub-flow may be generated in the second network.

The method includes transmitting upstream data received through the at least one of the first subflow and the second subflow from the terminal to a destination server via the Internet network and receiving downlink data through the Internet network , And transmitting the downlink data to the terminal through at least one of the first sub-flow and the second sub-flow.

Wherein the method further comprises reporting to a network device located at a core of the first network a data usage amount transmitted via the first subflow, The network device may generate a packet indicating the amount of data usage and transmit the packet to a network device connected to the charging device of the first network.

A method of operating a first network device disposed in a core of a first network in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the method comprising: Generating a usage report packet indicating the amount of data usage and transmitting the usage report packet to a third network device connected to the charging device of the first network, And is calculated based on the amount of data transmitted through the sub-flow generated in the first network.

The generating of the usage report packet may include generating a packet including only the header, and modifying the value of the field indicating the data size in the header to a value corresponding to the data usage amount to generate the usage report packet.

The generating of the usage report packet may generate the usage report packet including a payload having a size corresponding to the data usage amount.

The transmitting to the third network device may input the usage report packet to pass through the third network device.

The usage report packet that has passed through the third network device may be terminated by the second network device or the packet termination device.

A multi-network merging transmission system according to another embodiment of the present invention is a multi-network merging transmission system, which is disposed at an edge of a first network and is connected to a plurality of networks including the first network, A first network device for generating at least one subflow connected to a first terminal through a network and a second network device for receiving data usage amount to be charged from the first network device in cooperation with the first network device, Wherein the first network device transmits the uplink data received from the first terminal through the at least one subflow to the destination server via the Internet network, And transmits the downlink data received through the Internet network to the first terminal through the at least one sub-flow.

Wherein the first network device generates a first sub-flow to be connected to the first terminal via a base station of the first network and generates a sub-flow to the first terminal based on a traffic characteristic transmitted through the first sub- You can request an addition.

The first network device requests to add the sub-flow when the traffic characteristic corresponds to a sub-flow addition criterion, the sub-flow addition criterion includes burst traffic, traffic transmitted over a reference value per unit time, Traffic < / RTI >

Wherein the first network device generates a session for exchange of control information with the second network device when the first network device is requested to generate the first subflow from the first terminal, After generating a session for exchange, the first sub-flow may be generated in the first network.

When the first network device is requested to generate a second subflow from the first terminal through the second network, the first network device may generate the second subflow in the second network.

The second network device may transmit the usage report packet to a third network device that is interfaced with the charging device of the first network and the usage report packet may pass through the third network device.

The usage report packet may be a packet in which a value of a field indicating a data size in a header is corrected to a value corresponding to the data usage amount or a payload is filled with a size corresponding to the data usage amount.

The first network device may store cache data propagated from the second network device.

Wherein the first network device determines whether the cache server stores the information of the destination server requested by the second terminal to cache the cache data, And report to the second network device a data usage amount to be charged from the data transmitted through the at least one sub-flow.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the multi-network merging transmission function concentrated on a single network device can be distributed to the network edge (Edge) and the core (core) by separating the traffic processing function and the usage processing function. Accordingly, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the traffic concentrated on the EPC (Evolved Packet Core) can be distributed. In addition, according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is not necessary to redundantly mount the usage amount processing function for each device disposed on the network edge, thereby reducing the cost of the network device.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, unnecessary merging of sessions can be reduced because the network determines whether to merge multiple networks based on traffic characteristics.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, since the network side instructs the terminal to merge multiple networks, there is no need to make a proxy connection in the terminal. Therefore, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the terminal does not need to include the proxy client function, and the session connection delay time due to the proxy connection can be reduced.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, network resources for multi-network merging transmission can be efficiently used.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a multi-network merging system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.
2 is a diagram illustrating a proxy-based session connection.
FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a multi-network merging transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation method of a multi-network merging transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a block diagram of network devices of a multi-network merging transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a block diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.
7 is a flowchart of a cache distribution method in a multi-network merging transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
8 is a hardware block diagram of a multiplexing transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. In order to clearly illustrate the present invention, parts not related to the description are omitted, and similar parts are denoted by like reference characters throughout the specification.

Throughout the specification, when an element is referred to as "comprising ", it means that it can include other elements as well, without excluding other elements unless specifically stated otherwise. Also, the terms " part, "" module," and " module ", etc. in the specification mean a unit for processing at least one function or operation and may be implemented by hardware or software or a combination of hardware and software have.

A mobile station (MS), a mobile terminal (MT), a subscriber station (SS), a portable subscriber station (PSS), a user equipment (UE) , An access terminal (AT), and the like, and may include all or some of functions of a mobile station, a mobile terminal, a subscriber station, a mobile subscriber station, a user equipment, an access terminal, and the like.

The terminal of the present disclosure includes a base station (BS), an access point (AP), a radio access station (RAS), a node B, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB) And may be connected to a remote server by connecting to a network device such as a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a Mobile Multihop Relay (MMR) -BS, or the like.

The terminal of the present specification may be a mobile terminal such as a smart phone, a tablet terminal such as a smart pad and a tablet PC, a communication terminal such as a computer and a television, and may have a plurality of communication interfaces.

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

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a multi-network merging system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.

Referring to FIG. 1, MultiNet Aggregation transmission is a technique of transmitting data by merging a plurality of communication networks. The multi-network aggregation transmission is a technique of dividing transmission data into a plurality of routes of the same kind of networks or a plurality of heterogeneous networks, The data transmitted through the path can be bundled and transmitted. Multi-network merging transmission may be referred to as multi-path transmission in the sense of simultaneously transmitting data to a plurality of paths.

The multi-network merging system may include a terminal 10 and a network device 20 connected to the terminal 10 through a plurality of networks (for example, a 3G / LTE network and a WiFi network).

The terminal 10 has multiple communication interfaces and can be connected to a plurality of networks at one time via multiple communication interfaces. The terminal 10 may be equipped with a management application which can be accessed and set up or managed by a multi-network connection.

The terminal 10 includes a network agent that performs authentication, state management, and traffic processing for merging multiple networks, and the network agent can be implemented as internal logic of the terminal. In the terminal 10, a network agent and various applications communicate with each other through a socket. The network agent cooperates with the network device 20 in accordance with the setting information of the management application for network management.

The network device 20 merges the sub-flows transmitted in the multi-path or splits the flows transmitted in the single path into the multi-path sub-flows and transmits the sub-flows. The network device 20 is located at the contact point of the multi-network, and can be located, for example, at the contact point of the LTE network and the WiFi network. The network device 20 may be referred to as a MultiNet Aggregation-Gateway (MA-GW).

The network device 20 divides the data to transmit the received data to the terminal 10. [ Then, the network device 20 transmits some data to the terminal 10 through the sub-flow of the first network (e.g., LTE network) and transmits the remaining data to the sub-network of the second network (e.g., WiFi network) To the terminal 10 through the flow. The terminal 10 merges data received through a plurality of communication interfaces. Similarly, the network device 20 can merge the data transmitted by the terminal 10 using the multiple communication interfaces and transmit the merged data to the server 30.

The multi-network merging technique can be classified as follows according to the merging point.

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

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

L4 / transport layer merging can create a session over a single access network and then participate in data transmission regardless of the IP address scheme, if additional access networks are available. At this time, the application-level communication entity supports a structure capable of single-session-based data communication using one or more access networks.

L7 / Application layer merge reassembles data received by dedicated application / network agent through LTE network and WiFi network or transmits application protocol data separately.

In this way, it is possible to perform various merge transmissions according to the merge transport layer. In the following, merge technology using L4-based multipath TCP (MPTCP) will be described as an example.

2 is a diagram illustrating a proxy-based session connection.

Referring to FIG. 2, the terminal 10 and the server 30 can perform TCP / UDP communication via the network device 20. To this end, the network device 20 is implemented as a proxy server and connects a session through a signaling procedure with the terminal 10. [ The terminal 10 and the network device 20 can exchange signaling information according to the SOCKS (Socket Secure) protocol defined in RFC1928 and RFC1929. The proxy connection method according to the SOCKS protocol defined in RFC1928 and RFC1929 is as follows.

When the application is activated and a packet is generated (TCP SYN), the terminal 10, which is a proxy client, connects to the network device 20, which is a proxy server, through a SOCKS connection procedure. At this time, the network agent implemented in the internal logic of the terminal 10 performs the connection procedure with the network device 20 while communicating with the application.

When the application is started, the terminal 10 performs a TCP connection procedure with the network device 20 (S110). The TCP connection procedure is connected to the exchange of TCP SYN, SYN / ACK, ACK.

When the TCP connection is established, the terminal 10 and the network device 20 are connected to a primary subflow (S120).

The terminal 10 transmits a first message to the network device 20 according to the SOCKS protocol to attempt a proxy connection (S130). The first message includes a SOCKS version, a number of authentication methods supported, and an authentication method.

The network device 20 transmits a second message for inquiring authentication information (method = username / password) corresponding to the selected authentication method to the terminal 10 according to the SOCKS protocol (S140). The second message indicates the selected authentication method and, for example, if the value is "0x02 ", it means username and password authentication.

The terminal 10 transmits a third message requesting authentication of the authentication information to the network device 20 (SOCKS Authentication Request) (S150).

The network device 20 transmits a fourth message including a response to the authentication result (SOCKS Authentication Response) to the terminal 10 (S160).

If the authentication result is successful, the terminal 10 transmits a fifth message requesting a server connection request (SOCKS Connection Request) to the network device 20 (S170).

The network device 20 performs a TCP connection procedure with the content server 30 having the destination address included in the fifth message (S180). The TCP connection procedure is connected to the exchange of TCP SYN, SYN / ACK, ACK.

The network device 20 transmits the sixth message including the SOCKS Connection Reply to the terminal 10 (S190).

If the server connection result is successful, the terminal 10 transmits / receives data to / from the content server 30 via the network device 20. [ If the result of the server connection is successful, the terminal 10 generates a secondary subflow and can transmit and receive data by MPTCP communication with the network device 20. On the other hand, when the server connection result is not successful, the terminal 10 can access the content server 30 via the default path without passing through the network device 20. [

As described above, the signaling method based on the SOCKS protocol has problems such as signaling overhead, latency, processing load, and resource waste due to messages exchanged between the terminal 10 and the network device 20. In addition, for proxy connection, the terminal 10 must be equipped with a proxy agent based on the SOCKS protocol.

Next, a method for controlling generation and merging of subflows on the network side according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the future, the method of controlling the generation and merging of sub-flows on the network side is called active MPTCP. In comparison, the proxy connection-based subflow generation and merging method of the UE described with reference to FIG. 2 is referred to as passive MPTCP.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a multi-network merging transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the multi-network merging transmission system separates the multi-network merging transmission function concentrated on a single network device (for example, MA-GW) into a network device of traffic processing function and usage processing function, . For example, the network device that handles the traffic processing function may be disposed at a network edge (Edge), and the network device that is responsible for the usage processing function may be disposed at the network core (Core). The network device 200 arranged at the network edge is a multi-network merge edge device, and may be simply referred to as an MA-Edge (Multinet Aggregation-Edge). The network device 300 disposed in the network core is a multi-network merging core device, and may be simply referred to as MA-Core (Multinet Aggregation-Core).

The terminal 100 has a function of using a multinet network aggregation service and is connected to the MA-Edge 200 through at least one network to transmit and receive data. The terminal 100 may be referred to as an MA-UE (Multinet Aggregation-User Equipment). The MA-UE 100 and the MA-Edge 200 can create a subflow in a plurality of networks. It is assumed that the first network is an LTE network and the second network is a WiFi network in the future.

The LTE network includes a base station (eNB) 400 to which the MA-UE 100 is connected, and an evolved packet core (EPC) 500, which is a network core. It is assumed that the base station 400 and the EPC 500 are legacy communication systems. The EPC includes a serving gateway (S-GW) 510, a packet data network-gateway (P-GW) 530, a mobility management entity (MME) 550, And a charging device 570 associated with the process. The charging unit 570 includes Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), Online Charging System (OCS), OFFline Charging System (OFCS), and the like. The interface between the base station 400 and the S-GW 510 is S1-U and the interface between the base station 400 and the MME 550 is S1-MME. The interface between the S-GW 510 and the P-GW 530 is S5 and the interface between the S-GW 510 and the MME 550 is S11. The interface between the P-GW 530 and the PCRF / OCS / OFCS is defined as Gx / Gy / Gz. The P-GW 530 informs the billing device 570 of the data usage amount (billing information).

The MA-Edge 200 has an interface connected to the MA-UE 100 through a plurality of networks (for example, an LTE network and a WiFi network). The MA-Edge 200 is a node located on the path connecting the base station 400 and the S-GW 510 / MME 550. The MA-Edge 200 can monitor traffic passing through the S1-U / S1-MME interface through L4 level sniffing. The MA-Edge 200 is connected to the interface (S1-U / S1-MME) between the base station 400 and the S-GW 510 / MME 550 to generate an LTE network path have. The MA-Edge 200 may be connected to a WiFi network to create a WiFi network path (sub-sub-flow).

The MA-Edge 200 generates a primary sub-flow through the LTE network and then determines whether to add a secondary sub-flow based on the traffic characteristics transmitted through the primary sub-flow. The traffic characteristics used for the sub-flow addition criterion can be set variously. The traffic characteristics may include a traffic transmission pattern, a data amount flowing per unit time, and may include destination server information (address, port, URI, etc.) related to the traffic. For example, some traffic may only receive very small amounts of data and the remaining time may not be transmitted any more until the end of the session, and some traffic may be transmitted in bursts. In the case of burst traffic or traffic transmitted over a reference value per unit time (data generated during a specific period of time), it is possible to transmit and receive data quickly by adding a sub-flow and merging. Therefore, the MA-Edge 200 can set the sub-flow addition criterion as the traffic transmitted through the burst traffic or the reference value per unit time. In addition, after setting a specific destination server or application (for example, a video service providing server and an application) in advance as a target of multiplexing the network, the MA-Edge 200 judges whether or not the target is a multiplexing network based on the traffic information can do.

When the MA-Edge 200 has decided to add the sub-flow, it requests the sub-flow addition (MPTCP ADD_ADDR) to the MA-UE 100. Then, the MA-UE 100 requests the sub-subflow generation in the WiFi network. In this manner, the MA-Edge 200 can actively control (active MPTCP) the generation and merging of sub-flows. Therefore, the MA-Edge 200 determines whether to add a sub-flow based on traffic characteristics, thereby preventing generation of sub-sub-flows that are unnecessarily added by the MA-UE 100. [

Meanwhile, the MA-Edge 200 is directly connected to the Internet network. Therefore, the MA-Edge 200 transmits the upstream data transmitted from the MA-UE 100 to the outside through the Internet network. The MA-Edge 200 directly receives downlink data destined for the MA-UE 100 from the Internet.

The MA-Core 300 receives charging information from the MA-Edge 200, that is, data usage information in the LTE network (main sub-flow). The billing information, the data usage, and the data transmission amount may not be exactly the same, but the same meaning is used here. It should be noted that it is not necessary to charge only the transmission data in the main sub-flow, but here, the transmission data in the main sub-flow generated in the LTE network is charged. The MA-Core 300 transmits a usage report packet including data usage information to the P-GW 530. At this time, in case of the upward data usage amount, the usage report packet is inputted to the S5 interface and is transmitted in the direction going out to the P-GW 530 from the S5 interface. In the case of the downlink data usage, the usage report packet is input to the interface (e.g., SGi) of the P-GW 530 with the external network and is transmitted in the direction coming from the SGi interface to the P-GW 530. If it is not necessary to distinguish between the uplink data usage and the downlink data usage, it may be input to the P-GW 530 through an arbitrary interface. The usage report packet that has entered the network core via the P-GW 530 can be terminated by a packet end processing device (not shown). The packet end processing device may be disposed between the S-GW 510 and the P-GW 530. [ Or a usage report packet that has entered the network core may be terminated at the MA-Edge 200. [

The usage report packet according to an exemplary embodiment may include only a TCP / IP header including data size information without a payload. The data size field of the TCP / IP header indicates the size of the data included in the payload, but the MA-Core 300 modifies the value of the data size field of the TCP / IP header to the data usage amount.

The usage report packet according to another embodiment may include a payload of data size transmitted and received through an actual LTE network. The MA-Core 300 generates a packet including a TCP / IP header and a payload in accordance with the data usage information received from the MA-Edge 200. At this time, the payload has a size corresponding to the data usage amount, and can be filled with meaningless values.

In this way, in the distributed system in which the MA-Edge 200 directly transmits and receives traffic to the Internet network, the P-GW 530 does not participate in data transmission. Therefore, the P-GW 530 can not know the amount of data transmitted through the MA-Edge 200 and can not transmit the usage amount information to the charging device. Then, the P-GW 530 and the charging apparatus may fail to process charging, accounting, and statistics for actual data usage. In order to solve such a problem, the MA-Edge 200 reports data usage information to the MA-Core 300, and the MA-Core 300 transmits a usage report packet including data usage information to the P-GW 530 ). Upon receiving the usage report packet, the P-GW 530 recognizes the data size indicated by the usage report packet as the data usage amount in the LTE network. The P-GW 530 may then transmit the data usage to the billing device 570. [

Since the MA-Edge 200 is allocated to each network edge where the base station 400 exists, the MA-Edge 200 can correspond to N: 1 with the MA-Core 300 disposed in the network core. That is, the MA-Core 300 interlocks with a plurality of MA-edges 200. The MA-Core 300 can support service continuity even though the MA-UE 100 performs a base station handover to move the serving MA-Edge.

The MA-Core 300 may be directly connected to the Internet network. The MA-Core 300 extracts cache data based on traffic analysis (for example, HTTP traffic analysis), and can distribute and store the extracted cache data to a plurality of MA-edges 200. FIG.

4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation method of a multi-network merging transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, if there is a packet to be transmitted to a destination server (not shown), the MA-UE 100 makes a session request for a main sub-flow connection through the base station 400 (S210). The session request for the primary sub-flow connection is forwarded to the MA-Edge 200.

The MA-Edge 200 requests a TCP session to the MA-Core 300 to transmit control information such as data usage information (S220). The MA-Core 300 performs a TCP session response to the MA-Edge 200 (S222). TCP session requests and TCP session responses are processed in the control plane.

The MA-Edge 200 makes a TCP session request to the destination server (e.g., the content server 30) through the Internet network (S230). The MA-Edge 200 receives a TCP session response from the destination server through the Internet network (S232). TCP session requests and TCP session responses are processed in the data plane.

The MA-Edge 200 sends a session response (Session Response) to the MA-UE 100 through the base station 400 for a session request (S234).

The MA-Edge 200 establishes a TCP data session for data transmission / reception with the destination server (establishes a TCP data session) and establishes a primary subflow for data transmission / reception with the MA-UE 100 S240).

The MA-Edge 200 determines whether to add a sub-flow based on the traffic characteristics transmitted through the main sub-flow (S250). The judgment condition used for the sub-flow addition criterion can be set variously. For example, when the traffic transmitted through the main sub-flow is burst traffic or the traffic is transmitted over a reference value per unit time, it can be determined that the sub-flow is to be added. Or to add a sub-subflow based on the destination server information (address, port, URI, etc.) of the traffic transmitted via the main sub-flow.

When the MA-Edge 200 determines to add the sub-flow, the MA-UE 200 requests the MA-UE 100 to add a sub-flow (MPTCP ADD_ADDR) (S252).

The MA-UE 100 which has requested the sub-flow addition (MPTCP ADD_ADDR) makes a session request for the sub-subflow connection through the second network (i.e., the WiFi network) (S254).

The MA-Edge 200 establishes a secondary subflow for data transmission / reception with the MA-UE 100 (S260).

The MA-UE 100 and the MA-Edge 200 transmit and receive data traffic through a sub-flow of the LTE network and a sub-flow of the Wi-Fi network (S270). The MA-Edge 200 aggregates the uplink data received through the sub-flow of the LTE network and the sub-flow of the Wi-Fi network, and delivers the merged uplink data to the outside through the Internet network on which the TCP data session is established . The MA-Edge 200 receives downlink data destined for the MA-UE 100 from the Internet network in which the TCP data session is established, divides the received downlink data into sub-flows of the LTE network and sub-flows of the Wi-Fi network and segmented.

The MA-Edge 200 reports data usage information corresponding to the amount of uplink data and downlink data transmitted through the sub-flow of the LTE network to the MA-Core 300 (report LTE traffic usage info) (S280).

The MA-Core 300 inputs a usage report packet generated based on the data usage information to the P-GW 530 (S282). The usage report packet may include only the TCP / IP header including the data size information without the payload, or may include a payload of the data size corresponding to the usage amount. The usage report packet is input to the P-GW 530 at the interface S5 of the S-GW 510 of the P-GW 530. [ In the case of downlink data usage, the usage report packet is input from the external network interface SGi of the P-GW 530 to the P-GW 530.

The P-GW 530 transmits the LTE network usage information extracted from the usage report packet to the billing apparatus 570 (S290). The billing apparatus 570 charges based on the LTE network usage information. Upon receiving the usage report packet, the P-GW 530 recognizes the data size information and the payload size of the header of the usage report packet as if it is transmitted, as in the usage amount processing for the general packet.

5 is a block diagram of network devices of a multi-network merging transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5A is a block diagram of the MA-Edge 200, and FIG. 5B is a block diagram of the MA-Core 300. FIG. The MA-Edge 200 and the MA-Core 300 do not include only the functional blocks shown in FIG. 5, but further include functional blocks for performing the operations described in the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5A, the MA-Edge 200 includes an S1-U / S1-MME interface monitoring unit (S1-U / S1-MME watcher) 210, an MPTCP kernel 220, a packet plane manipulator 230, a data plane manager 240, a control plane manager 250, a policy engine 260, a cache repository 270 ), And a data usage manager 280. [

The S1-U / S1-MME interface monitoring unit 210 monitors the S1-U / S1-MME interface in the S1-U / S1-MME interface between the base station 400 and the S- To monitor the information flowing to it. When the MA-UE 100 makes a session request for a main sub-flow connection, the S1-U / S1-MME interface monitor 210 is an MPTCP related session, so that an MPTCT session request is transmitted from the base station 400 to the MA- 200). The S1-U / S1-MME interface monitoring unit 210 can monitor traffic passing through the S1-U / S1-MME interface through L4 level sniffing. The S1-U / S1-MME interface monitoring unit 210 sniffs all traffic that is input inline. As a result of the sniffing, the TCP traffic is forwarded to the S-GW 510 and the MPTCP traffic is transmitted to the Internet network through the MA-Edge 200.

The MPTCP kernel 220 may be a functional block that implements an algorithm for MPTCP processing in the kernel domain of an operating system (e.g., Linux).

The packet processing unit 230 generates a data packet to be transmitted to the MA-UE 100, the S-GW 510, and the Internet network in cooperation with the data plane management unit 240. The packet processor 230 may re-process the original data packet by sniffing to generate a data packet. The packet processing unit 230 may generate a control packet including control information to be transmitted to the S-GW 510 or the MME 550 in cooperation with the control plane management unit 250. [ The data packet / control packet may be transmitted to the destination via the MPTCP kernel 220.

The policy engine 260 manages various policies related to multi-network merging. The policy engine 260 may exchange information with the S1-U / S1-MME interface monitoring unit 210.

The cache storage unit 270 stores the cache data and can synchronize the cache data with the MA-Core 300. [

The data usage management unit 280 manages usage information related to charging. The data usage amount management unit 280 reports LTE network usage amount information corresponding to the amount of uplink data and the amount of downlink data transmitted through the sub-flow of the LTE network to the MA-Core 300.

Referring to FIG. 5B, the MA-Core 300 includes a charging data collector 310, a charging data replay 320, a cache data control unit 320, ) 330, a cache data synchronization unit 340, and a packet processing unit 350.

The billing information collection unit 310 receives the LTE network usage information from the data usage management unit 280 of the MA-Edge 200. [

The billing information receiving unit 320 interworks with the P-GW 530 and transfers the LTE network usage amount information from the billing information collecting unit 310 to the P-GW 530. [ At this time, the LTE network usage information is generated as a usage report packet in the packet processing unit 350, and the usage report packet is transmitted to the P-GW 530.

The cache data control unit 330 is connected to an external content server. The cache data control unit 330 analyzes the HTTP traffic and selects cache data based on the specified criteria. The cache data can be managed by a URI. The cache data control unit 330 transfers the cache data to the cache storage unit 270 of the MA-Edge 200.

The cache data synchronization unit 340 synchronizes the stored cache data with the cache storage unit 270 of the MA-Edge 200.

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

6 (a) is a terminal equipped with a proxy agent. As described with reference to FIG. 2, a proxy agent tries to establish a proxy connection to a multi-network merging transmission apparatus (MA-GW) for session connection. Thus, the multi-network merging transmission apparatus manually creates and merges the sub-flows.

However, referring to FIG. 6 (b), the MA-UE 100 of the present invention does not need to include a proxy agent. Because the MA-Edge 200 actively controls the generation and merging of subflows, the MA-UE 100 generates a main subflow and then, when the MA-Edge 200 requests to add a sub-flow, , It is necessary to make a session request for a secondary sub-flow connection.

7 is a flowchart of a cache distribution method in a multi-network merging transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 7, a multi-network merging transmission system can distribute cache data to a network edge and charge data transmitted from the network edge to a terminal through an LTE network.

The MA-Core 300 extracts cache data based on a traffic analysis (for example, HTTP traffic analysis) in the Internet network (S310), and propagates the extracted cache data to the MA-Edge 200 (S312) . That is, the MA-Core 300 distributes the cache data to the MA-Edge 200 in a distributed manner. The cache data can be extracted based on URI.

If there is a packet to be transmitted to a destination server (not shown), the MA-UE 100 makes a session request for a main sub-flow connection through the base station 400 (S320). The session request for the primary sub-flow connection is forwarded to the MA-Edge 200.

The MA-Edge 200 determines whether a cache hit occurs based on the information of the destination server (for example, the address of the destination server) (S322). If there is no hit cache data, the MA-Edge 200 tries to connect to the destination server, as described in FIG.

If there is a hit cache, the MA-Edge 200 establishes a primary subflow for data transmission / reception with the MA-UE 100 (S330).

The MA-Edge 200 requests a TCP session to the MA-Core 300 to transmit control information such as a usage report (S340). The MA-Core 300 performs a TCP session response to the MA-Edge 200 (S342). TCP session requests and TCP session responses are processed in the control plane.

The MA-Edge 200 determines whether to add a sub-flow based on the traffic characteristics transmitted through the main sub-flow (S350). The judgment condition used for the sub-flow addition criterion can be set variously.

When the MA-Edge 200 determines to add a sub-flow, it requests MP-CPD ADD_ADDR from the MA-UE 100 (S352).

The MA-UE 100 which has requested the sub-flow addition (MPTCP ADD_ADDR) makes a session request for sub-sub-flow connection through the second network (i.e., WiFi network) (S354).

The MA-Edge 200 establishes a secondary subflow for data transmission / reception with the MA-UE 100 (S360).

The MA-UE 100 requests data of the destination to the MA-Edge 200 (S370). At this time, the MA-UE 100 sends an HTTP request message including address (URI) information and the like to the header. The destination URI is included in the get method of the HTTP header.

The MA-Edge 200 searches cache data hit based on the URI of the HTTP request message (S372).

The MA-UE 100 and the MA-Edge 200 transmit and receive data traffic (cache data) through a sub-flow of the LTE network and a sub-flow of the Wi-Fi network (S380). The MA-Edge 200 aggregates the uplink data received through the sub-flow of the LTE network and the sub-flow of the Wi-Fi network, and transmits the merged uplink data to the outside through the Internet network. The MA-Edge 200 segments the stored cache data into a sub-flow of the LTE network and a sub-flow of the Wi-Fi network and transmits the sub-flow.

The MA-Edge 200 reports LTE network usage information corresponding to the amount of uplink data and the amount of downlink data transmitted through the sub-flow of the LTE network to the MA-Core 300 (S390).

The MA-Core 300 inputs the usage report packet generated based on the LTE network usage information to the P-GW 530 (S392). The usage report packet may include only the TCP / IP header including the data size information without the payload, or may include a payload of the data size corresponding to the usage amount. In the case of the upward data usage, the usage report packet is input to the P-GW 530 at the S5 interface. In the case of downlink data usage, the usage report packet is input to the P-GW 530 from the external network interface SGi.

The P-GW 530 transmits the LTE network usage information extracted from the usage report packet to the billing apparatus 570 (S394). The billing apparatus 570 charges based on the LTE network usage information.

8 is a hardware block diagram of a multiplexing transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8, each of MA-UE 100, MA-Edge 200 and MA-Core 300 includes a processor 1100, a memory device 1200, a storage device 1300, at least one communication device (1400), and the like, and stores a program that is executed in combination with hardware at a specified location. The hardware has a configuration and performance capable of executing the present invention. The program includes instructions implementing the method of operation of the invention described with reference to FIGS. 1 through 7, and in combination with hardware such as processor 1100 and memory device 1200 implement the present invention.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the multi-network merging transmission function concentrated on a single network device can be distributed to the network edge and the core by separating the traffic processing function and the usage processing function. According to the embodiment of the present invention, the traffic concentrated on the EPC can be distributed. In addition, according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is not necessary to redundantly mount the usage amount processing function for each device disposed on the network edge, thereby reducing the cost of the network device.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, unnecessary merging of sessions can be reduced because the network determines whether to merge multiple networks based on traffic characteristics.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, since the network side instructs the terminal to merge multiple networks, there is no need to make a proxy connection in the terminal. Therefore, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the terminal does not need to include the proxy client function, and the session connection delay time due to the proxy connection can be reduced.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, network resources for multi-network merging transmission can be efficiently used.

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

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, It belongs to the scope of right.

Claims (19)

A method of operating a network device located at an edge of a first network,
Generating a first sub-flow to be connected to the terminal via the base station of the first network,
Determining whether to add a second subflow based on a traffic characteristic transmitted through the first subflow, and
Adding the second sub-flow, requesting the terminal to add a sub-flow
≪ / RTI > The method of claim 1,
The step of determining whether to add the second sub-
And to add the second sub-flow if the traffic characteristic corresponds to a sub-flow addition criterion,
The sub-
Burst traffic, traffic transmitted above a threshold per unit time, and traffic directed to a designated destination server. The method of claim 1,
A network device located at an edge of the first network
The second sub-flow is connected to a second network in which the second sub-flow is generated, and the second sub-flow is generated in the second network. The method of claim 1,
Transmitting uplink data received from the terminal through at least one of the first subflow and the second subflow to a destination server via the Internet network, and
Receiving downlink data through the Internet network and transmitting the downlink data to the terminal through at least one of the first subflow and the second subflow;
≪ / RTI > The method of claim 1,
And reporting the data usage amount transmitted through the first sub-flow to a network device disposed in a core of the first network,
Wherein the network device disposed in the core of the first network generates a packet indicating the data usage amount and transmits the packet to a network device connected to the charging device of the first network. 1. A method of operating a first network device located in a core of a first network,
Receiving a data usage amount to be charged from a second network device located at an edge of the first network,
Generating a usage report packet indicating the amount of data usage, and
And transmitting the usage report packet to a third network device, the third network device being interfaced with the charging device of the first network,
Wherein the data usage amount is calculated based on an amount of data transmitted through a sub-flow created in the first network. The method of claim 6,
The step of generating the usage report packet
Generating a packet including only a header and modifying a value of a field indicating a data size in the header to a value corresponding to the data usage amount to generate the usage report packet. The method of claim 6,
The step of generating the usage report packet
Generating a usage report packet including a payload of a size corresponding to the amount of data usage. The method of claim 6,
Wherein the step of transmitting to the third network device
Said usage report packet to be passed through said third network device. The method of claim 9,
Wherein the usage report packet that has passed through the third network device is terminated by the second network device or the packet termination device. A multi-network merge transmission system,
The method comprising the steps of: generating at least one sub-flow that is located at an edge of a first network and is connected to a plurality of networks including the first network and is connected to a first terminal through at least one of the plurality of networks; And a second network device
A second network device that interlocks with the first network device, receives a data usage amount to be charged from the first network device, and generates a usage report packet indicating the data usage amount,
Lt; / RTI >
Wherein the first network device transmits upstream data received through the at least one subflow from the first terminal to a destination server via the Internet network and transmits downlink data received through the Internet network to the at least one subflow To the first terminal. 12. The method of claim 11,
The first network device
A first sub-flow connected to the first terminal through a base station of the first network and a sub-flow addition requesting sub-flow addition to the first terminal based on a traffic characteristic transmitted through the first sub- Merge transmission system. The method of claim 12,
The first network device
Requesting the subflow addition if the traffic characteristic corresponds to a subflow addition criterion,
The sub-
Burst traffic, traffic transmitted over a reference value per unit time, and traffic destined for a designated destination server. The method of claim 12,
The first network device
A session for exchanging control information with the second network device is created, and a session for data exchange with the destination server requested to be a session connection is created from the first terminal when the request for creating the first subflow is received from the first terminal And generating the first sub-flow in the first network. The method of claim 12,
The first network device
And generates the second sub-flow in the second network upon receipt of a request to create a second sub-flow from the first terminal through the second network. 12. The method of claim 11,
The second network device
Transmitting the usage report packet to a third network device connected to the first network's billing device,
Wherein the usage report packet passes through the third network device. 12. The method of claim 11,
Wherein the usage report packet is a packet in which a value of a field indicating a data size in a header is corrected to a value corresponding to the data usage amount or a payload is filled with a size corresponding to the data usage amount. 12. The method of claim 11,
The first network device
And stores the cache data propagated from the second network device. The method of claim 18,
The first network device
Determining whether the information of the destination server which is requested to connect from the second terminal is hit on the stored cache data, and transmitting the hit cache data through at least one subflow connected to the second terminal,
And reports to the second network device a data usage amount to be charged from data transmitted through the at least one sub-flow.

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