Nortel Networks Corporation

Cisco Technology, Inc.

Rockstar Consortium US LP

Anthony L Alles

Shyam Prasad Pillalamarri

Arthur Lin

Kent Huntley Headrick

David Mullenex

Thomas Daly

Ethan M Spiegel

Ashok N Chippa

Marek Tomaszewski

Gil Tene

Suhas Anand Shetty

Juha Ilari Heinanen

Prasad Pillalamarri

Kent H Hendrick

Suhas A Shetty

H Kent Hendrick

A Suhas Shetty

An internet service node (ISN) enabling the provision of desired service policies to each subscriber. The desired service policies for each subscriber are provided as an input. The desired service policies are translated into processing rules. Each processing rule contains a classifier and associated action. A classifier generally identifies the application data flows to which the action may be applied to provide the desired service policies. The processing rules may be generated dynamically to implement the specified service policies for each subscriber. Each data bit group may be classified to associate with a subscriber and only the processing rules corresponding to the subscriber may be applied to the data bit group to provide the desired services.

System and method for providing desired service policies to subscribers accessing the internet

The invention provides a method and system for providing unique ATM End System Addresses, in which each new device is assigned a unique address in an ATM network while allowing all new devices performing the PNNI protocol in a selected set (such as all those from a single manufacturer) to be assigned by default to the same peer group. In the invention, a first portion of the ATM address (from which the default peer group ID is determined) is by default configured to equal a selected value unique to the manufacturer (or another selected class of devices), which assures that all devices from the same manufacturer (or in that selected class) are by default configured in the same peer group for PNNI protocol purposes, while a second portion of the ATM address (comprising a switch number ID) and a third portion of the ATM address (comprising a device number ID) are by default both configured to equal a unique value for the device (such as a MAC address), which assures that each device is configured with a unique ATM address. The third portion of the ATM address may alternatively be determined using a different method, so long as selection of the third portion causes each device to be assigned a unique ATM address by default.

Format for automatic generation of unique ATM addresses used for PNNI

An internet service node (ISN) enabling the provision of desired service policies to each subscriber. The ISN may contain multiple processor groups, with each subscriber being assigned to a processor group. The assigned processor group may be configured with the processing rules, which provide the service policies desired, by a subscriber. A port may determine the specific processor group to which received data is to be forwarded. A content addressable memory with masks for individual locations may be implemented to quickly determines the processor group to which received data is to be assigned to. Due to the features of the present invention, an ISN may be able to serve a large number of subscribers efficiently. The ISN may be used at the edge of an access network.

Providing desired service policies to subscribers accessing internet

An internet service node (ISN) for sending unsolicited web pages only to users agreeing to receive unsolicited web page. An internet service provider (ISP) may charge lower rates to users agreeing to receive unsolicited web pages. For example, an ISP may send an unsolicited web page in response to the first web page request for a user. In general, a user may agree to receive different types of unsolicited web pages under different conditions. An ISN may monitor the data flows related to the user to determine whether any condition is satisfied; and a web server may be used to generate and send the corresponding unsolicited web page.

Flexible external control of unsolicited web pages sent to a user accessing the internet

This invention provides an Internet Access Provider (IAP) a simple mechanism to steer users to given Internet services, such as the Web pages, of sponsors. The mechanism allows a sponsor to grant a dial-in user unlimited access to the Internet after the user has first accessed its Internet services. The invention is thus important for any IAP that wants to receive income from sponsors by steering Internet users to their services. In the ultimate case, an IAP could receive all its income from sponsors and thus be able to offer the Internet access for free. The key characteristics of the present invention is that a user is steered to the Internet services of a sponsor based on a sponsor specific called telephone number or a sponsor specific login name.

Steering of internet access to sponsors

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Anthony L Alles