Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (publ)

Johnson Oyama

Ina Widegren

Brian C Williams

Ryoji Kato

Gabor Fodor

George Foti

Sorin Surdila

Jürgen Sauermann

Eva Gustafsson

The invention relates to access control for a movable network () managed by a mobile router (), wherein said mobile route is interconnected through a bi-directional link () with a mobility anchoring agent () that anchors the network mobility for the mobile router. According to the invention, access control enforcement points () are located at both the mobile router () and the mobility anchoring agent (). Access control is exercised at the mobility agent () to filter downlink packets to the mobile router () and access control is exercised at the mobile router () to filter uplink packets to the mobility anchoring agent (). In this way, unauthorized packets, both uplink and downlink, do not have to cross the air interface before being filtered away, thereby preventing waste of valuable radio resources. The access control modules are typically provisioned with access control filter information, preferably by means of a hierarchical provisioning structure.

Network mobility support and access control for movable networks

A basic idea is to use the AAA infrastructure to assign (S) an appropriate DHCP server to DHCP client for the DHCP service, and transferring DHCP-related information over the AAA infrastructure for authenticating (S) and authorizing (S) the DHCP client for DHCP service with the assigned DHCP server. Instead of the more complex DHCP server discovery process known from the prior art, the AAA infrastructure, and more particularly a suitable AAA server or equivalent AAA component, is used for assigning an appropriate DHCP server to the DHCP client. Consequently, there is no longer any mandatory dependency on the DHCP discovery-related messages. The invention preferably provides AAA protocol support for facilitating assignment of appropriate DHCP servers and providing an out-of-band key agreement protocol for DHCP clients and servers by carrying DHCP related information facilitating the bootstrapping of DHCP authentication extension (RFC3118).

AAA support for DHCP

For establishing a MIPv6 security association between the mobile node () roaming in a foreign network () and a home agent () and for simplifying MIPv6-related configuration, MIPv6-related information is transferred in an end-to-end procedure over an AAA infrastructure by means of an, preferably extended, authentication protocol. A preferred embodiment uses EAP as basis for the extended authentication protocol, creating EAP extensions by incorporating the MIPv6-related information as additional data in the EAP protocol stack, for example as EAP attributes in the EAP method layer of the EAP protocol stack or transferred in a generic container attribute on the EAP layer or the EAP method layer. A major advantage of the proposed MIPv6 authentication/authorization mechanism lies in the fact that it is transparent to the visited domain (), allowing AAA client () and AAAv () to act as mere pass-through agents during the procedure.

Method, system and apparatus to support mobile IP version 6 services

Using session signaling, a multimedia session with plural media data streams is initiated between the mobile terminal and a remote host coupled to a packet data network. The mobile terminal is coupled to the packet data network and to a multimedia system that provides multimedia session services by way of an access point. A plurality of packet access bearers is established between the mobile terminal and the access point to transport corresponding ones of the media data streams between the mobile terminal and the access points. The media binding information is created for each media data stream. The media binding information associates each media data stream in the session to one of the media packet access bearers and is used to provide session-based control of each of the media packet access bearers. Different example techniques for generating/providing the media information are disclosed.

Media binding to coordinate quality of service requirements for media flows in a multimedia session with IP bearer resources

A protocol proxy relationship is established between a non-enabled host and a protocol-enabled router or other node in a multimedia session including a mobile communications network. A mechanism is provided that allows a non-enabled mobile terminal to communicate a protocol proxy request with a protocol-enabled node along an end-to-end path between the mobile terminal and a remote host. A mechanism is further provided to install information in the protocol enabled node so that it can function as the protocol proxy for the non-enabled mobile terminal.

Method and apparatus for establishing a protocol proxy for a mobile host terminal in a multimedia session

A method for selecting the best access for terminals () in IP-based multi-access communication systems () is provided. The access selection is performed on the network side by an access wizard () that communicates with a profile server () associated with a number of databases (). Via the profile server, the access wizard collects database information related to user, terminal, access networks and/or operator. It determines a 'best' access network based on this information and preferably also on terminal specific information, e.g. terminal location and available access networks, from an access wizard agent () in the terminal. The best access is signaled from the access wizard, via the access wizard agent, and to an access manager () in the terminal, which has means for executing the actions necessary to use the best access.

Method for access selection

A signaling bearer quality of service profile is pre-established and configured in various nodes in an access network. This is a new quality of service class designed to meet the needs of signaling bearers in multimedia sessions. A message requesting a bearer to support a communication between a mobile terminal and an access point to a packet data network is generated. That message includes a signaling quality of service indicator, which when detected, causes a bearer to be established between the mobile terminal and the access point in accordance with the pre-established signaling quality of service profile. The pre-established signaling quality of service profile typically includes low delay and low bit error rates in addition to high priority and accommodation of bursty traffic patterns. A signaling usage indicator may also employed to implement a standard set of minimum signaling bearer capabilities.

Signaling quality of service class for use in multimedia communicatations

A method of filtering and gating data flow in a QoS connection between a remote host and user equipment in a packet data network using policy control mechanisms includes a remote host initiating an application in an application server and a corresponding session between the remote host and the user equipment (&ldquo;UE&rdquo;) via the application server. The UE requests, to a gateway support node (&ldquo;GGSN&rdquo;) of the network, establishment of a network bearer service between the UE and the remote host. A corresponding policy control function (&ldquo;PCF&rdquo;) in a policy server receives, from the application server, filtering data derived from session data received by the application server during the session. The GGSN interrogates the corresponding PCF in the policy server to initialize a gate using policy control filtering data at the GGSN. The gate then filters the data flow in the QoS connection according to the policy control filtering data.

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Mississauga, Canada

Johnson Oyama