Cisco Technology, Inc.

Robert Michael Batz

Chris O'Rourke

Louis F Menditto

Mark Albert

Tzu-Ming Tsang

Barron Cornelius Housel, Iii

Robert A Mackie

Walter Glenn Dixon

Pranav Tiwari

Christopher O'Rourke

Humberto M Tavares

Gaurang Shah

Michael Sutton

Richard Gray

Timothy Peter Stammers

Kevin Shatzkamer

Jan Vilhuber

Scott W Brim

Steven C Klein

Mauro Zallocco

Anurag Bhargava

Hendrikus G P Bosch

Ian McDowell Campbell

Pranav Kumar Tiwari

Frank Gerard Bordonaro

Richard Alan Galatioto

Humberto M Taváres

Juan M Mojica

Sean W Hull

Mark Grayson

Srinath Gundavelli

Kent Kinchu Leung

Anand K Oswal

Jayaraman R Iyer

Vimal Srivastava

Alpesh S Patel

Richard Mandfred Pruss

Laurent Andriantsiferana

John G White

Jacob Mark McGuire

Thomas R Bakita

Ashish A Chandwadkar

Wayne Roiger

Rabih A Dabboussi

Weimin Ma

John M Glotzer

Wilfred F Wong

Clarence L Deitrich

Franklin Jones

Andrew R Rothwell

Pranav K Tiwari

Michael S Sutton

Richard L Gray

Christopher C O'ROURKE

Presented herein are techniques to provide sponsored data to a user equipment in a mobile network environment. For example, techniques provided herein may provide for the ability to enhance sponsored data connectivity by enabling a mobile network to facilitate sponsorship of a network slice as part of sponsored data connectivity in which the network slice can provide traffic flow specific Service Level Agreement (SLA) connectivity and treatment. In one example, a method is provided that includes determining, via a first session of a user equipment (UE), that the UE seeks to access content in which financial sponsorship for accessing the content by the UE is to be provided by a sponsoring entity in which the first session involves a first network slice and enabling the UE to establish a second session to access the content in which the second session involves a second network slice.

Techniques to provide sponsored data for a user equipment in a mobile network environment

In one illustrative example, a mobility node (e.g. an SMF) may receive a message which indicates a request for creating a session for a user equipment (UE). A user plane function (UPF) instance for the session may be selected based on a set of parameters. The set of parameters may include one or more location(s) of one or more multi-access edge computing (MEC) resources and applications of interest for the UE. Location data associated with the MEC resources and applications may be determined from server addresses obtained from UPF processing of domain name server (DNS) queries associated with the applications. In preferred implementations, the server addresses are client subnet location-dependent server addresses obtained from client subnet-based DNS queries. The server addresses or location data derived therefrom may be regularly submitted to the SMF for improved UPF selection based on locations of MEC resources and applications.

Methods and apparatus for selecting network resources for UE sessions based on locations of multi-access edge computing (MEC) resources and applications

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving one or more packets of a communication session from one or more interfaces, such that the interface is a subscriber interface or a network interface. The method further includes associating the communication session to an end user with a source Internet Protocol (IP) address of the packet if the packet is received from the subscriber interface or to an end user with a destination IP address of the packet if the packet is received from the network interface.

System and method for associating an end user for billing in a network environment

A method is provided in one example and includes receiving a request to initiate a communication flow associated with a subscriber and identifying one or more parameters to be monitored for the communication flow. The method further includes extracting one or more bits from packets associated with the communication flow; the bits are used to determine an operating system associated with the communication flow. A policy decision can be executed for the communication flow based on the operating system associated with the communication flow. In more specific examples, the bits are sent to a next destination in response to a threshold being reached for at least one of the parameters. The parameters can be associated a volume parameter or a time parameter. The policy decision could include blocking traffic associated with the subscriber, initiating billing, redirecting the communication, managing a quality of service level for the communication flow, etc.

System and method for reporting packet characteristics in a network environment

A method is provided in one example embodiment and may include receiving a first Internet protocol (IP) flow for an IP session for a subscriber; selecting a first service function group from a plurality of service function groups to perform one or more services for the IP session for the subscriber, wherein each of the plurality of service function groups comprises a plurality of service function chain types and wherein each service function chain type comprises an ordered combination of one or more service functions; assigning the IP session for the subscriber to the first service function group; and forwarding the first IP flow for the IP session of the subscriber across a first service function chain type for the first service function group based, at least in part, on a service policy for the subscriber.

System and method to facilitate the assignment of service functions for service chains in a network environment

Techniques for separately accounting for multiple transactions in the same data packets communicated over a network using Transport Control Protocol (TCP) include receiving an Internet Protocol (IP) data packet that includes Transport Control Protocol (TCP) payload data. The TCP payload is parsed to determine boundary data that indicates a byte location on a boundary between a first transaction and a second transaction. A byte count that indicates a number of bytes in the TCP payload associated with the first transaction is determined based on the boundary data. Accounting data for the first transaction is determined based at least in part on the byte count. These techniques allow a service gateway to bill separately for different requests and responses carried in TCP data packets, such as those for Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP).

Techniques for accounting for multiple transactions in a transport control protocol (TCP) payload

An example method includes reporting location changes for one or more users from a first network element to a second network element based on transitions for each of the one or more users in relation to a policy location area, wherein the policy location area is defined by one or more first user location information (ULI) information elements (IEs); communicating a per-peer Rx authorization and accounting request (Rx AAR) message to initiate a policy change, wherein the per-peer Rx AAR message comprises the one or more first ULI IEs; communicating a per-Diameter-peer Gx reauthorization request (Gx RAR) message including the one or more first ULI IEs; identifying one or more users for the policy change based, at least in part, on a corresponding ULI IE for each user and the one or more first ULI IEs; and applying the policy change to each of the identified one or more users.

Policy application for a group of subscribers in a network environment

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a selected communication session of a transaction associated with a prepaid end user, such that the transaction comprises a plurality of communication sessions. The method includes associating the selected communication session with the transaction and extracting data from the selected communication session associated with the transaction. The method includes generating a single advice of charge request for the transaction before the selected communication session is completed, the single advice of charge request comprising the extracted data from the selected communication session associated with the transaction.

Generating a single advice of charge request for multiple sessions in a network environment

A method is provided in one example and includes maintaining a correlation between a domain name and a plurality of Internet protocol (IP) addresses included in a domain name system ('DNS') response to a DNS request in connection with DNS exchange between a subscriber and a DNS server, wherein each of the IP addresses corresponds to one of a plurality of web servers associated with the domain name; receiving from the subscriber a packet associated with a flow; identifying an IP address within the packet as being one of the plurality of IP addresses included in the DNS response; and executing a policy decision for the subsequent flow without inspecting the contents of the subsequent flow at layer 7 based on an identity of the subscriber and the domain name correlated to the identified IP address, wherein the policy decision comprises charging a different rate for a particular flow.

System and method for inspecting domain name system flows in a network environment

In one embodiment, a method for providing an ACK packet while queuing data is provided. One or more packets in a series of packets may be received from a client at a gateway. The gateway determines that a packet in the series of packets has not been received. The one or more packets are then queued. The queued packets may have included an ACK for one or more previously sent packets. Thus, if the gateway had forwarded the one or more packets that are queued, then the ACK would have been received by the server. However, the one or more packets are queued and thus the ACK included in the packets is not sent with the queued packets. Even though the plurality of packets are queued, an acknowledgement packet is generated and then sent for the previously sent packets. The acknowledgement packet acknowledges to the server that the one or more previously sent packets were received by the client. The server may then continue transmitting packets to the client and knows it does not need to retransmit the one or more previously sent packets.

Allowing TCP ACK to pass a gateway while queuing data for parsing

A method is provided in one example and includes receiving a first packet associated with a domain name system (DNS) exchange between a subscriber and a DNS server. A correlation is maintained between a domain name and an Internet protocol (IP) address included in a DNS response. A subsequent packet associated with a subsequent flow is received and the IP address is identified within the subsequent packet. The method further includes executing a policy decision for the subsequent flow based on the correlation between the IP address and the domain name. In more specific embodiments, the correlation is stored in a table that includes a time to live (TTL) parameter associated with the IP address. The IP address within the subsequent packet can be mapped to the domain name in order to apply the policy decision for the subsequent flow.

Growing community of inventors

Raleigh, NC, United States of America

Robert Michael Batz