Bandwidth guaranteed provisioning in network-based mobile virtual private network (VPN) services

A virtual private network (VPN) system architecture, comprising:

• means for identifying a set of virtual private network (VPN) customers, at least one mobile access point (MAP) and at least one customer premise equipment (CPE) associated with each VPN customer, and at least one IP service gateway. (IPSG) for facilitating VPN tunneling between a MAP and a CPE, wherein each MAP is geographically remote from each IPSG;
• and
• means for selecting a subset of IPSGs to maximize total profit resulting from provisioning a subset of VPN customers on the selected IPSGs, wherein said total profit from all the customers comprises the sum of profits from each customer (I), where for each customer profit (UI) equals weighted revenue (γVI) less cost (CI), (UI=γVI−CI), wherein said cost per customer comprises a total tunnel bandwidth cost (CIC) from said MAP to said CPE, and a cost (CIV) of provisioning an IPSG node.

A computer readable medium for storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform a method for optimally provisioning connectivity for network-based mobile virtual private network (VPN) services, comprising

• identifying a set of virtual private network (VPN) customers, at least one mobile access point (MAP) and at least one customer premise equipment (CPE) associated with each VPN customer, and at least one IP service gateway (IPSG) for facilitating VPN tunneling between a MAP and a CPE, wherein each said MAP is geographically remote from each said IPSG;
• and
• selecting a subset of IPSGs to maximize total profit resulting from provisioning a subset of VPN customers on the selected IPSGs, wherein said total profit from all the customers comprises the sum of profits from each customer (I), where for each customer profit (UI) equals weighted revenue (γVI) less cost (CI) (UI=γVI−CI), wherein said cost per customer comprises a total tunnel bandwidth cost (CIC) from said MAP to said CPE, and a cost (CIV) of provisioning an IPSG node.