US 6,466,976 B1Granted

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

AssigneeNortel Networks Limited

InventorsAnthony L. Alles, Arthur Lin, Shyam Prasad Pillalamarri, Kent Huntley Headrick, Thomas Daly, David Mullenex

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Abstract

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.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An internet service node (ISN) for providing a desired set of service policies for each of a plurality of subscribers, the ISN comprising:

an access port for receiving a plurality of bit groups related to a subscriber comprised in the plurality of subscribers;
a switch fabric coupled to the access port, the switch fabric for receiving the plurality of bit groups and generating a plurality of packets, wherein the plurality of packets contain the data generated from applications related to the subscriber, wherein each of the plurality of packets contains sufficient data to be identified with data flows generated by the applications related to the subscriber;
a packet service card for receiving the plurality of packets, the packet service card processing each of the packets according to a plurality of processing rules related to the subscriber,
each of the plurality of processing rules including a classifier to identify a data flow and an action associated with the classifier to apply a bandwidth prioritization policy and a bandwidth allocation policy to packets associated with the data flow identified by the classifier,
each of the plurality of processing rules further including a time field to specify a time of day during which the bandwidth prioritization policy and the bandwidth allocation policy should be applied;
and
a trunk port coupled to the switch fabric, the trunk port for transmitting any of the plurality of packets desired to be transmitted,
wherein providing a corresponding plurality of processing rules to each of the plurality of subscribers enables the ISN to provide the desired set of service policies for each of the plurality of subscribers.

5 more elements

A method of providing a desired set of service policies to each of a plurality of subscribers, comprising:

providing an internet service node (ISN) as an edge router;
specifying desired service policies for each of the plurality of subscribers;
translating each of the desired service policies into processing rules, each of the processing rules including a classifier and an action associated with the classifier, the classifier including identification of data flows, and the action associated with the classifier including a bandwidth prioritization policy and a bandwidth allocation policy that are to be applied to packets associated with the data flows identified by the classifier, the classifier further including a time field to specify a time of day during which the bandwidth prioritization policy and the bandwidth allocation policy should be applied;
configuring the ISN with the processing rules;
receiving a plurality of bit groups from a subscriber comprised in the plurality of subscribers;
generating a plurality of packets from data contained in the plurality of bit groups, wherein each of the plurality of packets can be associated with a data flow generated by an application of the subscriber;
determining a data flow to which each of the plurality of packets relates;
and
applying the bandwidth prioritization policy, and the bandwidth allocation policy of the action associated with the classifier matching the determined data flow to which the plurality of packets relates,
whereby each of the plurality of subscribers are provided the corresponding desired set of service policies.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.