US 9,794,140 B2Granted

Aggregating and capturing subscriber traffic

AssigneeAT&T Mobility II LLC

InventorsGeoffrey Richard Zampiello, Scott Sheppard

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Abstract

Data traffic, such as wireless data traffic egressing to the Internet, is aggregated at one or more regional aggregation hubs, and a portion(s) of data traffic associated with a subscriber(s) of interest is captured at the regional aggregation hub(s). Data traffic associated with subscribers can be aggregated at an access concentrator(s) and respective public Internet Protocol (IP) addresses can be given to respective subscribers. The data traffic can be aggregated at the regional aggregation hub(s) and data traffic associated with a subscriber(s) of interest can be identified based at least in part on the public IP address(es) of the respective subscriber(s) of interest. The data traffic associated with a subscriber(s) of interest can be captured and provided to a consumer (e.g., law enforcement, service provider) who desires such data.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system, comprising:

a processor;
and
a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
assigning a first public network address to a first communication device of communication devices to facilitate indicating that a first subscriber identity associated with the first communication device is a subscriber identity of interest based on first information associated with the first subscriber identity, in accordance with a defined policy relating to traffic capture;
assigning a second public network address to a second communication device of the communication devices to facilitate indicating that a second subscriber identity associated with the second communication device is not the subscriber identity of interest based on second information associated with the second subscriber identity, in accordance with the defined policy;
aggregating portions of traffic respectively associated with the communication devices by instructions sent to regional aggregator hub devices associated with regions of a communication network, wherein the portions of the traffic comprise a first portion of the traffic associated with the first communication device and a second portion of the traffic associated with the second communication device, and wherein the instructions comprise an instruction that instructs the regional aggregator hub devices to aggregate the portions of the traffic at the regional aggregator hub devices to facilitate capturing the first portion of the traffic associated with the first communication device that is associated with the subscriber identity of interest;
capturing the first portion of the traffic associated with the first communication device based on a defined capture criterion associated with the defined policy and a result of analyzing the portions of the traffic including respective public network addresses associated with the portions of the traffic, wherein the result of the analyzing indicates that the first portion of the traffic is associated with the first public network address, and wherein the defined capture criterion relates to traffic capture associated with communication devices associated with subscriber identities that are subscriber identities of interest;
and
presenting the first portion of the traffic to a device associated with a third identity that indicated an interest in the first portion of the traffic associated with the subscriber identity of interest.

6 more elements

A method, comprising:

assigning, by a system comprising a processor, a first public network address to a first device of devices to facilitate indicating that a first user identity associated with the first device is a user identity of interest based on first information associated with the first user identity, in accordance with a defined policy relating to traffic capture;
assigning, by the system, a second public network address to a second device of the devices to facilitate indicating that a second user identity associated with the second device is a user identity that is not of interest based on second information associated with the second user identity, in accordance with the defined policy;
aggregating, by the system, portions of traffic respectively associated with the devices at regional aggregation node devices associated with regions of a communication network to facilitate analyzing the portions of the traffic and capturing a first portion of the traffic associated with the first device that is associated with the first user identity that is the user identity of interest, wherein the portions of the traffic comprise the first portion of the traffic associated with the first device and a second portion of the traffic associated with the second device;
capturing, by the system, the first portion of the traffic associated with the first device based on a defined capture criterion associated with the defined policy and a result of analyzing respective public network addresses associated with the portions of the traffic, wherein the result of the analyzing indicates that the first portion of the traffic is associated with the first public network address, and wherein the defined capture criterion relates to capture of traffic associated with a portion of the devices based on the portion of the devices being associated with user identities of interest;
and
directing, by the system, the first portion of the traffic to a third device associated with a third identity that has indicated an interest in the first portion of the traffic associated with the user identity of interest.

3 more elements

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

assigning a first public network address to a first communication device of communication devices to facilitate indicating that a first subscriber identity associated with the first communication device is a subscriber identity of interest based on first information associated with the first subscriber identity, in accordance with a defined policy relating to traffic capture;
assigning a second public network address to a second communication device of the communication devices to facilitate indicating that a second subscriber identity associated with the second communication device is not the subscriber identity of interest based on second information associated with the second subscriber identity, in accordance with the defined policy;
aggregating portions of traffic respectively associated with the communication devices by instructing regional aggregation node devices associated with regions of a communication network to aggregate the portions of the traffic to facilitate analyzing the portions of the traffic and capturing a first portion of the traffic associated with the first communication device that is associated with the first subscriber identity that is the subscriber identity of interest, wherein the portions of the traffic comprise the first portion of the traffic associated with the first communication device and a second portion of the traffic associated with the second communication device;
capturing the first portion of the traffic associated with the first communication device based on a defined capture criterion associated with the defined policy and a result of analyzing respective public network addresses associated with the portions of the traffic, wherein the result of the analyzing indicates that the first portion of the traffic is associated with the first public network address, and wherein the defined capture criterion relates to capture of traffic associated with communication devices associated with subscriber identities that are subscriber identities of interest;
and
communicating the first portion of the traffic to a device associated with a third identity that has indicated an interest in the first portion of the traffic associated with the subscriber identity of interest.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/323,389Filed 3 Jul 2014 · division
Priority: 21 May 2009
Published: US 2014/0313905 A123 Oct 2014
Granted: 17 Oct 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification12 codes

H04L 43/04
Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks: processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
G06Q 30/0246
Determining effectiveness of advertisements: traffic
H04L 43/022
Capturing of monitoring data: by sampling
H04L 43/028
Capturing of monitoring data: by filtering

Family

Application12/469,909Parent of this division · filed 21 May 2009
US 2014/0313905 A1Pre-grant publication · published 23 Oct 2014
US 8,812,347 B2Parent of this division
US 2010/0299173 A1Published application
US 9,794,140 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.