WWAN Router Traffic Tracking via Unique Public IP Assignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless communication systems face challenges in accurately tracking and managing network traffic within local area networks (LANs) connected to wireless wide area networks (WWANs), particularly in assigning unique identifiers and providing tailored services to individual routers while maintaining user identity privacy.
Innovation Solution
The method involves assigning unique public IP addresses to each router in a LAN, establishing separate protocol data unit (PDU) sessions or network slices, and using IPv6 addressing and tunneling protocols to track and manage network traffic, allowing the WWAN to identify and provide customized services to each router without revealing user identities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If multiple routers in a LAN share a single public IP address, then network address translation (NAT) can be used to conserve public IP addresses, but the WWAN cannot accurately track or provide tailored services to individual routers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the shared public IP address into multiple virtual IP addresses, each associated with a specific router in the LAN. This segmentation allows the WWAN to track and manage network traffic for each router individually while still conserving the use of public IP addresses through the virtualization layer.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a gateway device as an intermediary between the WWAN and the LAN routers. This gateway maintains a mapping between virtual IP addresses and physical router identifiers, enabling the WWAN to track traffic accurately without requiring separate public IP addresses for each router.
2Measurement precision
If unique public IP addresses are assigned to each router in a LAN, then the WWAN can accurately track network traffic and provide tailored services to each router, but public IP address consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates virtual copies of public IP addresses that can be dynamically assigned to different routers. These virtual IP addresses are not permanent physical addresses but rather logical representations that allow multiple routers to share the same public IP pool while maintaining individual trackability through the gateway's mapping mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic IP address assignment where virtual IP addresses can be allocated and deallocated based on current network needs. This dynamic approach allows the system to provide unique identification for traffic tracking when needed, while returning unused addresses to the pool for reuse, thus optimizing public IP address consumption.
3Quantity of substance
If network address translation (NAT) is used to share a public IP address among multiple routers, then public IP address usage is optimized, but user identity privacy cannot be maintained while providing tailored services
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway device serves as a privacy-protecting intermediary that knows the mapping between virtual IP addresses and router identifiers but does not expose this information to the WWAN. This allows the system to maintain user identity privacy while still enabling tailored services through the virtual IP address mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the identification and tracking function from the public IP address itself and places it in the virtual IP address layer managed by the gateway. This separation allows the WWAN to interact with routers using privacy-preserving virtual addresses while the gateway handles the complex mapping logic locally, protecting user identity information.
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer-readable media, for tracking network traffic for local area network (LAN) subnets in a wireless wide area network (WWAN). In some implementations, a UE of the WWAN may assign a unique public IP address to each router of the LAN. The UE may transmit network traffic received from the LAN to the WWAN. The network traffic originating from any router of the LAN may be associated with the unique public IP address that was assigned to that router. The WWAN may use the unique public IP addresses to generate network traffic information that may indicate amounts of network traffic flowing from each router of the LAN. The WWAN, for example, may use the network traffic information to determine billing information for any router in the LAN.