JP2014165760A - Multicast packet count device, method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable measured-rate charging of multicast according to a network use quantity with unitary management of a processing load and measured-rate charging data.SOLUTION: A device disposed on the content distribution provider network side includes: means for receiving a multicast packet distributed from a content distribution provider device; means for receiving a viewing request and a withdrawal request through an edge router; multicast viewing user registration means for registering user information included in the acquired viewing request into storage means, to notify the viewing request and the withdrawal request; and means for measuring received multicast packets and measuring a byte amount and a packet amount of the multicast packets from the viewing request to the withdrawal request acquired from the multicast viewing user registration means for each user, to store into the storage means.

Description

  The present invention relates to a packet counting apparatus, method, and program for multicast packets, and in particular, based on IP packet identification results such as DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) deployed on an IP network and a packet counting apparatus for pay-per-use. The present invention relates to a packet counting apparatus, method, and program for multicast packets for performing transfer, discard, statistical information collection, and the like.

  A DPI device and a packet counter device are required to have a function for identifying a large number of various input packets in real time. The DPI device and packet counter device monitor the header part of the IP packet, especially the source / destination IP address field, and when a specific IP address or prefix is detected, the number of bytes passed for each IP address or prefix. And a device that measures the number of packets and the like, and has a function of providing original information for pay-per-use.

  FIG. 1 shows a conventional packet counting method.

  Typical packet communication methods include unicast and multicast. Among them, unicast, which is often used in the Internet or the like, is a method of one-to-one communication between a server and a client, and is used for various purposes such as sending and receiving e-mails and browsing websites.

  Multicast is a communication method that distributes data to all specific groups simultaneously. The router copies the required number of packets sent from the source and distributes them to the destination. When the same data is sent to a plurality of destinations, the load on the network can be greatly reduced (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 1).

  Therefore, since the source / destination IP address is stored in the IP packet header part in unicast, the number of bytes passed and the number of packets can be measured for each IP address or prefix. As shown in FIG. 6, since the multicast group address is used as the destination IP address, it is impossible to determine which user the communication is for only using the IP packet. Therefore, in order to measure the number of passing bytes, the number of packets, etc. for each user as the original information for the pay-per-use billing, it is necessary to refer to the multicast viewing user information separately.

Mastering TCP / IP IP Multicast 1999 Ohm company

  As described above, in order to measure the number of passing bytes, the number of packets, etc. for each multicast packet, it is necessary to refer to the multicast viewing user information separately. All accommodated edge routers must be equipped with a DPI device or a packet counter device.

  As a communication carrier, as with unicast packets, billing according to the usage amount of network resources is realized, and as with unicast, billing according to the viewing amount is also desired for users. In order to measure the number of passing bytes and the number of packets for each user as the original information, it is necessary to refer to the multicast viewing user information separately.

  Furthermore, since it is necessary to separately prepare an enormous packet count system device in order to perform billing at the edge router side that accommodates these users, there is a problem that the devices are dispersed.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a packet counting apparatus, method, and program for multicast packets capable of centrally managing processing load and usage-based charging data and performing multicast usage-based charging according to network usage. The purpose is to do.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention is a packet counting device for a multicast packet for measuring a passing byte amount and the number of packets of the multicast packet for each user,
Located on the content distribution network,
A multicast packet receiving means for receiving a multicast packet distributed from the content distribution provider device;
Request receiving means for receiving a viewing request and a withdrawal request from a user terminal via an edge router;
When the viewing request is acquired, user information is registered in a storage unit, and the multicast viewing user registration unit that notifies the viewing request and the withdrawal request;
The multicast packet received by the multicast packet receiving unit is measured, and the byte amount and packet amount of the multicast packet between the viewing request and the withdrawal request acquired from the multicast viewing user registration unit are measured for each user. Multicast packet measuring means for recording in an entry corresponding to the user of the storage means.

  As described above, in the present invention, the edge router recognizes the viewing user by transmitting control signal information such as a multicast viewing request from the user to the packet counting device, and the packet counting device is provided on the content distribution provider side. The following effects are obtained by collecting and consolidating the network.

  (1) Pay-as-you-go for multicast communication according to network usage is possible.

  (2) The processing load and the pay-per-use data can be unified by the packet count process in the upper network.

  (3) It is possible to create a new billing service for users, such as flexible setting of connection charges for content distributors and lower prices of multicast content.

It is a figure which shows the method of the conventional packet count. It is a figure which shows the outline | summary of the operation | movement in one embodiment of this invention. It is an example of the packet count of the packet count system in one embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram of the packet count system in one embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart when a multicast viewing request is received from user A in an embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart at the time of receiving the multicast leaving request from the user A who is viewing in the embodiment of the present invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  First, an outline of the present invention will be described.

  FIG. 2 shows an outline of the operation in one embodiment of the present invention.

  In the system shown in the figure, the content distributor device is connected to an application server network interface (SNI), and the packet counting system is connected to a tap. A core router is connected to the network, and an edge router is connected to the core router on the user terminal side.

  (1) The packet count device for DPI and pay-per-use billing is arranged in the content distribution provider's network to have a minimum device configuration.

  (2) In the packet count system, in addition to unicast communication, multicast communication measures the number of bytes passed, the number of packets, etc. for each source / destination IP address.

  (3) The user sends an MLD-Report to the edge router.

  (4) The edge router transmits MLD-Report information from the user to the packet count system. For example, “ALLOW” is used for a viewing request and “BLOCK” is used for a withdrawal request.

  (5) Based on the information grasped in the above (4), the packet counting device measures the count number of multicast packets for each user as shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 3, when ALLOW (Src: 1404: 1a8: ffff: a004 :: 79) is sent to the packet counting device as a viewing request from the user, the packet counting device transmits the multicast packet corresponding to the ALLOW (FIG. 3). In the example, the packet amount of ★) is measured.

  Further, when BLOCK (Src: 1404: 1a8: ffff: a004 :: 79) is sent to the packet counting device as a withdrawal request from the user, the packet counting device interrupts multicast measurement corresponding to the BLOCK.

  Next, the packet count system of the present invention will be described.

  FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the packet count system in one embodiment of the present invention.

  The packet counting apparatus 100 includes an MLD-Report receiving unit 110, a multicast viewing user information registration unit 120, a multicast packet receiving unit 130, and a multicast packet measuring unit 140.

  The MLD-Report receiving unit 110 receives MLD-Report information from the edge router 200.

  The multicast viewing user registration unit 120 registers multicast viewing users in the storage unit 121 based on the MLD-Report, and stores viewing multicast information and the like. When the request from the user obtains the viewing request (ALLOW), the viewing request is output to instruct the multicast packet measuring unit 140 to measure the packet amount. If multicast measurement has not been performed in the past, the multicast packet measurement unit 140 is instructed to perform measurement. When the withdrawal request (BLOCK) is acquired, the withdrawal request is similarly output to the multicast measurement unit 140. At this time, if another user is not viewing the multicast packet, the multicast packet measuring unit 140 is instructed to interrupt the measurement. In the example of FIG. 4, the storage unit 121 is provided in the multicast viewing user registration unit 120. However, the storage unit 121 is not limited to this example and is external to the multicast viewing user registration unit 120 or the packet counting device 100. It may be provided outside.

  The multicast packet receiving unit 130 receives a multicast packet from the content distribution provider device 400.

  The multicast packet measuring unit 140 measures the packet amount (byte number / packet number) of multicast packets for each user received by the multicast packet receiving unit 130 from the viewing request to the withdrawal request according to an instruction from the multicast viewing user registration unit 120. Then, the packet size of the received packet is added to the number of bytes of entries of all users who are viewing the corresponding multicast in the storage unit 121, and the number of packets is incremented by one.

  When the withdrawal request is acquired, the addition process of the user to the multicast viewing user registration unit 120 is not performed. If no other user is watching the same multicast as the user, the packet measurement is terminated.

  The packet measurement result output unit 150 outputs the packet measurement result for each user stored in the storage unit 121 as packet count information to an external device or the like for performing accounting calculation.

  An edge router 200 and a content distribution company device 400 are connected to the packet counting device 100.

  The edge router 200 includes an MLD-Report reception unit 210 and an MLD-Report transfer unit 220.

  The MLD-Report receiving unit 210 of the edge router 200 receives the MLD-Report from the user terminal 300.

  The MLD-Report transfer unit 220 transfers the MLD-Report information received by the MLD-Report reception unit 210 to the packet counting device 100.

  The operation in the above configuration will be described below.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart when a multicast viewing request is received from user A in the embodiment of the present invention.

  The multicast packet receiving unit 130 of the packet counting device 100 receives the multicast packet from the content distribution provider device 400, the multicast packet measuring unit 140 measures the number of bytes and the number of multicast packets, and the multicast viewing user registration unit 120. Is added to the list of users who are viewing the multicast packet.

  Step 101) The viewing request (MLD-Report (ALLOW)) from the terminal of user A is received by the MLD-Report receiving unit 210 of the edge router.

  Step 102) The packet is transferred to the packet counting device 100 by the MLD-Report delivery unit 220.

  Step 103) When the MLD-Report receiving unit 110 of the packet counting device 100 acquires the MLD-Report viewing request, the multicast viewing user registration unit 120 stores the user ID, MLD group, and MLD src of the viewing request in the storage unit 121. And the multicast packet measuring unit 140 is instructed to measure the number of bytes passing through and the number of packets that the user A has watched since receiving. Thereby, the multicast packet measuring unit 140 measures the number of passing bytes and the number of packets at the timing instructed from the multicast viewing user registration unit 120 and records them in the storage unit 121.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart when a multicast leave request is received from user A according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  As in the above viewing request, the multicast packet receiving unit 130 of the packet counting device 100 receives the multicast packet from the content distribution provider device 400, and the multicast packet measuring unit 140 measures the number of passing bytes and the number of packets. And added to the list of users registered in the multicast viewing user registration unit 120.

  Step 201) The MLD-Report receiving unit 210 of the edge router receives a viewing request (MLD-Report (BLOCK)) from the terminal of user A.

  Step 202) The packet is transferred to the packet counting device 100 by the MLD-Report delivery unit 220.

  Step 203) The MLD-Report receiving unit 110 of the packet counting device 100 acquires an MLD-Report withdrawal request. The multicast packet receiving unit 130 receives the multicast packet, and the multicast packet measuring unit 140 stops the addition to the multicast viewing user registration unit 120 corresponding to the user who has transmitted the leave request. If other users are not viewing the multicast, the multicast packet measuring unit 140 is instructed to interrupt the measurement of the multicast that the user A is viewing after receiving the packet. Thereby, the multicast packet measuring unit 140 interrupts the measurement if no other user is watching the multicast, and if there is another user who is watching, the multicast packet measuring unit 140 receives the user's Continue measuring the amount of multicast packets.

  The operation of the components of the packet counting device 100 described above can be constructed as a program, installed in a computer used as the packet counting device, executed, or distributed via a network.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications and applications are possible within the scope of the claims.

100 packet counting device 110 MLD-Report receiving unit 120 multicast viewing user registration unit 121 storage unit 130 multicast packet receiving unit 140 multicast packet measuring unit 150 packet measurement result output unit 200 edge router 210 MLD-Report receiving unit 220 MLD-Report forwarding unit 300 User terminal 400 Content distribution company device

Claims (3)

A packet counting device for multicast packets that measures the amount of bytes and the number of packets passing through for each user,
Located on the content distribution network,
A multicast packet receiving means for receiving a multicast packet distributed from the content distribution provider device;
Request receiving means for receiving a viewing request and a withdrawal request from a user terminal via an edge router;
When the viewing request is acquired, user information is registered in a storage unit, and the multicast viewing user registration unit that notifies the viewing request and the withdrawal request;
The multicast packet received by the multicast packet receiving unit is measured, and the byte amount and packet amount of the multicast packet between the viewing request and the withdrawal request acquired from the multicast viewing user registration unit are measured for each user. Multicast packet measuring means for recording in an entry corresponding to the user of the storage means;
A multicast packet counting device comprising: A multicast packet packet counting method for measuring the amount of bytes and the number of packets that pass through a multicast packet for each user,
In an apparatus which is arranged on the content distribution provider network side and has multicast packet receiving means, request receiving means, multicast viewing user registration means, multicast measuring means, storage means,
A multicast packet receiving step in which the multicast packet receiving means receives a multicast packet distributed from a content distributor device;
A request receiving step in which the request means receives a viewing request and a withdrawal request from a user terminal via an edge router;
When the multicast viewing user registration means acquires the viewing request, the multicast viewing user registration step of registering user information in the storage means and notifying the viewing request and the withdrawal request;
The multicast packet measuring means measures the multicast packet received by the multicast packet receiving means, and the byte amount of the multicast packet between the viewing request and the leaving request instructed in the multicast viewing user registration step; A multicast packet measuring step of measuring a packet amount for each user and recording the packet amount in an entry corresponding to the user in the storage unit;
A multicast packet counting method comprising: Computer
A multicast packet count program for functioning as each means of the multicast packet count device according to claim 1.

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