CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a 35 U.S.C § 371 national stage application for International Application No. PCT/IN2017/050566, entitled “METHOD FOR MIGRATION OF SESSION ACCOUNTING TO A DIFFERENT STATEFUL ACCOUNTING PEER”, filed on Dec. 2, 2017, the disclosures and contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of session migration; and more specifically, to the handling of a stateful session migration between accounting peers.

BACKGROUND

Internet service providers (ISP), cellular network providers and similar networking infrastructures are designed to enable a large number of end user devices to have connectivity with services via these networks as well as access to services via the broader Internet. These networks are generally administered by the network provider and the characteristics of the access (e.g., bandwidth allotment and data allowances) are based on service contracts between end users and the network providers.

These networks utilize metrics and traffic engineering protocols to monitor the usage of the network resources by end users and to manage this usage. Often the end user devices connect through local radio access networks (e.g., with cellular networks) or via customer premise equipment (e.g., broadband modems) that are the initial connecting points to these provider networks. These components provide access points to the networks and may be connected with various edge devices such as border gateways that manage access to the broader provider network. These border gateways (e.g., broadband network gateway (BNG)) or edge routers may service the end user devices and work in connection with authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) services in the provider network to keep metrics and accounting relative to each end user.

For example, the AAA services in the provider network can authenticate or authorize initial end user access to the provider networks. The AAA services can also configure the characteristics of the end user access at the BNG or similar network devices in the provider network. The AAA services can use various protocols for the network devices in the provider network to interact with them. One AAA protocol that is commonly utilizes is the remote authentication dial-in user service (RADIUS). A closely related AAA protocol called Diameter was initially designed to replace RADIUS, but RADIUS has continued to be utilized in many types of networks with Diameter being utilized in others.

SUMMARY

The embodiments include a method for migrating a subscriber session from a first authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) accounting peer to a second AAA accounting peer, where the first AAA accounting peer is stateful. The method includes receiving (501) an accounting start packet from an AAA client application, forwarding the accounting start packet to the first AAA accounting peer, receiving an accounting update or accounting stop packet from the AAA client application, and sending an accounting start packet from the AAA client application to the second AAA accounting peer, in response to a connection failure with the first AAA accounting peer.

In another embodiment, a network device configured to execute a plurality of virtual machines, where the virtual machines are configured to support network function virtualization (NFV). The plurality of virtual machines support the method for migrating a subscriber session from a first AAA accounting peer to a second AAA accounting peer, where the first AAA accounting peer is stateful. The network device includes a non-transitory computer readable medium (648) having stored therein a AAA client, and a processor coupled to the non-transitory computer readable medium configured to execute a virtual machine from the plurality of virtual machine, the virtual machine to execute the AAA client. The AAA client is configured to receive an accounting start packet from an AAA client application, to forward the accounting start packet to the first AAA accounting peer, receive an accounting update or accounting stop packet from the AAA client application, and to send an accounting start packet from the AAA client application to the second AAA accounting peer, in response to a connection failure with the first AAA accounting peer.

The embodiments further encompass a computing device configured to execute the method for migrating a subscriber session from a first AAA accounting peer to a second AAA accounting peer, where the first AAA accounting peer is stateful. The computing device includes a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein a AAA client, and a processor coupled to the non-transitory computer readable medium configured to execute the AAA client. The AAA client is configured to receive an accounting start packet from an AAA client application, to forward the accounting start packet to the first AAA accounting peer, receive an accounting update or accounting stop packet from the AAA client application, and to send an accounting start packet from the AAA client application to the second AAA accounting peer, in response to a connection failure with the first AAA accounting peer.

In one embodiment, a control plane device is in a network including a plurality of data plane devices. The control plane device is in communication with the plurality of data plane devices and configured to implement the method for migrating a subscriber session from a first AAA accounting peer to a second AAA accounting peer, where the first AAA accounting peer is stateful. The control plane device includes a non-transitory computer readable medium (748) having stored therein a AAA client, and a processor (742) coupled to the non-transitory computer readable medium configured to execute the AAA client, the AAA client configured to receive an accounting start packet from an AAA client application, to forward the accounting start packet to the first AAA accounting peer, to receive an accounting update or accounting stop packet from the AAA client application, and to send an accounting start packet from the AAA client application to the second AAA accounting peer, in response to a connection failure with the first AAA accounting peer.

