Unified communication aware networks

摘要

Unified Communication and Collaboration (UC&C) systems are enabled to dynamically enlighten a set of network elements (NEs) and/or network infrastructure with application awareness so that an accurate set of rules or actions can be applied for a given session without needing to lookup the payload of every packet or applying a somewhat ineffective expensive heuristic mechanisms. Taking advantage of typically longer communication session durations and separate control and media planes, a UC&C control point programs a set of NEs for a given UC&C media flow within a scalable and timely manner. Quality of Service (QoS), security, monitoring, and similar functionality may also be programmed into the NEs through the UC&C control point.

主权项

1. A method at least partially executed on a computing device for facilitating communication sessions in a uniform communication and collaboration (UC&C) aware network, the method comprising:
detecting a request for a communication session; determining one or more attributes and two or more endpoints associated with the requested communication session; providing a UC&C dialog information element based on the determined endpoints and attributes to a network infrastructure policy system to inform the network infrastructure policy system of an imminent creation of a UC&C dialog represented by the UC&C dialog information element; creating a flow policy for the communication session based on the UC&C dialog information element; distributing the flow policy to network elements (NEs) on a path of a media flow in a scalable and timely manner based on a duration of the UC&C dialog for facilitating the communication session, wherein the NEs are enabled to index a packet to the media flow based on the UC&C dialog information element associated with the distributed flow policy such that a performance of a deep packet inspection on the packet is omitted; and in response to a determination that the flow policy is not distributed to the NEs in the timely manner, using another media flow from a previous communication session for facilitating the communication session, wherein Quality of Service (QoS), security, and monitoring are not applied to the other media flow.