Patents by Inventor Mark Ratcliffe

Mark Ratcliffe has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20230291662
    Abstract: A method for bundling network functions as a single microservice in a cloud environment. A service deployment manager may acquire subscriber location information associated with a subscriber or a subscriber profile associated with the subscriber. Moreover, the service deployment manager may utilize the subscriber location information or the subscriber profile to select a cloud location. For example, the cloud location may be based on load, geographical proximity, service profile, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 20, 2023
    Publication date: September 14, 2023
    Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Min Lu, Eric Ashby, Arshad Khan
  • Patent number: 11637761
    Abstract: A method for bundling network functions as a single microservice in a cloud environment. A service deployment manager may acquire subscriber location information associated with a subscriber or a subscriber profile associated with the subscriber. Moreover, the service deployment manager may utilize the subscriber location information or the subscriber profile to select a cloud location. For example, the cloud location may be based on load, geographical proximity, service profile, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Min Lu, Eric Ashby, Arshad Khan
  • Publication number: 20220345380
    Abstract: A method for bundling network functions as a single microservice in a cloud environment. A service deployment manager may acquire subscriber location information associated with a subscriber or a subscriber profile associated with the subscriber. Moreover, the service deployment manager may utilize the subscriber location information or the subscriber profile to select a cloud location. For example, the cloud location may be based on load, geographical proximity, service profile, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 8, 2022
    Publication date: October 27, 2022
    Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Min Lu, Eric Ashby, Arshad Khan
  • Patent number: 11431587
    Abstract: A method for bundling network functions as a single microservice in a cloud environment. A service deployment manager may acquire subscriber location information associated with a subscriber or a subscriber profile associated with the subscriber. Moreover, the service deployment manager may utilize the subscriber location information or the subscriber profile to select a cloud location. For example, the cloud location may be based on load, geographical proximity, service profile, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Min Lu, Eric Ashby, Arshad Khan
  • Publication number: 20220078091
    Abstract: A method for bundling network functions as a single microservice in a cloud environment. A service deployment manager may acquire subscriber location information associated with a subscriber or a subscriber profile associated with the subscriber. Moreover, the service deployment manager may utilize the subscriber location information or the subscriber profile to select a cloud location. For example, the cloud location may be based on load, geographical proximity, service profile, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2020
    Publication date: March 10, 2022
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Min Lu, Eric Ashby, Arshad Khan
  • Patent number: 11003516
    Abstract: When a virtualized service platform encounters a catastrophic fault, an orchestrator may instantiate new virtual machines instances to deploy additional capacity in other cloud locations to handle failover storms. After the network fault is fixed and service returns to normal condition, these additional VM instances may be removed from the platform and cloud resources may be released. The system may minimize the resource over-provisioning and may continue to support geographical redundancy or dynamic scaling in a large-scale service network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Robert F. Dailey, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Jeffrey L. Scruggs
  • Patent number: 10887404
    Abstract: A method for vNF chaining management includes receiving virtualized network function (vNF) information from a chaining client associated with a particular vNF. A service chaining catalog is updated based on the vNF information and chaining information is transmitted to peering vNFs of the particular vNF. The vNF information can indicate instantiation of a vNF and identify peering vNFs. Updates received from vNFs can be used to update the chaining catalog. Updated vNF information can then be sent to peering vNFs of the vNF which sent the update.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2021
    Assignee: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, L.P.
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Jeffrey L. Scruggs
  • Patent number: 10736989
    Abstract: The present invention provides materials and methods that can serve as a prosthetic and/or, for tissue engineering applications, as a supporting matrix in the stabilization of an injured or defective myocardial wall in a patient comprising injecting a polymer network at a pre-selected site in the myocardial wall of the patient.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2020
    Assignee: THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
    Inventors: Kevin E. Healy, Samuel Thomas Wall, Mark Ratcliffe, Julius Guccione
  • Patent number: 10659427
    Abstract: A system may assist in moving a communication session in a stable state from a virtual network function serving that communication session to another virtual network function at that same site or another site, such as another cloud data center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Mark A. Ratcliffe, Chaoxin Qiu
  • Patent number: 10511480
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for message flow management for virtual networks. A processor can identify a target virtual network function instance that is to be taken offline. The processor can change a status associated with the target virtual network function instance to indicate it being taken offline. The processor can start a graceful shutdown timer to trigger shutdown of the target virtual network function instance. The processor can identify external interfaces and a peer network function that identifies the target virtual network function instance as a next hop. The processor can obtain, for the target virtual network function instance and the peer network function instance, a snapshot that identifies configuration data for the target virtual network function instance and the peer network function instance and can generate a command to trigger a shutdown of the target virtual network function instance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2019
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Robert F. Dailey, Jeffrey L. Scruggs
  • Publication number: 20190373065
    Abstract: A method for vNF chaining management includes receiving virtualized network function (vNF) information from a chaining client associated with a particular vNF. A service chaining catalog is updated based on the vNF information and chaining information is transmitted to peering vNFs of the particular vNF. The vNF information can indicate instantiation of a vNF and identify peering vNFs. Updates received from vNFs can be used to update the chaining catalog. Updated vNF information can then be sent to peering vNFs of the vNF which sent the update.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2019
    Publication date: December 5, 2019
    Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Jeffrey L. Scruggs
  • Patent number: 10432736
    Abstract: A method for vNF chaining management includes receiving virtualized network function (vNF) information from a chaining client associated with a particular vNF. A service chaining catalog is updated based on the vNF information and chaining information is transmitted to peering vNFs of the particular vNF. The vNF information can indicate instantiation of a vNF and identify peering vNFs. Updates received from vNFs can be used to update the chaining catalog. Updated vNF information can then be sent to peering vNFs of the vNF which sent the update.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2019
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Jeffrey L. Scruggs
  • Publication number: 20190182108
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for message flow management for virtual networks. A processor can identify a target virtual network function instance that is to be taken offline. The processor can change a status associated with the target virtual network function instance to indicate it being taken offline. The processor can start a graceful shutdown timer to trigger shutdown of the target virtual network function instance. The processor can identify external interfaces and a peer network function that identifies the target virtual network function instance as a next hop. The processor can obtain, for the target virtual network function instance and the peer network function instance, a snapshot that identifies configuration data for the target virtual network function instance and the peer network function instance and can generate a command to trigger a shutdown of the target virtual network function instance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 13, 2019
    Publication date: June 13, 2019
    Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Robert F. Dailey, Jeffrey L. Scruggs
  • Patent number: 10212035
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for message flow management for virtual networks. A processor can identify a target virtual network function instance that is to be taken offline. The processor can change a status associated with the target virtual network function instance to indicate it being taken offline. The processor can start a graceful shutdown timer to trigger shutdown of the target virtual network function instance. The processor can identify external interfaces and a peer network function that identifies the target virtual network function instance as a next hop. The processor can obtain, for the target virtual network function instance and the peer network function instance, a snapshot that identifies configuration data for the target virtual network function instance and the peer network function instance and can generate a command to trigger a shutdown of the target virtual network function instance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Robert F. Dailey, Jeffrey L. Scruggs
  • Publication number: 20190026168
    Abstract: Virtual machines may have external interfaces (E-VMs) and VMs with internal interfaces (I-VMs). A control system may automatically scale the quantity of I-VMs based on traffic demand, among other things.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 24, 2017
    Publication date: January 24, 2019
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Robert F. Dailey, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Jeffrey L. Scruggs
  • Publication number: 20180176310
    Abstract: A method for vNF chaining management includes receiving virtualized network function (vNF) information from a chaining client associated with a particular vNF. A service chaining catalog is updated based on the vNF information and chaining information is transmitted to peering vNFs of the particular vNF. The vNF information can indicate instantiation of a vNF and identify peering vNFs. Updates received from vNFs can be used to update the chaining catalog. Updated vNF information can then be sent to peering vNFs of the vNF which sent the update.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 20, 2018
    Publication date: June 21, 2018
    Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Jeffrey L. Scruggs
  • Patent number: 9930127
    Abstract: A method for vNF chaining management includes receiving virtualized network function (vNF) information from a chaining client associated with a particular vNF. A service chaining catalog is updated based on the vNF information and chaining information is transmitted to peering vNFs of the particular vNF. The vNF information can indicate instantiation of a vNF and identify peering vNFs. Updates received from vNFs can be used to update the chaining catalog. Updated vNF information can then be sent to peering vNFs of the vNF which sent the update.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2018
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Jeffrey L. Scruggs
  • Patent number: 9872328
    Abstract: Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a system that detects a request to reattach to a communication network to update a registration between a wireless communication system and the communication network while the wireless communication system is connected to a session border controller of the communication network. The system delays a release of bearer communications with the communication network responsive to the request to reattach to the communication network not being urgent. Other embodiments are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2018
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Mark A. Ratcliffe, Chaoxin Qiu
  • Patent number: 9854005
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to provide data network services to a non-registering endpoint are disclosed herein. A disclosed method includes, transmitting, by executing an instruction with a processor, information identifying the non-registering endpoint and a first list identifying a plurality of proxy-call session control functions to a plurality of serving-call session control functions, the plurality of proxy-call session control functions being statically assigned to process calls to the non-registering endpoint when selected by any of the plurality of serving-call session control functions. In the disclosed example method, the non-registering endpoint is unable to register with any data network. The first list can be provided to the plurality of serving-call session control functions in response to an event.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2017
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Min Lu, Martin Dolly, Leticia Johnson, Mark Ratcliffe
  • Publication number: 20170318087
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for message flow management for virtual networks. A processor can identify a target virtual network function instance that is to be taken offline. The processor can change a status associated with the target virtual network function instance to indicate it being taken offline. The processor can start a graceful shutdown timer to trigger shutdown of the target virtual network function instance. The processor can identify external interfaces and a peer network function that identifies the target virtual network function instance as a next hop. The processor can obtain, for the target virtual network function instance and the peer network function instance, a snapshot that identifies configuration data for the target virtual network function instance and the peer network function instance and can generate a command to trigger a shutdown of the target virtual network function instance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2016
    Publication date: November 2, 2017
    Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Mark A. Ratcliffe, Robert F. Dailey, Jeffrey L. Scruggs