Patents by Inventor Paul Edward Smith

Paul Edward Smith 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).

  • Patent number: 10375744
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to session continuity between software-defined network (“SDN”) controlled and non-SDN controlled wireless networks. In one embodiment, an SDN controller can determine that a handover of a user equipment (“UE”) from a base station operating under control of the SDN-controlled network to a further base station operating under control of a non-SDN-controlled network has occurred. The SDN controller can establish over an interface between the SDN controller and a packet gateway (“P-GW”), a tunnel through which to exchange handover data associated with the handover and a session IP address for a session in which the UE is involved. The SDN controller can provide, over the interface and through the tunnel, the handover data and the session IP address to the P-GW.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2019
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Zhi Cui, Paul Edward Smith, Jr., Sangar Dowlatkhah
  • Patent number: 10362628
    Abstract: When machine-to-machine (M2M) devices attach to a mobile communication network, the associated communication session can be treated differently than the attachment of other devices. For example, upon determining that a subscriber device that attaches to a communication network is an M2M device and has completed a given network transaction, the M2M device can be immediately detached without waiting on expiration of an inactivity timer. As another example, upon determining that a subscriber device that attaches to a communication network is an M2M device, the M2M device can be excluded from various signaling procedures such as load-balancing procedures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, L.P.
    Inventors: Zhi Cui, Vinod Pandey, Liza Fung, Paul Edward Smith, Jr., Cheng Liu
  • Patent number: 10348569
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for creating and using service control functions. The service control functions can detect a message via an adapter function. The message can relate to a service controlled by the service control functions. Service policies can be accessed. The service policies can include message handling policies and can be accessed to determine if a policy relating to the message exists. If a determination is made that the policy exists, the message and the policy can be analyzed to determine an action to take with respect to the message, and the action can be initiated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2019
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Walter Cooper Chastain, Reuben Klein, Dean Bragg, John Oetting, Frank Cariello, Paul Edward Smith
  • Publication number: 20190158383
    Abstract: An integrated wireless and wireline access system that uses software defined networking is provided to deliver communication services to user equipment via a variety of network access technologies. The software defined networking system can dynamically choose which network access technology to use to deliver services to the user equipment based on network conditions, quality of service concerns, and user equipment context. The user equipment can have different addresses based on the network access technology, and the software defined networking can redirect communications that are directed to a first address associated with the device on a first network to a second address associated with the same device on a second network.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 28, 2019
    Publication date: May 23, 2019
    Inventors: Zhi Cui, Paul Edward Smith, JR.
  • Publication number: 20190097921
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to providing enhanced quality of service (“QoS”) in a software-defined network (“SDN”)-based connectionless mobility architecture. According to one aspect of the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, an SDN controller can receive service level requirements and can map the service level requirements to QoS requirements and attributes to be associated with a QoS tag. The SDN controller can configure a service entry point to insert the QoS tag into incoming packets so that one or more other service points can extract the QoS tag. The other service point(s) can determine, based upon the QoS tag, a QoS treatment to apply to the incoming packets. The other service point(s) can apply the QoS treatment to the incoming packets in accordance with the QoS tag.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 29, 2018
    Publication date: March 28, 2019
    Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Zhi Cui, Jiansong Wang, Paul Edward Smith, JR.
  • Patent number: 10230622
    Abstract: An integrated wireless and wireline access system that uses software defined networking is provided to deliver communication services to user equipment via a variety of network access technologies. The software defined networking system can dynamically choose which network access technology to use to deliver services to the user equipment based on network conditions, quality of service concerns, and user equipment context. The user equipment can have different addresses based on the network access technology, and the software defined networking can redirect communications that are directed to a first address associated with the device on a first network to a second address associated with the same device on a second network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2019
    Assignee: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, L.P.
    Inventors: Zhi Cui, Paul Edward Smith, Jr.
  • Patent number: 10187437
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies are described herein for multi-hop small cell auto discovery for software-defined networking (“SDN”)-enabled radio access networks (“RANs”). According to one aspect of the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, a small cell RAN node can include a network backhaul link connected to a further small cell radio access network node operating within a RAN controlled, at least in part, by a SDN controller. The small cell RAN node can generate an enhanced OFDP multicast message that includes a SDN characteristic for the SDN controller to use, at least in part, to discover the small cell RA node as operational within the RAN. The small cell RAN node can send the enhanced OFDP multicast message over the network backhaul link in an attempt to provide the SDN characteristic to the SDN controller so SDN controller can discover the small cell RAN node as operational within the RAN.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2019
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Zhi Cui, Paul Edward Smith, Jr., Mostafa Tofighbakhsh
  • Publication number: 20190004848
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for service creation and management. A processor can detect an event relating to a service, and access a service creation database to identify a recipe associated with the service. The recipe can define a resource to be used to provide the service. The processor can access an inventory to determine if the resource is available, identify a service control to control the service, instruct an infrastructure control to allocate virtual machines to host components of the service, and issue instructions to the service control. The instructions can instruct the service control to load service functions to the virtual machines.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2018
    Publication date: January 3, 2019
    Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Walter Cooper Chastain, Frank Cariello, Reuben Klein, Paul Edward Smith, JR.
  • Patent number: 10148561
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to providing enhanced quality of service (“QoS”) in a software-defined network (“SDN”)-based connectionless mobility architecture. According to one aspect of the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, an SDN controller can receive service level requirements and can map the service level requirements to QoS requirements and attributes to be associated with a QoS tag. The SDN controller can configure a service entry point to insert the QoS tag into incoming packets so that one or more other service points can extract the QoS tag. The other service point(s) can determine, based upon the QoS tag, a QoS treatment to apply to the incoming packets. The other service point(s) can apply the QoS treatment to the incoming packets in accordance with the QoS tag.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2018
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Zhi Cui, Jiansong Wang, Paul Edward Smith, Jr.
  • Patent number: 10136363
    Abstract: A more efficient network can be achieved using software-defined networking to configure routing tables to route data traffic to and from proper cells. User equipment address data and network device internet protocol address data can be utilized to define locators specific to a user equipment device in relation to various network devices. For instance, broadcasted network address data representative of a mobile device identifier address can be received by a first network device from the mobile device, wherein the mobile device identifier address comprises network address data related to an internet protocol address of a second network device, the first network device can determine a third network device capable of a communication with the mobile device, and the communication with the mobile device can be routed by the first network device to the third network device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2018
    Assignee: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, L.P.
    Inventors: Zhi Cui, Liza Fung, Cheng Liu, Vinod Pandey, Paul Edward Smith, Jr.
  • Publication number: 20180249334
    Abstract: Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, determining a first address of user equipment from a mobile communication network connection request and identifying that the user equipment is stationary based on comparing the first address of the user equipment in the connection request to a second address of a stationary subscriber device. A non-tunneling link is initiated between the user equipment and a stationary packet core of the mobile communication network, based on identifying that the user equipment is stationary, and the connection request is converted from a non-access stratum protocol to an authentication protocol responsive to initiating the non-tunneling link. Other embodiments are disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2018
    Publication date: August 30, 2018
    Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Vinod Pandey, Zhi Cui, Liza Fung, Cheng Liu, Paul Edward Smith, JR.
  • Patent number: 10055240
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for service creation and management. A processor can detect an event relating to a service, and access a service creation database to identify a recipe associated with the service. The recipe can define a resource to be used to provide the service. The processor can access an inventory to determine if the resource is available, identify a service control to control the service, instruct an infrastructure control to allocate virtual machines to host components of the service, and issue instructions to the service control. The instructions can instruct the service control to load service functions to the virtual machines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2018
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Walter Cooper Chastain, Frank Cariello, Reuben Klein, Paul Edward Smith, Jr.
  • Publication number: 20180176980
    Abstract: When machine-to-machine (M2M) devices attach to a mobile communication network, the associated communication session can be treated differently than the attachment of other devices. For example, upon determining that a subscriber device that attaches to a communication network is an M2M device and has completed a given network transaction, the M2M device can be immediately detached without waiting on expiration of an inactivity timer. As another example, upon determining that a subscriber device that attaches to a communication network is an M2M device, the M2M device can be excluded from various signaling procedures such as load-balancing procedures.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 20, 2018
    Publication date: June 21, 2018
    Inventors: Zhi Cui, Vinod Pandey, Liza Fung, Paul Edward Smith, JR., Cheng Liu
  • Publication number: 20180160354
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to session continuity between software-defined network (“SDN”) controlled and non-SDN controlled wireless networks. In one embodiment, an SDN controller can determine that a handover of a user equipment (“UE”) over from a base station operating under control of the SDN-controlled network to a further base station operating under control of a non-SDN-controlled network has occurred. The SDN controller can establish over an interface between the SDN controller and a packet gateway (“P-GW”), a tunnel through which to exchange handover data associated with the handover and a session IP address for a session in which the UE is involved. The SDN controller can provide, over the interface and through the tunnel, the handover data and the session IP address to the P-GW.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 6, 2016
    Publication date: June 7, 2018
    Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Zhi Cui, Paul Edward Smith, JR., Sangar Dowlatkhah
  • Publication number: 20180159766
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to providing enhanced quality of service (“QoS”) in a software-defined network (“SDN”)-based connectionless mobility architecture. According to one aspect of the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, an SDN controller can receive service level requirements and can map the service level requirements to QoS requirements and attributes to be associated with a QoS tag. The SDN controller can configure a service entry point to insert the QoS tag into incoming packets so that one or more other service points can extract the QoS tag. The other service point(s) can determine, based upon the QoS tag, a QoS treatment to apply to the incoming packets. The other service point(s) can apply the QoS treatment to the incoming packets in accordance with the QoS tag.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 6, 2016
    Publication date: June 7, 2018
    Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Zhi Cui, Jiansong Wang, Paul Edward Smith, JR.
  • Patent number: 9949117
    Abstract: Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method including initiating, by a system comprising a processor, a third generation partnership project link between a mobile user equipment and a mobile management entity of a mobile packet core of a mobile communication network, initiating a non-tunneling link between stationary user equipment and a stationary packet core of the mobile communication network, and transmitting packet data from the stationary user equipment to a service through the stationary packet core via the non-tunneling link. Other embodiments are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2018
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Vinod Pandey, Zhi Cui, Liza Fung, Cheng Liu, Paul Edward Smith, Jr.
  • Patent number: 9936536
    Abstract: When machine-to-machine (M2M) devices attach to a mobile communication network, the associated communication session can be treated differently than the attachment of other devices. For example, upon determining that a subscriber device that attaches to a communication network is an M2M device and has completed a given network transaction, the M2M device can be immediately detached without waiting on expiration of an inactivity timer. As another example, upon determining that a subscriber device that attaches to a communication network is an M2M device, the M2M device can be excluded from various signaling procedures such as load-balancing procedures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2018
    Assignee: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, L.P.
    Inventors: Zhi Cui, Vinod Pandey, Liza Fung, Paul Edward Smith, Jr., Cheng Liu
  • Publication number: 20180091372
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for creating and using service control functions. The service control functions can detect a message via an adapter function. The message can relate to a service controlled by the service control functions. Service policies can be accessed. The service policies can include message handling policies and can be accessed to determine if a policy relating to the message exists. If a determination is made that the policy exists, the message and the policy can be analyzed to determine an action to take with respect to the message, and the action can be initiated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 20, 2017
    Publication date: March 29, 2018
    Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Walter Cooper Chastain, Reuben Klein, Dean Bragg, John Oetting, Frank Cariello, Paul Edward Smith, JR.
  • Publication number: 20180054763
    Abstract: A more efficient network can be achieved using software-defined networking to configure routing tables to route data traffic to and from proper cells. User equipment address data and network device internet protocol address data can be utilized to define locators specific to a user equipment device in relation to various network devices. For instance, broadcasted network address data representative of a mobile device identifier address can be received by a first network device from the mobile device, wherein the mobile device identifier address comprises network address data related to an internet protocol address of a second network device, the first network device can determine a third network device capable of a communication with the mobile device, and the communication with the mobile device can be routed by the first network device to the third network device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 3, 2017
    Publication date: February 22, 2018
    Inventors: Zhi Cui, Liza Fung, Cheng Liu, Vinod Pandey, Paul Edward Smith, JR.
  • Patent number: 9882993
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for creating services using service modules. A control system can detect a service creation request. The control system can identify service modules to be included in a service requested by the service creation request. A service control function can be created to manage the service requested by the service creation request. The service modules can be coupled together, and the service requested by the service creation request can be output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2018
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Walter Cooper Chastain, Reuben Klein, Frank Cariello, Paul Edward Smith, Jr.