Traffic steering at the service layer

Abstract

It is recognized herein that current approaches to traffic steering in M2M systems lack capabilities, particularly with respect to traversing value added services in an operator's network. As described herein, nodes or apparatuses at a machine-to-machine (M2M) service layer can leverage value added services that are deployed in an operator's network. The M2M service layer may add metadata to downlink traffic so that the metadata can be used to assist with steering and processing data in the operator's value added services (VASs) network. By of example, the M2M service layer can use a control plane interface to push polices into a network operator's VASs network, and to allow functions in the VASs network to extract information from the M2M service layer.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A method for a Machine to Machine (M2M) service supporting service capabilities through a set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), the method comprising:
 performing a policy provision for value added services (VAS) with a traffic steering function;   adding meta data to a data packet based on the policy provision; and   sending the data packet to the traffic steering function, wherein the meta data is used by the traffic steering function for steering the data packet through the VAS.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the meta data includes a sequence used by the VAS to process the data packet. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the meta data includes one or more attributes associated with an addressed resource for a selected VAS. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the one or more attributes include a reference of a selected value added service (VAS) or a type of a Create, Retrieve, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operation. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the meta data includes one or more security keys and one or more security algorithm types used by the VAS to decrypt and re-encrypt the data packet. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the meta data includes one or more access statistics associated with one or more addressed resources for determining if data should be cached by the VAS and a duration of time associated with caching the data. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the meta data includes a sleep schedule associated with one or more addressed devices, wherein the sleep schedule is associated with determining if data should be cached by the VAS and a duration of time associated with caching the data. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the meta data includes a user status of one or more target devices and the user status is associated with determining one or more types of advertisements to be inserted in a flow or if a software download should be buffered in a selected VAS until a later time. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the meta data includes one or more network conditions for determining if traffic should be compressed, re-encoded, encrypted, buffered or cached by VAS. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the policy provision is associated with one or more attributes of traffic. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein a policy provisioned by the policy provision indicates one or more attributes of addressed resources for determining if data should be processed by a particular VAS in a particular order. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the M2M service is provided as a middleware service for IoT services, the middleware service being a service layer located on top of network protocol stacks. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the service layer is defined according to ETSI/oneM2M standards. 
     
     
         14 . An apparatus for a Machine to Machine (M2M) service supporting service capabilities through a set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), the apparatus comprising a processor, memory and communication circuitry, the apparatus being connectable to a network via its communication circuity, the apparatus further comprising computer-executable instructions stored in the memory of the apparatus which, when executed by the processor of the apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform operations comprising:
 performing a policy provision for value added services (VAS) with a traffic steering function;   adding meta data to a data packet based on the policy provision; and   sending the data packet to the traffic steering function, wherein the meta data is used by the traffic steering function for steering the data packet through the VAS.   
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 14 , wherein the meta data includes a sequence used by the VAS to process the data packet. 
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 14 , wherein the meta data includes one or more attributes associated with an addressed resource for a selected VAS. 
     
     
         17 . The apparatus of  claim 16 , wherein the one or more attributes include a reference of a selected value added service (VAS) or a type of a Create, Retrieve, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operation. 
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 14 , wherein the meta data includes one or more security keys and one or more security algorithm types used by the VAS to decrypt and re-encrypt the data packet. 
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 14 , wherein the M2M service is provided as a middleware service for IoT services, the middleware service being a service layer located on top of network protocol stacks. 
     
     
         20 . The apparatus of  claim 19 , wherein the service layer is defined according to ETSI/oneM2M standards.