Virtual private network (VPN) service providers are able to allow a user to privately browse the web, share files, and access streaming media. VPN service providers deploy VPN concentrators to terminate VPN tunnels. There are two major factors that affect network performance a user can enjoy when connecting to the Internet, an intranet or network node through a VPNs provided by a VPN service provider.
The first factor is the VPN tunnel bandwidth between a user's device and the VPN concentrator deployed by the VPN service provider to terminate the VPN tunnel.
The second factor is the connection bandwidth between the VPN concentrator and the destination that the user wants to access, such as a web site, YouTube, or a file server in an intranet.
If the VPN tunnel bandwidth between the user's device and the VPN concentrator is high but the connection bandwidth between the VPN concentrator and the destination is low, the overall bandwidth experienced by the user would still be low. This is not only limited to bandwidth, but is also applicable in case of other performance criteria such as latency, packet drop, packet jitters, round trip time, bit error rate, etc.
It is common that a VPN service provider does not provide unlimited VPN service so that it may limit VPN tunnel bandwidth by limiting VPN tunnel bandwidth between a user's device and the VPN concentrator, by limiting connection bandwidth between the VPN concentrator and the destination that the user, and/or by limiting number of transfer sessions that can be carried by the VPN.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,921,215 filed on Jan. 12, 2009 and entitled “Method and apparatus for optimizing and prioritizing the creation of a large number of VPN tunnels” has disclosed a number of issues of and solutions for creation of a large number of VPN tunnels and solutions. U.S. Pat. No. 7,631,059 filed on Dec. 8, 2009 and entitled “VPN service management system having a VPN service manager for a provider network and a VPN service agent for a customer network and enabling rapid change of VPN service conditions” has taught embodiments for provisioning VPN services with rapid change of VPN service conditions.
However, when a user's device has a plurality of network interfaces and capable of establishing one or more aggregated VPN connections by aggregating a plurality of VPN tunnels with the VPN concentrator, the VPN concentrator needs to take into the account of the plurality of VPN tunnels established with the user's device when limiting the resource allocated to an aggregated VPN connection and the corresponding VPN tunnels.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds