US 7386630

US patent 7386630, titled "Using policy-based management to support Diffserv over MPLS network," was filed on November 21, 2003, and issued on June 10, 2008. The original assignee was Nokia Inc., with the current assignee listed as WSOU Investments LLC. The inventors are Yin Ling Liong, Roberto Barnes, and Man Li.

Abstract:
The patent describes a policy server that configures Differentiated Services (Diffserv) over Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) in a communications network. This server allows for the definition and deployment of customer policies, network policies, and mapping policies. It creates groups of MPLS tunnels and associates them with the mapping and customer policies. The customer policy includes a tunnel group identifier and a tunneling mode, which are used to map customer traffic to MPLS tunnels. The policy server translates these policies into device-specific commands and then deploys them to the network interfaces of the relevant network devices.

Plain-Language Overview of Independent Claims:

• Independent Claim 1 (System): This claim describes a system that includes a policy server device. The policy server is configured to define a customer policy (which includes a tunnel mode and a tunnel group identifier) and a mapping policy (which translates experimental fields to unique per-hop-behaviors). The system then sends both the mapping policy and the customer policy to the interfaces of devices within an MPLS network, where these interfaces and the customer policy are linked by a shared "role name." At least one of these network devices includes an egress interface for an MPLS tunnel.

• Independent Claim 4 (Apparatus): This claim details an apparatus comprising a memory, a service application, a central processing facility, and a policy consumer. The service application, residing in memory, configures a customer policy (with a tunnel group identifier and tunneling mode for mapping customer traffic to MPLS tunnels) and an experimental-to-per-hop-behavior mapping policy. The central processing facility converts these policies into device-neutral parameters, and the policy consumer translates these parameters into device-specific commands. These commands are then sent to policy targets (network devices, with at least one having an egress interface of the tunnel group) to implement the policies across the network.

• Independent Claim 10 (Apparatus with Processor): This claim describes an apparatus with a processor that includes defining means, maintaining means, translating means, and sending means. The defining means sets a mapping policy between an experimental field and a unique per-hop-behavior. The maintaining means manages a customer policy containing a tunneling mode and a tunnel group identifier. The translating means converts the mapping, network, and customer policies into device-specific commands. The sending means then dispatches these commands to policy targets, which are network devices having an interface associated with a role name also linked to the customer policy. These interfaces include an egress interface of at least one MPLS tunnel.

• Independent Claim 12 (Article/Storage Medium): This claim covers a storage medium with instructions that, when executed by at least one device, perform a method. The method involves defining a mapping policy (EXP field to unique PHB), defining a customer policy (tunneling mode, tunnel group identifier, governing individual customer traffic), and defining a network policy (Diffserv treatment of aggregated traffic). These policies are then translated into device-specific commands, which are deployed to policy targets (network devices with an interface assigned a role name associated with the customer policy). At least one such interface is an egress interface of an MPLS tunnel.

• Independent Claim 18 (Method): This claim outlines a method comprising several steps: defining a mapping policy (EXP field to unique PHB), defining a customer policy (tunneling mode, tunnel group identifier, governing individual customer traffic), and defining a network policy (Diffserv treatment of aggregated traffic). These policies are then translated into device-specific commands, which are sent to policy targets. Each policy target is a network device with an interface assigned a role name associated with the customer policy, and at least one of these interfaces is an egress interface of an MPLS tunnel.

CAFC 2026 Dockets:
A search of CAFC 2026 dockets for US patent 7386630 did not return any direct matches in the provided results. Therefore, there is no authoritative information currently available from the provided search results to indicate active litigation concerning this specific patent in the CAFC dockets for 2026.