Systems and methods for managing quality of service

1. A method for managing quality of service (QoS) for a traffic flow within a network comprising:

receiving a packet encapsulated by a tunneling header, at a node in the network between end points of the traffic flow;

inspecting a tunneling protocol within the tunneling header to identify at least one application level characteristic of the packet and a data type of the packet;

manipulating QoS parameters associated with the packet based on the application level characteristic and the data type;

accessing a bearer map table to determine whether there is an available bearer with the manipulated QoS parameters wherein, determining whether there is an available bearer comprises determining the tunnel endpoint identification (TEID), quality of service parameters and QoS class index (QCI) associated with each bearer in the bearer map table;

if there is an available bearer, designating the available bearer as a new bearer for the packet;

if there is no available bearer, creating a new bearer with the manipulated QoS parameters and designating it a new bearer for the packet;

storing the bearer map table with the quality of service parameters and a mapping between a TEID and a QCI of the new bearer;

modifying the TEID of the tunneling header of the packet based on the new bearer in order to move the packet to the new bearer; and

sending the packet to a destination using the new bearer for the packet.

2. A method for managing quality of service of claim 1 wherein modifying the tunneling header of the packet further comprises recalculating the Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) of the packet.

3. A method for managing quality of service of claim 1 further comprising creating the bearer table by determining available bearers from the traffic flow.

4. A method for managing quality of service of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying a set of quality of service policies available for the packet;

identifying policy conditions for the packet based on the set of available service policies;

further modifying the quality of service parameters of the packet based on the identified policy conditions; and

sending the packet to the destination with the further modified quality of service parameters.

5. A method for managing quality of service of claim 1 wherein identifying the at least one application level characteristic of the packet comprises deep packet inspection (DPI).

6. A method for managing quality of service of claim 1 further comprising determining type of data within the packet after identifying the at least one application level characteristic.

7. A method for managing quality of service of claim 1 wherein the packet is transmitted using General Packet Radio Services Tunneling Protocol (GTP).

8. A method for managing quality of service of claim 1 further comprising determining a tier of service of the user, and wherein modifying the quality of service parameters comprises reprioritizing the packet based on the tier of service of the user.

9. A method for managing quality of service of claim 1 wherein the quality of service parameters are modified without altering General Packet Radio Service Tunneling Protocol-Control (GTP-C) messages.

10. A system for managing quality of service (QoS) within a network, the system located at a node in the network between end points of traffic flows in the network comprising:

a bearer module adapted to review and retrieve data from a packet in a traffic flow, wherein the packet is encapsulated by a tunneling header;

a payload packet inspector module adapted to inspect a tunneling protocol within the tunneling header and to identify at least one application level characteristic of the packet and a data type of the packet;

a policy enforcement module adapted to manipulate QoS parameters associated with the packet based on the at least one application level characteristic and the data type;

a flow policy determination module configured to access a bearer map table to determine whether there is an available bearer with the manipulated QoS parameters,

wherein determining whether there is an available bearer comprises determining the tunnel endpoint identification (TEID), QoS parameters and QoS class index (QCI) associated with the bearer, and if there is an available bearer, designating the available bearer as a new bearer for the packet but if there is no available bearer, trigger a new bearer creation with the manipulated QoS parameters and designating it a new bearer for the packet;

storing the bearer map table with the quality of service parameters and a mapping between a TEID and a QCI of the new bearer;

modifying the TEID of the tunneling header of the packet based on the new bearer in order to move the packet to the new bearer;

sending the packet to a destination using the new bearer for the packet; and

a processor configured to execute the instructions of the system modules.

11. A system for managing quality of service of claim 10 wherein the flow policy determination module determines if a policy is applicable to the packet.

12. A system for managing quality of service of claim 10 wherein the bearer module comprises a General Packet Radio Service Tunneling Protocol-Control (GTP-C) message parsing sub-module adapted to parse and detect QoS parameters and user information from a GTP-C message.

13. A system for managing quality of service of claim 12 wherein the bearer module further comprises a create new session table sub-module designed to create a new session bearer map table for a subscriber with the QoS elements and subscriber information retrieved by the GTP-C message parsing sub-module.

14. A system for managing quality of service of claim 13 wherein the bearer module further comprises a modify session table sub-module adapted to modify the session bearer map table with amended user information.

15. A system for managing quality of service of claim 10 wherein the policy enforcement module further comprises a Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) recalculation sub-module to recalculate the DSCP of the packet.

16. A system for managing quality of service of claim 10 wherein modifying the quality of service parameters comprises reprioritizing the packet based on a tier of service of the user.

17. A system for managing quality of service of claim 10 wherein the quality of service parameters are modified without altering General Packet Radio Service Tunneling Protocol-Control (GTP-C) messages.