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pablo_stalteri_'s avatar
pablo_stalteri_
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Feb 08, 2011

Tethering heuristics

Hi all,

 

 

I am looking for information about heuristics that can be implemented using iRule to identify if a subscriber is tethering using a mobile device (iPhone, iPad, handset, BlackBerry, etc).

 

 

Example: Galaxy Mobile 3150 has a Hot Spot application that allows to connect up to 3 devices (i.e., PC, iPad, iPhone). How to identify this scenario using iRule? Can it receive the IMEI of the 2 devices: tethered and tethering device? I have verified that the APN and session ID is the same for all of them. Is there any other clue (number of hops, etc)?

 

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Pablo
application delivery
dev
devops
iRules

1 Reply

  • hoolio's avatar
    hoolio
    Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
    Feb 08, 2011
    Hi Pablo,

     

     

    I think the first question is how can you identify the characteristics you're looking for using standard HTTP/HTML/scripting. Once you figure that out, you can try to implement it in an iRule.

     

     

    Can you determine whether a user is tethering from the User-Agent header? If so, you could look for this by parsing [HTTP::header User-Agent]. Else, can you use Javascript to ask the client to provide this data? If so, you could send an HTTP response using HTTP::respond. Or you could inject the Javascript into response content by collecting and modifying the payload with HTTP::collect and HTTP::payload, respectively.

     

     

    Aaron