PROVIDING SERVICES AT A COMMUNICATION NETWORK EDGE

• US 20110075675A1
• Filed: 09/27/2010
• Published: 03/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: KOODLI, Rajeev, CHOWDHURY, Kuntal
• Granted Patent: US 8,831,014 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1403 Architecture for metering, charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1485 Tariff-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2528 Translation at a proxy
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/306 intercepting packet switched data communications, e.g. Web, Internet or IMS communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/41 Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/22 for handling the traffic

Abstract

As the proliferation of data rich content and increasingly more capable mobile devices has continued, the amount of data communicated over mobile operator'"'"'s networks has increased. Upgrading the existing network that was designed for voice calls is not desirable or practical for many mobile operators. This disclosure relates to a mobility edge gateway that resides on the edge of the core network and can provide one or more services such as call localization, offloading of traffic, session management, and content streaming. The call localization involves identifying calls that can be maintained at the edge of the network and bridging the calls at the mobility edge gateway to bypass the core network. The offloading involves identifying traffic and offloading the traffic to the Internet or another network to bypass the core network. These services can relieve congestion on the core network of mobile operator'"'"'s networks.

Claims

1. A gateway comprising:

a first interface that is configured to communicate with a home gateway in a packet core network regarding information about traffic being offloaded and calls being localized on the gateway;

a second interface that is configured to communicate with an Internet for offloading packets to bypass the packet core network;

a processor that is configured to inspect a received control plane message and obtain information from the received control plane message that is used to determine offload eligibility and call localization eligibility for traffic corresponding to the received control plane message;

logic in communication with the processor, the logic being configured to determine the offload eligibility of traffic and to determine call localization eligibility of call sessions on the gateway;

a network address translation functionality that is configured to modify packets selected for offload by the offload logic such that the packets selected for offload are routed through the Internet at the offload gateway; and

a module for call localization that is configured to change information of packets received in a call session to localize the call session at the gateway.

2. The gateway of claim 1, wherein the first interface is a channel and the home gateway is a packet data network gateway (PGW) that receives addressing and accounting information over the channel for call localization operations and offloading operations that occur on the gateway.

3. The gateway of claim 1, further comprising a serving gateway (SGW) functionality that is configured to establish packet data network (PDN) connections and to identify the traffic for offload.

4. The gateway of claim 3, wherein the SGW communicates over the first interface with a packet date network gateway (PGW) to obtain centralized information to manage subscriber sessions.

5. The gateway of claim 4, wherein the gateway maintains a session for a subscription when moving traffic from a first radio access technology to a second radio access technology.

6. The gateway of claim 1, wherein the module for call localization is configured to receive a packet from a first user equipment on a first tunnel with a first tunnel identifier and to switch the first tunnel identifier of the packet to a second tunnel identifier and sending the packet to a second user equipment.

7. The gateway of claim 6, wherein the tunnel is a GPRS tunnel protocol (GTP) user plane tunnel and a serving gateway (SGW) function is used to handover a localized call session from a first evolved nodeB (eNB) to a second evolved nodeB (eNB).

8. The gateway of claim 1, further comprising an S1-U interface for communicating with an evolved nodeB (eNB) and wherein the first interface is an S5 interface and the second interface is a SGi interface.

9. The gateway of claim 1, further comprising a content cache that is configured to store content destined to a user equipment and stream the content from the content cache to the user equipment.

10. A method comprising:

receiving a first packet on an interface at a gateway that is bound to or from a user equipment (UE);

inspecting the first packet to obtain information regarding the packet to make an offload determination;

determining if the packet meets offload criteria and upon determining that the packet is offload eligible, modifying the packet at a network address translation functionality to route traffic corresponding to the packet onto an Internet to bypass a packet core network;

inspecting packets involved in establishing a call session to determine if a call is eligible to be localized at the gateway;

switching identifiers of packets received in a call session at the gateway to localize the call session; and

communicating information regarding the call localizing or the offloading over a channel to a home gateway.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the home gateway is a packet data network gateway (PGW) that receives addressing and accounting information over the channel for call localization operations and offloading operations that occur on the gateway.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising communicating information with the PGW to manage subscriber sessions centrally.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising maintaining a session when moving traffic from a first radio access technology to a second radio access technology where each access technology is served by the gateway.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving a packet from a first user equipment on a first tunnel with a first tunnel identifier at the gateway; and

switching the first tunnel identifier of the packet to a second tunnel identifier and sending the packet to a second user equipment.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first tunnel is a GPRS tunnel protocol (GTP) user plane tunnel and a serving gateway (SGW) function is used to handover a localized call session from a first evolved nodeB (eNB) to a second evolved nodeB (eNB).

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

caching content at the gateway for a second user equipment (UE); and

streaming the content over the radio access network from the cache to the user equipment.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving information regarding offloading of packets from a second gateway in a handover from the second gateway.

18. Logic encoded on one or more tangible media for execution and when executed operable to:

receive a first packet on an interface at a gateway that is bound to or from a user equipment (UE);

inspect the first packet to obtain information regarding the packet to make an offload determination;

determine if the packet meets offload criteria and upon determining that the packet is offload eligible, modifying the packet at a network address translation functionality to route traffic corresponding to the packet onto an Internet to bypass a packet core network;

inspect packets involved in establishing a call session to determine if a call is eligible to be localized at the gateway;

switch identifiers of packets received in a call session at the gateway to localize the call session; and

communicate information regarding the call localizing or the offloading over a channel to a home gateway.

19. The logic of claim 18, further comprising:

receive a packet from a first user equipment on a first tunnel with a first tunnel identifier at the gateway; and

switch the first tunnel identifier of the packet to a second tunnel identifier and sending the packet to a second user equipment.

20. The logic of claim 18, wherein the home gateway is a packet data network gateway (PGW) that receives addressing and accounting information over the channel for call localization operations and offloading operations that occur on the gateway.