METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LOCAL GATEWAY ASSIGNMENT IN WIRELESS NETWORKS

• US 20120134319A1
• Filed: 11/29/2010
• Published: 05/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Kahn, Colin, Urie, Alistair
• Granted Patent: US 8,605,656 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements

Abstract

A local gateway assignment capability is depicted and described herein. In a wireless service provider network, the local gateway assignment capability enables a local gateway, rather than a core gateway, to be selected to serve a user request for an APN. The local gateway and core gateway may be a Local-GGSN (L-GGSN) and a GGSN, respectively, where the L-GGSN is associated with an SGSN and provides local traffic offloading for the GGSN and where the GGSN provides a gateway for the core network portion of the wireless service provider network. A DNS element or other device is configured to determine an SGSN-specific APN in response to receiving a DNS Request from an SGSN. A DNS element is configured to identify, using an SGSN-specific APN associated with an SGSN, an L-GGSN associated with the SGSN, and to provide an indication of the L-GGSN to the SGSN from which the DNS Request is received, thereby enabling the user associated with the DNS Request to use the L-GGSN rather than the GGSN.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor configured for identifying, in response to receiving a request, a Local Gateway General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (L-GGSN) associated with a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), wherein the L-GGSN is identified using an SGSN-specific Access Point Name (APN) associated with the SGSN.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the SGSN-specific APN identifies the SGSN using at least one of:

at least a portion of an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the SGSN; and

at least a portion of a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of the SGSN.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor forms part of a Domain Name Server (DNS) element.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the DNS element comprises a DNS frontend and at least one DNS server.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured for determining the SGSN-specific APN.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein determining the SGSN-specific APN comprises:

receiving a requested APN comprising an identifier of the SGSN; and

determining the SGSN-specific APN using at least a portion of the identifier of the SGSN.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein determining the SGSN-specific APN using at least a portion of the identifier of the SGSN comprises:

modifying the received APN, using at least a portion of the identifier of the SGSN, to form thereby the SGSN-specific APN.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein modifying the received APN, using at least a portion of the identifier of the SGSN, to form thereby the SGSN-specific APN comprises one of:

appending at least a portion of the identifier of the SGSN to the received APN;

prepending at least a portion of the identifier of the SGSN to the received APN;

or

inserting at least a portion of the identifier of the SGSN into the received APN.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein determining the SGSN-specific APN using at least a portion of the identifier of the SGSN comprises:

retrieving the SGSN-specific APN using at least a portion of the identifier of the SGSN.

10. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein determining the SGSN-specific APN comprises:

receiving an APN request from the SGSN, wherein the APN request comprises an IP address of the SGSN and a requested APN; and

modifying the requested APN, using at least a portion of the IP address of the SGSN, to form thereby the SGSN-specific APN.

11. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein determining the SGSN-specific APN comprises:

receiving an APN request from the SGSN, wherein the APN request comprises an IP address of the SGSN and a requested APN;

initiating a reverse DNS lookup using the IP address of the SGSN to obtain thereby a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of the SGSN; and

modifying the requested APN, using at least a portion of the FQDN of the SGSN, to form thereby the SGSN-specific APN.

12. A method, comprising:

in response to receiving a request, identifying a Local Gateway General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (L-GGSN) associated with a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), wherein the L-GGSN is identified using an SGSN-specific Access Point Name (APN) associated with the SGSN.

13. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor configured for;

receiving an Access Point Name (APN) request comprising an identifier of a Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN); and

determining, using at least a portion of the identifier of the SGSN, an SGSN-specific APN associated with the SGSN.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the APN request comprises a requested APN, wherein the identifier of the SGSN is the IP address of the SGSN, wherein determining the SGSN-specific APN comprises one of:

prepending at least a portion of the IP address of the SGSN to the requested APN to form thereby the SGSN-specific APN;

appending at least a portion of the IP address of the SGSN to the requested APN to form thereby the SGSN-specific APN;

inserting at least a portion of the IP address of the SGSN into the requested APN to form thereby the SGSN-specific APN;

or

performing a lookup, using at least a portion of the IP address of the SGSN, to retrieve the SGSN-specific APN, and replacing the requested APN with the SGSN-specific APN.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the APN request comprises a requested APN, wherein the identifier of the SGSN is the IP address of the SGSN, wherein determining the SGSN-specific APN comprises:

initiating, in response to the APN request, a reverse DNS lookup using the IP address of the SGSN; and

receiving, in response to the reverse DNS lookup performed using the IP address of the SGSN, a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of the SGSN; and

determining the SGSN-specific APN using at least a portion of the FQDN of the SGSN.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein determining the SGSN-specific APN using at least a portion of the FQDN of the SGSN comprises one of:

prepending at least a portion of the FQDN of the SGSN to the requested APN to form thereby the SGSN-specific APN;

appending at least a portion of the FQDN of the SGSN to the requested APN to form thereby the SGSN-specific APN;

inserting at least a portion of the FQDN of the SGSN into the requested APN to form thereby the SGSN-specific APN;

or

performing a lookup, using at least a portion of the FQDN of the SGSN, to retrieve the SGSN-specific APN, and replacing the requested APN with the SGSN-specific APN.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the APN request comprises a requested APN, wherein the identifier of the SGSN is the FQDN of the SGSN, wherein determining the SGSN-specific APN using the FQDN of the SGSN comprises one of:

prepending at least a portion of the FQDN of the SGSN to the requested APN to form thereby the SGSN-specific APN;

appending at least a portion of the FQDN of the SGSN to the requested APN to form thereby the SGSN-specific APN;

inserting at least a portion of the FQDN of the SGSN into the requested APN to form thereby the SGSN-specific APN;

or

performing a lookup, using at least a portion of the FQDN of the SGSN, to retrieve the SGSN-specific APN, and replacing the requested APN with the SGSN-specific APN.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured for initiating a DNS lookup using the SGSN-specific APN.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the processor is configured for:

receiving, in response to the DNS lookup performed using the SGSN-specific APN, an identifier of a Local GGSN (L-GGSN) associated with the SGSN; and

propagating the identifier of the L-GGSN toward the SGSN.

20. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a Domain Name Server (DNS) element, an Access Point Name (APN) request comprising an identifier of a Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN); and

determining, using at least a portion of the identifier of the SGSN, an SGSN-specific APN associated with the SGSN.