WIRELESS COMMUNICATION DEVICE, WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, AND METHOD OF ROUTING DATA IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
First Claim
1. A wireless communication device for use in a wireless communication system to communicate an IP flow, the wireless communication device being adapted to communicate over at least two radio access interfaces of different types, the wireless communication device being further adapted to selectively communicate said IP flow either over a single radio access interface, or with a proxy function distant from the wireless communication device as concurrent sub-flows over at least two of the radio access interfaces.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A wireless communication system (5) comprises a wireless communication device 40 adapted to communicate an IP flow (35) simultaneously over multiple heterogeneous network access interfaces (46, 48). A flow combine and split function in the network combines the multiple IP sub-flows for communication with another network node such as an application server (44). A wireless communication device for use in such a system, and a method of routing data in such a system are also provided.
149 Citations
27 Claims
- 1. A wireless communication device for use in a wireless communication system to communicate an IP flow, the wireless communication device being adapted to communicate over at least two radio access interfaces of different types, the wireless communication device being further adapted to selectively communicate said IP flow either over a single radio access interface, or with a proxy function distant from the wireless communication device as concurrent sub-flows over at least two of the radio access interfaces.
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20. A method of routing data in a wireless communication system using a wireless communication device adapted to communicate over at least two heterogeneous radio access interfaces, comprising:
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providing a proxy function distant from the wireless communication device; communicating an IP flow between the wireless communication device and the proxy function as concurrent sub-flows over at least two of the radio access interfaces; and communicating the IP flow as an unsplit flow between the proxy function and another network node. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of operating a wireless communication system comprising a user equipment provided with at least first and second radio access interfaces and arranged to communicate an IP traffic flow with a distant network node, the method comprising:
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providing a proxy server distant from the user equipment; providing an inter system sub-flow policy having at least one filter rule and specifying network access priorities; the user equipment carrying out a network discovery of the proxy server; the user equipment detecting an existing or requested IP traffic flow that matches a said filter rule in the inter system sub-flow policy; based on the matched filter rule, the user equipment determining that the IP traffic flow can be transmitted across both said first radio access interface and said second radio access interface; the user equipment establishing a first communication path to the proxy server over the first radio access interface and communicating the IP traffic flow to the proxy server over the first communication path; the user equipment establishing connectivity to the second radio access interface specified by the network access priorities; the user equipment exchanging with the proxy server information for facilitating the establishment of a second communication path between the user equipment and the proxy server over the second radio access interface; in response to exchanging information, establishing a second communication path between the user equipment and the proxy server over the second access network; transmitting parts of said IP traffic flow between the user equipment and the proxy server as a first sub-flow over the first communication path and parts of said IP traffic flow between the user equipment and the proxy server as a second sub-flow over the second communication path; and the proxy server combining together the first sub-flow and the second sub-flow and forwarding the combined sub-flows to the distant network node. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27)
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Specification