METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DATA OFFLOADING IN MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20120230191A1
• Filed: 03/08/2011
• Published: 09/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Medium Access Systems Private Limited
• Original Assignee: Medium Access Systems Private Limited
• Inventors: FANG, Yang Lit
• Granted Patent: US 8,976,657 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0038 of security context information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0044 of quality context information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/22 for handling the traffic

Abstract

A mobile communications infrastructure with coordinated data session offloading of mobile subscriber devices from a primary communication medium to a secondary communication medium. The infrastructure comprises a primary communications infrastructure which provides a primary communications medium for mobile subscriber devices and a secondary communications infrastructure which provides a secondary communication medium that is accessible by authorized mobile subscriber devices. An offload management system is configured to control offload of mobile subscriber devices from the primary communication medium to the secondary communication medium during a data session with a data network based on an offload profile associated with the mobile subscriber device and resource status information relating to the available capacity of the secondary communication medium.

Claims

1. A mobile communications infrastructure with coordinated data session offloading of mobile subscriber devices from a primary communication medium to a secondary communication medium, comprising:

a primary communications infrastructure which provides a primary communications medium for mobile subscriber devices;

a secondary communications infrastructure which provides a secondary communication medium that is accessible by authorized mobile subscriber devices; and

an offload management system configured to control offload of mobile subscriber devices from the primary communication medium to the secondary communication medium during a data session with a data network based on an offload profile associated with the mobile subscriber device and resource status information relating to the available capacity of the secondary communication medium.

2. A mobile communications infrastructure according to claim 1 wherein the offload management system comprises a policy server and a policy database that stores an offload profile for each mobile subscriber device, each offload profile comprising information indicative of whether the mobile subscriber device is approved for offloading.

3. A mobile communications infrastructure according to claim 1 wherein the offload management system comprises a resource server that is configured to maintain and provide resource status information indicative of the available capacity on the secondary communications infrastructure.

4. A mobile communications infrastructure according to claim 1 wherein the offload management system comprises an authentication, authorisation and accounting server that is configured to authenticate and authorise new connections to the secondary communications medium by offloading mobile subscriber devices and to receive data usage accounting information for each mobile subscriber connected to the secondary communications infrastructure.

5. A mobile communications infrastructure according to claim 1 wherein each mobile subscriber device comprises an offload controller that is configured to detect the initiation of a data session on the mobile subscriber device and send an offload request over the primary communication medium to the offload management system that is configured to process the offload request and send an offload request reply to the mobile subscriber device indicative of an approved or denied offload request.

6. A mobile communications infrastructure according to claim 5 wherein the offload management system is configured to generate approved offload request replies that comprise login information to enable the mobile subscriber device to connect to the secondary communication medium.

7. A mobile communications infrastructure according to claim 6 wherein the login information of the approved offload request reply comprises a one time password.

8. A mobile communications infrastructure according to claim 5 wherein the offload controller of each mobile subscriber device is configured to establish offloading of its mobile subscriber device from the primary communications medium to the secondary communications medium in response to an approved offload request reply from the offload management system.

9. A mobile communications infrastructure according to claim 5 wherein the offload controller is a daemon program or application running on the mobile subscriber device.

10. A mobile communications infrastructure according to claim 1 comprising two or more primary communications infrastructures, each providing a primary communications medium.

11. A mobile communications infrastructure according to claim 1 comprising two or more secondary communications infrastructures, each providing a primary communications medium.

12. A mobile communications infrastructure according to claim 1 wherein the primary communications infrastructure is a cellular network.

13. A mobile communications infrastructure according to claim 1 wherein the secondary communications infrastructure is a wireless local area network accessible by wireless access points.

14. A mobile communications infrastructure according to claim 13 wherein data usage by a mobile subscriber device during a data session over the secondary communications medium is recorded by the wireless access point to which the mobile subscriber device is connected and data usage information is sent by the wireless access point to the offload management system periodically during a data session or at the end of a data session.

15. A mobile communications infrastructure according to claim 1 wherein the data network is the Internet.

16. A method of offloading a mobile subscriber device from a primary communications medium to a secondary communications medium during a data session required by an activated application program of the mobile subscriber device, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving an offload request from a mobile subscriber device over the primary communications medium;

(b) accessing an offload profile for the mobile subscriber device indicative of whether the mobile subscriber device is allowed to offload to the secondary medium and which is stored in a policy database;

(c) accessing the resource status information of the secondary communication medium indicative of the available capacity on the secondary communications medium from a resource database; and

(d) replying to the offload request based on the offload profile and resource status information with either an approved offload request reply providing login information to enable the mobile subscriber device to establish a new data channel link over the secondary communications medium for the data session or a denied offload request reply such that the mobile subscriber device continues the data session over a data channel link established over the primary communications medium.

17. A method according to claim 16 wherein the offload request received comprises data session information indicative of the type of data session required by the mobile subscriber device and step (d) further comprises replying to the offload request based on that data session information.

18. A method according to claim 17 wherein the data session information of the offload request is indicative of the intended data usage by the mobile subscriber device and step (d) comprises replying with an approved offload request reply if the intended data usage exceeds a data volume threshold.

19. A method according to claim 17 wherein the data session information of the offload request is indicative of the type of application program being run on the mobile subscriber device that requires the data session and step (d) comprises replying with an approved offload request reply if the type of application program is approved for offloading.

20. A method according to claim 16 wherein step (d) comprises replying with an approved offload request reply if the offload profile of the mobile subscriber device is approved for offload and if the resource status information indicates there is available capacity on the secondary communications medium.

21. A method according to claim 16 wherein the offload request received comprises mobile subscriber identification information indicative of the identity of the mobile subscriber device making the offload request.

22. A method according to claim 16 wherein the offload request received comprises access point information indicative of accessible access points for connecting the mobile subscriber device to the secondary communications medium and wherein step (c) comprises accessing resource status information from the resource database in the form of capacity information indicative of the available capacity of the accessible access points.

23. A method according to claim 16 wherein the offload request received comprises location information indicative of the current location of the mobile subscriber device and wherein step (c) comprises accessing resource status information from the resource database in the form of capacity information indicative of the available capacity of access points for connecting to the secondary communications medium that are accessible based on the location of the mobile subscriber device.

24. A method according to claim 16 wherein step (d) further comprises sending an approved offload request reply that further comprises a list of accessible access points for connecting the mobile subscriber device to the secondary medium, the list being ranked for performance according to signal strength relative to the mobile subscriber device.

25. A method according to claim 16 wherein step (d) further comprises sending an approved offload request reply that further comprises a list of accessible access points for connecting the mobile subscriber device to the secondary medium, the list being ranked for performance according to the distance between each access point and the location of the mobile subscriber device.

26. A method according to claim 16 wherein step (d) comprises replying with an approved offload request reply comprising login information in the form of a one time password to enable the mobile subscriber device to establish a connection to an accessible access point of the secondary communications medium.

27. A method according to claim 16 further comprising authenticating any attempted establishment of a new data channel link over the secondary communications medium by a mobile subscriber device.

28. An offload management system for controlling the offloading of a mobile subscriber device from a primary communications medium to a secondary communications medium during a data session, the system being configured to perform the steps of claim 16.

29. An offload management system according to claim 28 wherein the primary communications medium is provided by a cellular network.

30. An offload management system according to claim 28 wherein the secondary communications medium is a wireless local area network accessible by wireless access points.

31. A method of offloading a mobile subscriber device from a primary communications medium to a secondary communications medium during a data session required by an activated application program of the mobile subscriber device, comprising the steps of:

(a) detecting initiation of a data session by the mobile subscriber device over a data channel link on the primary communications medium;

(b) sending an offload request over primary communications medium to an offload management system upon detection of the data session;

(c) receiving an offload request reply from the offload management system, the reply comprising either an approved offload request reply comprising login information for the secondary communications medium or a denied offload request reply; and

(d) initiating a new data channel link over the secondary communication medium for the data session based on an approved offload request reply or continuing the data session over the data channel link on the primary communications network for a denied offload request.

32. A method according to claim 31 wherein step (a) comprises detecting the activation of an application program on the mobile subscriber device that requires a data session.

33. A method according to claim 31 wherein step (b) comprises sending an offload request comprising identification information indicative of the identity of the mobile subscriber device.

34. A method according to claim 31 wherein step (b) comprises sending an offload request comprising data session information indicative of the type of data session required by the mobile subscriber device.

35. A method according to claim 34 wherein the data session information is indicative of the intended data usage by the mobile subscriber device.

36. A method according to claim 34 wherein the data session information is indicative of the type of application program being run on the mobile subscriber device that requires the data session.

37. A method according to claim 31 further comprising the step of initiating the mobile subscriber device to scan for accessible access points of the secondary communications medium in range of the mobile subscriber device and wherein step (b) comprises sending an offload request that comprises access point information indicative of the accessible access points for connecting the mobile subscriber device to the secondary communications medium based on the scan.

38. A method according to claim 37 wherein the access point information comprises access point identification information indicative of the identity of the accessible access points and signal strength information indicative of the signal strengths of the accessible access points.

39. A method according to claim 38 wherein the access point information comprises a list of the accessible access points ranked for performance according to signal strength relative to the mobile subscriber device.

40. A method according to claim 31 further comprising the step of initiating the mobile subscriber device to detect location information indicative of the location of the mobile subscriber device and wherein step (b) comprises sending an offload request that comprises the location information.

41. A method according to claim 31 wherein step (c) comprises receiving an approved offload request reply from the offload management system that further comprises a list of accessible access points for connecting the mobile subscriber device to the secondary communications medium, the list being ranked for performance according to signal strength relative to the mobile subscriber device, and wherein step (d) comprises sequentially attempting to initiate a connection to an access point on the list in order of highest ranking until a successful connection is established for the new data channel link over the secondary communication medium for an approved offload request reply.

42. A method according to claim 31 wherein step (c) comprises receiving an approved offload request reply from the offload management system that further comprises a list of accessible access points for connecting the mobile subscriber device to the secondary communications medium, the list being ranked for performance according to the distance between each access point and the location of the mobile subscriber device, and wherein step (d) comprises sequentially attempting to initiate a connection to an access point on the list in order of highest ranking until a successful connection is established for the new data channel link over the secondary communication medium for an approved offload request reply.

43. An offload controller on a mobile subscriber device for controlling the offloading of the mobile subscriber device from a primary communications medium to a secondary communications medium during a data session, the controller being configured to perform the steps of claim 31.

44. An offload controller according to claim 43 wherein the controller is in the form of a daemon program running on the mobile subscriber device.

45. An offload controller according to claim 43 wherein the primary communications medium is provided by a cellular network.

46. An offload controller according to claim 43 wherein the secondary communications medium is a wireless local area network accessible by wireless access points.