METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETECTING AND MANAGING USER PLANE CONGESTION

• US 20140022904A1
• Filed: 07/17/2013
• Published: 01/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ahmad, Saad, Watfa, Mahmoud, Wang, Guanzhou
• Granted Patent: US 9,585,054 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2475 for supporting traffic characterised by the type of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/263 Rate modification at the source after receiving feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0215 based on user or device properties, e.g. MTC-capable devices services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC] H04W4/70; wireless resource selection or allocation plan definition based on terminal or device properties H04W72/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0231 based on communication conditions dynamic wireless traffic scheduling definition based on channel quality criteria H04W72/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0289 Congestion control load shedding arrangements in network planning H04W16/08; performing reselection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/22 Negotiating communication rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 based on terminal or device properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

A method and apparatus for managing user plane congestion in a network are disclosed. A method performed by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) for user plane congestion in a network includes receiving an indication from the network that user plane congestion exists in the network, transmitting a request for the network to provide a lower Quality of Service (QoS) level for a particular service based on the indication, and observing a decrease in user plane QoS based on the transmitted request.

Claims

1. A method, performed by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), for managing user plane congestion in a network, the method comprising:

receiving an indication from the network that user plane congestion exists in the network;

transmitting a request for the network to provide a lower Quality of Service (QoS) level for a particular service based on the indication; and

observing a decrease in user plane QoS based on the transmitted request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication from the network that the user plane congestion exists is an indication that a requested QoS level is not available.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular service from the network has a low priority.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular service from the network has a high priority.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein services received from the network are prioritized by a user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein lower priority services are offloaded over WiFi.

7. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) for managing user plane congestion in a network comprising:

a receiver configured to receive an indication from the network that user plane congestion exists in the network;

a transmitter configured to transmit a request for the network to provide a lower Quality of Service (QoS) level for a particular service based on the indication; and

a processor configured to observe a decrease in user plane QoS based on the transmitted request.

8. The WTRU of claim 7, wherein the indication from the network that the user plane congestion exists is an indication that a requested QoS level is not available.

9. The WTRU of claim 7, wherein the particular service from the network has a low priority.

10. The WTRU of claim 7, wherein the particular service from the network has a high priority.

11. The WTRU of claim 7, wherein services received from the network are prioritized by a user.

12. The WTRU of claim 11, wherein lower priority services are offloaded over WiFi.

13. A method, performed by an evolved NodeB (eNB), for managing user plane congestion in the network, the method comprising:

receiving a GPRS tunneling protocol user plane (GTP-U) packet on an S1-U interface, the GTP-U packet including a unique Application Identification (App ID) that indicates the GTP-U packet is associated a well-known App ID; and

managing user plane congestion based on the well-known App ID.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein a well-known App ID database is used to determine a well-known App ID.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the well-known App ID database is populated based on user preference.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the well-known App ID database is populated based on user frequency.