Mobility Network Function Consolidation

• US 20160381662A1
• Filed: 06/29/2015
• Published: 12/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, Jiansong, Redfern, Ryan
• Granted Patent: US 9,832,797 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/00 Security arrangements; Authentication; Protecting privacy or anonymity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/06 Registration at serving network Location Register, VLR or user mobility server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements

Abstract

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, control signals are communicated with a base station of a radio access network in communication with a mobile device. The control signals include information associated with one of mobility of the mobile device, bearer management or both. The network node communicates bearer message traffic with the base station and coordinates an exchange of data packets between the base station and an external packet data network by way of the bearer message traffic. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

communicating signaling message traffic to a base station of a radio access network in communication with a mobile communication device, wherein the signaling message traffic comprises information associated with one of mobility management processing, bearer management or both of an evolved packet core;

communicating bearer message traffic to the base station; and

controlling an exchange of data packets between the base station and an external packet data network via a gateway by way of the bearer message traffic.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the communicating of the signaling message traffic comprises a mobility management entity function and wherein the communicating of the bearer message traffic comprises a serving gateway function, each of the mobility management entity function and the serving gateway function comprising a respective core logic function of a common virtual machine.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the signaling messages comprise 3^rd Generation Partnership Protocol, long term evolution (LTE) signaling messages, and wherein the communicating of the signaling message traffic is accomplished without using an S11 interface.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise one of a probe function, a radio access network analytic function, an access selection function or a combination thereof.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise receiving contextual information of one of the mobile communication device, wherein the communicating of the signaling message traffic, the communicating of the bearer message traffic or both are based on the contextual information.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from the base station, signaling message traffic, bearer message traffic or both, and

wherein the contextual information comprises one of a mobility state of the mobile communication device, context of a bearer that supports the communicating of the data packet between the base station and the external packet data network by way of a packet data network gateway.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the contextual information further comprises a location of the mobile communication device, biometrics of a user of the mobile communication device, weather data of an environment of the mobile communications device, information related to the user or combinations thereof.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the gateway comprises a packet data network gateway, wherein the operations further comprise combining more than one of a radio network controller functionality, a femtocell gateway functionality and a home eNodeB gateway functionality.

9. A method comprising:

communicating, by a network device including a processor, control signals to a base station of a radio access network in communication with a mobile device, wherein the control signals include information associated with one of mobility of the mobile device, bearer management or both;

communicating, by the network device, bearer message traffic to the base station; and

coordinating, by the network device, an exchange of data packets between the base station and an external packet data network by way of the bearer message traffic.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the communicating of the control signals comprises a mobility management entity function and wherein the communicating of the bearer message traffic comprises a serving gateway function, each of the mobility management entity function and the serving gateway function comprising a respective core logic function of a common virtual machine.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, by the network device, control signals from the base station, bearer message traffic from the base station, or both, and

wherein the communicating of the control signals comprises using multiple different standard logical interfaces.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising combining, by the network device, more than one of a radio network controller functionality, a femtocell gateway functionality and a home eNodeB gateway functionality.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising analyzing, by the network device, a status, wherein the analyzing comprises one of a probe function, a radio access network analytic function, an access selection function or a combination thereof.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the communicating of the control signals comprises universal mobile telecommunications system control signals and long term evolution control signals.

15. A machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions which, responsive to being executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

communicating control information to a wireless access terminal, wherein the control information comprises information associated with one of mobility management processing, bearer management or both of a mobile communication device in communication with the wireless access terminal;

communicating data to the a mobile communication device by way of a bearer having an associated session context; and

coordinating an exchange of the data between the wireless access terminal and an external packet data network by way of the bearer.

16. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the communicating of the control information comprises a mobility management entity function and wherein the communicating of the data comprises a serving gateway function, each of the mobility management entity function and the serving gateway function comprising a respective core logic function of a common virtual machine.

17. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the communicating of the control information is accomplished without using an S11 interface.

18. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from the wireless access terminal, control information, data by way of the bearer or both and

wherein the operations further comprise one of a probe function, a radio access network analytic function, an access selection function or a combination thereof.

19. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise combining more than one of a radio network controller functionality, a femtocell gateway functionality and a home eNodeB gateway functionality.

20. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the communicating of the control information comprises universal mobile telecommunications system control information and long term evolution control information.