Femtocell local breakout mechanisms

• US 8,787,331 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2009
• Issued: 07/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.), AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Liu, Cheng P, Faryar, Alireza, Huber, Kurt
• Primary Examiner(s): Blanton, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): LINDENBAUM, ALAN LOUIS
• Application Number:
  US12/623,176
• Publication Number:
  US 20100128708A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,705 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/338
• 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 69/03 Protocol definition or specification protocol conformance testing H04L1/244
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0226 based on location or mobility handoff or reselection H04W36/00; mobile application services making use of the location of users or terminals H04W4/02
• 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 28/0268 using specific QoS parameters for wireless networks, e.g. QoS class identifier [QCI] or guaranteed bit rate [GBR] negotiating SLA or negotiating QoS H04W28/24
• 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 28/0967 Quality of Service [QoS] parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0022 for transferring data sessions between adjacent core network technologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/248 Connectivity information update
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/00 Synchronisation arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/001 Synchronization between nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/53 based on regulatory allocation policies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 : using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/12 : Access point controller devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 : Gateway arrangements

Abstract

A system and methodology that employs local breakout mechanisms at a femto access point (FAP) to facilitate efficient utilization of backhaul and/or macro networks is provided. In particular, a slave Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) can be integrated within the FAP to directly route the incoming traffic from a user equipment (UE) at the FAP. In one example, Internet bound traffic can be directly routed to the Internet, without employing macro network resources. Further, the system can avoid hairpinning by routing traffic between the UE and a home Local Area Network (LAN) by a anchoring a call or a session in the slave GGSN and facilitate integration of UEs with home applications by employing a UE Digital Home Agent. In addition, the FAP can perform UE-to-UE CS media breakout to facilitate communication between UEs attached to the FAP, without routing the traffic through the core macro network.

Claims

1. A femto access point device, comprising:

a memory to store executable instructions; and

a processor, coupled to the memory, that facilitates execution of the executable instructions to perform operations, comprising;

in response to receiving communication data from a user equipment that is coupled to the femto access point device, selecting, based on source address data indicative of a source device associated with the communication data, routing data that represents a route via which the communication is to be routed, wherein the selecting comprises selecting between a first route that directs the communication data to a network device of a wide area network via a local area network device coupled to the femto access point device and a second route that directs the communication data to the network device via a macro network device coupled to the femto access point device,

in response to receiving instruction data indicative of an instruction to override local breakout, disabling local breakout functionality performed via the femto access point device, wherein the communication data is directed to the network device via the second route in response to the disabling, and

based on the routing data, facilitating a transmission of the communication data to the network device.

2. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting the routing data based on protocol data indicative of a protocol associated with the communication data.

3. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting the routing data based on subscriber policy data associated with the user equipment.

4. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting the routing data based on preference data stored in a data store of the femto access point device.

5. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the instruction data comprises timing data that specifies a time period during which the local breakout functionality is to be disabled.

6. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting the routing data based on an analysis of a cost of the communication data being transmitted via a specified route relative to a benefit of the communication data being transmitted via the specified route.

7. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting the routing data based on information representing a load balancing policy.

8. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining the source address data based on an analysis of header data associated with the communication data.

9. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting the routing data based on policy decision information received via the macro network device.

10. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting the routing data based on policy enforcement information received via the macro network device.

11. The femto access point device of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from a femto management platform device, the policy enforcement information during provisioning of the femto access point device.

12. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the communication data comprises a set of data packets and the selecting comprises selecting the routing data based on type data indicative of a type of the set of the data packets.

13. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a femto access point device comprising a processor, communication data from a user equipment that is coupled to the femto access point device;

based on source address data indicative of a source device associated with the communication data, determining, by the femto access point device, routing data indicative of a route via which the communication data is to be transmitted, wherein the determining comprises selecting between a first route that directs the communication data to a network device of a wide area network via a local area network device that is coupled to the femto access point device, and a second route that directs the communication data to the network device via a macro network device that is coupled to the femto access point device; and

in response to receiving instruction data indicative of an instruction to override local breakout, disabling, by the femto access point device, local breakout functionality performed via the femto access point device, wherein the communication data is directed to the network device via the second route in response to the disabling.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

based on the routing data, directing, by the femto access point, the communication data, to the network device.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the determining comprises determining the routing data based on protocol data indicative of a protocol associated with the communication data.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the determining comprises determining the routing data

based on load balancing between a first network load associated with the first route and a second network load associated with the second route.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

during a provisioning of the femto access point device, receiving, by the femto access point device, policy enforcement information from a femto management platform device, wherein the determining comprises determining the routing data based on the policy enforcement information.

18. A computer-readable storage device comprising executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a femto access point device comprising a processor to perform operations, comprising:

determining source address data indicative of a source device associated with communication data received from a user equipment that is coupled to a femto access point device via a wireless interface;

based on the source address data, determining routing data representing a route via which the communication data is to be transmitted, wherein the determining the routing data comprises selecting between a first route that directs the communication data to a network device of a wide area network via a local area network device that is coupled to the femto access point device, and a second route that directs the communication data to the network device via a macro network device that is coupled to the femto access point device; and

in response to receiving instruction data indicative of an instruction to override local breakout, disabling local breakout functionality performed by the femto access point device, wherein the communication data is directed to the network device via the second route in response to the disabling.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the determining the source address comprises analyzing a packet header of the communication data.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from the user equipment, preference data, wherein the determining the routing data comprises determining the routing data based on the preference data.