Service continuity during local breakout in a femtocell

• US 8,817,699 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2009
• Issued: 08/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• 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.), AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Liu, Cheng P, Faryar, Alireza, Huber, Kurt, Dowlatkhah, Sangar
• Primary Examiner(s): Blanton, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): LINDENBAUM, ALAN LOUIS
• Application Number:
  US12/623,223
• Publication Number:
  US 20100128677A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,740 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/328
• 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 facilitates service continuity when a user equipment (UE), employing local breakout mechanisms at a femto access point (FAP) for a communication session, moves out of the femto coverage area is provided. In particular, a network change detection component can be employed to detect when the UE, attached to the FAP, changes its connection from the femto network to the macro network. Further, an active communication session can exist between the UE and a device/service/application on a local Area network (LAN) connected to a FAP, and/or the Internet, which utilizes local breakout at the FAP. When the UE moves out of the femto network, a context management component can be employed to seamlessly resume the communication session, via the macro network.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a memory to store executable instructions; and

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

determining that a user equipment is communicatively attached to a femto access point device that is coupled to a local area network,

determining a synchronization parameter associated with the user equipment based on an analysis of parameter data stored within an access control data structure associated with the femto access point device,

based on defined input data, determining data that is to be synchronized between the user equipment and a device of the local area network,

in response to the determining that the user equipment is communicatively attached to the femto access point device, initiating, based on the synchronization parameter, a synchronization of the data between the user equipment and the device via the femto access point device, wherein the synchronization is facilitated without a transmission of the data via a macro network device of a macro network, an

in response to determining that the user equipment is detaching from the femto access point device, interrupting the synchronization and directing information indicative of an amount of the data that has been transmitted between the user equipment and the device to be stored at the femto access point device, wherein the amount of the data comprises a percentage of the data that has been transmitted between the user equipment and the device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining that the user equipment is detaching from the femto access point device comprises determining that the user equipment changes a connection from a femto network associated with the femto access point device to a base station device of the macro network.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the synchronization is facilitated via a communication route that is determined based on load balancing.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the synchronization is facilitated via a communication route that is determined based on an analysis of costs relative to benefits of communication routes.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the synchronization is facilitated via a communication route that is determined based on a defined policy.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

storing the parameter data within the access control data structure.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the user equipment is a first user equipment and the operations further comprise:

authenticating a second user equipment, and

in response to the authenticating, receiving the defined input data from the second user equipment.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving instruction data from the macro network device to facilitate management of the defined policy.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the initiating the synchronization comprises initiating the synchronization based on a defined policy.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the data is first data, the synchronization parameter is a first synchronization parameter, the synchronization is a first synchronization, and the operations further comprise:

based on a second synchronization parameter stored within the access control data structure, initiating a second synchronization of second data between the user equipment and a web server device of a wide area network coupled to the local area network.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the transmission is a first transmission and wherein the initiating the second synchronization comprises initiating the second synchronization without a second transmission of the second data via the macro network device.

12. A method, comprising:

determining, by a system comprising a processor, that a user equipment is coupled to a femto access point device associated with a femtocell network;

analyzing, by the system, parameter data stored within an access control data structure associated with the femto access point device to determine a synchronization parameter associated with the user equipment;

based on defined input data, selecting, by the system, data that is to be synchronized between the user equipment and a device of a local area network coupled to the femto access point device;

in response to the determining that the user equipment is coupled to the femto access point device, facilitating, by the system, a synchronization of the data between the user equipment and the device via the femto access point device, wherein the synchronization is based on the synchronization parameter and is facilitated without transmitting the data via a macro network device of a macro network; and

in response to determining that the user equipment has decoupled from the femto access point device, interrupting, by the system, the synchronization and directing, by the system, information representing a percentage of the data that has been transmitted between the user equipment and the device to be stored at the femto access point device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the facilitating comprises facilitating the synchronization based on defined policy data.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the synchronization is a first synchronization, the data is first data, the synchronization parameter is a first synchronization parameter and the method further comprises:

based on the defined input data, selecting, by the system, second data that is to be synchronized between the user equipment and a network device of a wide area network coupled to the local area network; and

facilitating, by the system, a second synchronization of the second data between the user equipment and the network device via the femto access point device, wherein the second synchronization is based on a second synchronization parameter stored within the access control data structure and is facilitated without transmitting the second data via the macro network device.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the user equipment is a first user equipment and the method further comprises:

authenticating a second user equipment; and

in response to the authenticating, receiving the defined input data from the second user equipment.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving the defined input data from the macro network device.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device comprising executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a system comprising a processor to perform operations, comprising:

determining that a user equipment is coupled to a femto access point device;

determining parameter data stored within an access control data structure associated with the femto access point device, wherein the parameter data is indicative of a synchronization parameter associated with the user equipment data;

based on defined input data, determining data that is to be synchronized between the user equipment and a device of a local area network that is coupled to the femto access point device;

in response to the determining that the user equipment is coupled to the femto access point device, initiating, based on the parameter data, a synchronization of the data between the user equipment and the device via the femto access point device, wherein the synchronization is facilitated independent of directing the data via a macro network device; and

in response to determining that the user equipment is to be decoupled from the femto access point device, interrupting the synchronization and directing information representing a percentage of the data that has been transmitted between the user equipment and the device to be stored within a data store of the femto access point device.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving the defined input data from an authorized device.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the initiating comprises initiating the synchronization based on defined policy data.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 19 wherein the operations further comprise:

based on instruction data received from the macro network device, facilitating management of the defined policy data.