Femtocell local breakout management services

• US 8,831,566 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2009
• Issued: 09/09/2014
• 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: Faryar, Alireza Farid, Huber, Kurt, Liu, Cheng P, Fowler, Henry Jackson, Streijl, Robert C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Behnamian, Shahriar
• Application Number:
  US12/623,237
• Publication Number:
  US 20100130170A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,754 Days
• Field of Search: 455/411, 455/432.1, 455/424.1, 455/435.1, 370/328, 370/331
• US Class Current: 455/411
• 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 provides management services during local breakout at a femto access point (FAP) is provided. In particular, the FAP facilitates policy management and employs a policy component to perform an analysis and enforce a set of policies for dynamically selecting an optimal route for traffic received at the FAP based on a decision-making process. Typically, the set of policies can specify different routes based on various factors, such as, but not limited to, type of traffic, current and/or future network resource availability, current time, day and/or date, location of the FAP, location of a UE sending/receiving the traffic, a lowest cost route, and/or route based on cost-benefit, etc. Further, a monitoring component is employed to observe the route employed by that traffic, which can be utilized by various services, such as, billing, Quality of Service, security management, address management, failure management and/or provisioning.

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;

subsequent to reception of communication data from a user equipment coupled to the femto access point device, determining route information indicative of a route for the communication data in accordance with policy data that specifies the route from the femto access point device to a device within a local area network coupled to the femto access point device based on a geographic location of the femto access point device, wherein the determining comprises selecting, based on the geographic location, between a first route that directs the communication data via a backhaul link coupled to the femto access point device and a second route that does not direct the communication data via the backhaul link,

directing the communication data to the device based on the route information, and

facilitating a translation of first quality of service class data assigned, by the user equipment to the communication data, to second quality of service class data that is employed by the device of the local area network.

2. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the policy data specifies the route information based on availability data indicative of an availability of a network resource of a network device.

3. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the policy data specifies the route information based on timing data indicative of a defined time period.

4. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the geographic location is a first geographic location and the policy data specifies the route information based on a second geographic location of the user equipment.

5. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the policy data is indicative of a routing policy that is selected from a set of routing policies based on priority data.

6. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the policy data specifies the route information based on service data representing a type of service associated with the user equipment.

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

determining fee data indicative of a charge associated with the communication data based on the route information.

8. The femto access point device of claim 7, wherein the fee data is indicative of a first charge that is applied in response to a first determination that the communication data is routed via the first route and a second charge that is applied in response to a second determination that the communication data is routed via the second, wherein the first charge is greater than the second charge.

9. The femto access point device of claim 4, wherein the policy data specifies the route information based on protocol data indicative of a communication protocol associated with the communication data.

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

receiving usage data from the user equipment, and

facilitating a transfer of the usage data to a server associated with a utility company via a network device of the local area network.

11. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the policy data specifies the route information based on authorization data associated with the user equipment.

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

facilitating a configuration of the femto access point device, wherein the facilitating the configuration comprises downloading the policy data from a service provider network device.

13. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a femto access point device comprising a processor, communication data from a user equipment coupled to a femto access point device, wherein the communication data is directed to a destination device of a local area network coupled to the femto access point device;

based on location data indicative of a geographic location of the femto access point device, selecting, by the femto access point device, a route from a set of routes that are employed to transfer the communication data between the femto access point device and the destination device, wherein the selecting comprises selecting, based on the location data, between a first route of the set of routes that directs the communication data via a backhaul link coupled to the femto access point device and a second route of the set of routes that does not direct the communication data via the backhaul link; and

facilitating, by the femto access point device, a translation of first quality of service class data assigned, by the user equipment to the communication data, to second quality of service class data that is employed by the destination device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting the route based on cost data indicative of a cost associated with routing the communication data.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

based on the route, determining, by the femto access point device, fee data indicative of a fee for the communication data.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

facilitating, by the femto access point device, a routing of the communication data based on the second quality of service class.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting the route based on timing data indicative of a time of day.

18. A non-transitory 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:

receiving, from a user equipment, a communication message that is directed to a destination device within a local area network coupled to the femto access point device;

subsequent to the receiving and based on policy data that specifies a path from the femto access point device to the destination device, determining path information indicative of the path for the communication message, wherein the determining comprises selecting, based on location data indicative of a geographic location of the femto access point device, the path from a first path that transfers the communication message via a backhaul link coupled to the femto access point device and a second path that does not transfer the communication message via the backhaul link; and

facilitating a translation of first quality of service class data assigned, by the user equipment to the communication message, to second quality of service class data that is employed by the destination device.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the selecting comprises selecting the path based on timing data indicative of a defined time period.

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

directing the communication data via the path.