Femtocell local breakout mechanisms

• US 9,107,063 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2014
• Issued: 08/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2008
• 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.), AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Liu, Cheng P., Faryar, Alireza, Huber, Kurt
• Primary Examiner(s): Blanton, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): LINDENBAUM, ALAN LOUIS
• Application Number:
  US14/304,297
• Publication Number:
  US 20140295854A1
• Time in Patent Office: 424 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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

Local breakout mechanisms can be performed by a femto access point (FAP) to facilitate efficient utilization of backhaul and/or macro networks. 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 processor; and

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

determining routing data that represents a first route via which communication data, received from a user equipment that is coupled to the femto access point device, is to be routed, wherein the first route comprises a first path from the femto access point device to a network device of a wide area network via a local area network device coupled to the femto access point device, and

in response to receiving instruction data indicative of an instruction to override a local breakout, disabling local breakout functionality performed via the femto access point device to update the routing data to represent a second route via which the communication data is to be routed, wherein the second route comprises a second path from the femto access point device to the network device via a macro network device coupled to the femto access point device.

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

analyzing the communication data to facilitate the determining of the routing data.

3. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the determining the routing data comprises determining the routing data based on network congestion data associated with the macro network device.

4. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the determining the routing data comprises determining the routing data based on timing data indicative of a response time period associated with a transfer of the communication data from the user equipment to the network device.

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

receiving, via the macro network device, policy data associated with a defined routing policy, wherein the determining the routing data comprises determining the routing data based on the policy data.

6. The femto access point device of claim 5, wherein the receiving the policy data comprises receiving the policy data subsequent to an authorization of the femto access point device with the macro network device.

7. The femto access point device of claim 5, wherein the receiving the policy data comprises receiving the policy data during an initialization procedure employed to activate the femto access point device.

8. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the receiving the instruction data comprises receiving timing data indicative of a time at which the disabling is to be initiated.

9. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the receiving the instruction data comprises receiving the instruction data in response to determining that request data indicative of a request is received from a security device.

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

based on the routing data, directing the communication data to the network device.

11. The femto access point device of claim 1, wherein the determining the routing data comprises determining the routing data based on destination address data indicative of the network device.

12. A method, comprising:

determining, by a femto access point device comprising a processor, routing data that represents a first route via which communication data, received from a user equipment that is coupled to the femto access point device, is to be routed, wherein the first route comprises a first path from the femto access point device to a network device of a wide area network via a local area network device coupled to the femto access point device; and

in response to receiving instruction data indicative of an instruction to override a local breakout, disabling, by the femto access point device, local breakout functionality performed via the femto access point device to facilitate a transmission of the communication data to the network device via a second route that comprises a second path from the femto access point device to the network device via a macro network device coupled to the femto access point device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining the routing data comprises determining the routing data based on network congestion data associated with the macro network device.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining the routing data comprises determining the routing data based on timing data indicative of a response time period associated with a transfer of the communication data from the user equipment to the network device.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining the routing data comprises determining the routing data based on analyzing header data associated with the communication data.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining the routing data comprises determining the routing data based on policy data received via the macro network device.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving, by the femto access point device, the policy data during an initialization procedure employed to activate the femto access point device.

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:

receiving, from a user equipment that is coupled to the femto access point device, communication data that is directed to a network device of a wide area network;

determining that a local breakout functionality is to be performed, wherein the local breakout functionality initiates routing of the communication data by employing a first route from the femto access point device to the network device via a local area network device coupled to the femto access point device; and

in response to receiving instruction data indicative of an instruction to override a local breakout, disabling, by the femto access point device, the local breakout functionality to initiate a transmission of the communication data to the network device by employing a second route from the femto access point device to the network device via a macro network device coupled to the femto access point device.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the determining comprises determining that local breakout functionality is to be performed based on network congestion data associated with the macro network device.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the determining comprises determining that local breakout functionality is to be performed based on timing data indicative of a response time period associated with a transfer of the communication data from the user equipment to the network device.