Femtocell local breakout mechanisms

• US 9,843,519 B2
• Filed: 04/05/2017
• Issued: 12/12/2017
• 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): Hamza, Faruk
• Assistant Examiner(s): LINDENBAUM, ALAN LOUIS
• Application Number:
  US15/480,335
• Publication Number:
  US 20170214622A1
• Time in Patent Office: 251 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 system, comprising:

a processor; and

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

facilitating implementation of a gateway general packet radio service support node function at the femtocell access point device;

in response to receiving a communication packet from a first device, determining routing data based on the gateway general packet radio service support node function implemented at the femtocell access point device, wherein the routing data represents a routing path used to route the communication packet between the first device and a second device, and wherein the first device and the second device are connected via a communication framework to the femtocell access point device; and

in response to determining that the routing path is implemented without routing the communication packet via a core network device associated with a network operator identity, routing the communication packet, based on the routing data, between the first device and the second device via the communication framework.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining the routing data comprises analyzing at least a portion of the communication packet.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining the routing data comprises analyzing other data stored in a database.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining the routing path is implemented without the routing of the communication packet via the core network device is in response to the femtocell access point device receiving timing data corresponding to nodes of the communication framework excluding operator nodes of core network devices associated with the network operator core identity.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the routing the communication packet between the first device and the second device via the communication framework based on the routing data comprises updating policy data used to route a subsequent communication packet between the first device and the second device.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the updating the policy data comprises updating the routing data, resulting in updated routing data that represents an updated routing path.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the updating the routing data comprises updating the routing data based on network congestion data associated with a congestion measured by a communication framework device of the communication framework.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the updating the routing data comprises updating the routing data based on policy data associated with a policy applicable to network communications by a communication framework device of the communication framework.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the updating the routing data comprises updating the routing data based on communication framework device data associated with a first communication framework device of the communication framework, and wherein the operations further comprise:

based on the updated routing path, routing the subsequent communication packet via a second communication framework device of the communication framework different than the first communication framework device.

10. A method, comprising:

determining, by a femtocell device comprising a processor, routing data based on a gateway general packet radio service support node function implemented at the femtocell device, wherein the routing data identifies a first path to use to route a data packet associated with a user device via a first network device; and

in response to receiving a bypass instruction, routing, by the femtocell device, the data packet via the first path in lieu of routing, based on a local breakout rule, the data packet via a second path comprising a second network device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining the routing data comprises analyzing a header associated with the data packet.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining the routing data comprises anchoring a communication session corresponding to the data packet at the femtocell device based on the gateway general packet radio service support node function implemented at the femtocell device.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising, in response to receiving the bypass instruction, generating, by the femtocell device policy data associated with the routing of the data packet via the first path.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising, in response to receiving the bypass instruction, updating, by the femtocell device the routing data.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the updating the routing data comprises determining network congestion data associated with network congestion for a network comprising the first network device.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising, routing, by the femtocell device, a subsequent data packet based on the network congestion data.

17. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

implementing a gateway general packet radio service support node function at a femtocell access point device;

determining, based on the gateway general packet radio service support node function, a route to be used for routing data traffic associated with a user equipment session, wherein the route comprises a first network device of a communication framework, and wherein the communication framework comprises the femtocell access point device; and

disabling a breakout functionality associated with the femtocell access point device and updating the routing data to represent an updated route for the routing of the data traffic in response to receiving command data associated with a command to override a local breakout, wherein the updated route comprises a second network device of the communication framework different from the first network device.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the determining the route comprises analyzing data stored in a database.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the disabling the breakout functionality comprises determining policy data applicable to the local breakout.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the updating the route comprises determining the updated route based on network congestion data associated with the second network device.