Service continuity during local breakout in a femtocell

• US 9,918,248 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2015
• Issued: 03/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 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., Huber, Kurt, Faryar, Alireza, Dowlatkhah, Sangar
• Primary Examiner(s): Crutchfield, Christopher
• Assistant Examiner(s): LINDENBAUM, ALAN LOUIS
• Application Number:
  US14/804,304
• Publication Number:
  US 20150327194A1
• Time in Patent Office: 967 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

Service continuity when a user equipment (UE) employing local breakout mechanisms at a femto access point (FAP) for a communication session and moves out of the femto coverage area is disclosed. 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. An 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 that a user equipment, located in a coverage area of the access point device, has communicatively attached to the access point device, wherein the access point device is connected to a local network device via a backhaul link and a local area network;

in response to determining that the user equipment has previously detached from a femto access point device other than the access point device while the user equipment was communicatively coupled to the local network device via the femto access point device, resulting in an interrupted communication session, receiving, from the femto access point device, status information stored at the femto access point device indicating an amount of data communicated in the interrupted communication session with the local network device, wherein the status information facilitates reestablishing the interrupted communication session via the access point device, the femto access point device, the backhaul link and local area network; and

in response to the determining that the user equipment has communicatively attached to the network device via the access point device, backhaul link, the femto access point device, and local area network, synchronizing a resumption of a transmission of the data via the access point device, the femto access point device, and the local area network based on the status information corresponding to the interrupted communication session.

2. The access point device of claim 1, wherein the synchronizing comprises synchronizing the resumption of the transmission of the data via a communication path that is determined based on address information associated with the data.

3. The access point device of claim 1, wherein the data comprises a data packet and the synchronizing comprises synchronizing the resumption of the transmission of the data via a communication path that is determined based on a type of the data packet.

4. The access point device of claim 1, wherein the synchronizing comprises synchronizing the resumption of the transmission of the data via a communication path that is determined based on a communication protocol utilized for the synchronizing.

5. The access point device of claim 1, wherein the synchronizing comprises synchronizing the resumption of the transmission of the data via a communication path that is determined based on a policy associated with the user equipment.

6. The access point device of claim 1, wherein the determining that the user equipment has communicatively attached to the access point device is based on input data received from the user equipment.

7. The access point device of claim 1, wherein the determining that the user equipment has communicatively attached to the access point device is based on historical data associated with the user equipment.

8. The access point device of claim 1, wherein the determining that the user equipment has communicatively attached to the access point device is based on a geographical location of the user equipment.

9. 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 that a user equipment is altering a communicative attachment with the femto access point device;

in response to the determining that the altering the communicative attachment comprises the user equipment communicatively detaching from the femto access point device, storing context information, indicative of an amount of data that has been transmitted between the user equipment and a network device of a local area network attached to the femto access point device, via a data store of the femto access point device, wherein the context information supports synchronized restoration of a communication session between the user equipment and the network device via a communications network device other than the femto access point device, wherein communication between the communication network device other than the femto access point device and the network device of a local area network is via a communication path comprising a backhaul link and the femto access point device; and

in response to the determining that the altering the communicative attachment comprises the user equipment communicatively attaching to the communication network device other than the femto access point device, facilitating restoring the communication session based on the context information to enable the synchronized restoration of the communication session, between the user equipment and the network device of the local area network via the communication network device other than the femto access point device.

10. The femto access point device of claim 9, wherein the context information comprises address information associated with the data, and wherein the address information facilitates accessing the data via a communication path between the user equipment and the network device comprising the communications network device other than the femto access point device.

11. The femto access point device of claim 9, wherein the data comprises a data packet and the synchronized restoration of the communication session is via a communication path that is determined based a type of the data packet.

12. The femto access point device of claim 9, wherein the synchronized restoration of the communication session is via a communication path that is determined based on a communication protocol utilized for the synchronized restoration of the communication session.

13. The femto access point device of claim 9, wherein the synchronized restoration of the communication session is via a communication path that is determined based on a policy associated with the user equipment.

14. The femto access point device of claim 9, wherein the determining that the user equipment has communicatively detached from the femto access point device is based on input data received from the user equipment.

15. The femto access point device of claim 9, wherein the determining that the user equipment has communicatively detached from the femto access point device is based on historical data associated with the user equipment.

16. The femto access point device of claim 9, wherein the determining that the user equipment has communicatively detached from the femto access point device is based on a geographical location of the user equipment.

17. A method, comprising:

in response to determining that a user equipment has communicatively decoupled from a femto access point device comprising a processor, determining, by the femto access point device, context information indicative of an amount of data that has been transmitted between the user equipment and a local network device, wherein the femto access point device enabled access to the local network device via a local access network connected to the femto access point device;

storing, by the femto access point device, the context information on a data store of the femto access point device; and

in response to determining that the user equipment has communicatively coupled with an access point device other than the femto access point device after having become decoupled, enabling, by the femto access point device, access to the context information to enable synchronized resumption of the transmission of the data, wherein the synchronized resumption the transmission of the data is facilitated by a transmission of the data via a macro network device based on the context information stored on the femto access point device, and wherein the local network device of the local access network is accessible by the user equipment via a network connection traversing the macro network device, the femto access point device, and a backhaul link.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the synchronized resumption of the transmission of the data is via a communication path that is determined based on address information associated with the data.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the determining that the user equipment has communicatively decoupled from the femto access point device is based on historical data associated with the user equipment.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the determining that the user equipment has communicatively decoupled from the femto access point device is based on location data indicative of a geographical location of the user equipment.