FEMTOCELL LOCAL BREAKOUT MANAGEMENT SERVICES

• US 20100130170A1
• Filed: 11/20/2009
• Published: 05/27/2010
• 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: Huber, Kurt, Fowler, Henry J. JR., Streijl, Robert C., Faryar, Alireza, Liu, Cheng P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,831,566 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 system that facilitates management services at a femto access point (FAP) that supports local breakout, comprising:

a policy component that enforces one or more routing policies to determine a route for traffic received at the FAP; and

a routing component that directs the traffic based in part on the determined route.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more routing policies are defined by at least one of a service provider, a femtocell owner or an authorized user.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more routing policies specify one or more routes for the traffic based on at least one of a type of the traffic, a current network resource availability, a future network resource availability, a current time, a day, a date, a location of the FAP, a location of a user equipment (UE) associated with the traffic, a cost associated with routing the traffic, or a type of service acquired from a service provider.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy component receives data from a policy service in at least one of a Local Area network (LAN) connected to the FAP, or a service provider network, to facilitate an analysis for route determination.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy component selects the one or more routing policies from a set of routing policies based on at least one of preference or priority data, the set of routing policies includes at least one of similar, conflicting or overlapping routing policies.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising, a monitoring component that observes routing of the traffic at the FAP.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising, a billing component that determines a charge associated with the traffic based on information provided by the monitoring component, the information includes at least a route employed by the traffic.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the charge if the traffic is routed via a backhaul network to a core mobile network, is greater compared to the charge if the traffic is routed via local breakout, performed at the FAP.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising, a Quality of Service (QoS) component that facilitates translation of a QoS class assigned to the traffic to a disparate QoS class employed by a destination network to which the traffic is routed.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising, a usage collection component that collects usage data from a UE, attached to the FAP, and transfers the usage data to a utility company by utilizing local breakout at the FAP.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising, a management component that provides an interface for a service provider to remotely communicate with a policy database, which stores the one or more routing policies, over a service provider network.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a security component that encrypts a communication between the FAP and a mobility core network to create a secure tunnel for the communication;

a provisioning component that facilitates configuration of the FAP during installation, the configuration includes downloading the one or more routing policies from the service provider network;

an address management component that stores mapping information, which facilitates network address translation that is performed during local breakout at the FAP; and

a fault detection component that facilitates at least one of fault detection, diagnosis or repair during local breakout at the FAP.

13. A method that facilitates local breakout mechanisms at a femto access point (FAP) based on policy analysis, comprising:

receiving a communication at the FAP;

applying one or more routing policies to determine if local breakout can be preformed at the FAP; and

routing the communication directly to a destination without consuming mobility network resources if determined that local breakout can be performed.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the applying includes applying the one or more routing policies based in part on at least one of a type of the communication, a current network resource availability, a future network resource availability, a current time, a day, a date, a location of the FAP, a location of a user equipment (UE) associated with the communication, a cost associated with routing the communication, or a type of service acquired from a service provider.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising, determining a fee for the communication based on a route employed by the communication.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising, translating a QoS class assigned to the communication based in part on a route employed by the communication.

17. The method of claim 13 further comprising, remotely at least one of updating, deleting or creating the one or more routing policies, over a service provider network.

18. A system that facilitates service management during local breakout at a femto access point (FAP), comprising:

means for determining a path for traffic received at the FAP based in part on an application of one or more routing policies; and

means for routing the received traffic directly to a destination, without directing the received traffic through a core mobility network, when the path indicates that local breakout can be performed at the FAP.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

means for monitoring the routing of the received traffic;

means for determining a fee associated with delivery of the received traffic based in part on the path of the received traffic; and

means for translating a QoS class assigned to the traffic based in part on the path of the received traffic.

20. The system of claim 18, further comprising, means for collecting usage data from a user equipment (UE), attached to the FAP, and means for transferring the usage data to a utility company by utilizing local breakout at the FAP.