Method and system for selectively bypassing packet core network within a session based on traffic type

• US 8,503,438 B2
• Filed: 11/18/2010
• Issued: 08/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mavenir Systems Incorporated (Mavenir Group Holdings Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Stoke Incorporated (Mavenir Group Holdings Ltd.)
• Inventors: Lim, Heeseon, Kant, Nishi
• Primary Examiner(s): Nawaz, Asad
• Assistant Examiner(s): BELETE, BERHANU D
• Application Number:
  US12/949,624
• Publication Number:
  US 20110116499A1
• Time in Patent Office: 992 Days
• Field of Search: 3702301-231, 370350-356
• US Class Current: 370/355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/24 Multipath
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/302 Route determination based on requested QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/304 Route determination for signalling traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/306 Route determination based on the nature of the carried application
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing

Abstract

According to one aspect of the invention, packets of a first type within a first data flow are routed to a destination through a packet core network. In response to a detection that packets of a second type are to be routed while routing the first data flow, a second data flow is created which is a sub-flow of the first data flow. Packets of the second type are routed via the second data flow to the destination without traversing the packet core network, while packets of the first type are routed via the first data flow traversing the packet core network.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method for processing network traffic of a packet network, the method comprising:

routing, by a mobile data offload (MDO) device, packets of a first type within a first flow received from via a radio network controller (RNC) of a radio access network (RAN) and originated from a user equipment (UE) to a destination through a packet core network, wherein the MDO device is located between the RNC and a serving general packer radio service (GPRS) support node (SGSN) of the packet core network;

in response to a detection that packets of a second type are to be routed while routing the first flow, creating, by the MDO, a second flow which is a sub-flow of the first flow, wherein the first flow and the second flow are associated with the same UE, wherein the first flow is realized as a primary packet data protocol (PDP) context and the second flow is realized as a secondary PDP context, wherein the first flow includes control packets to be serviced by an operator service of the packet core network and the second flow includes data packets to be routed to the destination over the Internet without going through the SGSN of the packet core network, wherein creating the secondary PDP context comprises;

receiving, at the MDO device, a Radio Access Bearer (RAB) Assignment Request message for the secondary PDP context from the SGSN of the packet core network, replacing a transport layer address of the RAB Assignment Request message from an IP address of the SGSN with an IP address of the MDO device, and

transmitting the RAB Assignment Request message having the IP address of the MDO device to the RNC to complete an RAB assignment for the UE; and

routing, by the MDO, packets of the second type via the second flow of the UE to the destination without routing to the SGSN of the packet core network, while continue to route packets of the first type via the first flow of the UE traversing the packet core network.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first type of packets is associated with a first quality of service (QoS) requirement and the second type of packets is associated with a second QoS requirement that is different than the first QoS requirement.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing a GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP) tunnel between the RNC and the MDO device for the secondary PDP context, such that data exchanged through the GTP tunnel is directly routed to the destination by the MDO device without going through the SGSN of the packet core network.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to receiving the RAB Assignment Request message, receiving a Request Secondary PDP Context Activation message from the SGSN in response to the SGSN receiving an Initiate PDP Context Activation Request message from the GGSN of the packet core network, which is in response to the detection of packets of the second type; and

examining a QoS parameter of the Request Secondary PDP Context Activation message in view of a set of one or more rules controlling operations of the MDO device in order to determine whether packets of the second type should be routed to the destination which bypassing the packet core network.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second RAB Assignment Request message from the SGSN which receives an Update PDP Context Request message from GGSN in response to the detection, the second RAB Assignment Request message indicating a change of a QoS parameter;

in response to the second RAB Assignment Request message, transmitting a Request Secondary PDP Context Activation message to the UE via the RNC;

receiving an Activate Secondary PDP Context Request message from the UE via the RNC;

forwarding the Activate Secondary PDP Context Request message to the SGSN to complete creation of the secondary PDP context;

receiving an Activate Secondary PDP Context Accept message from the SGSN; and

forwarding the Activate Secondary PDP Context Accept message to the UE via the RNC to complete creation of the GTP tunnel.

6. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions therein, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method for processing network traffic of a data network, the method comprising:

routing, by a mobile data offload (MDO) device, packets of a first type within a first flow received from via a radio network controller (RNC) of a radio access network (RAN) and originated from a user equipment (UE) to a destination through a packet core network, wherein the MDO device is located between the RNC and a serving general packer radio service (GPRS) support node (SGSN) of the packet core network;

in response to a detection that packets of a second type are to be routed while routing the first flow, creating, by the MDO, a second flow which is a sub-flow of the first flow, wherein the first flow and the second flow are associated with the same UE, wherein the first flow is realized as a primary packet data protocol (PDP) context and the second flow is realized as a secondary PDP context, wherein the first flow includes control packets to be serviced by an operator service of the packet core network and the second flow includes data packets to be routed to the destination over the Internet without going through the SGSN of the packet core network, wherein creating the secondary PDP context comprises;

receiving, at the MDO device, a Radio Access Bearer (RAB) Assignment Request message for the secondary PDP context from the SGSN of the packet core network,

replacing a transport layer address of the RAB Assignment Request message from an IP address of the SGSN with an IP address of the MDO device, and

transmitting the RAB Assignment Request message having the IP address of the MDO device to the RNC to complete an RAB assignment for the UE; and

routing, by the MDO, packets of the second type via the second flow to the destination without routing to the SGSN of the packet core network, while continue to route packets of the first type via the first flow traversing the packet core network.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the first type of packets is associated with a first quality of service (QoS) requirement and the second type of packets is associated with a second QoS requirement that is different than the first QoS requirement.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim claim 6, wherein the method further comprises establishing a GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP) tunnel between the RNC and the MDO device for the secondary PDP context, such that data exchanged through the GTP tunnel is directly routed to the destination by the MDO device without going through the SGSN of the packet core network.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:

prior to receiving the RAB Assignment Request message, receiving a Request Secondary PDP Context Activation message from the SGSN in response to the SGSN receiving an Initiate PDP Context Activation Request message from the GGSN of the packet core network, which is in response to the detection of packets of the second type; and

examining a QoS parameter of the Request Secondary PDP Context Activation message in view of a set of one or more rules controlling operations of the MDO device in order to determine whether packets of the second type should be routed to the destination which bypassing the packet core network.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a second RAB Assignment Request message from the SGSN which receives an Update PDP Context Request message from GGSN in response to the detection, the second RAB Assignment Request message indicating a change of a QoS parameter;

in response to the second RAB Assignment Request message, transmitting a Request Secondary PDP Context Activation message to the UE via the RNC;

receiving an Activate Secondary PDP Context Request message from the UE via the RNC;

forwarding the Activate Secondary PDP Context Request message to the SGSN to complete creation of the secondary PDP context;

receiving an Activate Secondary PDP Context Accept message from the SGSN; and

forwarding the Activate Secondary PDP Context Accept message to the UE via the RNC to complete creation of the GTP tunnel.

11. A network element, comprising:

a router to route packets of a first type within a first flow to a destination through a packet core network, wherein the packets of the first flow is received from a radio network controller (RNC) of a radio access network (RAN) and originated from a user equipment (UE), and wherein the network element is a mobile data offload (MDO) device located between the RNC and a serving general packer radio service (GPRS) support node (SGSN) of the packet core network; and

a packet inspector, in response to a detection that packets of a second type are to be routed while routing the first flow, to create a second flow which is a sub-flow of the first flow, wherein the first flow and the second flow are associated with the same UE, wherein the first flow is realized as a primary packet data protocol (PDP) context and the second flow is realized as a secondary PDP context, wherein the first flow includes control packets to be serviced by an operator service of the packet core network and the second flow includes data packets to be routed to the destination over the Internet without going through the SGSN of the packet core network, wherein creating the secondary PDP context comprises;

receiving a Radio Access Bearer (RAB) Assignment Request message for the secondary PDP context from the SGSN of the packet core network, replacing a transport layer address of the RAB Assignment Request message from an IP address of the SGSN with an IP address of the network element, and

transmitting the RAB Assignment Request message having the IP address of the network element to the RNC to complete an RAB assignment for the UE,

wherein the router is configured to route packets of the second type via the second flow to the destination without routing to the SGSN of the packet core network, while continue to route packets of the first type via the first flow traversing the packet core network.

12. The network element of claim 11, wherein the first type of packets is associated with a first quality of service (QoS) requirement and the second type of packets is associated with a second QoS requirement that is different than the first QoS requirement.