Providing services at a communication network edge

• US 8,831,014 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2010
• Issued: 09/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Koodli, Rajeev, Chowdhury, Kuntal
• Primary Examiner(s): JAIN, RAJ K
• Application Number:
  US12/891,636
• Publication Number:
  US 20110075675A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,443 Days
• Field of Search: 370/230, 370/237, 370/217, 370/218, 370/222.01, 370/270, 370/279, 370/389, 370/392, 370/400, 370/401, 351/354, 351/356, 455/436, 709/239
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1403 Architecture for metering, charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1485 Tariff-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2528 Translation at a proxy
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/306 intercepting packet switched data communications, e.g. Web, Internet or IMS communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/41 Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/22 for handling the traffic

Abstract

As the proliferation of data rich content and increasingly more capable mobile devices has continued, the amount of data communicated over mobile operator'"'"'s networks has increased. Upgrading the existing network that was designed for voice calls is not desirable or practical for many mobile operators. This disclosure relates to a mobility edge gateway that resides on the edge of the core network and can provide one or more services such as call localization, offloading of traffic, session management, and content streaming. The call localization involves identifying calls that can be maintained at the edge of the network and bridging the calls at the mobility edge gateway to bypass the core network. The offloading involves identifying traffic and offloading the traffic to the Internet or another network to bypass the core network. These services can relieve congestion on the core network of mobile operator'"'"'s networks.

Claims

1. A gateway comprising:

one or more interfaces configured to provide packet communication with a user equipment, a packet core network, and an Internet, wherein the one or more interfaces are further configured to communicate with a home gateway in the packet core;

a processor, in communication with the one or more interfaces, configured to inspect a control plane message received from the home gateway, wherein inspection of the control plane message comprises using an analyzer to determine offload eligibility of traffic corresponding to the received control plane message and call localization eligibility of traffic corresponding to the received control plane message,

wherein the traffic corresponding to the received control plane message is identified as eligible to be offloaded from the packet core network to the Internet to bypass the packet core network upon determining that one or more trigger conditions is satisfied;

wherein the traffic corresponding to the received control plane message is identified as eligible for call localization within the home gateway upon determining that a source device and a destination device of the traffic are serviced by a same radio access network;

a network address translation functionality that is configured to modify packets associated with the traffic corresponding to the received control plane message such that the packets are routed through the Internet, bypassing the packet core network; and

a call localization functionality that is configured to change information of packets associated with traffic selected for call localization to localize the traffic at the gateway.

2. The gateway of claim 1, wherein the one or more interfaces include a channel and the home gateway includes a packet data network gateway (PGW) that is configured to receive addressing and accounting information over the channel for call localization operations and offloading operations that occur on the gateway.

3. The gateway of claim 1, further comprising a serving gateway (SGW) functionality that is configured to establish packet data network (PDN) connections and to identify the traffic for offload.

4. The gateway of claim 3, wherein the SGW functionality is configured to communicate over the one or more interfaces with the home gateway to obtain centralized information to manage subscriber sessions.

5. The gateway of claim 4, wherein the gateway maintains a session for a subscription when moving traffic from a first radio access technology to a second radio access technology.

6. The gateway of claim 1, wherein the call localization functionality is configured to receive a packet from a first user equipment on a first tunnel with a first tunnel identifier and to switch the first tunnel identifier of the packet to a second tunnel identifier and sending the packet to a second user equipment.

7. The gateway of claim 1, wherein the one or more interfaces include an S1-U interface for communicating with an evolved nodeB (eNB), an S5 interface, and a SGi interface.

8. The gateway of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to run a module that is configured to perform a shallow inspection of packets to determine offload eligibility of the packets, wherein the shallow inspection of packets includes an inspection of Layer 3 or Layer 4 of the packets.

9. The gateway of claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to run a module that is configured to perform a deep inspection of packets to determine offload eligibility of the packets, wherein the deep inspection of packets includes an inspection of Layer 7 of the packets.

10. The gateway of claim 9, wherein the module is configured to perform the deep inspection of the packets to determine the offload eligibility of the packets when the shallow inspection of the packets does not provide enough information to determine the offload eligibility.

11. The gateway of claim 1, wherein the received control plane message includes a PDP context request message, and wherein the module is further configured to load balance the PDP context request message to a session manager if the PDP context request message is offload eligible,

inspecting, by the gateway, the control plane message, wherein inspection of the control plane message comprises using an analyzer to determine offload eligibility of traffic corresponding to the received control plane message and call localization eligibility of traffic corresponding to the control plane message,

wherein the traffic corresponding to the control plane message is identified as eligible to be offloaded from a packet core network to an Internet to bypass the packet core network upon determining that one or more trigger conditions is satisfied;

wherein the traffic corresponding to the received control plane message is identified as eligible for call localization within the home gateway upon determining that a source device and a destination device of the traffic are serviced by a same radio access network.

12. A method comprising:

receiving a control plane message via an interface at a gateway that is bound to or from a user equipment (UE);

inspecting, by the gateway, the control plane message, wherein inspection of the control plane message comprises using an analyzer to determine offload eligibility of traffic corresponding to the received control plane message and call localization eligibility of traffic corresponding to the control plane message,

wherein the traffic corresponding to the control plane message is identified as eligible to be offloaded from a packet core network to an Internet to bypass the packet core network upon determining that one or more trigger conditions is satisfied;

wherein the traffic corresponding to the received control plane message is identified as eligible for call localization within the home gateway upon determining that a source device and a destination device of the traffic are serviced by a same radio access network

if the traffic corresponding to the control plane message is offload eligible, modifying, by a network address translation functionality, packets associated with the traffic to route the traffic onto the Internet to bypass the packet core network;

if the traffic corresponding to the control plane message is eligible for call localization, switching, by the gateway, identifiers of packets associated with the traffic to localize a call session associated with the traffic; and

communicating, by the gateway, information regarding the call localization or the offloading over a channel to a home gateway.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the home gateway is a packet data network gateway (PGW) that receives addressing and accounting information over the channel for call localization operations and offloading operations that occur on the gateway.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising communicating, by the gateway, information with the PGW to manage subscriber sessions centrally.

15. The method of claim 12 further comprising maintaining, by the gateway, a session when moving traffic from a first radio access technology to a second radio access technology where each access technology is served by the gateway.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving, by the gateway, a packet from a first user equipment on a first tunnel with a first tunnel identifier at the gateway; and

switching, by the gateway, the first tunnel identifier of the packet to a second tunnel identifier and sending the packet to a second user equipment.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first tunnel is a GPRS tunnel protocol (GTP) user plane tunnel and a serving gateway (SGW) function is used to handover a localized call session from a first evolved nodeB (eNB) to a second evolved nodeB (eNB).

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

caching, by the gateway, content at the gateway for a second user equipment (UE); and

streaming, by the gateway, the content over the radio access network from the cache to the user equipment.

19. Logic encoded on one or more non-transitory tangible media for execution and when executed operable to:

receive a control plane message via an interface that is bound to or from a user equipment (UE);

inspect the control plane message, wherein inspection of the control plane message comprises using an analyzer to determine offload eligibility of traffic corresponding to the received control plane message and call localization eligibility of traffic corresponding to the received control plane message,

wherein the traffic corresponding to the received control plane message is identified as eligible to be offloaded from a packet core network to an Internet to bypass the packet core network upon determining that one or more trigger conditions is satisfied;

wherein the traffic corresponding to the received control plane message is identified as eligible for call localization within the home gateway upon determining that a source device and a destination device of the traffic are serviced by a same radio access network

if the traffic corresponding to the control plane message is offload eligible, modify packets associated with the traffic to route the traffic onto the Internet to bypass the packet core network;

if the traffic corresponding to the control plane message is eligible for call localization, switch identifiers of packets associated with the traffic to localize a call session; and

communicate information regarding the call localization or the offloading over a channel to a home gateway.

20. The logic of claim 19, further comprising:

receive a packet from a first user equipment on a first tunnel with a first tunnel identifier at the gateway; and

switch the first tunnel identifier of the packet to a second tunnel identifier and sending the packet to a second user equipment.