Architecture and methods for traffic management by tunneling in hierarchical cellular networks

• US 9,351,173 B2
• Filed: 11/23/2011
• Issued: 05/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ELTA Systems Limited (Government of Israel)
• Original Assignee: ELTA Systems Limited (Government of Israel)
• Inventors: Giloh, Benjamin, Shoshan, Yaakov, Schwartz, Adi
• Primary Examiner(s): Moore, Ian N
• Assistant Examiner(s): La, Phong
• Application Number:
  US13/989,666
• Publication Number:
  US 20140036722A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,644 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4633 Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2592 using tunnelling or encapsulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/26 Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/32 Hierarchical cell structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/065 using assembly or disassembly of packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0833 Random access procedures, e.g. with 4-step access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/18 Management of setup rejection or failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/045 between access point and backbone network device

Abstract

A hierarchical cellular network system having a core and comprising a plurality of nodes, wherein at least one node comprises a relay; and wherein at least one relay includes: a tunneling subsystem; a backhauling link subsystem interfacing between the tunneling subsystem and a node which is closer to the core than the relay; and a base station subsystem, interfacing between the tunneling subsystem and a mobile station or a node which is further from the core than the relay, wherein the tunneling subsystem is operative to perform the following, on data arriving from a base station subsystem belonging to another node from among the plurality of nodes: collecting the data; and encapsulating the results to be sent in an individual session into packets and sending the packets to the Backhauling Link Subsystem.

Claims

1. A hierarchical cellular network system having a core and nodes comprising:

a plurality of nodes forming a network, wherein at least one node comprises a mobile relay having functionalities including both base station functionality and mobile communicator functionality and operative to serve mobile communicators, including at least one relay other than said mobile relay, and

to be served by the at least one relay other than said mobile relay; and

wherein the at least one relay other than said mobile relay includes;

a tunneling subsystem; and

a Backhauling Link Subsystem interfacing between the tunneling subsystem and a closer node from among said nodes which is closer to the core than said mobile relay;

the base station functionality interfacing between the tunneling subsystem and a mobile station or a further node from among said nodes which is further from the core than said mobile relay,

wherein the tunneling subsystem is operative to perform the following, on data arriving from the base station functionality;

collecting said data including analyzing to identify, within said data, results to be sent; and

encapsulating the results to be sent into packets and sending said packets to said Backhauling Link Subsystem,

wherein the tunneling subsystem is operative to perform the following, on incoming data arriving via said Backhauling Link Subsystem from another node from among said plurality of nodes;

collection of the incoming data;

decapsulation of the incoming data as collected, to yield decapsulated packets;

analysis of the decapsulated packets, including assigning a priority to each, to yield analyzed results;

sorting and queuing of the analyzed results, to yield individual packets conversion of the individual packets to a protocol specific to the network, to yield network-compatible packets; and

sending said network-compatible packets to another node via said mobile relay.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said backhauling link subsystem comprises a radio link that connects said mobile relay to another base station.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein said data is formatted as per an SI protocol including SI protocol framing in LTE.

4. The system according to claim 3, and wherein the tunneling subsystem is also operative for deframing the S1 protocol yielding a plurality of results.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein Si protocol is deframed into S1-U, S1-MME and X2, thereby to generate deframing results.

6. The system according to claim 2, wherein said at least one node comprises first and second nodes and said radio link connects said mobile relay in the first node to another mobile relay in the second node.

7. The system according to claim 2, wherein said radio link connects the mobile relay to a stationary base station.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the network has a network topology and a source Identity of at least one of said packets is sent by the Backhauling Link Subsystem to an upper layer of the network topology, so as to identify at least one source relay in the network topology from which the at least one of said packets originated.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein said encapsulating includes incorporating the results into said packets as a Payload.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the core comprises a tunneling application server.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein a first block at which a plurality of said packets arrive is an Encapsulation Engine operative to the decapsulate packets which arrive Inbound and to encapsulate a plurality of said packets preparatory to said packets'"'"' being sent Outbound.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the Encapsulation Engine is operative for adding information to the data payload, by adding a header to a data payload packet in order to send the data payload over a different delivery network.

13. The system according to claim 1, wherein the core comprises a tunneling server and wherein all mobile base station (MBS) traffic has a destination and said destination is the tunneling server.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein the core comprises an S1 tunneling server and wherein the S1 tunneling server is located between the base station and a core segment defined by the core and interfaces the base station using a standard S1 interface and wherein an individual tunneling server interfaces with the core segment via multi-S1 interfaces, including one multi-S1 interface for each mobile base station whose packets arrive at said individual tunneling server.

15. The system according to claim 1, wherein the core comprises an S1 tunneling server and wherein a first block in an Inbound flow comprises a mobile base station filter operative to sort incoming user-plane packets of an S1-U interface thereby to define an S1-U stream and wherein the mobile base station filter, by using a known list of mobile base stations, is operative to detect the mobile base stations'"'"' packets, to filter said mobile base stations'"'"' packets from the S1-U stream and to send the S1-U stream without the mobile base stations'"'"' packets directly to a core segment defined by the core.

16. The system according to claim 1, wherein the Tunneling Subsystem is operative to process incoming mobile base station only packets stream for every sole mobile base station detected, in a recursive manner in order to decapsulate tunnel-inside-tunnel cases.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein, after unfolding all the mobile base stations'"'"' packets, thereby to generate unfolded data, the Tunneling Subsystem is operative to transfer said unfolded data to a Virtual Radio Access Network Manager that reflects each of the mobile base stations to a core segment which is defined by the core as a virtual base station.

18. The system according to claim 1, wherein the Virtual Radio Access Network Manager is operative, using data arriving at the Virtual Radio Access Network Manager from all mobile base stations, to build a topology of all mobile base station sub-networks including a list of all users attached to the Virtual Radio Access Network Manager.

19. The system according to claim 1, wherein the Virtual Radio Access Network Manager is operative to function as a proxy of MeNBs interfacing the core by reflecting each of the mobile base stations using a standard S1 interface to create a multi-Si interface.

20. The system according to claim 1, wherein the Virtual Radio Access Network Manager is also operative to pass packets and attached instructions, at least said attached instructions resulting from analysis of a mobile base stations'"'"' topology tree, via a dedicated interface to a Tunneling Subsystem, and to store the mobile base stations'"'"' topology tree.

21. The system according to claim 1, wherein the base station functionality from which said data arrives comprises at least one of:

the base station functionality belonging to the another node from among said plurality of nodes; and

the base station functionality belonging to said mobile relay.

24. The system according to claim 1, wherein the tunneling subsystem is operative only for removing an encapsulation header or for adding all headers, in case of a multi-hop, according to a route to a designated address.

22. A method for operating in a hierarchical cellular network system having a core and a plurality of nodes forming a network, wherein at least one node comprises a relay, the method comprising:

providing a tunneling subsystem; and

a backhauling link subsystem interfacing between the tunneling subsystem and a node which is closer to the core than said mobile relay, in at least one node from among the plurality of nodes which comprises a mobile relay having functionalities including both base station functionality and mobile communicator functionality and being operative to serve mobile communicators, including at least one relay other than said mobile relay, and to be served by at least one relay other than said mobile relay;

the base station functionality, interfacing between the tunneling subsystem and a mobile station or a node which is further from the core than said mobile relay, using the tunneling subsystem to perform the following, on data arriving from the base station functionality;

collecting said data including analyzing to identify, within said data, results to be sent; and

encapsulating the results to be sent into packets and sending said packets to said Backhauling Link Subsystem,

wherein multi-hop communication is used by providing a chain of n>

=2 communication relaying mobile stations, the first of which, 1, is within the range of a base station, the last of which, n, has a mobile communicator within communication relaying mobile station n'"'"'s own range, and each adjacent pair I, i+1 of which, for I=1, . . . n−

1, is of the I'"'"'th communication relaying base station.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein said network has a Multi-layered cellular topology which creates tunnel-within-tunnel encapsulation that is resolved and unfolded at a tunneling server in the core.

25. The method according to claim 22, wherein a tunnel incorporates several cellular entities together.

26. For use with a hierarchical cellular network system having a core and comprising:

a plurality of nodes

at least one node which comprises a mobile relay having both base station and mobile communicator functionalities and operative

to serve mobile communicators, including at least one relay other than said mobile relay, and

to be served by at least one relay other than said mobile relay, and

a Virtual Radio Access Network Manager which resides in a tunneling application server residing in the core,

and which is operative to reflect each mobile base station back to a core segment defined by the core as a real base station using a standard RAN-to-Core interface

and wherein at least said mobile relay includes;

a tunneling subsystem; and

a backhauling link subsystem interfacing between the tunneling subsystem and a closer node from among said plurality of nodes which is closer to the core than said mobile relay;

the base station functionality interfacing between the tunneling subsystem and a mobile station or a further node from among said plurality of nodes which is further from the core than said mobile relay,

wherein the tunneling subsystem is operative to perform the following, on data arriving from the base station functionality;

collecting said data including analyzing to identify, within said data, results to be sent; and

encapsulating the results to be sent into packets and sending said packets to said Backhauling Link Subsystem,

wherein the Tunneling Subsystem is operative to process incoming mobile base station only packets stream for every sole mobile base station detected, in a recursive manner in order to decapsulate tunnel-inside-tunnel cases and

wherein, after unfolding all the mobile base stations'"'"' packets, to generate unfolded data, the Tunneling Subsystem is operative to transfer said unfolded data to a Virtual Radio Access Network Manager that reflects each of the mobile base stations to a core segment which is defined by the core as a virtual base station.

27. A hierarchical cellular network system having a core and comprising:

a plurality of nodes forming a network, wherein at least one node comprises a mobile relay having functionalities including both base station functionality and mobile communicator functionality and operative

to serve mobile communicators, including at least one relay other than said mobile relay, and

to be served by the at least one relay other than said mobile relay; and

wherein at least said mobile relay includes;

a tunneling subsystem; and

backhauling link subsystem interfacing between the tunneling subsystem and a closer node from among said plurality of nodes which is closer to the core than said mobile relay;

the base station functionality interfacing between the tunneling subsystem and a mobile station or a further node from among said plurality of nodes which is further from the core than said mobile relay,

wherein the tunneling subsystem is operative to perform the following, on data arriving from the base station functionality;

collecting said data including analyzing to identify, within said data;

results to be sent; and

encapsulating the results to be sent into packets and sending said packets to said Backhauling Link Subsystem,

wherein the core comprises an S1 tunneling server and wherein a first block in an Inbound flow comprises a mobile base station filter operative to sort incoming user-plane packets of an S1-U interface and wherein the filter, by using a known list of mobile base stations, is operative to detect the mobile base stations'"'"' packets, to filter said packets from an S1-U stream and to send the S1-U stream without the mobile base stations'"'"' packets directly to a core segment defined by the core.