Systems, methods and devices for traffic offloading

• US 9,380,494 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2014
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Sirotkin, Alexander, Fong, Mo-Han, Himayat, Nageen
• Primary Examiner(s): Elallam, Ahmed
• Application Number:
  US14/318,098
• Publication Number:
  US 20150092553A1
• Time in Patent Office: 732 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/20 Traffic policing
• 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 28/0252 per individual bearer or channel dynamic wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• 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 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

Wireless communication traffic can be offloaded from a user equipment (UE) to two wireless points of access. For example, user equipment (UE) is connected to a radio access network (RAN) using a radio access technology (RAT) such as a long term evolution (LTE) network. The UE can determine which network capabilities are available for traffic offloading and adapt to the capabilities presented. In one embodiment, the UE can determine whether the network supports three different configurations and configure traffic offloading to operate within the network conditions: (1) RAN rules without access network detection and selection function (ANDSF), (2) ANDSF in conjunction with RAN rules or (3) enhanced ANDSF with RAN assistance.

Claims

1. A method for offloading cellular traffic to wireless local area network (WLAN) traffic, the method comprising:

receiving WLAN offload configuration data;

receiving WLAN identifiers describing available wireless local area network access points (WLAN APs) for offload of data connections;

determining WLAN parameters for received WLAN identifiers;

receiving network provider rules that reference cellular parameters and the WLAN parameters;

evaluating the network provider rules based on the cellular parameters and WLAN parameters to;

determine a set of access networks available for use;

determine whether to connect to a WLAN AP in the set of access networks available for use; and

when connecting to a WLAN AP, determine which data connections to offload to the WLAN AP.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network provider rules are access network discovery and selection function (ANDSF) rules that include the cellular parameters and the WLAN parameters.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining WLAN parameters further comprises receiving WLAN parameters thresholds from a second protocol layer of a user equipment (UE) that is lower than a first protocol layer that evaluates the network provider rules.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining WLAN parameters comprises a comparison with a threshold performed in the second protocol layer.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein determining WLAN parameters comprises a value and a threshold determined by the second protocol layer, and a comparison between the value and a threshold is performed in the first protocol layer as part of the evaluating network provider rules.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the second protocol layer is a radio resource control (RRC) layer, packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, radio link control (RLC) layer or medium access control (MAC) layer.

7. A user equipment (UE) configured for access network selection and traffic steering, the UE comprising:

a first wireless interface to communicate through a wireless wide area network (WWAN);

a second wireless interface to communicate through a wireless local area network (WLAN); and

a processor configured to;

receive, from a mobility management function in an evolved packet core (EPC) of the WWAN, offload information indicating one or more first packet data network (PDN) connections authorized for offload to the WLAN and one or more second PDN connections restricted from offload to the WLAN;

receive radio access network (RAN) assistance information through radio resource control (RRC) signaling from the WWAN;

determine, based on a comparison of the RAN assistance information with offload rules, to offload traffic to the WLAN; and

in response to the determination to offload traffic, offload the one or more first PDN connections to the WLAN.

8. The UE of claim 7, wherein the offload information corresponds to a specific WWAN radio access technology.

9. The UE of claim 7, wherein the offload information is based on subscription data corresponding to the UE.

10. The UE of claim 7, wherein the offload rules comprise access network discovery and selection function (ANDSF) rules including at least one of an inter-system routing policy (ISRP) rule and an inter-access point name (APN) routing policy (IARP) rule, and wherein the ANDSF rules comprise one or more threshold conditions and an offload preference indicator (OPI) condition.

11. The UE of claim 10, wherein the one or more threshold conditions is associated with a WWAN threshold provided by the RAN assistance information, and wherein the processor is further configured to evaluate the one or more threshold conditions by comparing the WWAN threshold with a corresponding measured value.

12. The UE of claim 10, wherein a first threshold condition of the one or more threshold conditions is associated with a first WLAN threshold provided in the RAN assistance information, and wherein the processor is further configured to evaluate the first threshold condition by comparing the first WLAN threshold with a corresponding value received from the WLAN.

13. The UE of claim 12, wherein a second threshold condition of the one or more threshold conditions is associated with a second WLAN threshold provided by the ANDSF, and wherein the processor is further configured to evaluate the second threshold condition by comparing the second WLAN threshold provided by the ANDSF with a corresponding value received from the WLAN.

14. The UE of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to receive, through the RRC signaling, a third WLAN threshold associated with the second threshold condition, and wherein the processor is further configured to replace the second WLAN threshold with the third WLAN threshold so as to evaluate the second threshold condition by comparing the third WLAN threshold with a corresponding value received from the WLAN.

15. The UE of claim 7, wherein the RAN assistance information comprises at least one of a WWAN threshold and a WLAN threshold.

16. The UE of claim 15, wherein the WWAN threshold is selected from a first group comprising a reference signal received power (RSRP) threshold, a common pilot channel (CPICH) per chip over total noise power density (Ec/No) threshold, and reference signal received quality (RSRQ) threshold;

and

wherein the WLAN threshold is selected from a second group comprising a beacon received signal strength indicator (RSSI) threshold, a backhaul data rate threshold, and a basic service set (BSS) load threshold.

17. The UE of claim 7, further comprising at least one of a speaker, a microphone, a connection port, a keyboard, a touch screen, a battery, a memory port, and one or more antennas.

18. The UE of claim 7, wherein the WWAN comprises a third generation partnership project (3GPP) network.

19. The UE of claim 18, wherein the WLAN comprises a non-3GPP network.

20. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

process radio access network (RAN) assistance parameters to identify a wireless local area network (WLAN) for traffic offload;

receive a first radio resource control (RRC) signal indicating a first packet data network (PDN) connection that is allowed to be offloaded from a wireless wide area network (WWAN) to the WLAN; and

select the first PDN connection for communication through the WLAN;

receive a second RRC signal indicating a second PDN connection that is restricted from offload from the WWAN to the WLAN; and

select the second PDN connection for communication only through the WWAN.

21. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the RAN assistance parameters comprise at least one of a WWAN threshold and a WLAN threshold.

22. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the WWAN threshold is selected from a first group comprising a reference signal received power (RSRP) threshold, a common pilot channel (CPICH) per chip over total noise power density (Ec/No) threshold, and reference signal received quality (RSRQ) threshold;

and

wherein the WLAN threshold is selected from a second group comprising a beacon received signal strength indicator (RSSI) threshold, a backhaul data rate threshold, and a basic service set (BSS) load threshold.

23. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by one or more processors in an evolved packet core (EPC) of a wireless wide area network (WWAN), cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

generate offload information indicating one or more first packet data network (PDN) connections authorized for offload from the WWAN to a wireless local area network (WLAN) and one or more second PDN connections restricted from offload to the WLAN;

communicate the offload information to a user equipment (UE); and

communicate radio access network (RAN) assistance information through radio resource control (RRC) to the UE, the RAN assistance information including rules to determine whether to perform traffic offloading to the one or more first PDN connections authorized for offload from the WWAN to the WLAN.

24. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the RAN assistance information comprises at least one of a WWAN threshold and a WLAN threshold.