International Business Machines Corporation

Lenovo (singapore) Pte. Ltd.

Richard Ott

Ronald Leroy Billau

Canio Cillis

Ekkart Leschke

Vincenzo V Di Luoffo

Bruce Oliver Anthony, Jr

Vivek Kashyap

William Frederick Berg

Mobile network services are performed at the edge of a mobile data network in a way that is transparent to most of the existing equipment in the mobile data network. The mobile data network includes a radio access network and a core network. A first service mechanism in the radio access network breaks out data coming from a basestation, and performs one or more mobile network services at the edge of the mobile data network based on the broken out data. A second service mechanism in the core network receives data monitored during attach and Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context activation, and establishes sessions with components in the mobile data network that support charging and policy control for sessions broken out by the first service mechanism.

Charging and policy for services at the edge of a mobile data network

A flow setup table in a basestation breakout component allows for servicing non-cacheable IP data flows at the breakout component without the need for network address translation. For each broken out IP flow at the breakout component, the flow setup table holds a mapping between tunnel IDs and the IP related information. The flow setup table data is sent to the breakout component at the gateway. The gateway breakout component uses the flow setup table to forward non-cacheable data requests to the internet and return data received from the internet back to the basestation breakout component. The basestation component then sends the non-cacheable data in the correct tunnel to the user equipment requesting the data.

Avoiding network address translation in a mobile data network

A flow setup table in a base station breakout component allows for servicing non-cacheable IP data flows at the breakout component without the need for network address translation. For each broken out IP flow at the breakout component, the flow setup table holds a mapping between tunnel IDs and the IP related information. The flow setup table data is sent to the breakout component at the gateway. The gateway breakout component uses the flow setup table to forward non-cacheable data requests to the internet and return data received from the internet back to the base station breakout component. The base station component then sends the non-cacheable data in the correct tunnel to the user equipment requesting the data.

A method and system supports subscriber based IP data breakout at the edge of a mobile data network without monitoring the use of security keys or breaking into ciphered message exchanges. The system employs a first service mechanism operating at the edge of the mobile data network a second service mechanism operating at the core on the S11 interface. The second service mechanism at the core collects subscriber related data, subscriber identifiers and tunnel identifiers and sends this data to the first service mechanism. The second service mechanism at the core collects subscriber related data, subscriber identifiers and tunnel identifiers and sends this data to the first service mechanism. The first service mechanism uses the tunnel identifiers received from the second service mechanism to identify sessions and tunnels carrying subscriber dependent data packets (S1-U packets) in order to perform subscriber-based IP data breakout, offloading and optimization.

Collection of subscriber information for data breakout in a mobile data network

A mobility event is supported on a flat or next generation mobile data networks with data breakout or offload at the edge of the mobile data network. Packet data is buffered while a complete set of the PDP context information is transferred from the source eNodeB to the target eNodeB and the mobile core network is updated with the information about the handover in a timely manner to prevent packet loss and thus provide a seamless user experience. The breakout system supports the PDP context transfer by shifting the end point of the TCP communication from the local breakout entity (MIOP@eNodeB) to the core breakout entity (MIOP@GW), transferring the TCP connection to the core breakout entity, and supporting the network initiated control flows in a way that is seamless from the perspective of the UE and the core network.

Mobility support in a mobile data network

Mobile network services are performed at the edge in a flat mobile data network in a way that is transparent to most of the existing equipment in the mobile data network to reduce the load and increase efficiency on the mobile data network by breaking out data at the edge based on specific IP data flows. The mobile data network includes a radio access network and a core network. A first service mechanism in the radio access network breaks out data coming from a basestation based on breakout conditions, and performs one or more mobile network services. The second service mechanism determines what traffic satisfies breakout authorization criteria and informs the first service mechanism. The message from the second service mechanism triggers the first service mechanism to perform IP flow based breakout. An overlay network allows the first and second mechanisms to communicate with each other.

IP flow based offload for subscriber data optimization and scheduling at the basestation in a mobile data network

Lawful interception (LI) is supported on a flat mobile data network with breakout services at the basestation. A first service mechanism at the basestation is prevented from breaking out services for subscribers that are part of LI. A second service mechanism in the core network maintains a subscriber list of subscribers that are subject to LI. In response to a PDP context activation by a subscriber on the list, the second service mechanism does not supply PDP context information to the first service mechanism for data breakout thus preventing breakout for the subscriber subject to lawful interception.

Lawful interception in a mobile data network with data offload at the basestation

A TCP context is transferred to a Gi Optimizer to provide cooperative mobility management in a mobile data network with a breakout system. The breakout system includes an Iub Optimizer at the MIOP@NodeB, and the Gi Optimizer at the MIOP@Core. When a MIOP@NodeB detects a mobility event for a broken out user equipment (UE), the Iub optimizer in the MIOP@NodeB coordinates with the Gi optimizer to transfer the TCP/UDP connection established between the UE and the IuB Optimizer to the Gi Optimizer. After the transfer, the UE is served by the Gi Optimizer. The transfer of the TCP/UDP connection to the Gi optimizer may require tunnel stitching at the MIOP@RNC depending on the PDP context state and the RRC state of the UE.

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Penzberg, Germany

Richard Ott