Provisioning traffic steering with multi-access related information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12219459-B2
Application number	US-202217865234-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 14, 2022
Priority date	Jan 15, 2020
Publication date	Feb 4, 2025
Grant date	Feb 4, 2025

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and systems for enabling an application function to influence access traffic steering, switching, splitting control are described. In one example aspect, a wireless communication method includes transmitting a request from an application function to a network function to enable a creation or an update of a policy or a rule for traffic routing. The request includes one or more parameters indicating traffic routing information for one or more user devices. The one or more parameters comprise at least an access type preference for the one or more user devices. The method also includes receiving a response from the network function indicating the creation or the update of the policy or the rule for traffic routing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for wireless communication, comprising:
transmitting a request from a multi-access edge computing (MEC) application function to a network function to enable a creation or an update of a policy or a rule for access traffic routing, the request including one or more parameters indicating access traffic routing information for one or more user devices, wherein the one or more parameters comprise at least an access type preference for the one or more user devices,
wherein the access traffic routing information includes steering functionality information, the steering functionality information including Multipath QUIC server information, the Multipath QUIC server information comprising at least one of a fully qualified domain name, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, or a port number,
and wherein the network function comprises a network exposure function or a policy control function; and
receiving a response from the network function indicating the creation or the update of the policy or the rule for access traffic routing.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the access type preference indicates a preference for (1) a first access technology in a first protocol suite, (2) a second access technology different from the first protocol suite, or (3) a combination of the first access technology and the second access technology.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more parameters further comprise at least one of: a traffic descriptor, a preferred IP type, a time window for data transfer, or a location criterion.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more parameters comprise proxy information of a Multipath Transmission Control Protocol, the proxy information comprising at least a proxy Internet Protocol address.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the access traffic routing information comprises traffic steering requirements, and wherein the one or more parameters comprise (1) a lower-layer functionality related to access traffic steering, switching, splitting; or (2) a traffic steering mode, the traffic steering mode comprising at least one of: an active-standby mode, a smallest delay mode, a load balancing mode, or a priority-based mode.

6. A method for wireless communication, comprising:
receiving, by a policy control function, a request from a multi-access edge computing (MEC) application function to enable a creation or an update of a policy or a rule for access traffic routing, the request including one or more parameters indicating access traffic routing information for one or more user devices, wherein the one or more parameters comprise at least an access type preference for the one or more user devices,
wherein the access traffic routing information includes steering functionality information, the steering functionality information including Multipath QUIC server information, the Multipath QUIC server information comprising at least one of a fully qualified domain name, an Internet Protocol address, or a port number;
creating or updating the policy or the rule for access traffic routing based on the one or more parameters; and
transmitting, by the policy control function, a response indicating the creation or the update of the policy or the rule for access traffic routing.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the access type preference indicates a preference for (1) a first access technology in a first protocol suite, (2) a second access technology different from the first protocol suite, or (3) a combination of the first access technology and the second access technology.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the one or more parameters further comprise at least one of: a traffic descriptor, a preferred IP type, a time window for data transfer, or a location criterion.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the one or more parameters comprise proxy information of a Multipath Transmission Control Protocol, the proxy information comprising at least a proxy Internet Protocol address.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the access traffic routing information comprises traffic steering requirements, and wherein the one or more parameters comprise (1) a lower-layer functionality related to access traffic steering, switching, splitting; or (2) a traffic steering mode, the traffic steering mode comprising at least one of: an active-standby mode, a smallest delay mode, a load balancing mode, or a priority-based mode.

11. An apparatus for wireless communication comprising a processor and a memory storing instructions, execution of which by the processor causes the apparatus to perform operations comprising:
transmitting a request from a multi-access edge computing (MEC) application function to a network function to enable a creation or an update of a policy or a rule for access traffic routing, the request including one or more parameters indicating access traffic routing information for one or more user devices, wherein the one or more parameters comprise at least an access type preference for the one or more user devices,
wherein the access traffic routing information includes steering functionality information, the steering functionality information including Multipath QUIC server information, the Multipath QUIC server information comprising at least one of a fully qualified domain name, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, or a port number,
and wherein the network function comprises a network exposure function or a policy control function; and
receiving a response from the network function indicating the creation or the update of the policy or the rule for access traffic routing.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the access type preference indicates a preference for (1) a first access technology in a first protocol suite, (2) a second access technology different from the first protocol suite, or (3) a combination of the first access technology and the second access technology.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the one or more parameters further comprise at least one of: a traffic descriptor, a preferred IP type, a time window for data transfer, or a location criterion.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the one or more parameters comprise (1) proxy information of a Multipath Transmission Control Protocol, the proxy information comprising at least a proxy Internet Protocol address.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the access traffic routing information comprises traffic steering requirements, and wherein the one or more parameters comprise (1) a lower-layer functionality related to access traffic steering, switching, splitting; or (2) a traffic steering mode, the traffic steering mode comprising at least one of: an active-standby mode, a smallest delay mode, a load balancing mode, or a priority-based mode.

16. An apparatus for wireless communication comprising a processor and a memory storing instructions, execution of which by the processor causes the apparatus to perform operations comprising:
receiving, by a policy control function, a request from a multi-access edge computing (MEC) application function to enable a creation or an update of a policy or a rule for access traffic routing, the request including one or more parameters indicating access traffic routing information for one or more user devices, wherein the one or more parameters comprise at least an access type preference for the one or more user devices,
wherein the access traffic routing information includes steering functionality information, the steering functionality information including Multipath QUIC server information, the Multipath QUIC server information comprising at least

Assignees

• Zte Corp

Inventors

• Zhou Xingyue
• Zhu Jinguo
• Liang Shuang

Classifications

• H04W40/02

  Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing · CPC title

• H04L45/24

  Multipath · CPC title

• H04L67/51

  Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services · CPC title

• H04L69/14

  Multichannel or multilink protocols · CPC title

• H04W60/005

  Multiple registrations, e.g. multihoming · CPC title