Handling traffic flows in a mobile communications network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9319242-B2
Application number	US-21355108-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 20, 2008
Priority date	Apr 30, 2003
Publication date	Apr 19, 2016
Grant date	Apr 19, 2016

Abstract

A method includes receiving a request for establishing a communication pathway end-to-end over a network. The communication pathway includes a radio communication channel and a packet communication channel. The request identifies a plurality of traffic flows to be carried by the communication pathway and quality-of-service attributes associated with the traffic flows. At least one traffic flow is associated with at least one quality-of-service attribute determining the quality-of-service requirement for the at least one traffic flow. A quality-of-service is negotiated, based on the quality-of-service attribute, and the negotiated quality-of-service is reported.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a gateway node, a request for establishing a communication pathway end-to-end over a network, wherein the communication pathway includes a radio communication channel and a packet communication channel, wherein the request comprises a secondary packet data protocol context request including a plurality of flow information identifying a plurality of traffic flows to be carried by the communication pathway, wherein the request further includes quality-of-service attributes associated with the plurality of traffic flows, wherein at least one of the plurality of traffic flows is associated with at least one of the plurality of quality-of-service attributes determining a quality-of-service requirement for the at least one of the plurality of traffic flows;
negotiating, based on the received request comprising the secondary packet data protocol context request and the at least one of the plurality of quality-of-service attributes, between the gateway node and a policy decision function node, a first quality-of-service;
reporting, by the gateway node, to at least one of the policy decision function node, an application server, and an application proxy, the negotiated first quality-of-service;
receiving, at the gateway node, a decision sent by the policy decision function node, wherein the decision drops a first traffic flow from the plurality of traffic flows, when the negotiated first quality-of-service accommodates a subset of the plurality of traffic flows, wherein the decision includes information about the dropped first traffic flow; and
sending, from the gateway node, a modified secondary packet data protocol context request based on the decision.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the reporting comprises reporting the negotiated quality-of-service from the gateway node to the policy decision function node of the network and reporting the negotiated quality-of-service from the policy decision function node to the at least one of the application proxy and the application server.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the gateway node is implemented as a general packet radio service gateway support node.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the quality-of-service attributes are for a multimedia broadcast/multicast service.

5. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
establishing the communication pathway based on the negotiated first quality-of-service.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the establishing comprises establishing the communication pathway as a packet data protocol context over the network.

7. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the establishing the communication pathway comprises establishing a radio bearer providing the negotiated first quality-of-service between at least one user terminal and at least one radio network node.

8. A method according to claim 5 , wherein the establishing the communication pathway comprises establishing a radio access bearer providing the negotiated first quality-of-service between a user terminal and a serving general packet radio service node.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the policy decision function node divides the quality-of-service attributes into traffic flow specific quality-of-service attributes.

10. An apparatus, comprising:
a receiver, at a gateway node, configured to receive a request for establishing a communication pathway end-to-end over a network, wherein the communication pathway includes a radio communication channel and a packet communication channel, wherein the request includes a plurality of flow information identifying a plurality of traffic flows to be carried by the communication pathway, wherein the request further includes quality-of-service attributes associated with the plurality of traffic flows, wherein at least one of the plurality of traffic flows is associated with at least one of the plurality of quality-of-service attributes determining a quality-of-service requirement for the at least one of the plurality of traffic flows, wherein the receiver is further configured to receive, at the gateway node, a decision sent by a policy decision function node, wherein the decision drops a first traffic flow from the plurality of traffic flows, when a negotiated first quality-of-service ice accommodates a subset of the plurality of traffic flows, wherein the decision includes information about the dropped first traffic flow;
a negotiator configured to negotiate, based on the at least one of the plurality of quality-of-service attributes, the first quality-of-service for the at least one of the plurality of traffic flows;
a reporter, at the gateway node, configured to report, to at least one of the policy decision function node, an application server, and an application proxy, the negotiated first quality-of-service for the at least one of the plurality of traffic flows; and
a transmitter, at the gateway node, configured to send a modified secondary packet data protocol context request based on the decision.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the reporter is configured to report the negotiated first quality-of-service to at least one of the application proxy and the application server via the policy decision function node.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10 , further comprising a unit for supporting a multimedia broadcast/multicast service.

13. The apparatus according to claim 10 , further comprising an establishing unit configured to establish the communication pathway based on the negotiated first quality-of-service.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein the establishing unit for establishing the communication pathway includes a unit for establishing a packet data protocol context across the network.

15. The apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein the establishing unit for establishing the communication pathway includes a unit for establishing a radio bearer in the radio communication channel.

16. The apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein the establishing unit for establishing the communication pathway comprises a unit for establishing a radio access bearer in the radio communication channel.

17. An apparatus according to claim 10 , further comprising an establishing unit configured to establish the communication pathway is based on the negotiated first quality-of-service.

18. The apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the policy decision function node divides the quality-of-service attributes into traffic flow specific quality-of-service attributes.

19. An apparatus, comprising:
a receiver, at a policy decision function node, configured to receive, from a gateway, negotiated quality-of-service attributes for a plurality of traffic flows to be carried by an end-to-end communication pathway over a network, the plurality of traffic flows identified by a plurality of flow information; and
a processor, at the policy decision function node, configured to determine, based on the received negotiated quality-of-service attributes, a quality-of-service treatment of the plurality of traffic flows, wherein the quality-of-service treatment includes a decision to drop a first traffic flow from the plurality of traffic flows, when the negotiated quality-of-service attributes accommodate a subset of the plurality of traffic flows, wherein the decision includes information about the dropped first traffic flow, and wherein the decision causes the gateway node to send a modified secondary packet data protocol context request based on the decision.

Assignees

• Hurtta Tuija
• Gateva Ralitsa
• Nokia Technologies Oy

Inventors

• Hurtta Tuija
• Gateva Ralitsa

Classifications

• H04L47/70

  Admission control; Resource allocation · CPC title

• H04L47/18 Primary

  End to end · CPC title

• H04L47/822

  Collecting or measuring resource availability data · CPC title

• H04L47/14

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L47/245

  using preemption · CPC title