System and method for providing internet protocol flow mobility in a network environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9635686-B2
Application number	US-201414540082-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 13, 2014
Priority date	Nov 11, 2014
Publication date	Apr 25, 2017
Grant date	Apr 25, 2017

Abstract

An example method is provided in one example embodiment and may include receiving an indication of a radio access technology (RAT) change for a user equipment (UE); determining availability of a preferred RAT type for a policy related rule associated with the UE, wherein the policy related rule includes, at least in part, the preferred RAT type for one or more service data flows for the UE; and configuring the one or more service data flows for the UE based, at least in part, on a change in availability of the preferred RAT type following the RAT change. In at least one case, the method can include routing downlink packets to the UE using the one or more service data flows for the preferred RAT type if the preferred RAT type is available.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving a policy related rule for a user equipment (UE), wherein the UE is accessing an access point name (APN) using a first radio access technology (RAT) type associated with a first default bearer for the UE and wherein the policy related rule is associated with the UE accessing the APN using a second RAT type;
determining whether the policy related rule matches an existing bearer for the UE associated with the second RAT type;
creating a second default bearer for the UE based on a determination the policy related rule does not match an existing bearer for the UE associated with the second RAT type;
modifying an existing bearer for the UE to be a second default bearer for the UE based on a determination the policy related rule does match the existing bearer for the UE associated with the second RAT type; and
binding the policy related rule to the second default bearer for the UE to access the APN, wherein the second default bearer for the UE is associated with the second RAT type.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second RAT type is associated with one of an evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) or a wireless local access network (WLAN) and wherein the second RAT type is different than the first RAT type.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
identifying a preferred RAT type for the UE; and
routing one or more downlink packets to the UE using the first default bearer or the second default bearer according to the preferred RAT type.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
accepting one or more uplink packets for the UE using either the first default bearer or the second default bearer, wherein the accepting is performed independent of the preferred RAT type.

5. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
updating a mobility context for the UE to include the second default bearer and its associated RAT type.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining includes determining whether a set of policy related rule parameters matches a corresponding set of parameters for an existing bearer.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the set of policy related rule parameters include, at least in part, a quality of service (QoS) class identifier (QCI), an allocation and retention policy (ARP) or an evolved ARP (eARP) and the second RAT type.

8. One or more non-transitory tangible media encoding logic that includes instructions for execution by a processor, wherein the execution causes the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving a policy related rule for a user equipment (UE), wherein the UE is accessing an access point name (APN) using a first radio access technology (RAT) type associated with a first default bearer for the UE and wherein the policy related rule is associated with the UE accessing the APN using a second RAT type;
determining whether the policy related rule matches an existing bearer for the UE associated with the second RAT type;
creating a second default bearer for the UE based on a determination that the policy related rule does not match an existing bearer for the UE associated with the second RAT type;
modifying an existing bearer for the UE to be a second default bearer for the UE based on a determination that the policy related rule does match the existing bearer for the UE associated with the second RAT type; and
binding the policy related rule to the second default bearer for the UE to access the APN, wherein the second default bearer for the UE is associated with the second RAT type.

9. The media of claim 8 , wherein the second RAT type is associated with one of an evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) or a wireless local access network (WLAN) and wherein the second RAT type is different than the first RAT type.

10. The media of claim 9 , wherein the execution causes the processor to perform further operations comprising:
identifying a preferred RAT type for the UE; and
routing one or more downlink packets to the UE using the first default bearer or the second default bearer according to the preferred RAT type.

11. The media of claim 10 , wherein the execution causes the processor to perform further operations comprising:
accepting one or more uplink packets for the UE using either the first default bearer or the second default bearer, wherein the accepting is performed independent of the preferred RAT type.

12. The media of claim 10 , wherein the execution causes the processor to perform further operations comprising:
updating a mobility context for the UE to include the second default bearer and its associated RAT type.

13. The media of claim 8 , wherein the determining includes determining whether a set of policy related rule parameters matches a corresponding set of parameters for an existing bearer.

14. The media of claim 13 , wherein the set of policy related rule parameters include, at least in part, a quality of service (QoS) class identifier (QCI), an allocation and retention policy (ARP) or an evolved ARP (eARP) and the second RAT type.

15. An apparatus, comprising:
a memory element for storing data; and
a processor for executing instructions associated with the data, wherein the execution causes the apparatus to perform operations comprising:
receiving a policy related rule for a user equipment (UE), wherein the UE is accessing an access point name (APN) using a first radio access technology (RAT) type associated with a first default bearer for the UE and wherein the policy related rule is associated with the UE accessing the APN using a second RAT type;
determining whether the policy related rule matches an existing bearer for the UE associated with the second RAT type;
creating a second default bearer for the UE based on a determination that the policy related rule does not match an existing bearer for the UE associated with the second RAT type;
modifying an existing bearer for the UE to be a second default bearer for the UE based on a determination that the policy related rule does match the existing bearer for the UE associated with the second RAT type; and
binding the policy related rule to the second default bearer for the UE to access the APN, wherein the second default bearer for the UE is associated with the second RAT type.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the second RAT type is associated with one of an evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) or a wireless local access network (WLAN) and wherein the second RAT type is different than the first RAT type.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the executing causes the apparatus to perform further operations comprising:
identifying a preferred RAT type for the UE; and
routing one or more downlink packets to the UE using the first default bearer or the second default bearer according to the preferred RAT type.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the executing causes the apparatus to perform further operations comprising:
accepting one or more uplink packets for the UE using either the first default bearer or the second default bearer, wherein the accepting is performed independent of the preferred RAT type.

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Jain Paras
• Chitta Nithin
• Srivastava Vimal

Classifications

• H04L69/326

  in the transport layer [OSI layer 4] (H04L69/16 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L69/16 Primary

  Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] · CPC title

• H04W36/0033

  with transfer of context information · CPC title

• H04L12/1407

  Policy-and-charging control [PCC] architecture · CPC title

• H04M15/66

  Policy and charging system · CPC title