Apparatus, system and method of steering data radio bearer traffic to a wireless local area network link

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9650794-B2
Application number	US-201414314256-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 25, 2014
Priority date	Aug 8, 2013
Publication date	May 16, 2017
Grant date	May 16, 2017

Abstract

Some demonstrative embodiments include devices, systems of steering data radio bearer traffic to a wireless local area network link. For example, a User Equipment (UE) may include a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) transceiver; a cellular transceiver to communicate traffic of a plurality of Data Radio Bearers (DRBs) via a cellular link between the UE and an evolved Node B (eNB); and a controller to establish at least one Point-to-Point (P2P) link with the eNB via a WLAN link between the UE and a WLAN Access Point (AP), and to steer traffic of one or more of the DRBs from the cellular link to the P2P link.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A User Equipment (UE) comprising:
a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) transceiver;
a cellular transceiver to communicate traffic of a plurality of Data Radio Bearers (DRBs) via a cellular link between the UE and an evolved Node B (eNB); and
a controller to establish at least one Point-to-Point (P2P) link with said eNB via a WLAN link between said UE and a WLAN Access Point (AP), and to steer traffic of one or more of said plurality of DRBs from said cellular link to said P2P link, the controller to establish the at least one P2P link on a per Packet Data network (PDN) connection basis by determining a count of the at least one P2P link based at least on a count of different Packet Data network (PDN) connections associated with the plurality of DRBs, the controller to establish one or more first P2P links with said eNB via the WLAN AP to communicate traffic of one or more first DRBs of a first PDN connection with a first PDN Gateway (PGW), and to establish one or more second P2P links with said eNB via the WLAN AP, concurrent with the one or more first P2P links, to communicate traffic of one or more second DRBs of a second PDN connection with a second PGW.

2. The UE of claim 1 , wherein said cellular transceiver is to receive from said eNB a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message including WLAN identification information to identify said WLAN AP, and a transport address of said eNB, said controller is to establish said at least one P2P link based on said WLAN identification information and said transport address.

3. The UE of claim 1 , wherein, responsive to receiving at said UE downlink traffic of a DRB of said plurality of DRBs via a P2P link corresponding to the DRB, said controller is to steer to said P2P link corresponding to the DRB uplink traffic of said DRB.

4. The UE of claim 1 , wherein said controller is to select to steer to said P2P link uplink traffic of a DRB of said plurality of DRBs, and, responsive to steering said uplink traffic to said P2P link, said UE is to receive from said eNB downlink traffic of said DRB via said P2P link.

5. The UE of claim 1 , wherein said controller is to establish a plurality of first P2P links configured to communicate traffic of respective ones of a plurality of first DRBs associated with the first PDN connection.

6. The UE of claim 1 , wherein said controller is to steer the traffic of said plurality of DRBs from said cellular link to said at least one P2P link while maintaining session continuity.

7. The UE of claim 1 , wherein said controller is to establish a first P2P link to communicate traffic of all first DRBs of the first PDN connection, and to establish a second P2P link to communicate traffic of all second DRBs of the second PDN connection.

8. The UE of claim 1 , wherein said controller is to steer traffic of a DRB of the first PDN connection to said first P2P link, while maintaining traffic of another DRB of the first PDN connection over said cellular link.

9. The UE of claim 1 comprising one or more antennas, a memory and a processor.

10. An evolved Node B (eNB) comprising:
a cellular transceiver to communicate with a User Equipment (UE) via a cellular link; and
a controller to trigger offloading of one or more Data Radio Bearers (DRBs) to at least one Point to Point (P2P) link between said eNB and said UE, the P2P link via a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) link between said UE and a WLAN access Point (AP), said cellular transceiver is to send to said UE a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message including WLAN identification information to identify said WLAN AP, and a transport address of said eNB, the controller to establish the at least one P2P link on a per Packet Data network (PDN) connection basis by determining a count of the at least one P2P link based at least on a count of different Packet Data network (PDN) connections associated with a plurality of DRBs, the controller to establish one or more first P2P links with said UE via the WLAN AP to communicate traffic of one or more first DRBs of a first PDN connection with a first PDN Gateway (PGW), and to establish one or more second P2P links with said UE via the WLAN AP, concurrent with the one or more first P2P links to communicate traffic of one or more second DRBs of a second PDN connection with a second PGW.

11. The eNB of claim 10 , wherein said controller is to select to steer traffic of a DRB to a P2P link corresponding to the DRB, and said eNB is to send to said UE downlink traffic of said DRB via said P2P link corresponding to the DRB.

12. The eNB of claim 10 , wherein, responsive to receiving at said eNB uplink traffic of a DRB via a P2P link corresponding to the DRB, said controller is to steer downlink traffic of said DRB to said P2P link corresponding to the DRB.

13. The eNB of claim 10 , wherein said controller is to establish the at least one P2P link based at least on a load of a cellular network of the eNB.

14. The eNB of claim 10 , wherein said controller is to establish a first P2P link to communicate traffic of all first DRBs of the first PDN connection, and to establish a second P2P link to communicate traffic of all second DRBs of the second PDN connection.

15. The eNB of claim 10 , wherein said controller is to steer traffic of a DRB of the first PDN connection to said first P2P link, while maintaining traffic of another DRB of the first PDN connection over said cellular link.

16. The eNB of claim 10 comprising one or more antennas, a memory, and a processor.

17. A method to be performed at a User Equipment (UE), the method comprising:
routing traffic of a plurality of Data Radio Bearers (DRBs) via a cellular link between the UE and an evolved Node B (eNB);
receiving from the eNB a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message including Wireless Local Are Network (WLAN) identification information to identify a WLAN Access Point (AP), and a transport address of said eNB;
establishing at least one Point-to-Point (P2P) link with said eNB via a WLAN link between said UE and said WLAN AP; and
steering traffic of one or more of said plurality of DRBs from said cellular link to said P2P link,
wherein establishing the at least one P2P link comprises establishing the at least one P2P link on a per Packet Data network (PDN) connection basis by determining a count of the at least one P2P link based at least on a count of different Packet Data network (PDN) connections associated with said plurality of DRBs, by establishing one or more first P2P links with said eNB via the WLAN AP to communicate traffic of one or more first DRBs of a first PDN connection with a first PDN Gateway (PGW), and by establishing one or more second P2P links with said eNB via the WLAN AP, concurrent with the one or more first P2P links, to communicate traffic of one or more second DRBs of a second PDN connection with a second PGW.

18. The method of claim 17 comprising receiving at said UE downlink traffic of a DRB of said plurality of DRBs via a P2P link corresponding to the DRB, and steering to said P2P link corresponding to the DRB uplink traffic of said DRB.

19. The method of claim 17 comprising selecting to steer to said P2P link uplink traffic of a DRB of said plurality of DRBs, and receiving from said eNB downlink traffic of said DRB via said P2P link.

20. The method of claim 17 comprising moving a DRB, which was steered to said P2P link, back to said cellular link.

21. A product including one or more tangible computer-readable non-transitory storage media comprising computer-

Assignees

• Intel Ip Corp

Inventors

• Stojanovski Alexandre S
• Sirotkin Alexander
• Zong Pingping

Classifications

• H04W72/541

  using the level of interference · CPC title

• H04W72/20

  Control channels or signalling for resource management · CPC title

• H04L5/0053

  Allocation of signalling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals · CPC title

• H04B7/0617

  for beam forming · CPC title

• H04W76/10

  Connection setup · CPC title