US 11,950,128 B2
Edge offloading in a mobile network having a converged core architecture
Irfan Ali, Palo Alto, CA (US); and Ravi Kiran Guntupalli, Cumming, GA (US)
Assigned to CISCO TECHNOLOGY, INC., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed by Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed on Sep. 30, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/490,429.
Prior Publication US 2023/0102552 A1, Mar. 30, 2023
Int. Cl. H04W 28/02 (2009.01); H04W 28/08 (2023.01); H04W 28/10 (2009.01)
CPC H04W 28/0273 (2013.01) [H04W 28/0268 (2013.01); H04W 28/09 (2020.05); H04W 28/10 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method comprising:
at a control plane (CP) function for session management of a mobile network having a converged core architecture to support communications of a user equipment (UE) via a first radio access network (RAN) of a first RAN type and a second RAN of a second RAN type,
managing a connection for the UE operative via the first RAN of the first RAN type, the connection including a first bearer between the first RAN and a first central user plane network function at a central location, and a second bearer between the first central user plane network function and a second central user plane network function at the central location; and
performing a procedure for establishing local traffic offloading for the UE, which includes communicating one or more first messages for inserting a first local user plane network function at an edge location, to update the first bearer to be between the first RAN and the first local user plane network function at the edge location, and the second bearer to be between the first local user plane network function at the edge location and the second central user plane network function at the central location, and communicating one or more second messages for inserting a second local user plane network function with an uplink classifier at the edge location, to update the second bearer to be between the first and the second local user plane network functions at the edge location, and to establish a third bearer of the connection to be between the second local user plane network function at the edge location and a third central user plane network function at the central location, wherein the second local user plane network function comprises an intermediate user plane function and a packet data network gateway-user plane with the uplink classifier.