US 12,081,440 B2
Method of operating a telecommunications network
Maria Cuevas Ramirez, London (GB); and Stephen Johnson, London (GB)
Assigned to BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS public limited company, London (GB)
Appl. No. 18/551,412
Filed by BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY, London (GB)
PCT Filed Feb. 22, 2022, PCT No. PCT/EP2022/054369
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Sep. 20, 2023,
PCT Pub. No. WO2022/199965, PCT Pub. Date Sep. 29, 2022.
Claims priority of application No. 2104059 (GB), filed on Mar. 23, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2024/0098027 A1, Mar. 21, 2024
Int. Cl. H04L 47/22 (2022.01); H04L 47/31 (2022.01); H04W 76/10 (2018.01)
CPC H04L 47/22 (2013.01) [H04L 47/31 (2013.01); H04W 76/10 (2018.02)] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of operating a telecommunications network, said telecommunications network being accessible to a User Equipment, UE, and comprising a cellular telecommunications network and a fixed-access telecommunications network, the method comprising the steps of:
providing a set of user plane functions for processing user traffic for the UE, said set comprising at least two user plane functions;
providing a combined user plane function for processing user traffic for the UE according to the set of user plane functions;
following establishing a network connection between the UE and the cellular telecommunications network via the fixed-access telecommunications network, identifying inefficient routing of user traffic associated with the UE, said inefficient routing comprising routing user traffic to at least the set of user plane functions;
in response to identifying inefficient routing, re-routing user traffic associated with the UE to the combined user plane function so as to process the user traffic at the combined user plane function instead of at the set of user plane functions.