KR20170099238A - Load control apparatus and method in mobile system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device and method for load control in a mobile communication system, capable of directly delivering traffic to a public data network or a local network without going through a core network if the network is overloaded. The load control device in a mobile communication system according to the present invention comprises: a step of determining whether a base station (HeNB) or a core network (EPC) is overloaded with network traffic; a step of transmitting, through the core network, traffic without offloading if the network is not overloaded as a result of the determination; a step of classifying types of traffic if the network is overloaded as a result of the determination; a step of offloading the traffic from the base station (HeNB) to a local network without going through the core network if the type of the traffic is LIPA traffic; and a step of offloading the traffic to any other base station through any one of local gateways (L-GW) by considering the load of the local gateways without going through the core network if the type of the traffic is SIPTO traffic.

Description

[0001] LOAD CONTROL APPARATUS AND METHOD IN MOBILE SYSTEM [

 The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling a load in a mobile communication system.

In next-generation mobile communication systems, there is signaling and traffic congestion that can not be compared with conventional communication.

In particular, the wireless mobile communication industry evolves into a system suitable for high-speed / high-capacity data communication as capacity increases in systems such as WLAN, WiFi, LTE and LTE-A. Further, in the wireless mobile communication industry, a variety of systems suitable for traffic characteristics can be realized, and a network in the form of a superposed cell capable of connecting to a communication environment anytime and anywhere and an emergence of various communication operators are established .

Recently, data traffic is explosively increasing due to the introduction of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs and smart TVs. As a result, traffic usage is increasing, and this increase in traffic usage can lead to traffic overload in the network.

When network overload occurs due to signaling and traffic congestion, no more services can be provided.

In this state, all services that were in the service are disconnected, and the QoS of the system is deteriorated.

Conventionally, when an overload occurs in a mobile communication system, an on-off based overload control method for the network has been used. However, if the above method is used, there arises a problem that further services can not be provided.

In addition, a method of always performing a handover to maintain continuity of service is also used for the traffic in progress immediately before the network enters the off-state mode. However, when the above method is used, HC (Hole Coverage), which is a phenomenon in which service traffic in a border area around a cell is placed in a state in which any cell can not be accessed when a specific cell or network is turned off, A problem may arise, so that the continuity of the service can not be guaranteed.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a load control apparatus and method in a mobile communication system capable of directly transmitting traffic to an air data network or a local network without going through a core network when an overload occurs in the network.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a load control apparatus for a mobile communication system, including: a base station (HeNB) or a core network (EPC) Transmitting the traffic over the core network without offloading the traffic if the overload does not occur in the network; If the network is overloaded, classifying traffic types; If the type of the traffic is LIPA traffic, offloading the traffic from the base station (HeNB) to the local network without going through the core network; And if the type of traffic is SIPTO traffic, offloading the traffic to any other base station via any of the local gateways, taking into account the load of the local gateways (L-GWs) without going through the core network .

According to the present invention, traffic is directly transferred to a public data network such as an Internet network through a local gateway (L-GW) without passing through an EPC, thereby controlling an overload of the mobile communication system, (QoS) can be improved. That is, the present invention can prevent the overload occurrence in advance through load distribution of the system.

In other words, the present invention classifies traffic communicated via the core network according to type and function, and provides an optimal traffic path, thereby alleviating overload of the network and improving traffic processing efficiency , Thereby improving the quality of service (QoS) of the system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a mobile communication system to which a load control device in a mobile communication system according to the present invention is applied.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a mobile communication system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and other objects, advantages and features of the present invention and methods of achieving them will be apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the exemplary embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, And advantages of the present invention are defined by the description of the claims.

It is to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. In the present specification, the singular form includes plural forms unless otherwise specified in the specification. &Quot; comprises "and / or" comprising ", as used herein, unless the recited component, step, operation, and / Or added.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a mobile communication system to which a load control device in a mobile communication system according to the present invention is applied. Particularly, FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a method of using the LIPA / SIPTO technique in a 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) mobile communication system environment.

With regard to the conventional mobile communication systems, technology development for performance and capacity increase has been performed. The next generation mobile communication system aims at high data rate, low latency and packet-optimized wireless access technology, and provides high-speed broadband mobile multimedia packet service to users at a low rate .

In the next generation mobile communication system, data traffic is explosively increasing due to the appearance of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs. Since the mobile data traffic using the LTE network is transmitted through the LTE core network, for example, EPC (Evolved Packet Core), the increase in mobile data traffic causes the traffic overload of the core network.

A local IP access (LIPA) / a selected IP traffic offload (SIPTO) has been proposed as a technology for offloading traffic to the core network by utilizing a small cell introduced for increasing cell capacity and solving a shadow area. In the LIPA / SIPTO, traffic is directly transmitted to a public data network such as a local / enterprise network or an Internet network through a local gateway (L-GW) without passing through the core network, .

Particularly, the next generation mobile communication system operates in a cell environment in which the same system or HetNet (heterogeneous networks) are superimposed. Therefore, in order to eliminate the overload, an operating method that can avoid overloading should be applied by exchanging information between networks of different systems or the same system, in the case of an overloaded network, that is, an overloaded network.

So far, many proposals have been made for this method, but since most of the methods are the initial level of overload control technology, various problems have to be considered in order for the proposed methods to be commercialized so far.

Using offloading techniques is very useful in terms of signaling and load balancing of traffic. Therefore, if the offloading technology is actively utilized in the overload control method of the mobile communication system, problems due to the overload of the mobile communication system can be prevented in advance, and the performance of the mobile communication system can be improved.

In general, there are LIPA, SIPTO, and IFOM techniques for the offloading technique, and the present invention can efficiently control the overload by utilizing the LIPA and SIPTO techniques, which are considered to have a large effect of offloading.

That is, the present invention proposes an apparatus and method for efficiently controlling an overload of a network in order to improve service quality of the mobile communication system and ensure continuity of the mobile communication system.

In other words, the present invention is based on LIPA / SIPTO and uses a technique of offloading according to the load of a core network and a public data network (a local / enterprise network or an Internet network) to be offloaded, An apparatus and method are provided that can provide continuity of services without performing handover. According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent an increase in signaling occurring during handover and congestion of traffic in advance, and the continuity of service can be ensured through efficient use of radio resources, Can be prevented.

For this, the present invention can provide various offloading methods, as shown in FIG. 1, and in particular, the present invention can be applied to the location of the terminal 100, the control method of the base station 200, Accordingly, off-loading methods may be different. Thus, according to the present invention in which various offloading methods are combined, various services can be provided.

1, a mobile communication system to which the present invention is applied includes a terminal 100, a local gateway 500, a base station (HeNB) 200, and a core network (EPC) 300).

The load control device (hereinafter simply referred to as a load control device) in the mobile communication system according to the present invention may be at least one of the base station 200 and the core network 300, 200, or the core network 300. [0033] FIG.

The load control apparatus according to the present invention determines whether or not the traffic of the network is overloaded, and if the network is not overloaded as a result of the determination, the load control apparatus transmits the traffic through the core network 300 without off- As a result, if the network is overloaded, the type of traffic is classified. If the type of the traffic is LIPA traffic, the base station (HeNB) 200 transmits the traffic to the local GW 500 without considering the core network 300 if the type of the traffic is the SIPTO traffic and the traffic is transferred to the local gateway 500 to another base station (400).

2 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a load control method in a mobile communication system according to the present invention.

Prior to describing the load control method according to the present invention, the techniques applied to the present invention are described.

In LTE, all IP-based high-speed large-capacity data processing means increasing the load on the packet data network. The sudden increase of mobile IP data causes network congestion. Innovative applications in shared environments such as social networking, media sharing, and tablets use huge amounts of data.

The sudden increase in mobile data usage causes an overload problem operating in a situation where the capacity limit of the cellular network is almost reached, and the present invention provides an apparatus and a method for solving the problem.

One of the methods used in the present invention is a data offloading technique which utilizes the intelligently redirected part of the user's data based on a specific rule or condition and which overcomes the overload and improves performance .

LIPA is a method of transmitting data to a local network connected to the same H (e) NB without passing through a macrocell to a UE connected to H (e) NB.

The LIPA also functions to connect the UE to any external network connected to the local network. LIPA is available in H (e) NB, but not in macrocells.

Traffic offloading is performed in APN (Access Point Network) and CSG (Closed Subscriber Group) units.

A typical example of traffic offload is as follows.

When IP-based wireless networks are connected to Laptops, Tablets, printers, Servers, Video conferencing units and the Internet, the network can be built using cell gateways and private gateways to connect them all together. If a user wants to print from a laptop, the LIPA can internally route the printer request. In addition, e-mail can also be transmitted directly through a private gateway.

SIPTO is a method to offload IP traffic share of H (e) NB or cellular network to local network to reduce system load. The target network may be a H (e) NB or other gateway closer to the UE in the Cellular network.

LIPA is only available on private networks, but SIPTO can be applied to macro networks as well as private. The breakout method can be roughly classified into two types of architectures. From a LIPA / SIPTO perspective, a breakout means the point where data offloading occurs. Breakout can be Private network (if LIPA and SIPTO cover) or RAN (at / above RAN) or RAN top (if macro SIPTO and some Femto SIPTO cover).

Hereinafter, a load control method in the mobile communication system according to the present invention will be described in detail. In particular, at least one of the base station (HeNB) 200 and the core network (EPC) 300 determines an overload of the network and controls the overload according to the overload. Can be performed.

2, the load control method in the mobile communication system according to the present invention may include the load control apparatus according to the present invention, for example, the HeNB 200 or the core network (EPC) If it is determined in step S504 that the overload of the network traffic is not overloaded, it is determined in step S504 that the overload in the network is not overloaded. In operation S506, if it is determined in operation S506 that the type of the traffic is an LIPA traffic, the base station determines whether the type of the traffic is LIPA traffic, (Step S510) of offloading the traffic from the HeNB 200 to a local network, and if the type of traffic is SIPTO traffic, considering the load of the local gateway (L-GW) without going through the core network So, And a step of through any one of the local gateway, the group traffic also offloaded to another base station (S512, S514, S516, S518, S520).

Here, in the step S506 of transmitting the traffic through the core network 300 without offloading the traffic, the traffic may be transmitted through path A in FIG.

If the type of traffic is LIPA traffic, in step S510 of offloading the traffic from the base station (HeNB) 200 to the local network without going through the core network 300 (S510) May be transmitted to the local device 210 via route B in FIG.

Also, in the case of offloading (S512, S514, S516, S518, S520) when the traffic type is SIPTO traffic, the traffic may be transmitted through the C path of FIG.

If the type of the traffic is the SIPTO traffic, the step of offloading is a step S512 of determining whether the type of the traffic is LIPA traffic (S508), whether there is a gateway 500 to which SIPTO can be applied (S512) (Step S514). If there is no gateway GW, step S514 is performed. In step S514, the gateway GW is refused and the gateway GW is terminated. (S518) of processing the SIPTO traffic through the GW 500 and determining whether another SIPTO traffic exists (S520). If so, the gateway (S516) And terminating if it does not exist.

In more detail, first, overload information is collected through the OAM / HSS / HeMS from the load control apparatuses (at least one of the HeNB 200 and the EPC 300) and the overload of the network is checked (S502, S504) .

The network periodically checks whether a packet is received, and if there is a received packet, it first determines how to process the packet using the destination IP, the traffic type, and the function information of the packet received from the base station (HeNB) That is, since the overhead of the network (HeNB or EPC) is reduced by processing the base station 200 or the core network 300 without passing through the base station 200 or the core network 300 when an overload occurs , First, whether or not an overload has occurred in each network is checked (S502, S504).

If there is traffic to be sent to the core network 300 (S504), the traffic is processed through the core network 300 according to the conventional procedure (S506).

In the current mobile communication system, all the traffic is generally set and registered through the core network 300. Therefore, the traffic that must be transmitted to the core network 300 must be processed to be transmitted to the core network 300 unconditionally via route A in FIG. That is, the traffic generated in the initial connection, the traffic to the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) network, and the traffic of which the source / destination IP address is the core network must be transmitted to the core network 300 without being offloaded.

When an overload occurs, the present invention can reduce the network overload by performing a traffic control process (S508, S510) using a LIPA or a traffic control process (S512, S514, S516, S518, S520) using a SIPTO. Here, the network may mean only various communication networks, and may include not only the communication network but also the base station 200 and the core network 300.

If an overload state occurs in the network including the base station (HeNB) 200 and the core network (EPC) 300, the base station (HeNB) 200, which is a lower layer, It is determined whether LIPA traffic through path B in FIG. 1 is enabled (S508).

This is a proposed method on the assumption that a local gateway (L-GW) is naturally implemented in the base station (HeNB) 200. If the LIPA off-loading through the local gateway (L-GW) is possible in the base station (HeNB)

For example, if the traffic to the home network or the private network is transmitted through the core network 300, the load on the network increases greatly, so that traffic to be transmitted to the LIPA should be offloaded first. LIPA data must pass through the private network and not through the interworking cellular network elements.

The data path must be terminated at another device in the private network or terminated at the public Internet (if a private network is connected) device.

Since the LIPA traffic has been processed first, the SIPTO traffic that can be broken out in the core network (EPC) 300 can be offloaded.

The present invention confirms whether or not there is a load of the network (eNB, EPC) and the gateway 500 having the SIPTO function, and checks whether SIPTO is available (S516).

Such information is registered in a server such as HeMS / OAM, and this information can be referred to at any time in the network (HeNB or EPC) as needed.

First, the present invention verifies these information and confirms whether SIPTO is possible for the received traffic. Here, the SIPTO can be processed by selecting various paths according to a structure configured logically or topologically of the network.

If it is determined that SIPTO offloading is not possible at this point, or if the SIPTO offloading path can not be instantaneously established, the received traffic can not be processed because the network is overloaded.

In addition, since there are a plurality of gateways 500 logically or topologically with respect to the SIPTO traffic, the present invention checks the load of each gateway, The SIPTO traffic is handled by the gateway 500 having the least load to be processed first.

In addition, the present invention performs the above-described process repeatedly to process SIPT traffic, thereby preventing a problem from occurring in the overloaded EPC network.

As described above, the present invention uses a traffic offloading technique that can classify the traffic according to the type and function of traffic communicated via the core network 300 to provide an optimal traffic path. Therefore, the present invention can improve the processing efficiency of traffic by mitigating the overload of the network, thereby improving the QoS of the mobile communication system.

The features and effects of the present invention will be briefly summarized as follows.

Conventional countermeasures for overloading are mostly post-control methods that control traffic when an overload occurs.

The present invention can prevent overload of the system by applying a redirect technique in advance before an overload occurs and controlling overload of traffic in advance.

The present invention can overcome system overloading and improve performance by applying a data offloading technique that utilizes redirected data of a user based on a specific rule or condition when an overload of a network occurs.

The present invention can improve the performance of a system by preventing an overload of a specific node (e.g., the base station 200 or the core network 300) in advance. In particular, by controlling a load of a network as well as a base station cell, It can ensure continuity and maximize the performance efficiency of the system.

That is, the problem that the service can not be provided due to the shortage of the wired resources in the network overload should be solved. To this end, the present invention utilizes a traffic offloading technique.

The foregoing description is merely illustrative of the technical idea of the present invention, and various changes and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the essential characteristics of the present invention. Therefore, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention are intended to illustrate rather than limit the scope of the present invention, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments. The scope of protection of the present invention should be construed according to the following claims, and all technical ideas within the scope of equivalents should be construed as falling within the scope of the present invention.

Claims (1)

Determining whether the base station (HeNB) or the core network (EPC) overloads the network traffic;
Transmitting, through the core network, traffic without offloading if an overload does not occur in the network;
If the network is overloaded, classifying traffic types;
If the type of the traffic is LIPA traffic, offloading the traffic from the base station (HeNB) to the local network without going through the core network; And
If the type of traffic is SIPTO traffic, offloading the traffic to any other base station through any of the local gateways, taking into account the load of the local gateways (L-GWs) without going through the core network Wherein the mobile communication system is a mobile communication system.

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