WO2016072560A1

WO2016072560A1 - Method and apparatus for data offloading in communication system

Info

Publication number: WO2016072560A1
Application number: PCT/KR2015/001126
Authority: WO
Inventors: 강경이; 송수석
Original assignee: 콘텔라 주식회사
Priority date: 2014-11-03
Filing date: 2015-02-04
Publication date: 2016-05-12
Also published as: KR20160051278A; KR101626406B1

Abstract

Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for data offloading in a communication system. The method for data offloading comprises the steps of: setting at least one of destination information of data to be transmitted through an external network and destination information of data to be transmitted through an internal network; receiving the data from a terminal connected to a base station; determining, on the basis of whether the set destination information corresponds to the destination information of the data received from the terminal, a network to which the data received from the terminal is transmitted; and transmitting the data received from the terminal through the determined network. Therefore, the data can be offloaded to the internal network.

Description

Method and apparatus for offloading data in communication system

The present invention relates to wireless communication technology, and more particularly to a technique for offloading data in a wireless communication system.

With the development of information and communication and the spread of multimedia technology, base station technology is required to be installed indoors in homes and offices and to access mobile communication networks while ensuring mobility and large capacity transmission through convergence with existing networks. In addition, there is a need for a new mobile communication service technology that provides a low-cost and diverse mobile communication service to a user while providing a mobile communication service area, improving user service performance, and increasing base station capacity.

In accordance with this trend, attention has been focused on femtocells. Femtocell refers to a very small mobile communication base station that is responsible for smaller coverage (coverage) than conventional macrocell (macrocell). For example, femtocells can provide coverage of 10 meters or less. The femtocell may be connected to a mobile communication core network (ie, an external network) through an internet service provider (ISP) network. In addition, the femtocell can be connected to the internal network through equipment such as a router and a switch, as well as a mobile communication core network when installed in a home or office.

Such a femtocell may offload data through an internal network when a large load is generated in the mobile communication core network. However, for offloading data, the configuration and function of the femtocell must be changed, as well as the configuration and function of the mobile communication core network.

An object of the present invention for solving the above problems is to provide a method for offloading data in a wireless communication system.

Another object of the present invention for solving the above problems is to provide an apparatus for offloading data in a wireless communication system.

In the data offloading method performed in the base station according to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object, setting at least one of the destination information of the data to be transmitted through the external network and the destination information of the data to be transmitted through the internal network Receiving data from a terminal connected to the base station, determining a network to which data received from the terminal is to be transmitted based on whether destination information corresponding to the set destination information and the destination information of the data received from the terminal correspond; Transmitting the data received from the over the determined network.

Here, the destination information may include at least one of a destination IP address and a destination port number.

The determining of the network to which the data is to be transmitted comprises: when the destination information of the data received from the terminal corresponds to the destination information of the data to be transmitted through the external network, the network to which the data received from the terminal is to be transmitted. Can be determined by the net.

The determining of the network to which the data is to be transmitted comprises: when the destination information of the data received from the terminal corresponds to the destination information of the data to be transmitted through the internal network, the network to which the data received from the terminal is to be transmitted. Can be determined by the net.

Here, in the data offloading method, when a network to which data received from the terminal is to be transmitted is determined as an internal network, at least one of a source IP address, a destination IP address, a source port number, and a destination port number of the data received from the terminal The method may further include creating a database including one.

Here, the data offloading method may further include changing the terminal IP address of the data received from the terminal to the base station IP address when the network to which the data received from the terminal is to be transmitted is determined as the internal network. .

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for transmitting downlink data, the method comprising: receiving downlink data through an internal network; at least one of source information and destination information of the downlink data; Determining whether the information corresponds to information included in a preset database, and when the at least one of the source information and the destination information of the downlink data corresponds to the information included in the preset database, the downlink data is stored in the base station. And transmitting to a destination terminal connected to the terminal, wherein the preset database includes at least one of source information and destination information of uplink data transmitted from any terminal connected to the base station to the internal network through the base station. do.

The downlink data transmission method may further include changing an IP address of the received downlink data into a terminal IP address.

Here, the departure point information may include at least one of a departure point IP address and a departure point port number.

The downlink data transmission method may further include discarding the downlink data when at least one of the source information and the destination information of the downlink data does not correspond to information included in a preset database.

According to the present invention, a user can easily access an internal network through a femto base station. Since the femto base station provides wider coverage than the WLAN, the femto base station can provide an improved communication environment than the WLAN in all indoor spaces. In addition, unlike a WLAN, a femto base station may provide a service through not only an internal network but a mobile communication core network (eg, 4G network, 5G network, etc.). An operator may offload data to an internal network through a femto base station when a large load is generated in the mobile communication core network. In addition, the operator can provide the user with additional services through the internal network using the femto base station.

1 is a block diagram showing a structure of a communication system for communication with an internal network.

2 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a data offloading method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a downlink data transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a block diagram illustrating a femto base station according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As the present invention allows for various changes and numerous embodiments, particular embodiments will be illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the written description.

However, this is not intended to limit the present invention to specific embodiments, it should be understood to include all modifications, equivalents, and substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Terms such as first and second may be used to describe various components, but the components should not be limited by the terms. The terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another. For example, without departing from the scope of the present invention, the first component may be referred to as the second component, and similarly, the second component may also be referred to as the first component. The term and / or includes a combination of a plurality of related items or any item of a plurality of related items.

When a component is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" to another component, it may be directly connected to or connected to that other component, but it may be understood that other components may be present in between. Should be. On the other hand, when a component is said to be "directly connected" or "directly connected" to another component, it should be understood that there is no other component in between.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular example embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In this application, the terms "comprise" or "have" are intended to indicate that there is a feature, number, step, operation, component, part, or combination thereof described in the specification, and one or more other features. It is to be understood that the present invention does not exclude the possibility of the presence or the addition of numbers, steps, operations, components, components, or a combination thereof.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. Terms such as those defined in the commonly used dictionaries should be construed as having meanings consistent with the meanings in the context of the related art and shall not be construed in ideal or excessively formal meanings unless expressly defined in this application. Do not.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, it will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the present invention. In the following description of the present invention, the same reference numerals are used for the same elements in the drawings and redundant descriptions of the same elements will be omitted.

Throughout the specification, a network may include, for example, a wireless Internet such as wireless fidelity (WiFi), a mobile Internet such as wireless broadband internet (WiBro) or world interoperability for microwave access (WiMax), a global system for mobile communication ) Or 2G mobile networks such as code division multiple access (CDMA), wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) or 3G mobile networks such as CDMA2000, high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) or high speed uplink packet access (HSUPA). A 4G mobile communication network such as a 3.5G mobile communication network, a long term evolution (LTE) network, or an LTE-Advanced network, and a 5G mobile communication network may be included.

Throughout the specification, a terminal may be a mobile station, a mobile terminal, a subscriber station, a portable subscriber station, a user equipment, or an access terminal. Etc., and may include all or part of the functions of a terminal, a mobile station, a mobile terminal, a subscriber station, a portable subscriber station, a user device, an access terminal, and the like.

Here, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet PC, a wireless phone, a mobile phone, a smart phone, a smart watch capable of communicating with the terminal (smart watch), smart glass, e-book reader, portable multimedia player (PMP), portable game console, navigation device, digital camera, digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) player, digital voice Digital audio recorder, digital audio player, digital picture recorder, digital picture player, digital video recorder, digital video player ) Can be used.

Throughout the specification, a base station may include an access point, a radio access station, a node B, an evolved nodeB, a base transceiver station, and an MMR. mobile multihop relay) -BS and the like, and may include all or part of a function of a base station, an access point, a wireless access station, a NodeB, an eNodeB, a base transceiver station, an MMR-BS, and the like.

In the 3GPP (3rd generation patnership project) standard, a technology for communicating with devices connected to an internal network (ie, a local network) is proposed by local IP (LIIP) access and selected IP traffic offload (SIPTO). It became.

Referring to FIG. 1, an evolved packet core (EPC) (ie, a core network) may include a mobility management entity (MME) 100, a serving-gateway (S-GW) 101, and a packet data network gateway (PDN GW) ( 102) and the like. The MME 100 may mean a control plane node of an EPC. The S-GW 101 may mean a user plane node and may connect the EPC to a radio access network (RAN). The PDN GW 102 may connect the user plane connected to the EPC to the Internet using the SGi interface.

The S-GW 101 and the PDN GW 102 may be configured as a single entity, thereby reducing the number of user plane nodes. The S1-U interface may mean an interface between the base station 110 and the S-GW 101. The S1-MME interface may mean an interface between the base station 110 and the MME 100. The S11 interface may mean a simple interface between the MME 100 and the S-GW 101. The MME 100 may control the S-GW 101 using the S11 interface. The S5 interface may mean an interface between the S-GW 101 and the PDN GW 102. If the S-GW 101 and the PDN GW 102 are configured as a single entity, the S5 interface may be omitted.

On the other hand, L-GW (local-gateway) 111 may be used for data offloading to the internal network. The L-GW 111 may have the same function as the P-GW 102. That is, the L-GW 111 may connect the user plane connected to the EPC to the internal network using the SGi interface. The L-GW 111 may exist separately from the base station 110 or may exist as a single entity with the base station 110.

In such a communication system, the terminal 112 may request a PDN connection for a specific access point name (APN). In this case, the S-GW 101 may offload data to the internal network by setting up a PDN connection to the L-GW 111 instead of the PDN GW 102 based on the PDN GW 102 selection algorithm. .

In order to apply data offloading technologies LIPA, SIPTO, etc., the configuration and function of each communication entity (for example, the terminal 112, the communication entity constituting the RAN, and the communication entity constituting the EPC) must be changed. For example, an APN function for accessing an internal network should be added to the terminal 112. In the communication system, an L-GW 111 for accessing an internal network should be added. The S-GW 101 should be added with a function for selecting the P-GW 102 or the L-GW 111 according to the APN request of the terminal 112. The S5 interface between the S-GW 101 and the L-GW 111 must be newly added.

Changing the configuration and function of each communication entity constituting a communication system for data offloading poses a significant burden on the operator. Accordingly, there is a need for a technique for offloading data without changing the configuration and function of each communication entity constituting the communication system.

Referring to FIG. 2, the EPC may be configured of an MME 100, an S-GW 101, a PDN GW 102, a security gateway 103, a femto gateway 104, and the like. The MME 100 may be the same as the MME 100 shown in FIG. 1. The S-GW 101 may be the same as the S-GW 101 shown in FIG. 1. PDN GW 102 may be the same as PDN GW 102 shown in FIG. 1. SeGW 103 may refer to a gateway used for security. The FGW 104 may refer to a gateway used for connection with the femto base station 120. Here, the femto base station 120 may support the external network and the internal network.

In the following, a data offloading method and a downlink data transmission method will be described in detail based on the communication system shown in FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 3, the femto base station may refer to the femto base station 120 shown in FIG. 2 and may support an external network and an internal network. Here, the external network may mean a network managed by an operator. For example, the external network may mean a 4G network, such as LTE, Advanced-LTE, 5G network. The internal network may mean a private network such as an internal network.

The femto base station may set an offloading policy (S300). Specifically, the femto base station may set the offloading policy in three ways. In a first method, a femto base station can set only destination information of data to be transmitted through an external network. In this case, any data having destination information that does not correspond to destination information of data to be transmitted through the external network may be transmitted through the internal network. In the second method, the femto base station can set only destination information of data to be transmitted through the internal network. In this case, any data having destination information that does not correspond to destination information of data to be transmitted through the internal network may be transmitted through the external network.

In a third method, the femto base station may set both destination information of data to be transmitted through an external network and destination information of data to be transmitted through an internal network. In this case, any data having destination information corresponding to the destination information of the data to be transmitted through the external network may be transmitted through the external network. Any data having destination information corresponding to destination information of data to be transmitted through the internal network may be transmitted through the internal network. Here, the destination information may mean at least one of a destination IP address and a destination port number of the data.

The femto base station may receive data from a terminal connected thereto (S310), and may determine a network to which data is transmitted based on an offloading policy (S320).

(1) 외부망을 통해 전송할 데이터의 목적지 정보만이 설정된 경우(1) When only destination information of data to transmit through external network is set

The femto base station may determine whether the destination information of the data received from the terminal corresponds to the destination information of the data to be transmitted through the external network. For example, if the destination IP address of the data received from the terminal is the same as the destination IP address of the data to be transmitted through the external network or falls within the range of the destination IP address, the femto base station is external to the network to which the data received from the terminal is transmitted. Can be determined by the net. On the contrary, if the destination IP address of the data received from the terminal does not correspond to the destination IP address of the data to be transmitted through the external network, the femto base station may determine the network to which the data received from the terminal is transmitted as the internal network.

(2) 내부망을 통해 전송할 데이터의 목적지 정보만이 설정된 경우(2) When only destination information of data to send through internal network is set

The femto base station may determine whether the destination information of the data received from the terminal corresponds to the destination information of the data to be transmitted through the internal network. For example, if a destination IP address of data received from the terminal is the same as the destination IP address of the data to be transmitted through the internal network or falls within the range of the destination IP address, the femto base station may internally transmit the network to which the data received from the terminal is transmitted. Can be determined by the net. On the contrary, if the destination IP address of the data received from the terminal does not correspond to the destination IP address of the data to be transmitted through the internal network, the femto base station may determine the network to which the data received from the terminal is transmitted to the external network.

(3) 외부망을 통해 전송할 데이터의 목적지 정보 및 내부망을 통해 전송할 데이터의 목적지 정보 모두 설정된 경우(3) When both destination information of data to be transmitted through external network and destination information of data to be transmitted through internal network are set

If the destination IP address of the data received from the terminal is the same as the destination IP address of the data to be transmitted through the external network or within the range of the destination IP address, the femto base station may determine the network to which the data received from the terminal is transmitted to the external network. have. On the contrary, if the destination IP address of the data received from the terminal is the same as the destination IP address of the data to be transmitted through the internal network or falls within the range of the destination IP address, the femto base station moves the network to which the data received from the terminal is transmitted to the internal network. You can decide.

Meanwhile, when the network to which data received from the terminal is to be transmitted is determined as the external network, the femto base station may tunnel the data to the external network (S330). On the contrary, when the network to which data received from the terminal is to be transmitted is determined as an internal network, the femto base station includes a database including at least one of a source IP address, a destination IP address, a source port number, and a destination port number of the data received from the terminal ( database) can be created (S340). In addition, the femto base station may register a call ID (identifier) for the data received from the terminal in the database.

The femto base station may perform a network address translation (NAT) for data received from the terminal (S350). That is, the femto base station may change the terminal IP address of the data received from the terminal to the femto base station IP address in order to transmit the data received from the terminal through the internal network.

Thereafter, the femto base station may transmit the data received from the terminal through the internal network (S360).

On the other hand, the femto base station can communicate with the external Internet network. For example, when a femto base station is directly assigned a public IP, it can communicate with an external internet network. In this case, the femto base station may offload the data received from the terminal to the external internet network (that is, the terminal may access the external internet network through the femto base station). That is, the femto base station may offload the data to the external internet network when the network to which the data is to be transmitted is determined as the external internet network according to the offloading policy.

Referring to FIG. 4, the femto base station may refer to the femto base station 120 illustrated in FIG. 2 and may support an external network and an internal network. Here, the external network may mean a network managed by an operator. For example, the external network may mean a 4G network, such as LTE, Advanced-LTE, 5G network. The internal network may mean a private network such as an internal network.

The femto base station may receive downlink data through the internal network (S400), and perform NAT for the downlink data (S410). That is, since the IP address of the downlink data received through the internal network is a femto base station IP address, the femto base station can change the downlink data IP address to the terminal IP address.

Thereafter, the femto base station may determine whether at least one of the source information and the destination information of the downlink data corresponds to the information included in the preset database (S420). Here, the information included in the preset database may mean at least one of source information and destination information of uplink data transmitted from an arbitrary terminal connected to the femto base station to the internal network through the femto base station. The source information may mean at least one of a source IP address and a source port number of the data. The destination information may mean at least one of a destination IP address and a destination port number of data.

For example, the femto base station may determine whether the source IP address of the downlink data and the destination IP address of the uplink data included in the preset database correspond. In addition, the femto base station may determine whether the destination IP address of the downlink data and the source IP address of the uplink data included in the preset database correspond. Also, the femto base station may determine whether the source IP address and the destination IP address of the downlink data correspond to the destination IP address and the source IP address of the uplink data included in the preset database, respectively.

If at least one of the source information and the destination information of the downlink data does not correspond to the information included in the preset database, the femto base station may discard the downlink data (S430). On the contrary, when at least one of the source information and the destination information of the downlink data corresponds to information included in the preset database, the femto base station may transmit the downlink data to the destination terminal.

Referring to FIG. 5, the femto base station 500 may include at least one processor 510, a memory 520, and a network interface device 530 connected to a network to perform communication. In addition, the femto base station 500 may further include an input interface device 540, an output interface device 550, a storage device 560, and the like. Each component included in the femto base station 500 may be connected by a bus 570 to communicate with each other.

The processor 510 may execute a program command stored in the memory 520 and / or the storage device 560. The processor 510 may refer to a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), or a dedicated processor on which methods according to the present invention are performed. The memory 520 and the storage device 560 may be configured of a volatile storage medium and / or a nonvolatile storage medium. For example, the memory 520 may be configured as read only memory (ROM) and / or random access memory (RAM).

The methods according to the invention can be implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed by various computer means and recorded on a computer readable medium. Computer-readable media may include, alone or in combination with the program instructions, data files, data structures, and the like. The program instructions recorded on the computer readable medium may be those specially designed and constructed for the present invention, or may be known and available to those skilled in computer software.

Examples of computer readable media include hardware devices that are specifically configured to store and execute program instructions, such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions include machine language code, such as produced by a compiler, as well as high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. The hardware device described above may be configured to operate with at least one software module to perform the operations of the present invention, and vice versa.

Although described with reference to the embodiments above, those skilled in the art will understand that the present invention can be variously modified and changed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the claims below. Could be.

Claims

A data offloading method performed at a base station,

Setting at least one of destination information of data to be transmitted through an external network and destination information of data to be transmitted through an internal network;

Receiving data from a terminal connected to the base station;

Determining a network to which data received from the terminal is to be transmitted based on whether destination information corresponding to set destination information and data received from the terminal correspond; And

Transmitting the data received from the terminal through the determined network.
The method according to claim 1,

The destination information,

And at least one of a destination IP address and a destination port number.
The method according to claim 1,

Determining a network to which the data is to be transmitted,

If the destination information of the data received from the terminal corresponds to the destination information of the data to be transmitted through the external network, determining the network to which the data received from the terminal is transmitted to the external network.
The method according to claim 1,

Determining a network to which the data is to be transmitted,

If the destination information of the data received from the terminal corresponds to the destination information of the data to be transmitted through the internal network, determining the network to which the data received from the terminal is to be transmitted to the internal network.
The method according to claim 1,

The data offloading method,

When the network to which data received from the terminal is to be transmitted is determined as an internal network, a database including at least one of a source IP address, a destination IP address, a source port number, and a destination port number of the data received from the terminal is generated. Further comprising the step of performing a data offloading.
The method according to claim 1,

The data offloading method,

If it is determined that the network to which data received from the terminal is to be transmitted is an internal network, changing the terminal IP address of the data received from the terminal to the base station IP address.
A downlink data transmission method performed in a base station supporting an external network and an internal network,

Receiving downlink data through an internal network;

Determining whether at least one of source information and destination information of the downlink data corresponds to information included in a preset database; And

If at least one of the source information and the destination information of the downlink data corresponds to information included in the preset database, transmitting the downlink data to a destination terminal connected to the base station,

The preset database includes at least one of source information and destination information of uplink data transmitted from any terminal connected to the base station to the internal network through the base station.
The method according to claim 7,

The downlink data transmission method,

And changing an IP address of the received downlink data to a terminal IP address.
The method according to claim 7,

The departure point information,

A downlink data transmission method comprising at least one of a source IP address and a source port number.
The method according to claim 7,

The destination information,

And at least one of a destination IP address and a destination port number.
The method according to claim 7,

The downlink data transmission method,

And discarding the downlink data when at least one of the source information and the destination information of the downlink data does not correspond to information included in a preset database.