Granted Patent B2

US 8,451,800 · App. 12/939,690 · Granted May 28, 2013

Abstract

Claims (34)

1. A method of delivering content to a mobile device in a radio-access network as the mobile device moves from an area served by a first base station to an area served by a second base station, the method comprising:

identifying, in the radio-access network, a user application running on the mobile device, the user application receiving a stream of application data routed from a first application mobility-management entity (“AME”) located within the radio-access network to the mobile device via the first base station;

detecting movement of the mobile device from the first base station area to the second base station area;

establishing a connection, in the radio-access network, between the first AME that monitors traffic to the first base station and a second AME located in the radio-access network and that monitors traffic to the second base station; and

routing the stream of application data over the connection to the mobile device via the second base station.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the user application comprises recognizing per-user tunnels in the data routed to the mobile device and identifying user-application streams therein.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising analyzing transport packets in the data routed to the first base station.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising halting routing the stream of application data when an application using the application data closes.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising routing a second stream of data from a second application, after detecting movement of the mobile device, through the second base station.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising routing data received from the mobile device over the connection.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the stream of application data comprises snooping at least one of control-plane protocol traffic and user-plane protocol traffic in the radio-access network.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein routing the stream of application data comprises tunneling the stream of application data.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising constructing a topology map identifying the first and second base stations.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein constructing the topology map comprises determining one of an RNC-ID, a SGSN-ID, an eNodeB-ID, and an S-GW/MME-ID.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stream of application data comprises data streams from at least one of a proxy, cache, and application server.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stream of application data streams from a pipeline buffer.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting movement comprises determining that the target of the movement is the area served by the second base station.

14. A system for delivering content to a mobile device in a radio-access network as the mobile device moves from an area served by a first base station to an area served by a second base station, the system comprising:

an identification module for identifying, in the radio-access network, a user application running on the mobile device, the user application receiving a stream of application data routed from a first application mobility-management entity (“AME”) located within the radio-access network to the mobile device via the first base station;

a detection module for detecting movement of the mobile device from the first base station area to the second base station area;

a connection module for establishing a connection, in the radio-access network, between the first AME that monitors traffic to the first base station and a second AME located in the radio-access network and that monitors traffic to the second base station; and

a routing module for routing the stream of application data over the connection to the mobile device via the second base station.

15. The system of claim 14 , further comprising a cache for caching application data.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the stream of application data is served from the cache.

17. The system of claim 14 , wherein the connection comprises at least one of a TCP, UDP, GRE, and GTP connection.

18. An application mobility-management entity (“AME”) device for delivering content to a mobile device in a radio-access network as the mobile device moves from an area served by a first base station to an area served by a second base station, the AME device comprising:

an input module for receiving traffic from a radio-access network;

a processor for analyzing the received traffic, identifying a user application running on the mobile device, determining an address of the second base station, and establishing a connection in the radio-access network to a second AME device in communication with the second base station; and

an output module for sending the content to the second AME device, the second AME device sending content related to the user application to the mobile device.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the received traffic comprises at least one of control-plane data and user-plane data.

20. The system of claim 18 , wherein the AME device is configured to be disposed between at least one of a NodeB and an RNC, an RNC and a SGSN, a SGSN and a GGSN, an eNodeB and a S-GW/MME, and a S-GW/MME and a P-GW.

21. The system of claim 20 , wherein the AME is configured to be logically in-line between two network devices.

22. The system of claim 18 , wherein the AME device comprises at least one of a server, a rack-mount server, and a blade server.

23. The system of claim 18 , wherein the AME is configured for communication with a third AME device associated with a third base station, the AME device sending the content to the third AME device upon detecting the mobile device moving to an area served by the third base station.

Assignments (8)