Apparatus, system and method of communicating between a cellular manager and a user equipment (UE) via a WLAN node

1. An apparatus of a User Equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising:

a cellular transceiver to communicate with an Evolved Node B (eNB) traffic of at least one Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB);

a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) transceiver to receive a WLAN message comprising an Internet Protocol (IP) address assigned to the UE; and

a controller component configured to trigger the UE to use the IP address assigned to the UE in establishment of an IP tunnel with the eNB via a WLAN node, and to process an IP tunneling packet received via the IP tunnel, the IP tunneling packet comprising an encapsulated IP payload comprising downlink traffic of the E-RAB.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the IP tunnel comprises an IP security (IPSec) tunnel, said IP tunneling packet is encrypted and authenticated according to an IPSec protocol.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the cellular transceiver is to receive from the eNB a cellular message comprising a WLAN identifier of the WLAN node, key information, and an IP address of the eNB, the controller component configured to trigger the WLAN transceiver to establish a WLAN connection with the WLAN node based on the WLAN identifier, to trigger the UE to perform a mutual authentication between the UE and the eNB using the key information, and to establish an IPSec session with the eNB via the WLAN connection.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the key information comprises a nonce.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the controller component is configured to determine a pre-shared key, based on the key information in the cellular message, and to trigger the UE to perform the mutual authentication between the UE and the eNB using the pre-shared key.

6. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the cellular transceiver is to receive from the eNB a cellular message comprising a WLAN identifier of the WLAN node, an eNB public key, a UE public key, a UE private key, and an IP address of the eNB, the controller component configured to trigger the WLAN transceiver to establish a WLAN connection with the WLAN node based on the WLAN identifier, to trigger the UE to perform a mutual authentication between the UE and the eNB using the eNB public key, the UE public key and the UE private key, and to establish an IPSec session with the eNB via the WLAN connection.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the IP tunnel comprises a non-secure tunnel between the UE and the eNB.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the cellular transceiver is to receive from the eNB a cellular message comprising key information, said controller component is configured to generate a WLAN pre-shared key based at least on the key information, and to trigger the WLAN transceiver to establish a secure session with the WLAN node using the WLAN pre-shared key.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the controller component is configured to trigger the cellular transceiver to transmit to the eNB a response message comprising a WLAN identifier of the WLAN transceiver, in response to an aggregation initiation message received from the eNB, said cellular transceiver to receive the cellular message from the eNB after transmission of the response message.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the cellular transceiver is to receive from the eNB a list of a plurality of WLAN nodes belonging to a same IP subnet, the controller component is configured to trigger the WLAN transceiver to establish the IP tunnel via a first WLAN node of the plurality of WLAN nodes, and to transfer the IP tunnel from the first WLAN node to a second WLAN node of the plurality of WLAN nodes.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the controller component is configured to trigger the cellular transceiver to transmit to the eNB an indication to suspend transmission via the IP tunnel, to trigger the WLAN transceiver to disassociate from the first WLAN node, to trigger the WLAN transceiver to associate with the second WLAN node, and to trigger the cellular transceiver to transmit to the eNB an indication to resume communication over the IP tunnel.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising one or more antennas, a memory and a processor.

13. A product comprising one or more tangible computer-readable non-transitory storage media comprising computer-executable instructions operable to, when executed by at least one computer processor, enable the at least one computer processor to implement one or more operations at a User Equipment (UE), the operations comprising:

communicating with an Evolved Node B (eNB) traffic of at least one Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB);

receiving a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) message comprising an Internet Protocol (IP) address assigned to the UE;

triggering the UE to use the IP address assigned to the UE in establishment of an IP tunnel with the eNB via a WLAN node; and

processing an IP tunneling packet received via the IP tunnel, the IP tunneling packet comprising an encapsulated IP payload comprising downlink traffic of the E-RAB.

14. The product of claim 13 , wherein the IP tunnel comprises an IP security (IPSec) tunnel, said IP tunneling packet is encrypted and authenticated according to an IPSec protocol.

15. The product of claim 14 , wherein the operations comprise receiving from the eNB a cellular message comprising a WLAN identifier of the WLAN node, key information, and an IP address of the eNB; triggering the UE to establish a WLAN connection with the WLAN node based on the WLAN identifier; triggering the UE to perform a mutual authentication between the UE and the eNB using the key information; and establishing an IPSec session with the eNB via the WLAN connection.

16. An apparatus of an Evolved Node B (eNB), the apparatus comprising:

a cellular transceiver to communicate with a User Equipment (UE) traffic of at least one Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB);

a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) node interface to communicate with a WLAN node; and

a controller component configured to trigger the eNB to participate in establishment of an Internet Protocol (IP) tunnel with the UE via the WLAN node, to encapsulate an IP payload comprising downlink traffic of the E-RAB in an IP tunneling packet, and to send the IP tunneling packet to the UE via the IP tunnel.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the IP tunnel comprises an IP security (IPSec) tunnel, said IP tunneling packet is encrypted and authenticated according to an IPSec protocol.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the controller component is configured to trigger the cellular transceiver to transmit to the UE a cellular message comprising a WLAN identifier of the WLAN node, key information, and an IP address of the eNB, the controller component configured to trigger the eNB to perform a mutual authentication between the UE and the eNB using the key information, and to establish an IPSec session with the UE via the WLAN node.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the controller component is configured to determine a pre-shared key based at least on the key information in the cellular message, and to trigger the eNB to perform the mutual authentication between the UE and the eNB using the pre-shared key.

20. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the controller component is configured to trigger the cellular transceiver to transmit to the UE a cellular message comprising a WLAN identifier of the WLAN node, an eNB public key, a UE public key, a UE private key, and an IP address of the eNB, the controller component configured to trigger the eNB to perform a mutual authentication between the UE and the eNB using the eNB public key, the UE public key and the UE private key, and to establish an IPSec session with the UE via the WLAN node.

21. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the IP tunnel comprises a non-secure tunnel between the UE and the eNB.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the controller component is configured to generate key information, to determine a WLAN shared key based at least on the key information, to trigger the WLAN node interface to send to the WLAN node the WLAN shared key, and to trigger the cellular transceiver to transmit to the UE a cellular message comprising the key information.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the controller component is configured to trigger the cellular transceiver to transmit to the UE an aggregation initiation message comprising a WLAN identifier of the WLAN node, to process a response message from the UE comprising a WLAN identifier of the UE, to trigger the WLAN node interface to send to the WLAN node an access request comprising the WLAN identifier of the UE, and, upon receipt of an acknowledgement message from the WLAN node, to trigger the cellular transceiver to transmit to the UE a connection request message comprising the key information.

24. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the controller component is configured to trigger the cellular transceiver to transmit to the UE a list of a plurality of WLAN nodes belonging to a same IP subnet, the controller component configured to trigger the WLAN node interface to transfer the IP tunnel from a first WLAN node to a second WLAN node of the plurality of WLAN nodes, based on an indication from the UE.

25. The apparatus of claim 16 comprising one or more antennas, a memory and a processor.