RAN for multimedia delivery
A method is disclosed for avoiding unnecessary keepalive data transfers, comprising: receiving, at an upstream TCP connection endpoint in a radio access network (RAN) from an operator core network, an Internet Protocol (IP) packet; performing, at the upstream TCP connection endpoint, shallow packet inspection on the IP packet; and forwarding the IP packet to the downstream TCP connection endpoint in the RAN if the IP packet is not a keepalive packet, based on the performed shallow packet inspection. The upstream TCP connection endpoint in the RAN may be one of a nodeB, an eNodeB, a base transceiver station (BTS), a coordinating server, and a mobile edge computing (MEC) gateway. The downstream TCP connection endpoint in the RAN may be one of the nodeB, the eNodeB, or the base transceiver station (BTS).
1. A method using mobile edge computing (MEC) for providing video, comprising:
receiving, at a User Equipment (UE), video from a content server, through an upstream node presenting the video as a uniform stream of data at an appropriate data rate and insulating the content server from changes to the radio link quality at the UE;
detecting, by a source base station, a change in UE mobility state or signal quality;
notifying, by the source base station, the upstream node before a handover occurs from the UE;
receiving, by the upstream node, the prospective handover message;
buffering, by the upstream node, the video using MEC;
refraining from delivering the video to the source base station; and
delivering, by the upstream node, the video after the handover occurs.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein using MEC comprises performing transcoding at the upstream node.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein using MEC comprises performing transrating at the upstream node.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein using MEC comprises requesting transcoding from the content server.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein using MEC comprises requesting transrating from the content server.
6. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing, by the upstream node, lower quality video during the handover.