Granted Patent B2

US 12,425,914 · App. 17/437,711 · Granted Sep 23, 2025

Inventors: Jing Zhu (Portland, OR); Ching-Yu Liao (Portland, OR); Zongrui Ding (Portland, OR); Dario Sabella (Munich, DE); Miltiadis Filippou (Munich, DE)

Assignee: Intel Corporation

H04W28/0252H04W28/084H04W76/11

Abstract

Claims (68)

1. An apparatus to be employed as a Multi-access Traffic Steering (MTS) service provider to provide MTS services in a network including multiple access networks, the apparatus comprising:

interface circuitry arranged to:

receive a request message for MTS service information (MtsInfo) from an application instance, wherein the request message includes an identifier of the application instance;

based on the request message, transmit traffic information for the application instance, including a multi-access traffic steering capability message comprising an indication of the multiple access networks and supported multi-access traffic steering modes in the multiple access networks;

receive a multi-access traffic steering request message from the application instance, the multi-access traffic steering request message including a session identifier (sessionId) representing an individual session of the application instance and a traffic steering mode (mtsMode) indicating one or more preferences of the application instance on how to steer traffic of the individual session among the multiple access networks and the supported multi-access traffic steering modes; and

transmit a multi-access traffic steering response to the application instance in response to the multi-access traffic steering request message, wherein the multi-access traffic steering response includes the request identifier and an indication of whether the one or more preferences are accepted or rejected; and

processor circuitry communicatively coupled with the interface circuitry, the processor circuitry arranged to steer, in response to receipt of the multi-access traffic steering request message, when the one or more preferences are accepted, traffic corresponding to the sessionId over one or more access network connections of the multiple access networks according to the mtsMode.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the multi-access traffic steering request message further comprises a flow filter (flowFilter) including traffic flow filtering criteria for steering the traffic of the individual session.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the flowFilter includes a source address identity of the individual session, a source port identity of the individual session, a destination address identity of the individual session, a destination port identity of the individual session, and a protocol type of the individual session.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the mtsMode is a low latency mode and the processor circuitry is arranged to steer the traffic over at least one of:

an access network connection having a lowest latency among the one or more access network connections;

an access network connection with a highest throughput among the one or more access network connections;

multiple access network connection of the one or more access network connections simultaneously;

multiple access network connections of the one or more access network connections when the traffic includes duplicated packets for an application having high-reliability and low-latency requirements; or

one or more of the one or more access network connections according to quality of service (QOS) requirements of the traffic.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein, when the mtsMode is a QoS mode, the multi-access traffic steering request message further comprises a QoS description (qosD) including one or more of a throughput threshold for the individual session, a latency limit for the individual session, a packet loss rate limit for the individual session, a jitter limit for the individual session, and a priority for the individual session.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the multi-access traffic steering request message further comprises a traffic direction indicating whether the traffic steering is in a downlink (DL) direction, an uplink (UL) direction, or both the DL and UL directions.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:

the interface circuitry is further arranged to, in response to the request message for MtsInfo from the application, transmit a response message including the MtsInfo to the application; and

the processor circuitry is arranged to generate, in response to receipt of the request message for the MtsInfo, the response message including MtsInfo for the one or more access network connections, the MtsInfo including an access network connection identifier (accessId) for each access network connection of the one or more access network connections and an access type (accessType) of each access network connection.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the multi-access traffic steering request message is communicated over an MTS application programming interface (API) by a Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) application instantiated by a MEC host, and the apparatus is to be employed as a MEC platform within the MEC host to provide the MTS service, and the MEC platform operates a Multiple Access Management Services (MAMS) server instance.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the multi-access traffic steering capability message includes, for the multiple networks, an access network identifier to uniquely identify the access network, an access network type and an access network cost.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the supported multi-access traffic steering modes include Multipath Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP), Multipath Quick User Datagram Protocol Internet Connections (MPQUIC) and Multiple Access Management Services (MAMS).

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the multi-access traffic steering capability message includes an indication of supported multi-access traffic steering modes in uplink and downlink directions of the multiple access networks.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:

the one or more preferences include a preference for dynamic traffic steering and a preference for static traffic steering;

the preference for dynamic traffic steering is to steer traffic across multiple access networks dynamically according to a lowest cost, a lowest latency, a maximum throughput or a quality of service (QOS) requirement; and

the preference for static traffic steering is to steer traffic across multiple access networks according to a steering mode in which only one access network at a time is used, a splitting/aggregation mode in which multiple access networks are used simultaneously, or a duplication mode in which a same packet is sent over multiple access networks.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein:

for the quality of service (QOS) requirement, the preference for dynamic traffic steering includes indications of a desired maximum end-to-end latency, a minimum throughput/bandwidth, and a tolerable packet loss rate;

for the steering mode, the multi-access traffic steering request message includes an indication of an access network identifier to identify an access network to use to deliver traffic; and

for the splitting/aggregation mode, the multi-access traffic steering request message includes an indication of access networks to use to deliver traffic and a traffic load ratio to identify a relative traffic load in the access networks to use to deliver traffic.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the interface circuitry is arranged to transmit a multi-access measurement report to the application, wherein the multi-access measurement report includes an indication of access networks available to the application and at least one of an end-to-end packet loss rate, an available bandwidth, an end-to-end round trip time or a one way delay.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the traffic information is tailored to the application instance.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the application instance is instantiated at a User Equipment (UE).

17. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) comprising instructions for providing Multi-access Traffic Steering (MTS) services in a network including multiple access networks, wherein execution of the instructions is to cause a processor of a Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) host to:

receive a request message for MTS service information (MtsInfo) from an application, wherein the request message includes an identifier of the application;

based on the request message, transmit traffic information for the application, including a multi-access traffic steering capability message comprising an indication of the multiple access networks and supported multi-access traffic steering modes in the multiple access networks;

receive a request message for MTS service information (MtsInfo) from the application, wherein the request message for MtsInfo comprises a session identifier (sessionId) representing an individual session of the application and a traffic steering mode (mtsMode) indicating one or more preferences of the application on how to steer traffic of the individual session among the multiple access networks and the supported multi-access traffic steering modes;

generate, in response to receipt of the request message for MtsInfo, when the one or more preferences are accepted, a response message including MtsInfo for one or more access network connections of the multiple access networks, the MtsInfo including an access network connection identifier (accessId) for each access network connection of the one or more access network connections, an access type (accessType) of each access network connection; and

transmit the response message to the application.

18. The one or more NTCRM of claim 17 , wherein the MtsInfo further comprises a traffic steering mode (mtsMode) data element of each access network connection, the mtsMode data element for each access network connection being one of a low cost mode, a high throughput mode, a redundancy mode, or a quality of service (QOS) mode.

19. The one or more NTCRM of claim 18 , wherein:

the low cost mode indicates that traffic is to be steered over an access network connection having a lower latency among the one or more access network connections;

the high throughput mode indicates that traffic is to be steered over an access network connection with a higher throughput among the one or more access network connections or steer the traffic over multiple access network connection of the one or more access network connections simultaneously;

the redundancy mode indicates that traffic is to be steered over multiple access network connections of the one or more access network connections when the traffic includes duplicated packets for an application having high-reliability and low-latency requirements; and

the QoS mode indicates that traffic is to be steered over one or more of the one or more access network connections according to QoS requirements of the traffic.

20. The one or more NTCRM of claim 17 , wherein the MtsInfo further comprises a metered data element for each access network connection, the metered data element for each access network connection including a value indicating that the access network connection is not metered, a value indicating that the access network connection is metered, or a value indicating that metering of the access network connection is unknown.

21. The one or more NTCRM of claim 17 , wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the MEC host to:

steer, in response to receipt of the request message for MtsInfo, traffic corresponding to the sessionId over one or more access network connections according to the mtsMode.

22. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) comprising instructions for obtaining Multi-access Traffic Steering (MTS) services from an MTS service provider, wherein execution of the instructions by one or more processors of a computing device is operable to cause the computing device to:

generate an MTS service information (MtsInfo) request message;

transmit the request message from an application instance of the computing device to the MTS service provider, wherein the request message includes an identifier of the application instance;

in response to the request message, receive, at the application instance, from the MTS service provider, a multi-access traffic steering capability message comprising an indication of multiple access networks and supported multi-access traffic steering modes in the multiple access networks;

generate a traffic steering request message to include a session identifier (sessionId) representing an individual session or a group of sessions and a traffic steering mode (mtsMode) indicating one or more preferences on how to steer traffic of the individual session or the group of sessions among the multiple access networks and the supported multi-access traffic steering modes;

transmit the traffic steering request message to the MTS service provider over an MTS application programming interface (API); and

when the one or more preferences are accepted, receive a traffic steering response message from the MTS service provider over the MTS API, the traffic steering response message indicating that traffic associated with the sessionId will be steered over one or more access network connections according to the mtsMode when the traffic steering request message was processed successfully.

23. The one or more NTCRM of claim 22 , wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the computing device to:

receive an MtsInfo response message from the MTS service provider, the MtsInfo response message including MtsInfo, for each of the one or more access network connections, an access network connection identifier (accessId) data element containing a value to uniquely identify the access network connection and an access type (accessType) data element containing a numeric value corresponding to a specific type of access network of the access network connection.

24. A Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) host comprising:

a MEC platform arranged to instantiate a MEC application (app) and instantiate a Multi-access Traffic Steering (MTS) service, the MEC platform to:

operate the MTS service to transmit a multi-access traffic steering capability message to an MTS service consumer, wherein the multi-access traffic steering capability message includes an indication of multiple access networks and supported multi-access traffic steering modes in the multiple access networks;

operate the MTS service to receive a multi-access traffic steering request message from the MEC application, the multi-access traffic steering request message including a session identifier (sessionId) representing an individual session of the MEC application and a traffic steering mode (mtsMode) indicating one or more preferences of the MEC application on how to steer traffic of the individual session among the multiple access networks and the supported multi-access traffic steering modes;

operate the MEC application to send an MTS service information (MtsInfo) request message for the MTS service over an MTS application programming interface (API); and

operate the MTS service to transmit, in response to receipt of the MtsInfo request message, an MtsInfo response message to the MEC application over the MTS API, the MtsInfo request message including MtsInfo for one or more access network connections, the MtsInfo including an access network connection identifier (accessId) for each access network connection of the one or more access network connections and an access type (accessType) of each access network connection.

25. The MEC host of claim 24 , wherein the MEC platform is further arranged to:

operate the MEC application to send a traffic steering request message to the MTS service over an MTS application programming interface (API), the traffic steering request message including a session identifier (sessionId) representing an individual session or a group of sessions of the MEC application and a traffic steering mode (mtsMode) indicating one or more preferences on how to steer traffic of the individual session or the group of sessions; and

operate the MTS service to steer, in response to receipt of the traffic steering request message, and when the one or more preferences are accepted, traffic corresponding to the sessionId over one or more access network connections according to the mtsMode.

Continuity (4)

References Cited (161)