Maintaining internet protocol address for network traffic during handover procedure

An apparatus comprising:

• a network interface configured to provide/obtain network traffic to/from user equipment;
• and
• one or more processors of a user plane function in a visited public land mobile network that includes a first network and a second network, wherein the user plane function is in the first network, wherein the one or more processors are coupled to the network interface and are configured to:
• obtain the network traffic from the user equipment via the first network;
• provide the network traffic obtained via the first network to a data network with an Internet Protocol (IP) address allocated to the network traffic obtained from the user equipment;
• in response to a handover of the user equipment from the first network to the second network, obtain the network traffic from the user equipment via the second network from a serving gateway in the second network of the visited public land mobile network via an intermediate user plane function located in and selected by a home public land mobile network;
• and
• provide the network traffic obtained via the second network to the data network with the IP address.

One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor of a user plane function in a visited public land mobile network that includes a first network and a second network, wherein the user plane function is in the first network, cause the processor to:

• obtain network traffic from user equipment via the first network;
• provide the network traffic obtained via the first network to a data network with an Internet Protocol (IP) address allocated to the network traffic obtained from the user equipment;
• in response to a handover of the user equipment from the first network to the second network, obtain the network traffic from the user equipment via the second network from a serving gateway in the second network of the visited public land mobile network via an intermediate user plane function located in and selected by a home public land mobile network;
• and
• provide the network traffic obtained via the second network to the data network with the IP address.