Support for local access in a cellular and a non-cellular ran
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsJing Zhu, Nageen Himayat
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A RAN-based cellular integration architecture is described that eliminates or minimizes required core network support. A local access gateway (LA-GW) node, which may be a logical and physical node, may provide an interface, with a cellular base station, and may forward downlink and/or uplink local IP packets that are then redirected to the cellular link. Network Address Translation (NAT) and a “local access” field are used to support transmission of local access packets over the cellular link.
Claims21
1-25. (canceled)
User Equipment (UE) for a cellular communications network, the UE including:
- a radio component to communicate with a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and the cellular communications network;
- and
- processing circuitry to:
- store a local access Internet Protocol (IP) address obtained from a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN);
- store a cellular IP address associated with the cellular communications network;
- and
- transmit a first packet, associated with the WLAN, via a cellular link of the cellular communications network, the transmission of the first packet including
- performing Network Address Translation (NAT) on the first packet to change a source IP address of the first packet from the local access IP address to the cellular IP address, and
- setting a local access field of the first packet to indicate that the first packet is a local access packet.
An apparatus for a baseband processor of User Equipment (UE) for a cellular communication network, the apparatus comprising:
- a computer-readable medium to store processing instructions;
- and
- processing circuitry to execute the processing instructions to:
- store a local access Internet Protocol (IP) address obtained from a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN);
- store a cellular IP address associated with the cellular communications network;
- and
- process a first packet, associated with the WLAN, for transmission via a cellular link of the cellular communications network, the processing of the first packet including
- performing Network Address Translation (NAT) on the first packet to change a source IP address of the first packet from the local access IP address to the cellular IP address, and
- set a local access field of the first packet to indicate that the first packet is a local access packet.
An evolved NodeB (eNB), associated with a cellular communications network, the eNB comprising:
- a Local Access Gateway (LA-GW) node to connect the eNB to a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) to receive local access packets, from the WLAN, that are destined for User Equipment (UE) that is attached to the eNB via a cellular radio link;
- and
- logic to:
- process the received local access packets to change a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address of the local access packets to an IP address that is associated with the cellular communications network, and
- insert a local access field to the received local access packets to indicate that the local access packets are associated with the WLAN;
- and
- radio frequency (RF) circuitry to transmit the local access packets over the cellular link.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.