Pdu sessions with various types of session continuity

An apparatus comprising:

• a transceiver that communicates with a mobile communication network supporting a plurality of data session continuity types for data sessions,
• wherein the plurality of data session continuity types comprise:
• a first continuity type requiring a fixed mobility anchor,
• a second continuity type that does not require a fixed mobility anchor, that maintains an initial network address for a period of time after receiving a successive network address and that releases the initial address after the period of time, and
• a third continuity type that does not require a fixed mobility anchor;
• a storage device that stores a continuity selection policy;
• and
• a processor that:
• receives, from one of an application running on the apparatus and an operating system, a request to establish a data session;
• identifies a request characteristic corresponding to the request to establish a data session, the request characteristic comprising at least one of:
• an application identifier, a requested destination address, a requested destination port, a requested transport protocol, and a requested destination domain name;
• selects a data session continuity type based on the request to establish a data session by applying the continuity selection policy to the identified request characteristic, wherein the selected data session continuity type is selected from the plurality of data session continuity types supported by the mobile communication network;
• determines whether the selected data session continuity type matches a continuity type of an existing protocol data unit (“PDU”) session established between the apparatus and the mobile communication network;
• routes the traffic of the data session through a first existing PDU Session in response to the selected continuity type matching the data session continuity type of the first existing PDU Session;
• and
• establishes a first data connection via the mobile communication network in response to the selected continuity type not matching the data session continuity type of any existing PDU Session, the first data connection having the selected data session continuity type, the first data connection comprising a PDU session.