Gateway APN Resolution for Roaming Data Transmission
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for user equipment roaming to a non-home PLMN using a general APN do not efficiently manage APNs, leading to increased APN management complexity and lack of unified service development strategies for mobile operators.
Innovation Solution
A data transmission method that involves a first gateway receiving an activation request with a subscriber identity and APN, acquiring the gateway address of the subscription home location, and transmitting data using this address, thereby allowing direct data transmission between the user equipment and the subscription home location's gateway, reducing the number of APNs and simplifying management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple regional APNs are derived from one general APN to allow users to return to home location GGSN/PGW during roaming, then the ability to return to home location is improved, but APN management complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a gateway exchange as an intermediary between the roaming network device and the home location GGSN/PGW. The gateway exchange receives activation requests from roaming devices, resolves the target GGSN/PGW address based on the APN, and forwards requests accordingly. This intermediary approach allows the system to maintain a single general APN while still enabling returns to home location, avoiding the need to create multiple regional APNs and thus reducing APN management complexity.
2Speed
If direct activation on gateway exchange is used for general APN during roaming, then processing speed is improved, but the ability to return to subscription home location is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the gateway exchange receives the APN from the activation request, uses it to resolve the target GGSN/PGW address, and then forwards the request to the appropriate home location gateway. This feedback loop ensures that even though the activation request passes through the gateway exchange (maintaining processing speed), the system can still identify and route to the correct subscription home location GGSN/PGW, thus preserving the ability to return home.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple regional APNs are configured for different provinces, then regional access is improved, but unified service development strategy is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the gateway exchange a universal component that can handle activation requests for any regional APN without requiring separate configurations for each province. The gateway exchange resolves the target GGSN/PGW address based on the APN contained in the request, allowing a single general APN configuration to serve multiple regions. This universal approach maintains regional access capability while enabling unified service development strategy across different provinces.
Data Source
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AI summary
Embodiments of the present invention provide a data transmission method and a gateway. The method, by receiving an activation request, where the activation request at least includes a subscriber identity and an access point name APN, and the subscriber identity is used to identify an identity of a user equipment; and acquiring a gateway address of a gateway of a subscription home location according to the subscriber identity and the APN in the activation request, so that the user equipment and the gateway of the subscription home location can transmit data, implements that there is only one APN for each type of common service. In this way, a quantity of APNs may be decreased, management on the APN is simplified, no change is required for a network structure, a general APN that needs to return to the subscription home location may be configured flexibly, only performing parsing the home location of the APN is required, and a signaling procedure may be simplified; thereby, a requirement for a processing capacity of a gateway device is reduced.