Local Breakoff Policy for Roaming Traffic Offloading
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current 2G/3G/4G/4.5G network architectures experience service quality delays and increased inter-network traffic when users roam, as traffic loops back to the home location, leading to inefficient network usage and suboptimal service access.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a local breakout capability by sending a local breakout policy from the home core network control plane to the visited core network control plane, which is then installed on the user plane to offload traffic directly to a visited CDN server, reducing the need for traffic to return to the home core network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If home routing is selected for access when a user roams to another operator's network, then service continuity is ensured, but traffic loops back to the home location causing increased inter-network traffic consumption and service access delay
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a local breakout policy as an intermediary mechanism that enables traffic to be routed through a local gateway at the visited network rather than looping back to the home network. This mediator (local gateway) allows direct access to local content while maintaining connection to the home network for authentication and control functions, thereby reducing latency and inter-network traffic.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the network routing into control plane functions (remaining at home network) and user plane functions (localized at visited network). By separating these functions, the control plane maintains service continuity through home network authentication, while the user plane enables local breakout for direct content access, resolving the contradiction between reliability and access delay.
2Speed
If local breakout is implemented at the roaming location, then service access delay is reduced, but inter-network traffic consumption increases due to traffic looping back to home core network
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by implementing breakout functionality specifically at the visited network location rather than requiring all traffic to route through the home network. This localized breakout capability allows users to access local content directly at high speed while maintaining home network connectivity for essential control functions, thereby improving access speed without proportionally increasing inter-network traffic consumption.
3Reliability
If a CDN server is deployed nearby the home location to implement local breakout, then service access quality is improved, but a large amount of inter-network traffic is consumed and service access delay is increased
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamic routing capabilities that allow the network to adaptively select between home routing and local breakout based on real-time conditions such as user location, content availability, and network status. This dynamic approach enables the system to optimize for either service quality or access delay depending on the situation, rather than being constrained by a static routing architecture.
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 2A~2B
Figure 3
AI summary
Embodiments of this application disclose an offloading method and a related device in a roaming scenario, to prevent traffic of a subscribed service of a roaming subscriber from looping back to a home location, thereby reducing inter-network traffic consumption, implementing a local breakout capability of a terminal at a roaming location, and improving service quality. The method in this embodiment of this application includes: receiving, by a visited core network control plane V-CP, a first message sent by a home core network control plane H-CP, where the first message includes a local breakout LBO policy based on a subscribed service, and the subscribed service is a service on which local breakout needs to be performed and that is of a user; and sending, by the V-CP, the LBO policy to a visited core network user plane V-UP, so that the LBO policy is installed on the V-UP to implement local breakout processing for the subscribed service.