Virtual Gateway Pair Allocation for Mobile Network Scalability
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Solution Overview
Problem
In mobile communications networks, the increasing number of gateway elements complicates user session management and visibility, and current LTE SAE-GWs built with dedicated hardware face scalability and interoperability issues, particularly in maintaining synchronization for high availability and redundancy.
Innovation Solution
Allocating cloud computing resources in pairs to user sessions, where one resource processes user plane traffic and both resources handle control plane traffic, enabling efficient traffic management and seamless failover through software-defined switches and virtual machines.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If dedicated hardware is used for LTE SAE-GWs, then reliability and fault tolerance are improved through hot active-standby mode, but scalability and interoperability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces dedicated hardware (mechanical/physical system) with virtual machines running on commodity servers (software system). This substitution enables the gateway functionality to be virtualized, allowing multiple virtual gateways to run on shared hardware infrastructure, thereby improving scalability and interoperability while maintaining reliability through virtualized hot active-standby mechanisms
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal gateway platform using virtual machines that can be deployed across different hardware vendors and configurations. The virtualized gateway software provides multi-functionality, serving as P-GW, S-GW, or other gateway functions depending on configuration, thereby improving interoperability and scalability without sacrificing reliability
2Productivity
If the number of gateway elements is increased, then capacity is improved, but visibility of traffic and session management complexity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple gateway functions and session management capabilities into a unified virtualized platform. By consolidating session databases, control functions, and user plane processing into integrated virtual gateway instances, the system can scale capacity while reducing the complexity associated with managing numerous distributed gateway elements
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a session management intermediary layer that abstracts the complexity of session tracking and gateway coordination. This intermediary mechanism enables centralized or distributed session management without requiring each individual gateway element to maintain full visibility, thereby scaling capacity while managing complexity
3Reliability
If hot standby nodes are used for redundancy, then availability is improved, but synchronization overhead and resource efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic standby mechanisms where virtual machine standby nodes can be rapidly activated or deactivated based on actual system conditions and load requirements. This dynamic approach allows the system to maintain high availability through hot standby capability while reducing unnecessary synchronization overhead when standby nodes are not actively needed, thereby improving resource efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables efficient resource utilization by allowing standby virtual machine resources to be discarded (powered down or deactivated) when not needed, and recovered (activated) when required for failover. This approach maintains availability guarantees while minimizing the continuous synchronization overhead and resource consumption associated with permanent hot standby configurations
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided allocating cloud computing resources to process a user session by a gateway in a mobile communications network, and allocating the cloud computing resources in pairs to user sessions. Rules for the pair of allocated resources are determined such that incoming control plane traffic associated with the session is forwarded to the both cloud computing resources forming the pair.