A cooperative communication method includes determining bandwidth of a first wireless network that user equipment (UE) currently accesses, determining bandwidth required by data to be sent to the UE, and when the bandwidth of the first wireless network cannot meet the bandwidth required by the to-be-sent data, sending a first part of data packets to the first wireless network, and sending a second part of the data packets to at least one core network, so that the at least one core network sends the second part of the data packets to the UE using at least one wireless network, where a communications protocol of the first wireless network is different from that of the at least one wireless network. Bandwidth resources can be integrated on wireless networks with different communications protocols, so that fluent transmission of data can be implemented.

The present invention relates to a method for offloading traffic by means of wireless LAN in a mobile communications system and apparatus therefor, and more particularly to a method for a terminal to offload traffic at a bearer level, and to a base station communicating with the terminal. The method for a terminal to offload traffic according to the present invention includes the steps of: while performing a data communication with a base station through a bearer of a first communications network, receiving from the base station an offloading command for offloading a part of traffic to a second communications network; transmitting a report of the offloading to the base station in response to the offloading command; and performing a data communication of the partial traffic with an accessible AP through a bearer of the second communications network without releasing the bearer of the first communications network.

A mobile device may select between multiple networks in order to offload network traffic from one network to another. Policies under which network selection happens are established by network operators. A hierarchy of policy servers are established where a central policy server with policies established by a network operator can delegate authority for network switching to a local policy server with policies established by the same or a different network operator. The central policy server can establish criteria under which network switching or network selection is delegated to a local server. Policies from the local policy server can include information about local network conditions. A mobile device can use the policies from the central server and local server to select a network.

Methods, a data split unit (200) and a data collection unit (202), for controlling data transmission over two connections used for communication of data from the data split unit to the data collection unit operating in dual connection mode. The data split unit obtains (2:4) a receive split ratio between the two connections as perceived at the data collection unit, and adapts (2:5) a transmit split ratio for distributing data over the two connections based on the receive split ratio. The transmit split ratio may be adapted to reduce or eliminate a difference between the transmit split ratio and the receive split ratio. The transmission of data is then distributed (2:7A,B) over the two connections according to the adapted transmit split ratio.

A method for providing a service by a transparent internet cache (TIC) server in a communication network supporting a multipath transport control protocol (MPTCP) is provided. The method includes establishing an MPTCP connection with a user equipment (UE) and an original server through a first network, upon receiving a service provision request from the UE, releasing the MPTCP connection established among the TIC server, the UE, and the original server if data related to a service corresponding to the service provision request is cached, and providing the service corresponding to the service provision request to the UE.

Apparatuses and methods are provided by which a second network is associated to or disassociated from a network element (e.g., an eNB) which is connected to a first network, and an association configuration information is sent to the network element, the association configuration information comprising a combination of a first network identification identifying the first network and a second network identification identifying the second network. Based on this association configuration, for example load balancing using both the first and the second network may be carried out.

A WLAN router connected via a cellular network (e.g. LTE) to the Internet is disclosed; a plurality of SIMs (subscriptions), each associated with a user of the router, may be plugged into the router (or soft SIMs used); simultaneous Internet access for a plurality of users is achieved, even if the WLAN router does only have one TX/RX equipment, by the following features: the WLAN router—when receiving a portion of network traffic for a user—determines the subscription that the portion is associated with and updates a data usage quota for the subscription accordingly by an amount of data corresponding to said portion; thereafter, it is decided whether future network traffic for that subscription shall be transmitted over the same network connection or another subscription's network connection based on the updated data usage quota; thus, the router carries out load balancing between the subscriptions.

Methods, a data split unit (200) and a data collection unit (202), for controlling data transmission over two connections used for communication of data from the data split unit to the data collection unit operating in dual connection mode. The data split unit obtains (2:4) a receive split ratio between the two connections as perceived at the data collection unit, and adapts (2:5) a transmit split ratio for distributing data over the two connections based on the receive split ratio. The transmit split ratio may be adapted to reduce or eliminate a difference between the transmit split ratio and the receive split ratio. The transmission of data is then distributed (2:7A,B) over the two connections according to the adapted transmit split ratio.

A transmit chain (TX chain) of a user equipment (UE) transmits an uplink signal to a first wireless network associated with a first base station or a second wireless network associated with a second base station. The uplink signal includes information indicative of a first receive chain (RX chain) of the UE being synchronized to the first base station to receive first traffic from the first wireless network, and a second RX chain of the UE being synchronized to the second base station to receive second traffic from the second wireless network. The UE transmits uplink traffic for the first wireless network and the second wireless network to the second base station via the TX chain of the UE.

It is disclosed a server node, a 5G mobile communication network and a method performed therein, providing information, to a network function (NF) service consumer, for supporting selection of an NF instance out of a group of NF instances providing a target NF service. By using a network repository function (NRF) discovery request/response procedure, and an NF cluster instance ID that relates NF instances providing a certain service where the NF instances are hosted by one and the same NF, the NRF 406 determines IP addresses with which the requested service can be accessed. By using the NF cluster instance, one or more IP addresses for accessing NF instances providing the requested service hosted by one and the same NF 402, 404 is provided to the NF service consumer 408. The latency sensitive services and where load balancing is required, the NF service instance value knowledge about specific NF hosting the requested service, as well as High availability (HA) support.