A traffic offloading function (TOF) of a mobile edge computing (MEC) platform uses a traffic forwarding table and a location database updated by monitoring control plane messages. User plane traffic in a default bearer passes through an extended TOF where the IP packets retrieved from a General Packet Radio Service Tunneling Protocol (GTP) tunnel are forwarded following a policy that is created by detecting (or sniffing) control plane messages exchanged over the S1-MME interface. An additional entity, a location database, is responsible for tracking a location of a UE and other hosts in the mobile network. The location database can be used to guide the forwarding policy creation in an absence of the control plane messages.

A radio terminal according to an embodiment comprises: a controller configured to control traffic steering between an Evolved-Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) and a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). The controller is configured to control traffic steering from the E-UTRAN to the WLAN or from the WLAN to the E-UTRAN according to at least one of a first scheme and a second scheme. The radio terminal further comprises a receiver configured to receive, from the E-UTRAN, first assistance information to be used to determine whether the radio terminal executes the traffic steering in the first scheme. The first assistance information is broadcasted by the E-UTRAN. The receiver is configured to receive, from the E-UTRAN, WLAN configuration information including a list of identifiers of the WLAN and a timer value indicating a period over which the WLAN configuration information should be held.

A system for differentiating quality of service (QoS) in inter-microservice communication according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a network control unit generating a QoS-aware path for guaranteeing QoS between microservices; a service registration unit registering information about the QoS-aware path between the microservices; and when it is necessary to guarantee the quality of service of messages received from a sending microservice, a communication processing unit identifying the QoS-aware path between the sending microservice and a receiving microservice from the information on the registered QoS-aware path, and processing the inter-microservice communication to allow the message to be transferred to the receiving microservice through the identified QoS path.

This application provides a communication method and apparatus. The method may include: A first session management network element determines an offloading point in a visited network based on first information, where the first information indicates that offloading is allowed in the visited network, and the first session management network element is a network element deployed in the visited network; and the first session management network element sends an offloading rule to the offloading point, where the offloading rule is for offloading a packet to the visited network. According to this application, after accessing the visited network through HR roaming, a terminal device may access a service in the visited network by using the offloading point determined by the first session management network element, to implement local offloading in the visited network.

Methods, nodes, a wireless communication device and computer programs to be usable in association with controlling transmission of at least one data unit via a first link between a first access node and a wireless communication device and via a second link between the first access node and the wireless communication device via the second access node are described. In one embodiment, the method may be performed by the first access node and may comprise receiving first transmission delay information indicative of a transmission delay of the first link and/or second transmission delay information indicative of the second link, and controlling the transmission of said data unit based on the first and/or second transmission delay information.

Signal load due to ping-pong of a wireless device between a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) and a cellular base station is reduced. The wireless device operates in a geographic region with signal coverage from more than one radio access technology (RAT) type of cellular serving cell as well as potentially coverage from the AP. An IP address used for incoming calls and the RAT serving the wireless device are part of a context. In some instances, when the wireless device changes context from the AP to a cellular base station and back to the AP (ping-pong), the context changes and a new IP address may be obtained via network signaling. Ping-pong is reduced by determining a quality estimate of cellular signals that relies on cell measurements from a mix of cellular base stations, where the mix of cellular base stations supports different cellular RATs.

The present disclosure provides a system and a method for offloading users from a unicast platform to a broadcast platform. The system receives a request from various users and identifies users accessing similar media content. The system further receives a direction of mobility and a radio capability from the users and determines a point of viewing with a corresponding buffer time. The system determines a sliding window for offloading the one or more users and intelligently offloads the users from a unicast network to a broadcast network across various radio access technologies (RATs).

Various communication systems may benefit from traffic steering. For example, radio access network based traffic steering can be used to benefit of communications by steering traffic to Wi-Fi leveraging Hotspot 2.0. A method can include determining that an off-load condition exists in an area of a radio access network. The method can also include commanding a user equipment to off-load to non-cellular radio access based on the determining.

Methods, nodes, a wireless communication device and computer programs to be usable in association with controlling transmission of at least one data unit via a first link between a first access node and a wireless communication device and via a second link between the first access node and the wireless communication device via the second access node are described. In one embodiment, the method may be performed by the first access node and may comprise receiving first transmission delay information indicative of a transmission delay of the first link and/or second transmission delay information indicative of the second link, and controlling the transmission of said data unit based on the first and/or second transmission delay information.

Various communication systems may benefit from traffic steering. For example, radio access network based traffic steering can be used to benefit of communications by steering traffic to Wi-Fi leveraging Hotspot 2.0. A method can include determining that an off-load condition exists in an area of a radio access network. The method can also include commanding a user equipment to off-load to non-cellular radio access based on the determining.