Efficient Solutions for Enhancing Data Traffic Management in 3GPP Networks

As mobile data traffic is continuously increasing and the average revenues per user are getting lower due to flat-rate changing, operators are in need of means to cope with higher-than-expected data volumes introducing minimal additional capital expenditures. This paper investigates network decentralization in conjunction with the selective IP traffic offload approaches to handle such increased data traffic. We first devise different approaches based on a per-destination-domain-name basis, which offer operators a fine-grained control to determine whether a new IP connection should be offloaded or accommodated via the core network. Two of our solutions are based on Network Address Translation (NAT) named simple-NATing and twice-NATing, whereas a third one employs simple tunneling, and a fourth adopts multiple Access Point Names. We also propose methods enabling user equipment (UE) devices, both in idle and active modes, and while being on the move, to always have efficient packet data network connections. A qualitative analysis and a simulation study compare the different approaches with respect to cost, complexity, service continuity, and network performance, demonstrating the significance of the proposed scheme for multimedia applications.