COMBINED GATEWAY FOR NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS

摘要

The functionalities of one or more of a mobility management entity (MME), serving gateway (SGW), and packet data network gateway (PGW) can be provided in a single device on the network. In the access gateway different functional elements are implemented as services and they can be configured on the same device. For example, the SGW and PGW can be configured on the same device. When user equipment UE connects from a home network, it is possible for the MME to choose the same SGW and PGW. This combined SGW and PGW can implement a single session for the UE, thereby capable of providing a savings in resources, allowing additional capacity, and allowing reduced latency and increased throughput because fewer hops are made on the network. This session acts as a SGW on the ingress side and a PGW on the egress side of the access gateway.