Patent ID: 9578671
Date: 2017-02-21
CPC Classifications: H04W

Claim:
1. A method comprising: establishing a control plane connection over a wireless link between a user equipment (UE) and a first wireless access network node; establishing a plurality of upper layer connections over wireless links between the UE and a set of wireless access network nodes using signaling in the control plane connection, the signaling in the control plane connection comprising control messages received by the UE from the first wireless access network node instructing the UE to establish the plurality of upper layer connections with respective protocol stacks in the UE for communicating user plane data over wireless links between the UE and the set of wireless access network nodes, each protocol stack of the protocol stacks including an independent upper protocol layer at or above a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, wherein the set of wireless access network nodes includes at least a second wireless access network node and a third wireless access network node; determining whether a portion of the user plane data is to be offloaded to the second wireless access network node; sending a message to the second wireless access network node to request offloading of the portion of the user plane data to the second wireless access network node, the message comprising information identifying radio access bearers to be offloaded to the second wireless access network node; and in response to the second wireless access network node accepting the request, sending a message in the control plane connection to the UE instructing the UE to establish an upper layer connection with the second wireless access network node.