Patent ID: 9641422
Date: 2017-05-02
CPC Classifications: H04L,H04W

Claim:
1. A method in a network device communicatively coupled to a set of one or more local base stations at a cell site for automatic creation of a more optimal route entry in the network device for inter-base station traffic to be transmitted between the set of local base stations and a set of one or more remote base stations through a backhaul network, the method comprising: receiving, at the network device, X2 traffic transmitted by the set of local base stations to the set of remote base stations or transmitted by the set of remote base stations to the set of local base stations, wherein the X2 traffic is not ultimately destined to the network device; discovering, by the network device based upon the received X2 traffic, one or more remote Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the set of remote base stations, wherein the one or more remote IP addresses are X2 IP addresses of the set of remote base stations used for the inter-base station traffic; and responsive to said discovering of the one or more remote IP addresses, automatically installing the more optimal route entry for the discovered one or more remote IP addresses in a routing table of the network device, whereby the network device is enabled to route the inter-base station traffic originated from the set of local base stations and destined to the set of remote base stations according to the more optimal route entry that provides a shorter path to the set of remote base stations through the backhaul network instead of routing the inter-base station traffic through a mobile core network according to a less optimal route entry,