Patent ID: 8819341

Claim:
An entity for caching content related to peer-to-peer sharing in a wireless communication network, wherein the entity comprises processing circuitry, interface circuitry, a receiver, a transmitter and a cache memory, wherein: said processing circuitry and interface circuitry are configured to intercept a point-to-point connection between a gateway acting as a mobile network user plane gateway and a first wireless user equipment running a peer-to-peer application; said cache memory is configured to cache content loaded to said peer-to-peer application and to store information indicative of the first wireless user equipment to which the cached content is loaded to associate the cached content with the first wireless user equipment; said receiver is configured to intercept a first request on the point-to-point connection for delivery of a first content from said first wireless user equipment; and said processing circuitry and said transmitter are configured to deliver the requested first content, without involving the first wireless user equipment, in response to when the requested first content is cached in said cache memory and said cache memory includes information indicating that the requested first content has been loaded to the first wireless user equipment; wherein said processing circuitry and said transmitter are configured to forward said first request to the first wireless user equipment in response to when the requested first content is not cached in said cache memory or when said cache memory does not include any information indicating that the requested first content has been loaded to the first wireless user equipment, wherein said cache memory is configured to, when said first content is transmitted on said point-to-point connection from the first wireless user equipment in response to said first request, cache said requested first content and store information indicative of the first wireless user equipment to associate the cached first content with the first wireless user equipment, wherein said processing circuitry is configured to establish one or more GTP-U tunnels over the point-to-point connections, wherein said processing circuitry stores pairing information in the cache memory identifying pairing associations between identifiers of a plurality of wireless user equipment that include the first wireless user equipment and a second wireless user equipment and respective identifiers of the one or more GTP-U tunnels, and wherein said processing circuitry is configured to respond to receipt of a request by using the pairing information stored in the cache memory to determine an identifier for one of the plurality of wireless user equipments which is associated with a respective one of the one or more GTP-U tunnels.