Patent ID: 7844728

Claim:
A method for providing a roaming mobile node (MN) served by a wireless telecommunications system access to a selected Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia application via an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), said method comprising: (a) establishing a first IP tunnel between the MN and a local access gateway of a visited network in which the MN is roaming, said first tunnel being anchored at said local access gateway; (b) establishing a second IP tunnel between the MN and a home gateway of a home network to which the MN belongs, said second tunnel being anchored at said home gateway; (c) receiving data packets at the local access gateway for the MN; (d) filtering the packets received at the local access gateway to classify corresponding traffic into one of a plurality of data flows supported within the first tunnel at varying Quality of Service (QoS) levels; (e) receiving data packets at the home gateway for the MN; (f) filtering the packets received at the home gateway to classify corresponding traffic into one of a plurality of data flows supported within the second tunnel at varying QoS levels; and (g) communicating from the home gateway to at least one of a network or network subsystem through which the second tunnel is established a QoS indication reflecting the QoS for one or more of the data flows currently supported within the second tunnel; and (h) providing policy enforcement at the home gateway in accordance with one or more policy rules that regulate at least one of access permission to the IP multimedia application and establishment of Qos levels for the data flows supported within the second tunnel.