Patent ID: 8363665

Claim:
A machine-implemented method performed within a network element for processing network traffic of a packet network, the method comprising: determining, by a security gateway (GW) unit of a multi-function gateway (MGW), a type of network traffic associated with a packet received from a remote node of an access network, wherein the MGW operates as a GW between a plurality of access networks and a packet core network; routing, by a first interface logic of the MGW, the packet to a radio network controller (RNC) associated with a radio access network (RAN) if the packet is received from an Internet protocol-basestation (IP-BTS) access network and destined to the packet core network, wherein RNC forwards the packet to a component of the packet core network; routing, by a second interface logic of the MGW, the packet to the component of the packet core network, including aggregating other packets of the same type received from other remote nodes, if the packet is received from a femto cell and destined to the packet core network; and routing, by a breakout logic of the MGW, the packet to a destination of the Internet directly to enable the packet to reach the Internet without having to route the packet to the component of the packet core network, if the packet is destined to the Internet regardless of the remote node of an access network the packet is received from.