Patent ID: 8787380

Claim:
A method for controlling traffic within a network structure, said structure comprising a local network comprising a first element, the first element including a home evolved Node B (HeNB) or home Node B (HNB) or evolved Node B (eNB) or Node B (NB); a packet data network (PDN) connected to the local network via the first element; an operator core network connected to the local network via the first element, the operator core network including a DNS server; a user equipment (UE) that is associated with said first element, the method comprising: receiving, at the DNS server in the core network, a DNS message sent by the UE, requesting an IP address for establishing a traffic flow from the UE to a destination IP address, where the request includes access point names (APNs) that are available to the UE; determining, by the DNS server, whether the traffic flow is to be routed via the core network OR directly via the PDN in support of local network protocol access or selected network protocol traffic offload, the determination based on a predefinable routing policy; selecting, by the DNS server, routing information to be communicated in response to the DNS request based on the determination, where the routing information includes an APN that is selected by the DNS server for use with the traffic flow; sending, by the DNS server, a DNS response message to the UE, the DNS response including the selected routing information, in response to receiving the DNS response message, establishing, by the first element, a tunnel from the first element to a PDN-Gateway (P-GW) or serving gateway (S-GW) of the core network; and storing, at the UE, per-flow state information indicating whether traffic associated with the flow should be tunneled or not.