Patent ID: 8432871

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, with a breakout gateway device positioned within a mobile service provider network, a first service request from a radio access network, wherein the first service request is issued by a mobile device served by the radio network and is addressed to a serving node of a mobile core network of the mobile service provider network and specifies a requested service supported by a packet data network (PDN); forwarding the first service request from the breakout gateway device to the serving node, wherein the serving node couples the mobile core network to the radio access network to provide a first access path for the radio access network to the PDN; receiving, with the breakout gateway device, a second service request from the serving node, wherein the second service request corresponds to the first service request and specifies the requested service, and wherein the second service request is addressed to the breakout gateway device; responsive to receiving the second service request, sending a first service response from the breakout gateway to the serving node, wherein the first service response includes a packet data protocol (PDP) address for the mobile device; receiving, with the breakout gateway device, data traffic associated with the requested service from the radio access network, wherein the data traffic is destined for the PDN; and bypassing the serving node by sending the data traffic from the breakout gateway device to an access node of an offload network that provides a second access path from the radio access network to the PDN.