APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MOBILE NETWORKS FOR AN OPTIMAL APPLICATION SERVER SELECTION AND HANDOVER

摘要

The present invention refers to a system and a method for selection of an application server (151, 152) among a plurality of application servers (151, 152) in a mobile network (100) and for triggering a respective handover. An information server (120) is provided which is a kind of communication peer of the application servers (151, 152) on the application layer. The information server (120) is installed and implemented between the mobile network control plane and the plurality of application servers (151, 152). The information server (120) is enabled to gather MNO unique network context information about the application servers (151, 152), particularly about the application server which is currently involved in a given user network session, and about topology information and the reach of core network devices in terms of their latencies and response times concerning the data path of the given user network session. Thus, the information server (120) allows to select a currently closest application server for a mobile network user network session request and to direct user plane traffic of a given user network session to the closest application server, e.g. to the latency-optimal application server.