CLIAMS:We claim:
1. A method for offloading one or more data packets from a first radio access network to a second radio access network, the method comprising:
monitoring, by one or more hardware processors, first values of one or more first performance parameters of the first radio access network at one or more instants of time prior to a predetermined transmission time interval; predicting, by the one or more hardware processors, second values of the one or more first performance parameters based on the first values of one or more first performance parameters, the second values being predicted at the end of the predetermined transmission time interval; comparing, by the one or more hardware processors, the second values of the one or more first performance parameters to corresponding predetermined threshold values of the one or more first performance parameters; and triggering, by the one or more hardware processors, offloading of the one or more data packets from the first radio access network to the second radio access network based on the comparison.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: initializing a penalty parameter;
measuring actual values of the one or more performance parameters at the end of the predetermined transmission time interval; determining the difference between actual values of the one or more performance parameters with the predicted second values of the one or more performance parameters; and
incrementing the penalty parameter if the difference lies within a first threshold and a second threshold.
3. The method of claim 2, further comprising decrementing the penalty parameter if the difference lies outside the first threshold and the second threshold.
4. The method of claim 2, wherein the first threshold and the second threshold are calculated using the measured actual values of the one or more performance parameters.
5. The method of claim 2, further comprising; comparing value of the incremented penalty parameter with a predetermined threshold value of the penalty parameter; and disabling the offloading of the one or more data packets from the first radio access network to the second radio access network if the value of the incremented penalty parameter exceeds the predetermined threshold value of the penalty parameter.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein triggering the offloading of the one or more data packets from the first radio access network to the second radio access network comprises: fetching the one or more data packets to be offloaded from the first radio access network; fetching one or more potential target radio access networks proximate to the first radio access network, the second radio access network being one of the one or more potential target radio access networks;
monitoring one or more second performance parameters of the one or more potential target radio access networks; selecting the second radio access network based on the monitored one or more second performance parameters; and offloading the fetched one or more data packets to the second radio access network.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more first performance parameters of the first radio access network comprise at least one of a physical resource block utilization, an interference/noise power level, average inter scheduling interval, or a packet discard rate .
8. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more second performance parameters of the one or more potential target radio access networks comprise at least one of a user perceived signal strength or an interference/noise power level.
9. The method claim 1 wherein the first radio access network is long term evolution 3G network and wherein the second radio access network is Wi-Fi enabled network.
10. A system for offloading one or more data packets from a first radio access network to a second radio access network, the system comprising: one or more hardware processors; and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more hardware processors, cause the one or more hardware processors to perform operations comprising: monitoring, by one or more hardware processors, first values of one or more first performance parameters of the first radio access network at one or more instants of time prior to a predetermined transmission time interval; predicting, by the one or more hardware processors, second values of the one or more first performance parameters based on the first values of one or more first performance parameters, the second values being predicted at the end of the predetermined transmission time interval; comparing, by the one or more hardware processors, the second values of the one or more first performance parameters to corresponding predetermined threshold values of the one or more first performance parameters; and triggering, by the one or more hardware processors, offloading of the one or more data packets from the first radio access network to the second radio access network based on the comparison.
11. The system of claim 10, wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed by the one or more hardware processors, cause the one or more
hardware processors to further perform operations comprising: initializing a penalty parameter; measuring actual values of the one or more first performance parameters at the end of the predetermined transmission time interval; determining the difference between actual values of the one or more first performance parameters with the predicted second values of the one or more performance parameters; and incrementing the penalty parameter if the difference lies within a first threshold and a second threshold.
12. The system of claim 11, wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed by the one or more hardware processors, cause the one or more
hardware processors to further perform operations comprising: decrementing the penalty parameter if the difference lies outside the first threshold and the second threshold.
13. The system of claim 11, wherein the first threshold and the second threshold are calculated using the measured actual values of the one or more performance parameters.
14. The system of claim 11, wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed by the one or more hardware processors, cause the one or more
hardware processors to further perform operations comprising: comparing value of the incremented penalty parameter with a predetermined threshold value of the penalty parameter; and disabling the offloading of the one or more data packets from the first radio access network to the second radio access network if the value of the incremented penalty parameter exceeds the predetermined threshold value of the penalty parameter.
15. The system of claim 10, wherein triggering the offloading of the one or more data packets from the first radio access network to the second radio access network comprises: fetching the one or more data packets to be offloaded from the first radio access network; fetching one or more potential target radio access networks proximate to the first radio access network, the second radio access network being one of the one or more potential target radio access networks; monitoring one or more second performance parameters of the one or more potential target radio access networks; selecting the second radio access network based on the monitored one or more second performance parameters; and offloading the fetched one or more data packets to the second radio access network.
16. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more first performance parameters of the first radio access network comprise at least one of a physical resource block utilization, an interference/noise power level, average inter scheduling interval, or a packet discard rate .
17. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more second performance parameters of the one or more potential target radio access networks comprise at least one of a user perceived signal strength or an interference/noise power level.
18. The system of claim 10, wherein the first radio access network is long term evolution 3G network and wherein the second radio access network is Wi-Fi enabled network.
19. A non-transitory computer –readable medium storing instructions for offloading one or more data packets from a first radio access network to a second radio access network that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising: monitoring first values of one or more first performance parameters of the first radio access network at one or more instants of time prior to a predetermined transmission time interval; predicting, by the processor, second values of the one or more first performance parameters based on the first values of one or more first performance parameters, the second values being predicted at the end of the predetermined transmission time interval; comparing the second values of the one or more first performance parameters to corresponding predetermined threshold values of the one or more first performance parameters; and triggering offloading of the one or more data packets from the first radio access network to the second radio access network based on the comparison.

Dated this 2nd day of December, 2014
Sravan Kumar Gampa
Of K&S Partners
Agent for the Applicant
,TagSPECI:TECHNICAL FIELD
The present disclosure relates generally to offloading data, and more particularly but not limited to traffic offloading from a LTE (long term evolution) network to WLAN (wireless local area network) for optimizing network performance and optimizing resource utilization.