US Patent 9853901 Centralized control of data plane applications

The invention relates to a central control entity (200) configured to control a data plane flow of a stream of data packages in a radio access network part of a mobile communications network. The central control entity (200) comprises an information detecting unit (210), configured to detect information about data plane applications (41-44) attached to forwarding elements (120-124; 131-134) of the radio access network part and configured to detect information about at least one data plane application (41-44) that is to be applied to said data plane flow. Furthermore, the central control entity (200) comprises a control unit (230), configured to determine a path of the data plane flow through the forwarding elements (120-24; 131-134) of the radio access network part, wherein the control unit (230) is configured to determine the path taking into account said at least one data plane application (41-44) to be applied to said data plane flow, the control unit (230) being further configured to instruct the forwarding element in the path, to which said at least one data place application is attached, to pass the data plane flow through said at least one data plane application (41-44).