Techniques for a selection or reselection a user-plane path in a mobile network are disclosed herein. A user-plane gateway (GW-U) can be configured to decode a packet received from a control plane gateway (GW-C) in a packet data network gateway (PGW) to determine a forwarding policy. Additionally, the GW-U can decode, from an evolved node B (eNB), an internet protocol (IP) packet having a header field. Furthermore, the GW-U can determine a user-plane path for the IP packet based on a comparison of the header field and the forwarding policy. Based on the determined user-plane path, the GW-U can forward the IP packet to a local application server (AS), encapsulate and forward the IP packet to the PGW, or discard the IP packet. Moreover, the GW-U can encode the IP packet for transmission based on the determined user-plane selection.