Congestion monitoring of mobile entities

• US 10,009,788 B2
• Filed: 10/05/2016
• Issued: 06/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Mikls, Gyrgy, Pancorbo Marcos, Maria Belen, Schliwa-Bertling, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Elallam, Ahmed
• Application Number:
  US15/285,865
• Publication Number:
  US 20170026870A1
• Time in Patent Office: 629 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/29 using a combination of thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0226 based on location or mobility handoff or reselection H04W36/00; mobile application services making use of the location of users or terminals H04W4/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0289 Congestion control load shedding arrangements in network planning H04W16/08; performing reselection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/12 using signalling between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/14 between corresponding nodes

Abstract

A method, by a policy control unit of a mobile communications network, to control a signalling of congestion information of mobile entities at a plurality of congestion monitoring units that monitor which mobile entities are affected by a congestion state in a radio access network of the mobile communications network. The method comprises receiving, from one of the congestion monitoring units, an indication that one of the mobile entities is affected by a congestion, storing said one congestion monitoring unit from which the indication is received as the current congestion monitoring unit for said one mobile entity, receiving, from another congestion monitoring unit, the indication that said one mobile entity is affected by a congestion, and indicating, in response to the indication received from the other monitoring unit, to the current congestion monitoring unit a release of congestion information relating to said one mobile entity.

Claims

1. A method, by a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) of a mobile communications network, to control a signaling of congestion information of mobile entities at a plurality of Radio Access Network Congestion Awareness Functions (RCAFs) that monitor which mobile entities are affected by a congestion in a radio access network of the mobile communications network, the method comprising:

receiving, from one of the RCAFs, an indication that one of the mobile entities is affected by a congestion;

storing said one RCAF from which the indication is received as the current RCAF for said one mobile entity;

receiving, from another RCAF, the indication that said one mobile entity is affected by a congestion; and

indicating to the current RCAF, in response to the indication received from the another RCAF, a release of congestion information relating to said one mobile entity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, when a second indication is received from any of the plurality of RCAFs that said one mobile entity is not affected by congestion, the second indication is ignored and no indication is sent to the current RCAF to release congestion information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the stored current RCAF is kept as the current RCAF when the second indication is received from any of the plurality of the congestion monitoring units RCAFs.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein an acknowledgement is transmitted as a response to the RCAF that transmitted the second indication.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the other RCAF is stored as the current RCAF when said other RCAF has indicated that said one mobile entity is affected by a congestion.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein, when a termination of a data packet session of the said one mobile entity is detected, it is indicated to the current RCAF to release congestion information relating to said mobile entity.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein indicating a release of congestion information comprises information to release a context for said one mobile entity.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising informing the plurality of co RCAFs whether or not a monitoring of the congestion should be carried out for said one mobile entity.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein, if the monitoring of the congestion should be carried out, the plurality of RCAFs are informed that the congestion should only be reported to the PCRF when the congestion has reached a predefined level or a predefined level range.

10. A Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) configured to control a signalling of congestion information of mobile entities at a plurality of Radio Access Network Congestion Awareness Functions (RCAFs) that monitor which mobile entities are affected by a congestion in a radio access network of the mobile communications network, the PCRF comprising:

a receiver configured to receive, from one of the RCAFs, a first indication that one of the mobile entities is affected by a congestion;

a database configured to store said one RCAF from which the first indication is received as the current RCAF for said one mobile entity;

a transmitter; and

a processing circuit;

wherein the processing circuit is configured to use the transmitter to indicate to the current RCAF to release congestion information relating to said one mobile entity in response to the received first indication, when the receiver receives the first indication that said one mobile entity is affected by a congestion from another RCAF.

11. A method to operate a Radio Access Network Congestion Awareness Function (RCAF) that monitors which mobile entities are affected by a congestion in a radio access network of a mobile communications network, the method comprising:

sending, to a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) of the mobile communications network, an indication that one of the mobile entities is affected by a congestion;

receiving, from the PCRF of the mobile communications network, an indication to release congestion information relating to said one mobile entity; and

releasing the congestion information for said one mobile entity in response to the received indication.

12. The method of claim 11, further receiving mobile entity dependent information whether a monitoring of the congestion should be carried out for the corresponding mobile entity or not, wherein a monitoring of a congestion is only carried out for one of the mobile entities if the corresponding mobile entity dependent information states that the monitoring of the congestion should be carried out.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the mobile entity dependent information contains the information that a congested is present for one mobile entity when the congestion has reached a predefined level or a predefined level range, wherein the indication that said one mobile entity is affected by a congestion is only transmitted to the PCRF when the congestion has reached the predefined level or level range.

14. A Radio Access Network Congestion Awareness Function (RCAF) configured to monitor which mobile entities are affected by a congestion in a radio access network of a mobile communications network, the RCAF comprising:

a transmitter configured to send, to a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) of the mobile communications network, an indication that one of the mobile entities is affected by a congestion,

a receiver configured to receive, from the PCRF of the mobile communications network, an indication to release congestion information relating to said one mobile entity, and

a processing circuit configured to release the congestion information for said one mobile entity in response to the received indication.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising, stored thereupon, a computer program comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processing circuit in a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) of a mobile communications network, cause the at least one processing circuit to control a signalling of congestion information of mobile entities at a plurality of Radio Access Network Congestion Awareness Functions (RCAFs) that monitor which mobile entities are affected by a congestion in a radio access network of the mobile communications network by:

receiving, from one of the RCAFs, an indication that one of the mobile entities is affected by a congestion;

storing said one RCAF from which the indication is received as the current RCAF for said one mobile entity;

receiving, from another RCAF, the indication that said one mobile entity is affected by a congestion; and

indicating to the current RCAF, in response to the indication received from the another RCAF, a release of congestion information relating to said one mobile entity.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising, stored thereupon, a computer program comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processing circuit in a Radio Access Network Congestion Awareness Function (RCAF) that monitors which mobile entities are affected by a congestion in a radio access network of a mobile communications network, cause the at least one processing circuit to:

send, to a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) of the mobile communications network, an indication that one of the mobile entities is affected by a congestion;

receive, from the PCRF of the mobile communications network, an indication to release congestion information relating to said one mobile entity; and

release the congestion information for said one mobile entity in response to the received indication.