Signaling storm reduction from radio networks

• US 10,123,232 B2
• Filed: 07/22/2015
• Issued: 11/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Parallel Wireless, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Parallel Wireless, Inc.
• Inventors: Mishra, Rajesh Kumar, Papa, Steven Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Haile, Feben
• Application Number:
  US14/806,594
• Publication Number:
  US 20160029246A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,203 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/32 by discarding or delaying data units, e.g. packets or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6275 based on priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0284 detecting congestion or overload during communication monitoring arrangements H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/12 using signalling between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities

Abstract

A method for signaling storm reduction is disclosed, comprising concentrating a plurality of signaling messages from a radio access network node to a core network node at a signaling concentrator; and processing the plurality of signaling messages with a mobile device identifier rule, at a rate equal to or greater than a line rate of a link from the radio access network to the signaling concentrator, wherein processing the plurality of signaling messages further comprises determining whether to drop each of the plurality of signaling messages.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

concentrating a plurality of signaling messages from at least two radio access network nodes to a core network node at a signaling concentrator located between the at least two radio access network nodes and the core network node;

processing the plurality of signaling messages with a mobile device identifier rule at the signaling concentrator, at approximately a line rate of at least one link from the at least two radio access network nodes to the signaling concentrator;

adding together backhaul line rates of each of the at least two radio access network nodes coupled to the signaling concentrator to compute the line rate; and

providing compute resources sufficient to handle signaling messages received at or approaching the line rate,

wherein the mobile device identifier rule further comprises an association of an identifier of a source mobile device for each of the plurality of signaling messages with a message processing rule, the message processing rule further comprising instructions for determining whether to drop each of the plurality of signaling messages,

thereby providing core network offload of the core network node by the signaling concentrator.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of signaling messages includes attach requests from a user device to connect to the core network node.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising using a user equipment (UE) profile for processing the plurality of signaling messages.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether to drop, provide service to, or provide degraded service to the plurality of signaling messages.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether to send a mobile device to another radio access network node.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether each of the plurality of signaling messages is a detach message and determining whether to provide service to the detach message.

7. The method of claim 1, the signaling concentrator further comprising a user equipment (UE) profile generator.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the radio access network node is a eNodeB.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the radio access network node provides radio access according to 2G, 3G, or 4G protocols.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating a user equipment (UE) profile using one of an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) and international mobile equipment identity (IMEI).

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising sharing a user equipment (UE) profile or an eNodeB profile with a second signaling concentrator.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a user equipment (UE) profile from a second signaling concentrator or a second core network node.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving configuration information from an operations support system (OSS) node in the core network, the configuration information including user equipment (UE) profiles.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a plurality of signaling messages from a plurality of mobile devices at a first radio access network node;

receiving, from the signaling concentrator, signaling prioritization information,

processing the plurality of signaling messages with the mobile device identifier rule by determining whether to drop each of the plurality of signaling messages using the signaling prioritization information, and

forwarding a subset of the plurality of signaling messages to the signaling concentrator or to the core network node.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the signaling prioritization information includes user equipment profiles.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein rogue node profile creation is performed at one of the first radio access network node and the signaling concentrator.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a plurality of signaling messages from at least one mobile device at a first radio access network node;

characterizing the at least one mobile device using a user signaling profile as following a typical mobile device usage pattern or an atypical mobile device usage pattern;

blocking signaling messages from a mobile device that have been characterized as atypical; and

forwarding, to the signaling concentrator or to the core network node, signaling messages from a mobile device that have been characterized as typical.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the core network node is one of a packet data network gateway, a serving gateway, and a mobility management entity in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) core network.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising queueing the plurality of signaling messages at the signaling concentrator in a message queue with queue size equal to the line rate.

20. A system, comprising:

a signaling concentrator in communication with a plurality of base stations and located between the plurality of base stations and a core network, further comprising;

a processor configured to delay or drop at least some messages based on a device profile, to add together backhaul line rates of each of the at least two base stationsof the plurality of base stations coupled to the signaling concentrator to compute a line rate, and to provide compute resources sufficient to handle signaling messages received at or approaching the line rate;

a memory configured to store the device profile;

a backhaul network connection communicatively coupled with the core network and providing a backhaul network link for the plurality of base stations towards the core network;

a radio access network connection communicatively coupled with the plurality of base stations; and

a device profile generator,

wherein the device profile further comprises an association of an identifier of a source mobile device with a message processing rule for determining whether to delay or drop the at least some messages.

21. A method, comprising:

concentrating, at a signaling concentrator located between a radio access network and a plurality of core networks, a plurality of signaling messages from at least two radio access network nodes in the radio access network to a plurality of core network nodes in the plurality of core networks;

processing the plurality of signaling messages with a mobile device identifier rule, at a rate approximately equal to a line rate of at least one link from the at least two radio access network nodes to the signaling concentrator;

adding together backhaul line rates of each of the at least two radio access network nodes coupled to the signaling concentrator to compute the line rate; and

providing compute resources sufficient to handle the signaling messages received at or approaching the line rate,

wherein processing the plurality of signaling messages further comprises using configuration information specific to a target core network.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein processing the plurality of signaling messages further comprises determining whether to drop each of the plurality of signaling messages.

23. A method, comprising:

receiving a plurality of signaling messages from at least two radio access network nodes at a signaling concentrator located between the at least two radio access network nodes and a core network;

applying a first priority level to each signaling message in a first subset of the plurality of signaling messages;

applying a second priority level to each signaling message in a second subset of the plurality of signaling messages;

adding together backhaul line rates of each of the at least two radio access network nodes coupled to the signaling concentrator to compute the line rate;

providing compute resources sufficient to handle the signaling messages received at or approaching the line rate;

forwarding each signaling message in the first subset to the core network; and

determining whether to delay or drop at least one message in the second subset,

wherein applying the first priority level and applying the second priority level is performed based on a mobile device identifier rule, and

wherein the mobile device identifier rule at the signaling concentrator further comprises an association of an identifier of a source mobile device for each of the plurality of signaling messages with the first priority level or the second priority level,

thereby providing core network offload of the core network by the signaling concentrator.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising assigning a first delay to a first message in the first subset and a second delay to a second message in the second subset.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising assigning a first message in the first subset to a first queue and assigning a second message in the second subset to a second queue, and forwarding each message in the first queue and selectively dropping at least one message in the second queue.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising applying the first priority level to messages from a first mobile device and applying the second priority level to messages from a second mobile device.

27. The method of claim 23, further comprising applying a first scheduled time to messages from a first mobile device and applying a second scheduled time to messages from a second mobile device.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein the identifier of the source mobile device is one of an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) and international mobile equipment identity (IMEI).

29. The method of claim 23, further comprising using load indicators of network nodes in the core network to perform prioritization.

30. The method of claim 23, further comprising applying the first priority level to messages sent from emergency services personnel.