Recovery of subscriber data in mobile communication networks

• US 10,127,116 B2
• Filed: 07/28/2015
• Issued: 11/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, Wei, Serban, Cristina
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehrmanesh, Elmira
• Application Number:
  US14/811,362
• Publication Number:
  US 20170031777A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,204 Days
• Field of Search: 714 15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/30 Network data restoration; Network data reliability; Network data fault tolerance

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to recover subscriber data in mobile communication networks are disclosed. Example subscriber data recovery methods disclosed herein include communicating with mobile devices operating in a mobile network to configure the mobile devices to (1) locally store backup subscriber data corresponding to subscriber data maintained at a first network element to manage access to the mobile network and (2) transmit the backup subscriber data to a destination based on configuration data. Disclosed example methods also include queueing respective backup subscriber data received from respective ones of the mobile devices for transmission to at least one of the first network element and/or a second network element to restore the subscriber data maintained at a first network element.

Claims

1. A subscriber data recovery method comprising:

communicating, by executing an instruction with a processor, with a plurality of mobile devices operating in a mobile network to configure respective ones of the mobile devices to (1) locally store respective backup subscriber data in subscriber identity modules of the respective ones of the mobile devices, the respective backup subscriber data corresponding to subscriber data maintained at a first network element to manage mobile device access to the mobile network, and (2) repeatedly transmit the respective backup subscriber data from the subscriber identity modules of the respective ones of the mobile devices to a destination according to a reporting schedule based on first configuration data, the communicating with the plurality of mobile devices to configure respective ones of the mobile devices to locally store respective backup subscriber data in the subscriber identity modules including communicating second configuration data to a first one of the mobile devices that specifies (A) a first network location at which the first one of the mobile devices is to retrieve first persistent backup subscriber data for storage in a first subscriber identity module of the first one of the mobile devices, and (B) a second network location at which the first one of the mobile devices is to retrieve first temporary backup subscriber data for storage in the first subscriber identity module;

in response to detecting that the first network element is unavailable, commanding the respective mobile devices to transmit the respective backup subscriber data to the destination, and

queueing the respective backup subscriber data received at the destination from respective ones of the mobile devices for transmission to at least one of the first network element and a second network element to restore the subscriber data maintained at a first network element.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network element corresponds to at least one of a home location register and a home subscriber server, the second network element corresponds to a mobility management entity, and the queueing of the respective backup subscriber data includes queueing the respective backup subscriber data for transmission to the mobility management entity.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the destination corresponds to a cloud service, and further including communicating with the plurality of mobile devices to configure a destination address associated with the cloud service.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the queueing of the respective backup subscriber data includes storing the respective backup subscriber data received from the respective ones of the mobile devices at a cloud data store;

and further including pushing the respective backup subscriber data from the cloud data store to at least one of the first network element and the second network element according to a queueing schedule.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first configuration data further specifies that the backup subscriber data is to be transmitted in response to receipt of a message from a third network element providing an air interface of the mobile network.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the third network element corresponds to an evolved Node-B.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first configuration data specifies that the backup subscriber data is to be transmitted to the destination repeatedly as a background process.

8. A tangible machine readable storage medium including machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

communicating with a plurality of mobile devices operating in a mobile network to configure respective ones of the mobile devices to (1) locally store respective backup subscriber data in subscriber identity modules of the respective ones of the mobile devices, the respective backup subscriber data corresponding to subscriber data maintained at a first network element to manage mobile device access to the mobile network, and (2) repeatedly transmit the respective backup subscriber data from the subscriber identity modules of the respective ones of the mobile devices to a destination according to a reporting schedule based on first configuration data, the communicating with the plurality of mobile devices to configure respective ones of the mobile devices to locally store respective backup subscriber data in the subscriber identity modules including communicating second configuration data to a first one of the mobile devices that specifies (A) a first network location at which the first one of the mobile devices is to retrieve first persistent backup subscriber data for storage in a first subscriber identity module of the first one of the mobile devices, and (B) a second network location at which the first one of the mobile devices is to retrieve first temporary backup subscriber data for storage in the first subscriber identity module;

in response to detecting that the first network element is unavailable, commanding the respective mobile devices to transmit the respective backup subscriber data to the destination; and

queueing the respective backup subscriber data received at the destination from respective ones of the mobile devices for transmission to at least one of the first network element and a second network element to restore the subscriber data maintained at a first network element.

9. The tangible machine readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the first network element corresponds to at least one of a home location register and a home subscriber server, the second network element corresponds to a mobility management entity, and the queueing of the respective backup subscriber data includes queueing the respective backup subscriber data for transmission to the mobility management entity.

10. The tangible machine readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the destination corresponds to a cloud service, the operations further include communicating with the plurality of mobile devices to configure a destination address associated with the cloud service, the queueing of the respective backup subscriber data includes storing the respective backup subscriber data received from the respective ones of the mobile devices at a cloud data store, and the operations further include pushing the respective backup subscriber data from the cloud data store to at least one of the first network element and the second network element according to a queueing schedule.

11. The tangible machine readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the first configuration data further specifies that the backup subscriber data is to be transmitted in response to receipt of a message from a third network element providing an air interface of the mobile network.

12. The tangible machine readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the first configuration data specifies that the backup subscriber data is to be transmitted to the destination repeatedly as a background process.

13. An apparatus comprising:

memory including machine readable instructions; and

a processor to execute the machine readable instructions to perform operations including;

communicating with a plurality of mobile devices operating in a mobile network to configure respective ones of the mobile devices to (1) locally store respective backup subscriber data in subscriber identity modules of the respective ones of the mobile devices, the respective backup subscriber data corresponding to subscriber data maintained at a first network element to manage mobile device access to the mobile network, and (2) repeatedly transmit the respective backup subscriber data from the subscriber identity modules of the respective ones of the mobile devices to a destination according to a reporting schedule based on first configuration data, the communicating with the plurality of mobile devices to configure respective ones of the mobile devices to locally store respective backup subscriber data in the subscriber identity modules including communicating second configuration data to a first one of the mobile devices that specifies (A) a first network location at which the first one of the mobile devices is to retrieve first persistent backup subscriber data for storage in a first subscriber identity module of the first one of the mobile devices, and (B) a second network location at which the first one of the mobile devices is to retrieve first temporary backup subscriber data for storage in the first subscriber identity module;

in response to detecting that the first network element is unavailable, commanding the respective mobile devices to transmit the respective backup subscriber data to the destination; and

queueing the respective backup subscriber data received at the destination from respective ones of the mobile devices for transmission to at least one of the first network element and a second network element to restore the subscriber data maintained at a first network element.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first network element corresponds to at least one of a home location register and a home subscriber server, the second network element corresponds to a mobility management entity, and the queueing of the respective backup subscriber data includes queueing the respective backup subscriber data for transmission to the mobility management entity.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the destination corresponds to a cloud service, the operations further include communicating with the plurality of mobile devices to configure a destination address associated with the cloud service, the queueing of the respective backup subscriber data includes storing the respective backup subscriber data received from the respective ones of the mobile devices at a cloud data store, and the operations further include pushing the respective backup subscriber data stored at the cloud data store to at least one of the first network element and the second network element according to a queueing schedule.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first configuration data further specifies that the backup subscriber data is to be transmitted in response to receipt of a message from a third network element providing an air interface of the mobile network.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first configuration data specifies that the backup subscriber data is to be transmitted to the destination repeatedly as a background process.