Location-based context delivery

• US 10,334,392 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2016
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IPLA Holdings Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Convida Wireless LLC
• Inventors: Mohamed, Ahmed, Starsinic, Michael F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Taylor, Nathan S
• Application Number:
  US15/738,839
• Publication Number:
  US 20180192234A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,091 Days
• Field of Search: 370329, 370331, 455433, 4554561, 455509, 709206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/562 Brokering proxy services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/10 between location register and external networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/12 between location registers or mobility servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

An enhanced 3GPP network architecture can enables a SCEF to interact with SCS/AS via APIs that provide location based context; GMLC to get the UE'"'"'s location, available RATs, and congestion levels; HSS to get the UE'"'"'s location, available RATs, and congestion levels; PCEF (via PCRF) to obtain the congestion level at the P-GW; RCAF (via PCRF) to obtain the user plane congestion levels at the E-UTRAN, UTRAN, and WLAN; and serving nodes (MME, SGSN, 3GPP AAA Server) to get the available RATs and congestion levels.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, the apparatus further including computer-executable instructions stored in the memory of the apparatus which, when executed by the processor of the node, cause the apparatus to:

receive a location context request from a server, wherein the location context request identifies a specific user equipment (UE) for which location context information is requested;

determine whether the server is authorized to obtain location context information of the specific UE;

in response to the location context request from the server, obtain the location context information that is specific to the UE from a core network node; and

if the server is authorized to obtain location context information of the specific UE, provide the location context information to the server,

wherein the location context information comprises congestion levels of one or more nodes that serve the UE, and the congestion levels comprise user plane congestion information or control plane congestion information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the location context information further includes a current geographical location of the UE.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the location context information further includes information related to one or more Radio Access Technologies (RATs) that are available to the UE.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the core network node comprises at least one of a Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC), a Home Subscriber Server (HSS), a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), or a 3GPP Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) Server.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the core network node comprises the PCRF that Policy obtains the location context information from the PCEF or the RCAF.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is a Service Capability Exposure Function (SCEF).

7. A method performed by an apparatus, wherein the apparatus comprises a processor and memory, the method comprising:

receiving a location context request from a server, wherein the location context request identifies a specific user equipment (UE) for which location context information is requested;

determining whether the server is authorized to obtain location context information of the specific UE;

in response to the location context request from the server, obtaining the location context information that is specific to the UE from a core network node; and

if the server is authorized to obtain location context information of the specific UE, providing the location context information to the server,

wherein the location context information comprises congestion levels of one or more nodes that serve the UE, and the congestion levels comprise user plane congestion information or control plane congestion information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the apparatus is a Service Capability Exposure Function (SCEF).

9. An apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, the apparatus further including computer-executable instructions stored in the memory of the apparatus which, when executed by the processor of the node, cause the apparatus to:

receive a group message delivery request from a server, wherein the group message delivery request identifies a specific group of user equipments (UEs) for which location context information is requested;

determine whether the server is authorized to obtain location context information of the specific group of UEs;

if the group is authorized to obtain location context information of the specific group of UEs, in response to the group message delivery request from the server, obtain the location context information that is specific to UEs within the group from a core network node; and

based on the location context information, determine a method for executing the group message delivery request,

wherein the location context information comprises congestion levels of one or more nodes that serve the group, and the congestion levels comprise user plane congestion information of control plane congestion information.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the location context information further includes at least one of a location that is specific to UEs within the group, or information related to one or more Radio Access Technologies that are available to the group.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the apparatus is a Service Capability Exposure Function (SCEF).