System and method for mobile core data services

• US 10,425,530 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2017
• Issued: 09/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: John, Kaippallimalil Mathew, Mademann, Frank, Zhu, Fenqin
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller, Brandon J
• Application Number:
  US15/715,021
• Publication Number:
  US 20180013884A1
• Time in Patent Office: 729 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/66 Policy and charging system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/705 Account settings, e.g. limits or numbers or payment
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42144 by service provider
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/00 Devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations or access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/14 Backbone network devices

Abstract

A mobile core network with distributed data services is provided. The mobile core network includes distributed mobile cores associated with mobile data service (MDS) agents at distributed data centers. A central MDS agent is host at a central data center providing legacy mobility management entity (MME) functions. The central MDS agent and the MDS agents at the distributed data centers coordinate with each other for synchronizing context information, such as subscriber data, session context data and metrics data of UEs, so that the context information is available at the central data center and the distributed data centers when or before it is requested.

Claims

1. A method for distributed synchronization in a mobile core network, the method comprising:

receiving, by a leader mobile core data service (MDS) agent from a mobile core control (MCC) entity, a message comprising an indication indicating that an updated version of context information is available for synchronization with follower MDS agents, the leader MDS agent and the follower MDS agents belonging to a group of MDS agents at data centers; and

replicating the updated version of the context information to the follower MDS agents, upon receipt of the message from the MCC entity, wherein replicating the updated version of context information further comprises;

sending an update request by the leader MDS agent to the follower MDS agents for synchronizing the updated version of the context information with the follower MDS agents; and

sending version information of the updated version of the context information to the follower MDS agents upon receiving responses from at least a threshold number of the follower MDS agents in response to the update request, the version information triggering the follower MDS agents to update the context information according to the updated version of the context information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the leader MDS agent is a local MDS agent at a distributed data center.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the MCC entity is located at a local mobile core of the leader MDS agent.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the context information comprises information corresponding to metrics of a session of a UE served by the mobile core network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the context information comprises information generated during execution of a session of a UE served by the mobile core network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the follower MDS agents comprise a central MDS agent at a logically centralized data center.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving the updated version of the context information upon receipt of the message from the MCC entity.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the updated version of the context information is a latest version of the context information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold number of the follower MDS agents comprise fewer than all of the follower MDS agents or a majority of the follower MDS agents.

10. A first mobile core data service (MDS) agent, comprising:

a non-transitory memory storage comprising instructions; and

one or more processors in communication with the memory storage, wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to;

receive, from a mobile core control (MCC) entity, a message comprising an indication indicating that an updated version of context information is available for synchronization with a plurality of MDS agents of the first MDS agent in a mobile core network, the first MDS agent and the plurality of MDS agents belonging to a group of MDS agents at data centers; and

replicate the updated version of the context information to the plurality of MDS agents upon receipt of the message from the MCC entity, wherein the updated version of context information is replicated by;

sending an update request to the plurality of MDS agents for synchronizing the updated version of the context information with the plurality of MDS agents; and

sending version information of the updated version of the context information to the plurality of MDS agents upon receiving responses from at least a threshold number of the plurality of MDS agents in response to the update request, the version information triggering the plurality of MDS agents to update the context information according to the updated version of the context information.

11. The first MDS agent of claim 10, wherein the first MDS agent is a local MDS agent at a distributed data center.

12. The first MDS agent of claim 10, wherein the MCC entity is located at a local mobile core of the first MDS agent.

13. The first MDS agent of claim 10, wherein the context information comprises information corresponding to metrics of a session of a UE served by the mobile core network.

14. The first MDS agent of claim 10, wherein the context information comprises information generated during execution of a session of a UE served by the mobile core network.

15. The first MDS agent of claim 10, wherein the plurality of MDS agents comprise a central MDS agent at a logically centralized data center.

16. The first MDS agent of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to further:

retrieve the updated version of the context information upon receipt of the message from the MCC entity.

17. The first MDS agent of claim 16, wherein the updated version of the context information is a latest version of the context information.

18. The first MDS agent of claim 10, wherein the threshold number of the plurality of MDS agents comprise fewer than all of the plurality of MDS agents or a majority of the plurality of MDS agents.