Radio network control

• US 20020196749A1
• Filed: 06/25/2001
• Published: 12/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ericsson Evdo, Inc. (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Airvana Incorporated (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Eyuboglu, M. Vedat, Cherian, Sanjay, Barabell, Arthur J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,160,020 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0682 by delay compensation, e.g. by compensation of propagation delay or variations thereof, by ranging
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4535 using an address exchange platform which sets up a session between two nodes, e.g. rendezvous servers, session initiation protocols [SIP] registrars or H.323 gatekeepers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0011 for data sessions of end-to-end connection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0019 adapted for mobile IP [MIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

In connection with a mobile wireless subnetwork having multiple radio network controllers and multiple radio nodes, a session established for an access terminal is associated with a serving radio network controller. The association is maintained as the access terminal moves from the coverage area of one radio node to the coverage area of another radio node within the same subnetwork. Access channel packets are routed from an access terminal having an existing session to the serving radio network controller by determining the IP address of the serving radio network controller using a session identifier.

Claims

1. A method comprising

in connection with a mobile wireless subnetwork including multiple radio network controllers and multiple radio nodes, associating a session established for an access terminal with a serving radio network controller,

maintaining the association as the access terminal moves from the coverage area of one radio node to the coverage area of another radio node within the same subnetwork, and

routing access channel packets from an access terminal having an existing session to the serving radio network controller by determining the IP address of the serving radio network controller using a session identifier.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the routing is performed by an RN.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the routing is performed by a broker radio network controller in the subnetwork.

4. The method of claim 3 also including, in an RN, forwarding a received access channel packet to the broker radio network controller.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the serving radio network controller and the broker radio network controller are connected by a high-speed LAN.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the serving radio network controller and the broker radio network controller are connected by a high-speed LAN.

7. The method of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, wherein the session identifier comprises the Universal Access Terminal Identifier (UATI) of the IS-856 standard.

8. The method of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7, also including routing by the radio node of packets received from an access terminal without an existing session to a default RNC with whom the radio node is associated.

9. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein a radio node receives paging requests from more than one radio network controller.

10. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein a radio node receives forward link traffic channel packets from more than one radio network controller.

11. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein a radio node sends reverse link traffic channel packets to more than one radio network controller.

12. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein traffic channel radio resources are managed in the radio nodes and a radio network controller requests radio resources from a radio node before adding any of its sectors to a traffic channel.

13. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein said radio network controllers reside in different locations and are connected via a metropolitan-area network.

14. The method of claim 1, 2 or 3, in which the session association is transferred from one radio network controller in one subnetwork to another radio network controller in another subnetwork based upon a predetermined criterion.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the session transfer is triggered by the access terminal upon detection of a subnet change.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein the session transfer is triggered by the network.

17. The method of claim 1, 2 or 3 also including

at the serving radio network controller, selecting a packet data serving node to serve the access terminal.

18. The method of claim 1 also including

at the serving radio network controller, using a mobility manager to maintain a current position of the access terminal.

19. The method of claims 1, 3, 4, 5 or 6 also including using an RNC Resource Control Agent to assign sessions to radio network controllers.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the RNC Resource Control Agent resides on a separate server.

21. The method of claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein an RNC Resource Control Agent also determines the association between the RN'"'"'s and their default RNC'"'"'s.

22. The method of claims 19 wherein the RNC Resource Control Agent also performs load balancing in assigning sessions to radio network controllers.

23. The method of claims 19, wherein the RNC Resource Control Agent also selects a new RNC in network-initiated dormant handoffs.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the Radio Resource Control Agent function is distributed among the radio network controllers and radio nodes, and the radio network controllers and the radio nodes continuously communicate resource information to each other to enable individual network nodes to make session assignment decisions on their own.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein the Radio Resource Control Agent also maintains session information for all sessions under its control.

26. The method of claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the radio network controllers also include a PDSN function.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the PDSN function includes the Simple IP, Mobile IP and AAA client functions.

29. The apparatus of claim 28 in which the radio node is also configured to forward a received access channel packet to the broker radio network controller.

30. The apparatus of claim 28 in which the session identifier includes the Universal Access Terminal Identifier (UATI) of the IS-856 standard.

31. The apparatus of claim 28 in which the radio node is also configured to route packets received from an access terminal without an existing session to a default RNC with whom the radio node is associated.

32. The apparatus of claim 28 in which the radio node is configured to receive paging requests from more than one radio network controller.

33. The apparatus of claim 28 in which the radio node is configured to receive forward link traffic channel packets from more than one radio network controller

34. The apparatus of claim 28 in which the radio node is configured to send reverse link traffic channel packets to more than one radio network controller.

28. Apparatus comprising

a radio node in a mobile wireless subnetwork that includes multiple radio network controllers and multiple radio nodes,

the radio node being configured to route access channel packets from an access terminal having an existing session to a serving radio network controller by determining the IP address of the serving radio network controller using a session identifier.