Connectivity plane routing

• US 20040156355A1
• Filed: 11/26/2003
• Published: 08/12/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Martin Stumpert
• Original Assignee: Martin Stumpert
• Inventors: Stumpert, Martin
• Granted Patent: US 8,320,377 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels

Abstract

A method and device for routing a connectivity plane message to a mobile terminal that can be reached via two or more network nodes (26, 36) of a first type are described. The method includes receiving positional information indicating the geographical location of the mobile terminal, receiving routing information being associated with a network node (24) of a second type to which the mobile terminal is attached, determing, based on the positional information, the network node (36) of the first type via which the connectivity plane message is to be routed to the mobile terminal, and routing the connectivity plane message to the mobile terminal via the selected network node (36) of the first type.

Claims

1. A method of routing a connectivity plane message to a mobile terminal which can be reached via two or more network nodes (26, 36) of a first type, comprising:

receiving positional information indicating the geographical location of the mobile terminal and routing information, the routing information being associated with a network node (24) of a second type to which the mobile terminal is attached;

based on the positional information, determining the network node (36) of the first type via which the connectivity plane message is to be routed to the mobile terminal; and

routing the connectivity plane message to the mobile terminal via the determined network node (36) of the first type.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the positional information indicates the geographical location of the mobile terminal within an area served by the network node (24) of the second type.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein a network control plane message is routed via the determined network node (36) of the first type to the network node (24) of the second type.

4. The method of one of claims 1 to 3, wherein routing of the connectivity plane message is performed in a communications network (10) that includes a first network portion (12) having a split architecture and a second network portion (14) having a monolithic architecture.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the selected network node (36) of the first type is arranged between the first network portion (12) and the second network portion (14).

6. The method of claim 4 or 5, wherein the network node (36) of the first type is selected such that resources utilized by the routed connectivity plane message in the first network portion (12) are minimized.

7. The method of one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the positional information is included in the routing information.

8. The method of one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the positional information is received separately from the routing information.

9. The method of one of claims 1 to 8, further comprising determining, based on the positional information, or receiving transmission information specifying the transmission regime via which the connectivity plane message is to be routed to the determined network node (36) of the first type.

11. A computer program product comprising program code portions for performing the steps of one of claims 1 to 10 when the computer program product is run on a computing device.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, stored on a computer readable recording medium.

10. A method of controlling the routing of a connectivity plane message to a mobile terminal which can be reached via two or more network nodes (26, 36) of a first type and which is attached to a network node (24) of a second type, comprising:

receiving a request for routing information;

generating positional information indicating the geographical location of the mobile terminal and routing information associated with the network node (24) of the second type to which the mobile terminal is attached; and

transmitting the routing information and the positional information to enable a receiving network component (44) to determine based on the received positional information the network node (36) of the first type via which the connectivity plane message is to be routed.

13. A network component (44) for routing a connectivity plane message to a mobile terminal which can be reached via two or more network nodes (26, 36) of a first type, comprising:

a first interface for receiving positional information indicating the geographical location of the mobile terminal and routing information, the routing information being associated with a network node (24) of a second type to which the mobile terminal is attached;

a determination component for determining based on the positional information the network node (36) of the first type via which the connectivity plane message is to be routed to the mobile terminal; and

a second interface for routing the connectivity plane message to the mobile terminal via the determined network node (36) of the first type.

14. The switching node of claim 13, further comprising a component for extracting the positional information from the routing information.

15. A network component (24) for controlling the routing of a connectivity plane message to a mobile terminal which can be reached via two or more network nodes (26, 36) and which is attached to the network component (24), comprising:

a first interface for receiving a request for routing information;

a processing component for generating positional information indicating the geographical location of the mobile terminal and routing information associated with the network component (24) to which the mobile terminal is attached; and

a second interface for transmitting the routing information and the positional information to enable a receiving network switch (44) to determine the network node (36) via which the connectivity plane message is to be routed to the mobile terminal.