Aging processing apparatus and method in communications system

• US 20060133393A1
• Filed: 12/02/2005
• Published: 06/22/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: LG-Ericsson Company Limited (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Original Assignee: LG Nortel Company Limited (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Yun, Ji-Wook
• Application Number:
  US11/292,144
• Publication Number:
  US 20060133393A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/38 triggered by timers

Abstract

An aging processing apparatus and method of a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) in a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), wherein the GGSN determines an appropriate aging policy on the basis of aging environmental information set by a manager, and checks whether a traffic is generated in every session or a session set by a particular APN for a reference time according to the determined aging policy, thereby performing managing (searching and releasing) with respect to abnormal sessions in which only a call connection is maintained without any packet flow.

Claims

1. An aging processing apparatus in a mobile communications system comprising:

a manager for setting aging environmental information; and

a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) for checking whether a traffic is generated in at least one or more sessions for a reference time on the basis of the aging environmental information set by the manager, and thus releasing a connection of each abnormal session.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the aging environmental information is set using at least one or more of an application range, a procedure type and a reference time.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the application range is set as every session or as an APN unit, the procedure type is set as automatic or manual, and the reference time is set as a minute unit.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the GGSN includes:

a System Management Processor for managing the aging environmental information inputted by the manager;

a Gn interface card for transferring a subscriber'"'"'s call establishment request inputted from a radio communications network;

a Gateway control Processor (GCP) for performing the call establishment according to the subscriber'"'"'s call establishment request and session connection and session release, and reading a reference time from the aging environmental information for outputting;

a packet handler card for checking whether a traffic is generated in a particular session for the reference time provided from the GCP, and requesting a release of the corresponding session from the GCP when the traffic is not generated; and

a Gi interface card for transferring the traffic between the packet handler card and a packet data network.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the particular session indicates a session of all the mobile subscribers connected to the GGSN or a session requested to be set from the APN.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the SMP includes:

a Gateway Control Data Handler (GCDH) for receiving the aging environmental information; and

a first global aging Database (DB) and a first APN DB for selectively storing the aging environmental information received at the GCDH according to the application range of the aging environmental information.

7. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the GCP includes:

a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) Context &

Session Management Connection Control (PSCC) for performing managing of the PDP context and setting and releasing of a session;

a second global aging DB and a second APN DB in which data are synchronized with data in the first global aging DB and the first APN DB of the SMP; and

a Gn Interface Connection Control (GNCC) for processing the subscriber'"'"'s call establishment request, requesting setting or releasing of the session from the PSCC, and reading the reference time from the second global aging DB or the second APN DB to output the reference time to the packet handler card.

8. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the Gn interface card includes a Gn Interface Adaptation Function (GNAF) for transferring the subscriber'"'"'s call establishment request inputted via the radio communications network, and transferring the traffic to be transferred via the Gi interface card to the radio communications network.

9. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the Gi interface card includes:

a Packet Handler Adaptation Function (PHAF) for checking whether a traffic is generated for the reference time, to request a session release from the GCP when the traffic is not generated; and

a session DB for storing the reference time transferred via the PHAF.

10. An aging processing method in mobile communications system comprising:

setting, by a manager, aging environmental information in a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) using a Man Machine Interface (MMI) command;

determining, by the GGSN, an aging policy on the basis of the set aging environmental information; and

checking, by the GGSN, whether a traffic is generated in particular sessions for a reference time according to the determined aging policy, to thus manage a connection of abnormal sessions.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the aging environmental information is set using one or more of an application range, a procedure type and a reference time.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the application range is set as every session or as an APN unit, the procedure type is set as automatic or manual, and the reference time is set as a minute unit.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the GGSN automatically or manually releases the connections of the particular sessions when the traffic is not generated in the corresponding particular sessions.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the particular session is a session included in the aging policy, and indicates every session or a session set by the APN.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining of the aging policy includes:

reading the aging environmental information from a global aging Db to determine an application range of an aging processing;

reading a procedure type and a reference time from the global aging DB when the application range of the aging processing is set as every session, while reading the procedure type and the reference time from an APN DB when the application range is set as APN unit; and

determining the aging policy on the basis of the read application range, the procedure type and the reference time.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the aging policy is determined as a type of every session/automatic/reference time, every session/manual/reference time, APN unit/automatic/reference time, and APN unit/manual/reference time.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the managing of the traffic includes:

when the aging policy is determined as every session/automatic/reference time, checking whether a traffic is generated in every session for the reference time; and

when the traffic is not generated for the reference time, automatically releasing the corresponding sessions.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the managing of the traffic includes:

when the aging policy is determined as every session/manual/reference time, checking whether a traffic is generated in every session for a reference time;

when the traffic is not generated for the reference time, recording in subscriber information that the subscriber is an object to be manually managed for his call connection; and

searching, by the manager, for the corresponding session using an aging object searching command, to thus manually release the connection of the corresponding session.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein the managing of the traffic includes:

when the aging policy is determined as APN unit/automatic/reference time, checking whether a traffic is generated in a session set by the APN for a reference time; and

when the traffic is not generated for the reference time, automatically releasing the corresponding session.

20. The method of claim 10, wherein the managing of the traffic includes:

when the aging policy is determined as APN unit/manual/reference time, checking whether a traffic is generated in a session set by the APN for a reference time;

when the traffic is not generated for the reference time, recording in subscriber information as a manual call connection; and

searching, by the manager, for a corresponding session using an aging object searching command to manually release the connection of the corresponding session.