GATEWAY FOR A SYSTEM HAVING MULTIPLE RADIO ACCESS TECHNOLOGIES

• US 20090111458A1
• Filed: 10/05/2006
• Published: 04/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vodafone Group PLC
• Original Assignee: Vodafone Group PLC
• Inventors: Fox, David, Pudney, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 8,817,758 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/422.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/1443 between licensed networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems

Abstract

A telecommunications system is disclosed, including a first radio access technology (legacy: GSM; UMTS/UTRAN) having a first radio access network (node B 15, RNC 17), and a second radio access technology (EUTRA) having a second radio access network (AP 20), wherein said first radio access network (node B 15, RNC 17) is divided into a plurality of first areas and said second radio access network (AP 20) is divided into a plurality of second areas, and wherein a home subscriber server entity (HSS 10) is provided that is common to both the first and second radio access technologies (legacy: GSM; UMTS) and which controls in which of the first and second areas a mobile terminal (UE 1) is registered, characterized in that a common control plane gateway entity (CP-GW 24) is provided through which communications from the first and second radio access networks, which relate to the first and second area which the mobile terminal (UE 1) occupies, are routed.

Claims

1. A telecommunications system including:

a first radio access technology having a first radio access network;

a second radio access technology (EUTRA) having a second radio access network;

wherein said first radio access network is divided into a plurality of first areas and said second radio access network is divided into a plurality of second areas, and

wherein a home subscriber server entity is provided that is common to both the first and second radio access technologies and which controls in which of the first and second areas a mobile terminal is registered, and

wherein a common control plane gateway entity is provided through which communications from the first and second radio access networks, which relate to the first and second area which the mobile terminal occupies, are routed.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the control plane gateway entity comprises part of a Gr interface to the home subscriber server entity.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the control plane gateway entity receives communications relating to the first areas from an SGSN of the first radio access technology.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first areas are different from the second areas, and the mobile terminal is registered in a different one of the first and second areas.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein selected first areas are associated with selected second areas and are deemed to be equivalent areas.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the mobile terminal has an active state in which a communication session with one of the radio access technologies is established and an inactive state when no such communication is established but in which the mobile terminal is registered with the radio access technology.

7. A system of claim 6, wherein when the mobile terminal is in the equivalent routing area of the first and second radio access technologies and the mobile terminal is in the inactive mode, no signaling from the mobile terminal to the home subscriber server entity is performed when the mobile terminal moves from registration with one of the radio access technologies to the other of the radio access technologies.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein a timer runs between the control plane gateway entity and the mobile terminal when the mobile terminal is registered with both the first and second radio access technologies, which timer causes the first and second areas to be updated periodically.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile terminal is allocated a different temporary identifier for use in the one of the first areas with which it is registered and a different temporary identifier for use with the one of the second areas with which it is registered.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein, when the mobile terminal is registered with the first radio access technology, and is in the inactive state, the mobile terminal operates a timer to cause it to attempt to contact the home subscriber service entity at predetermined time intervals, and wherein the timer is also operated when the mobile terminal is registered with the second radio access technology.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein, when the mobile terminal is registered with the second radio access technology, and the mobile terminal modifies a state by notifying the control plane gateway entity, a reference value stored by the first radio access technology is updated, and wherein, when the mobile terminal is subsequently registered with the first radio access technology the change in reference value is detected, which prompts the first radio access technology to obtain information regarding the state change from the control plane gateway entity.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein mobile terminal terminating activities based on identifiers used only within the first or second radio access technologies are routed to the control plane gateway entity.

13. A telecommunications system including:

a radio access technology having a radio access network comprising a plurality of access points with which a mobile terminal can be registered;

a control plane gateway entity and a user plane gateway through which communications from the radio access network are routed, and

wherein the mobile terminal measures the quality of the received radio signal from an access point neighboring the access point with which it is registered and selectively causes the mobile terminal to register with the neighboring access point in dependence upon this determination, and

wherein the control plane gateway entity is only subsequently notified of the change of access point with which the mobile terminal is registered.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the neighboring access point notifies the control plane gateway entity that it controls the mobile terminal.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the access points negotiate transport resources with the user plane gateway.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the neighboring access point requests a downlink user plane from the user plane gateway by sending an uplink data packet including an add bearer path indication.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the access point sends an uplink data packet to the user plane gateway including a bearer path release indication.

18. A telecommunications system including:

a first radio access technology having a first radio access network, and a second radio access technology having a second radio access network, and

wherein said first radio access network is divided into a plurality of first areas and said second radio access network is divided into a plurality of second areas, and

wherein a home subscriber server entity is provided that is common to both the first and second radio access technologies and which controls in which of the first and second areas a mobile terminal is registered, and

wherein a user plane gateway through which communications from the first and second radio access networks are routed is provided, and

wherein the user plane gateway maintains an indication of whether the mobile terminal last transmitted data using the first radio access technology or the second radio access technology.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the user plane gateway maintains a second indication, indicating whether the mobile terminal is registered with the second radio access technology.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein, if the second indication indicates that the mobile terminal is registered with the first access technology and the first indication indicates that the last data was transmitted using the second radio access technology, the user plane gateway passes a copy of a downlink data packet to the first radio access technology.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the first radio access technology determines whether the mobile terminal is able to receive the copy of the downlink data packed.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the determination is based on whether the mobile terminal is in a standby state.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the determination is based on whether a connection to the mobile terminal exists.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein, if the mobile terminal is unable to receive the copy of the downlink data packet, the data packet is returned to the user plane gateway entity.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the data packet is returned to the user plane gateway entity together with an indication that paging in a wider area should be performed by the first radio access technology.

26. A telecommunications system including

a first radio access technology having a first radio access network, and a second radio access technology having a second radio access network, and

wherein said first radio access network is divided into a plurality of first areas and said second radio access network is divided into a plurality of second areas, and

wherein a home subscriber server entity is provided that is common to both the first and second radio access technologies and which controls in which of the first and second areas a mobile terminal is registered, and

wherein a common control plane gateway entity is provided, the first areas are different from the second areas, the mobile terminal is registered in a different one of the first and second areas, the selected first areas are associated with selected second areas and are deemed to be equivalent areas, and in that the control plane gateway entity is operable to page the mobile terminal in the equivalent routing areas.

27. The system of claim 26, where in said paging of the equivalent routing areas is performed simultaneously or concurrently.