REGISTERING A MOBILE TERMINAL IN AN AREA OF OVERLAPPING CELL COVERAGE BY FIRST AND SECOND NETWORKS

• US 20100113015A1
• Filed: 01/15/2008
• Published: 05/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Tatesh, Said, Palat, Sudeep Kumar, Demarez, Christophe, Casati, Alessio
• Granted Patent: US 8,649,786 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/432.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/04 using triggered events
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/02 Processing of mobility data, e.g. registration information at HLR [Home Location Register] or VLR [Visitor Location Register]; Transfer of mobility data, e.g. between HLR, VLR or external networks

Abstract

A method is provided of registering a mobile terminal in an area of overlapping cell coverage by first and second networks for wireless mobile telecommunications. The networks are of different types. The method comprises: storing an identifier of the mobile terminal; storing in a controller a first record of in which cell or group of cells the mobile terminal is located in the first network and a second record of in which cell or group of cells the mobile terminal is located in the second network; and providing the mobile terminal with information of both records and said identifier.

Claims

1. A method of registering a mobile terminal in an area of overlapping cell coverage by first and second networks for wireless mobile telecommunications, the networks being of different types, the method comprising:

storing an identifier of the mobile terminal;

storing in a controller a first record of in which cell or group of cells the mobile terminal is located in the first network and a second record of in which cell or group of cells the mobile terminal is located in the second network;

providing the mobile terminal with information of both records and said identifier.

2. A method according to claim 1, in which the mobile terminal is provided with information of both records such that upon the mobile terminal roaming between the overlapping cells or groups of cells of the two networks, location update signalling to or from the mobile terminal does not occur.

3. A method according to claim 1, in which a controller in the first network performs a proxy registration of the mobile terminal with a controller of the second network.

4. A method according to claim 1, in which the or each controller comprises a respective core network node.

5. A method according to claim 1, in which the mobile terminal moves out of the area covered by at least one of the two cells that overlap, and the controller provides to a second controller further records of into which new cells or groups of cells in each network the mobile terminal has moved.

6. A method according to claim 5, in which one of said further records is provided dependent upon the mobile terminal performing location update signalling.

7. A method according to claim 6, in which the other of said further records is provided by look-up of a table of records relating cells or groups of cells in the first network to overlapping cells or groups of cells in the second network.

8. A method according to claim 5, in which the further records are used to determine whether the mobile terminal has roamed out of the coverage area of the second controller.

9. A method according to claim 8, in which it is determined that the mobile terminal has roamed out of the coverage area of the second controller, then the further records are used to identify a new controller.

10. A method according to claim 1, in which the mobile terminal is in idle mode.

11. A method according to claim 1, in which the first network is a WCDMA based network and the second network is an OFDMA based network.

12. A method according to claim 1, in which the first network is a UMTS network and the second network is a UMTS-Long Term Evolution network.

13. A method of a mobile terminal roaming in an area of overlapping cell coverage by first and second networks for wireless mobile telecommunications, the networks being of different types, the method comprising:

storing an identifier of the mobile terminal in a controller;

storing in the controller a first record of in which cell or group of cells the mobile terminal is located in the first network and a second record of in which cell or group of cells the mobile terminal is located in the second network;

providing the mobile terminal with information of both records such that upon the mobile terminal roaming between the overlapping cells or groups of cells of the two networks, location update signalling to or from the mobile terminal does not occur.

14. A telecommunications system comprising first and second networks for wireless telecommunications;

the networks having overlapping cell coverage;

the networks being of different types, at least one of the networks comprising a controller and a transmitter;

the controller being operative to store an identifier of a user terminal, a first record of in which cell or group of cells the user terminal is located in the first network, and a second record of in which cell or group of cells the user terminal is located in the second network;

the transmitter being operative to provide the user terminal with information of both records and the identifier.