METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IDENTIFYING USER EQUIPMENT, AND METHOD FOR TRANSMITTING AND ALLOCATING A TEMPORARY IDENTIFIER

• US 20100120399A1
• Filed: 01/21/2010
• Published: 05/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: GUO, Xiaolong, LI, Ming
• Granted Patent: US 8,238,909 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/411
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/50 Address allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/08 Load balancing or load distribution transferring a connection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/088 among core entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/08 Mobility data transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for identifying a UE in an SAE network, and an MME are provided herein. The method includes: receiving an SAE-TMSI which is allocated to a UE that accesses an SAE network and includes at least: a pool-ID, an MME-ID, and a UE temporary identifier; using the SAE-TMSI to temporarily identify the UE in the SAE network. The apparatus includes: a receiving unit and a temporary identifying unit. The MME includes a temporary identifier allocating unit. Moreover, a method for transmitting and allocating a temporary identifier, and a method for receiving and transmitting information according to the temporary identifier are disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A method for identifying a user equipment (UE) in a system architecture evolved (SAE) network, comprising:

receiving an SAE-temporary mobile subscriber identity (SAE-TMSI) allocated to a UE, which accesses the SAE network, wherein the SAE-TMSI at least comprises;

an identifier for resource pool (pool-ID), an identifier for mobility management entity (MME-ID) and a UE temporary identifier; and

identifying the UE according to the SAE-TMSI.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein

the pool-ID is unique in public land mobile network (PLMN), or the pool-ID is reused in a resource pool without overlapping part;

and

the MME-ID is unique in a resource pool, and the UE temporary identifier is unique in an MME.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein identifying the UE temporarily according to the SAE-TMSI, comprises:

selecting an MME in a resource pool corresponding to an evolved radio access network (RAN) entity according to the pool-ID and the MME-ID in the SAE-TMSI, when the UE accesses the evolved RAN entity, if the MME in the resource pool is relevant to the pool-ID and the MME-ID in the SAE-TMSI, and the evolved RAN entity determines that an old track area identifier (TAI) of the UE belongs to the resource pool.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identifying the UE temporarily according to the SAE-TMSI, comprises:

selecting an MME in a resource pool corresponding to an evolved RAN entity according to a principle, if no MME in the resource pool corresponding to the evolved RAN entity is relevant to the pool-ID and the MME-ID in the SAE-TMSI, or if the evolved RAN entity determines that the old TAI of the UE does not belong to the resource pool.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the principle comprises any one or more of a load balancing principle, a UE'"'"'s location principle and a topology structure.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the SAE-TMSI further comprises a PLMN-ID.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein the old TAI is not carried when the UE accesses, if the pool-ID in the SAE-TMSI is unique in PLMN.

8. The method according to claim 4, wherein after selecting an MME, the method further comprises:

forwarding, by the evolved RAN entity, an initial UE message received from the UE to the corresponding MME; and

reselecting a new MME if the evolved RAN entity receives a reroute command fed back by the MME.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the reroute command is sent if any one of following conditions is occurred:

the MME determines that the MME is not an old MME for the UE according to the old TAI in the initial UE message or according to the old TAI and the SAE-TMSI; and

the MME determines that load of the MME is heavy or the access request is not a real-time-sensitive request.

10. The method according to claim 4, wherein after the selecting an MME, the method further comprises:

obtaining, by the MME, address information of an old MME of the UE; and

obtaining, context or identifier information of the UE from the old MME according to the address information.

11. The method according to claim 10 wherein the obtaining address information of an old MME of the UE comprises at least one of the following:

obtaining, by the MME, address information of the old MME from the pool-ID and the MME-ID in the SAE-TSMI, if the UE accesses the MME, wherein the pool-ID in the SAE-TMSI is unique in PLMN; and

obtaining address information of the old MME according to the old TAI or the old TAI together with the SAE-TMSI, wherein the pool-ID in the SAE-TMSI is not unique in PLMN.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

reallocating, by an MME, an SAE-TMSI to the UE, when a preset requirement is fulfilled.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the preset requirement comprises any one of following requirements:

an update count of the MME reaches a preset threshold;

a timer started after the MME allocates an SAE-TMSI times out;

a location update request or SAE-TSMI reallocation request carrying an SAE-TMSI is sent to an MME, when an updated track area (TA) is recorded by a UE or a count in a unit of time reaches a preset threshold; and

a location update request or SAE-TMSI reallocation request carrying an SAE-TMSI is sent to an MME, when a timer set by a UE times out.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the SAE-TMSI further comprises a restart identifier.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein the SAE-TMSI further comprises an identifier for distinguishing type of a communication system.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein a length of an identifier in the SAE-TMSI is configurable according to actual network condition.

17. An apparatus for identifying a user equipment (UE), comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a system architecture evolved-temporary mobile subscriber identity (SAE-TMSI) allocated to a UE, which accesses SAE network, wherein the SAE-TMSI at least comprises an identifier for resource pool (pool-ID), an identifier for mobility management entity (MME-ID) and a UE temporary identifier; and

a temporary identifying unit, configured to identify the UE accessing SAE network according to the SAE-TMSI.

18. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the temporary identifying unit comprises a determining subunit, a selecting subunit and a reselecting subunit, and wherein:

the determining subunit is configured to determine whether the pool-ID and the MME-ID in the SAE-TMSI carried by an access request are the same as a pool-ID and an MME-ID in current resource pool respectively, and to send a positive result to the selecting subunit and send a negative result to the reselecting subunit;

the selecting subunit is configured to select a corresponding MME for the UE according to the positive result; and

the reselecting subunit is configured to reselect a new MME for the UE according to the negative result.

19. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the apparatus is integrated into an evolved radio access network entity.

20. A method for receiving and transmitting information according to a system architecture evolved-temporary mobile subscriber identity (SAE-TMSI), comprising:

sending, by a new mobility management entity (MME), a request to an old MME, wherein the request is any one of an identifier request in an attaching process, a context request in an attaching process and a UE context request in a location update process of an MME, wherein the UE context request comprises an SAE-TMSI and comprises no old location identifier, if the SAE-TMSI is unique in an MME; and

obtaining address information of the old MME, by an MME receiving the request according to the SAE-TMSI in the request, if the MME receiving the request is not the old MME of the UE.