PREDICTIVE PAGING BASED ON MOBILITY HISTORY AND MOVEMENT PATTERNS

• US 20130316706A1
• Filed: 05/25/2012
• Published: 11/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Knauft, James P.
• Granted Patent: US 9,198,158 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/435.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/04 multi-step notification using statistical or historical mobility data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

A method and apparatus for efficient paging of user equipment (UE) in an LTE network is disclosed. In addition to storing the Last Seen eNodeB (LSeNB) for each UE attached to a mobility management entity (MME), the MME also maintains an LSeNB List of the eNodeBs seen immediately before the LSeNB for each UE. When a notification for a UE arrives at the MME, then MME can select from several paging methods, including paging only the LSeNB to locate the UE and sending a paging request LSeNB as well as to the list of eNodeBs seem immediately before the LSeNB. The MME can send a paging request to more than a single eNodeB but less than a full Tracking Area. Efficient paging is especially needed for voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calls where a call will go to voice mail if a page isn'"'"'t answered quickly.

Claims

1. A method, executed in a wireless network having base stations and wireless mobility managers controlling the base stations, comprising the steps of:

maintaining a Last Seen list of one or more base stations in the order in which they were visited by a user equipment (UE) for each UE attached to the wireless mobility managers;

receiving a message requesting access to a requested UE;

sending a first paging request to the base stations on the Last Seen list for the requested UE; and

if that paging request fails, sending a second paging request to a larger group of base stations.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the length of the list may be flexibly provisioned with the maximum number of base stations to be paged.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the list of one or more base stations is maintained so that it does not have any duplicate entries.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

maintaining a database of UE mobility patterns, said database storing the number of times one base station is visited immediately after another base station for pairs of base stations within a set;

generating a mobility pattern list, in response to the notification request, of likely base stations the requested UE would visit by accessing the database with the requested UE'"'"'s most recently visited base station; and

combining the mobility pattern list with the Last Seen list for the requested UE to determine which base stations receive the first paging request.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the list is cleared when a UE reattaches to the wireless mobility managers.

6. A method of paging a user equipment (UE) using at least one mobility management entity (MME) operatively coupled to a plurality of eNodeBs (eNBs) in a LTE (Long Term Evolution) network, comprising the steps of:

maintaining a last seen eNB list of one or more eNBs in the order in which they were last seen by a user equipment for each UE attached to the MME;

receiving a notification requesting access to a requested UE;

sending a first paging request to the one or more eNBs on the last seen eNB list; and

if the first paging request fails, sending a second paging request to a larger group of eNBs.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the length of the list may be flexibly provisioned with the maximum number of eNBs to be paged.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the last seen eNB list is maintained so that it does not contain any duplicate entries.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein a plurality of eNBs are grouped into tracking areas and a UE is capable of moving between eNBs within one tracking area, or between eNBs in different tracking areas.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the first and second paging requests are related to paging methods in a paging policy table, said method further comprising the steps of:

maintaining a paging policy table for the MME that determines which one or more paging methods are used in response to different types of notifications; and

accessing the paging policy table when a notification is received to determine how one or more paging methods to follow, said paging methods including any of accessing the last seen eNB, accessing a list of the last seen eNBs, accessing the last seen tracking area and accessing the last seen tracking area and neighboring tracking areas.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein an additional paging method further comprises the steps of:

maintaining a database of UE mobility patterns, said database storing the number of times one eNB is visited immediately after another eNB for pairs of eNBs within a set;

generating a mobility patterns list, in response to the notification request, of likely eNBs the requested UE would visit by accessing the database with the requested UE'"'"'s most recently visited eNB; and

combining the last seen eNB list and the mobility pattern list into a final list for use in selecting eNBs to receive the first paging request for the requested UE.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of generating a mobility pattern list further includes the step of:

accessing the database of UE mobility patterns with information indicating the last known direction of movement of the requested UE.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the database of UE mobility patterns is organized according to time of day and the step of generating the mobility pattern list further includes the step of:

accessing the database of UE mobility patterns to retrieve mobility data for the same time of day as the current time.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the paging method used for the first paging request can vary based on the type of notification.

15. An apparatus for use in an LTE network for paging a user equipment (UE) using at least one mobility management entity (MME), said apparatus configured to perform the following steps:

maintaining a last seen eNB list of one or more eNBs in the order in which they were last seen by a user equipment for each UE attached to the MME;

receiving a notification requesting access to a requested UE;

sending a first paging request to the one or more eNBs on the last seen eNB list; and

if that paging request fails, sending a second paging request to a larger group of eNBs.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the length of the list may be flexibly provisioned with the maximum number of eNBs to be paged.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the list of one or more eNBs is maintained so that the list does not contain any duplicate entries.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising:

a paging policy table for the MME that determines which one or more paging methods are used when a notification is received, wherein the paging policy table is accessed when a notification is received to determine how which one or more paging methods to follow, said paging methods including any of accessing the last seen eNB, accessing a list of the last seen eNBs, accessing the last seen tracking area and accessing the last seen tracking area and neighboring tracking areas.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, said apparatus further configured to perform the following steps:

maintaining a database of UE mobility patterns, said database storing the number of times one eNB is visited immediately after another eNB for pairs of eNBs within a set;

generating a mobility pattern list, in response to the notification request, of likely eNBs the requested UE would visit by accessing the database with the requested UE'"'"'s most recently visited eNB; and

combining the last seen eNB list and the mobility pattern list into a final list for use in selecting eNBs to receive the first paging request for the requested UE.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the step of generating a mobility pattern list further includes the step of:

accessing the database of UE mobility patterns with information indicating the last known direction of movement of the requested UE;

or

accessing the database of UE mobility patterns to retrieve mobility data for the same time of day as the current time.