SHORT MESSAGE TRANSMISSION AND HANDOVER PROCEDURES

• US 20140016614A1
• Filed: 04/05/2012
• Published: 01/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sun Patent Trust
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Velev, Genadi, Bachmann, Jens, Ikeda, Shinkichi
• Granted Patent: US 9,247,471 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/331
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0055 Transmission or use of information for re-establishing the radio link
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/14 Reselecting a network or an air interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/165 for reducing network power consumption H04W36/18 - H04W36/22 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• 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 68/005 Transmission of information for alerting of incoming communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/30 Connection release
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/36 for reassigning the resources associated with the released connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/38 triggered by timers

Abstract

The present invention relates to an improved method for handover of a mobile node from E-UTRAN to UTRAN in a scenario where SMS is the only service of the mobile node. The improved handover method allows saving radio resources by establishing the signalling connection for SMS exchange in the target network, and avoiding the data connection in the target network, since it is not used. The MME takes the decision to establish or not the data connection in the target UTRAN, and accordingly instructs the SGSN and UE to set the corresponding PDP contexts for the data connection to a “preserved” state, so as to avoid the establishment of same. Embodiments further relate to improved SMS delivery for IDLE mode UEs that activate ISR so as to avoid the involvement of the MSC server. Instead, packet-switched domain nodes are to be involved only.

Claims

1-70. -70. (canceled)

71. A method for transmitting downlink small data packets to a user equipment subscribed to a mobile communication network comprising a base station, the method comprising the steps of:

triggering the user equipment by a connectivity-related network entity to establish connectivity with the mobile communication network via the control plane only,

establishing by the user equipment and the connectivity-related network entity control plane connectivity for the user equipment, in response to the triggering, and

transmitting the downlink small data packets to the user equipment using the established control plane connectivity.

72. The method according to claim 71, wherein when the user equipment is in an IDLE state, the triggering includes transmitting to the user equipment a paging message comprising a control-plane-only indication, and the connectivity-related network entity is a mobility management entity of the user equipment, or when the user equipment is in a DEREGISTERED state, the triggering includes transmitting to the user equipment a device trigger message comprising a control-plane-only indication, and the connectivity-related network entity is a mobility management entity.

73. The method according to claim 71, wherein the downlink small data packets are transmitted to the user equipment using non-access stratum messages

of the control plane.

74. The method according to claim 71, wherein the downlink small data packets are received in the connectivity-related network entity, and are transmitted from the connectivity-related network entity to the base station using signaling messages, and are transmitted from the base station to the user equipment using RRC, Radio Resource Control, messages.

75. The method according to claim 71 further comprising the step of:

determining by the connectivity-related network entity to trigger the user equipment for control plane connectivity only, based on the time point of the connectivity establishment, and/or on the interface from which the connectivity-related network entity receives a trigger to trigger the user equipment.

76. The method according to claim 71, wherein in case the downlink small data packets are received by the connectivity-related network entity, the triggering by the connectivity-related network entity is triggered by receiving the downlink small data packets, or

in case the downlink small data packets are received by a gateway, the triggering by the connectivity-related network entity is triggered by receiving a connection initiation message from the gateway, the connection initiation message including information on the downlink small data packets.

77. The method according to claim 71, wherein in case the downlink small data packets are received by a gateway, the downlink small data packets are transmitted from the gateway to the connectivity-related network entity using control plane signaling.

78. The method according to claim 71, further comprising the steps of:

starting by the user equipment a control-plane establishment timer when initiating the establishing of the control plane connectivity, in response to the triggering,

stopping the control-plane establishment timer, upon establishing the control plane connectivity with the mobile communication network.

79. The method according to claim 71, further comprising the steps of:

estimating by the user equipment characteristics of uplink data to be transmitted in response to the downlink small data packets, in response to the triggering,

transmitting by the user equipment the estimated characteristics of the uplink data to the connectivity-related network entity,

deciding by the connectivity-related network entity on whether to establish data bearers, based on the received characteristics of the uplink data, and

in case the connectivity-related network entity decides to establish data bearers, transmitting downlink small data packets to the user equipment using the established data bearers, and transmitting the uplink data from the user equipment using the established data bearers, and

in case the connectivity-related network entity decides not to establish data bearers, transmitting downlink small data packets to the user equipment using the established control plane connectivity.

80. The method according to claim 79, wherein the decision by the connectivity-related network entity is further based on limitation parameters related to the processing of uplink data received in the connectivity-related network entity.

81. The method according to claim 79 wherein in case the connectivity-related network entity decides to not establish data bearers, the method further comprising the steps of:

determining by the connectivity-related network entity limitation parameters related to the processing of uplink data received in the connectivity-related network entity,

transmitting by the connectivity-related network entity the determined limitation parameters to the user equipment,

determining by the user equipment the uplink data to be transmitted, based on the received downlink small data packets,

deciding by the user equipment on whether to establish data bearers to transmit the uplink data, depending on the received limitation parameters and based on the determined uplink data to be transmitted, and

in case the user equipment decides to establish data bearers, transmitting the uplink data using the established data bearers, and transmitting downlink small data packets using the established data bearers,

in case the user equipment decides not to establish data bearers, transmitting the uplink data using the established control-plane connectivity.

82. The method according to claim 79, wherein the characteristics of the uplink data includes information on the amount and/or periodicity of the uplink data and/or an indication on whether the uplink data is small or large.

83. A user equipment for receiving downlink small data packets, the user equipment being subscribed to a mobile communication network comprising a base station, the user equipment comprising:

a receiver adapted to receive a trigger message from a connectivity-related network entity to establish connectivity with the mobile communication network via the control plane only,

a processor, a transmitter and the receiver adapted to establish control plane connectivity with the connectivity-related network entity, in response to the trigger message,

the receiver is further adapted to receive the downlink small data packets using the established control plane connectivity.

84. The user equipment according to claim 83, wherein when the user equipment is in an IDLE state, the receiver is adapted to receive a paging message as trigger message.

85. The user equipment according to claim 83, wherein the receiver is adapted to receive the downlink small data packets from the base station using RRC, Radio Resource Control, messages.

86. The user equipment according to claim 83, wherein a processor of the user equipment is adapted to start a control-plane establishment timer when initiating the establishing of the control plane connectivity, wherein the processor is further adapted to stop the control-plane establishment timer, upon establishing control plane connectivity with the mobile communication network.

87. The user equipment according to claim 84, wherein a processor of the user equipment is adapted to estimate characteristics of uplink data to be transmitted in response to the downlink small data packets, in response to receiving the trigger message,

a transmitter of the user equipment is adapted to transmit the estimated characteristics of the uplink data to the connectivity-related network entity, such that the connectivity-related network entity decides on whether to establish data bearers, based on the transmitted characteristics of the uplink data,

in case the connectivity-related network entity decides to establish data bearers, the receiver, transmitter and processor are adapted to establish data bearers,

the receiver is adapted to receive downlink small data packets using the established data bearer, and

the transmitter is adapted to transmit the uplink data using the established data bearer.

88. The user equipment according to claim 87, wherein in case the connectivity-related network entity decides to not establish data bearers, the receiver is adapted to receive limitation parameters from the connectivity-related network entity, related to the processing of uplink data received in the connectivity-related network entity,

the processor is adapted to determine the uplink data to be transmitted, based on the received downlink small data packets,

the processor further adapted to decide whether to establish data bearers to transmit the uplink data, depending on the received limitation parameters and based on the determined uplink data to be transmitted,

in case the processor decides to establish data bearer, the transmitter, receiver, processor being adapted to establish data bearer, and the transmitted adapted to transmit the uplink data using the established data bearer, and the received adapted to receive downlink small data packets using the established data bearer.

89. A connectivity-related network entity for transmitting downlink small data packets to a user equipment subscribed to a mobile communication network comprising a base station, the connectivity-related network entity comprising:

a transmitter adapted to transmit a trigger message to the user equipment to establish connectivity with the mobile communication network via control plane only,

a processor, receiver and the transmitter adapted to establish control plane connectivity for the user equipment,

the transmitter adapted to transmit the downlink small data packets to the user equipment using the established control plane connectivity.

90. The connectivity-related network entity according to claim 89, wherein when the user equipment is in an IDLE state, the transmitter is adapted to transmit a paging message as the trigger message, comprising a control-plane only indication, and the connectivity-related network entity is a mobility management entity of the user equipment.