SHORT MESSAGE TRANSMISSION AND HANDOVER PROCEDURES

• US 20160127968A1
• Filed: 01/14/2016
• Published: 05/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sun Patent Trust
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Velev, Genadi, Bachmann, Jens, Ikeda, Shinkichi
• Granted Patent: US 9,894,579 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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. 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 and not via user plane,

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, not using user plane connectivity, and

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

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

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

3. The method according to claim 1, 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.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the downlink small data packets are transmitted to the user equipment using non-access stratum messages of the control plane.

5. 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 configured to receive a trigger message from a connectivity-related network entity to establish connectivity with the mobile communication network via the control plane only and not via user plane,

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

the receiver is further configured to receive the downlink small data packets using the established control plane connectivity not using user plane connectivity.

6. The user equipment according to claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to start a control-plane establishment timer when initiating the establishing of the control plane connectivity, and to stop the control-plane establishment timer, upon establishing control plane connectivity with the mobile communication network.

7. The user equipment according to claim 5, wherein when the user equipment is in an IDLE state, the receiver is configured to receive a paging message as trigger message.

8. The user equipment according to claim 5, wherein the receiver is configured to receive the downlink small data packets from the base station using RRC, Radio Resource Control, messages.