Mobile switching center restart recovery procedure

• US 6,067,454 A
• Filed: 04/14/1998
• Issued: 05/23/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Foti, George
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisenzopf, Reinhard J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): APPIAH, CHARLES NANA
• Application Number:
  US09/060,174
• Time in Patent Office: 770 Days
• Field of Search: 455/8, 455/9, 455/433, 455/423, 455/424, 455/67.1, 455/560
• US Class Current: 455/433
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/30 Network data restoration; Network data reliability; Network data fault tolerance

Abstract

A method of recovering from a restart procedure in a mobile switching center (MSC) in a radio telecommunications network having a home location register (HLR) that maintains subscriber profiles and a MSC that maintains temporary subscriber records associated with the subscriber profiles in the HLR. The MSC maintains the temporary subscriber records in the MSC during the restart procedure, and flags each temporary subscriber record in the MSC that went through the restart. The HLR flags each subscriber profile in the HLR that fails an attempt to update an associated temporary subscriber record in the MSC during the restart procedure. When an access attempt is received in the MSC that requires use of a temporary subscriber record that is flagged, the MSC requests the HLR to send any changes to the flagged temporary subscriber record. The HLR then determines whether the subscriber profile associated with the flagged temporary subscriber record in the MSC is flagged in the HLR. If the subscriber profile is not flagged, the HLR sends a message to the MSC indicating that there are no changes to the flagged temporary subscriber record. However, if the subscriber profile in the HLR is flagged, the HLR sends to the MSC, the changes stored in the flagged profile which then update the flagged temporary subscriber record in the MSC. The flagged subscriber profile and the flagged temporary record are then reset.

Claims

1. In a radio telecommunications network having a home location register (HLR) that maintains subscriber profiles for subscribers in the network and a mobile switching center (MSC) that maintains temporary subscriber records associated with subscribers roaming in the MSC'"'"'s service area, a method of recovering from a restart procedure in the MSC, said method comprising the steps of:

maintaing the temporary subscriber records in the MSC during the restart procedure;

identifying temporary subscriber records that went through the restart procedure;

MSC identifying subscriber profiles in the HLR that failed attempts to update associated temporary subscriber records in the MSC during the restart procedure; and

updating only the identified temporary subscriber records from the identified subscriber profiles after the restart procedure is completed.

2. The method of recovering from a restart procedure in the MSC of claim 1 wherein the step of identifying subscriber profiles in the HLR that failed attempts to update associated temporary subscriber records in the MSC during the restart procedure includes the steps of:

receiving an update to a subscriber profile in the HLR;

attempting to update an associated temporary subscriber record in the MSC;

obtaining no response from the MSC; and

flagging the subscriber profile in the HLR.

3. The method of recovering from a restart procedure in the MSC of claim 2 wherein the step of identifying temporary subscriber records that went through the restart procedure includes flagging the temporary subscriber records that went through the restart procedure.

4. The method of recovering from a restart procedure in the MSC of claim 1 wherein the step of updating only the identified temporary subscriber records includes the steps of:

receiving an access attempt in the MSC that requires use of an identified temporary subscriber record in the MSC;

sending a message from the MSC to the HLR requesting any changes to the identified temporary subscriber record in the MSC;

determining in the HLR whether the subscriber profile associated with the identified temporary subscriber record in the MSC is an identified profile in the HLR; and

sending from the HLR to the MSC, the changes made to the subscriber profile during the restart, upon determining that the associated subscriber profile in the HLR is an identified profile.

5. The method of recovering from a restart procedure in the MSC of claim 4 further comprising, after the step of sending the changes made to the subscriber profile from the HLR to the MSC, the steps of:

resetting the flagged temporary records in the MSC; and

resetting the flagged subscriber profiles in the HLR.

6. The method of recovering from a restart procedure in the MSC of claim 1 wherein the step of updating only the identified temporary subscriber records includes the steps of:

receiving an access attempt in the MSC that requires use of an identified temporary subscriber record in the MSC;

sending a message from the MSC to the HLR requesting any changes to the identified temporary subscriber record in the MSC;

determining in the HLR whether the subscriber profile associated with the identified temporary subscriber record in the MSC is an identified profile in the HLR; and

sending the associated subscriber profile from the HLR to the MSC, upon determining that the associated subscriber profile in the HLR is an identified profile.

7. The method of recovering from a restart procedure in the MSC of claim 6 further comprising, after the step of sending the associated subscriber profile from the HLR to the MSC, the steps of:

resetting the flagged temporary records in the MSC; and

resetting the flagged subscriber profiles in the HLR.

8. The method of recovering from a restart procedure in the MSC of claim 1 further comprising the step of notifying the MSC that there are no changes to the identified temporary subscriber records in the MSC, upon determining that the associated subscriber profiles in the HLR are not identified profiles.

9. The method of recovering from a restart procedure in the MSC of claim 8 further comprising, after the step of notifying the MSC that there are no changes to the identified temporary subscriber records in the MSC, the step of resetting the flagged temporary records in the MSC.

10. In a radio telecommunications network having a home location register (HLR) that maintains subscriber profiles and a mobile switching center (MSC) that maintains temporary subscriber records associated with roaming subscribers having subscriber profiles in the HLR, a method of recovering from a restart procedure in the MSC, said method comprising the steps of:

maintaining the temporary subscriber records in the MSC during the restart procedure;

flagging each temporary subscriber record in the MSC that went through the restart procedure;

flagging each subscriber profile in the HLR that fails an attempt to update an associated temporary subscriber record in the MSC during the restart procedure;

receiving an access attempt in the MSC that requires use of a temporary subscriber record that is flagged in the MSC;

sending a message from the MSC to the HLR requesting any changes to the flagged temporary subscriber record in the MSC;

determining in the HLR whether the subscriber profile associated with the flagged temporary subscriber record in the MSC is flagged in the HLR;

sending from the HR to the MSC, the changes to the flagged temporary subscriber record in the MSC, upon determining that the associated subscriber profile in the HLR is flagged;

sending a message from the HLR to the MSC indicating that there are no changes to the flagged temporary subscriber record in the MSC, upon determining that the associated subscriber profile in the HLR is not flagged;

resetting the flagged temporary records in the MSC; and

resetting the flagged subscriber profiles in the HLR, upon determining that the associated subscriber profile in the HLR is flagged.