Subscriber-aware paging

• US 9,060,347 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2012
• Issued: 06/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Vaidya, Maulik, Munagala, Lingesh, Alex, Arun C., Ang, Gibson Soon Teck, Mahalingam, Sailakshmi, Murugan, Adi Raja, Vaid, Gaurav
• Primary Examiner(s): Nealon, William
• Application Number:
  US13/690,365
• Publication Number:
  US 20140155109A1
• Time in Patent Office: 928 Days
• Field of Search: 455/458, 370/237, 370/252, 370/328
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 68/04 multi-step notification using statistical or historical mobility data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/06 Registration at serving network Location Register, VLR or user mobility server

Abstract

This disclosure relates to systems and methods for paging devices in a communication network. A network device providing mobility management through control messaging can be assigned a number of cell sites in multiple tracking areas. The network device such as a mobility management entity (MME) can use a subscriber-aware implementation to provide a hierarchy for contacting a mobile device with a page. The subscriber-aware implementation can be tailored to analyze subscriber activity such as frequency and timing, to page a subset of the total number of cell sites in multiple tracking areas based on the subscriber activity, and to expand the subset after unsuccessful attempts to page the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining, at a mobility management entity (MME) in a communication network, a list of eNodeBs from which a user equipment (UE) was actively communicating with the communication network, the communication network including a plurality of eNodeBs arranged into at least one tracking area;

receiving a page request for the UE at the MME;

sending a first paging request to a first set of eNodeBs at least in part based on the list;

identifying a second set of eNodeBs to receive a second paging request, the second set including a first subset of eNodeBs at least in part based on subscriber location activity of the UE, the subscriber location activity including one or more location identifiers associated with the UE, a window of time based on one or more system time stamps of the MME, and a subscriber identifier associated with the UE, and the second set having at least some different eNodeBs than the first set;

adding, to the second set of eNodeBs to receive the second paging request, a second subset of eNodeBs including one or more eNodeBs not included in the first subset, the second subset of eNodeBs having been selected at least in part based on the UE having communicated with the eNodeBs of the second subset more recently, and a fewer numbers of times, than with at least one of the eNodeBs of the first subset; and

sending the second paging request to the second set of eNodeBs, if a response is not received responsive to the first paging request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the location identifiers include at least one of a Tracking Area Code (TAC) or an eNodeB identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the subscriber location activity further includes a count of the number of times the UE has responded to page requests at eNodeBs associated with the plurality of location identifiers.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first subset includes eNodeBs from which the UE most frequently responds to paging requests.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second subset of eNodeBs includes eNodeBs from which the UE responded to paging requests most recently.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the second set of eNodeBs includes eNodeBs from which the UE most frequently responds to paging requests during the window of time, the window of time determined at least in part based on the time stamps, which correspond to times at which the UE previously responded to paging requests.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of eNodeBs includes eNodeBs identified at least in part based on a probability that the UE will be associated with a particular location identifier at a current time, the probability being determined based on previous time stamps and previous subscriber location activity.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the second set of eNodeBs further comprises

sending the subscriber location activity via an interface to a remote analytics node so as to offload analysis of the subscriber location activity;

and

receiving, from the analytics node, the second set of eNodeBs identified at least in part based on patterns analyzed from the subscriber location activity.

9. A mobility management entity (MME) that communicates in a communication network to page a user equipment (UE), and where the communication network includes a plurality of eNodeBs that are arranged into at least one tracking area, the MME comprising:

a storage medium configured to store a first list of eNodeBs from which the UE was actively communicating with the communication network and a second list of eNodeBs identified based at least in part on subscriber location activity of the UE within the communication network;

a physical interface configured to;

receive a page request for the UE where the page request includes an area where the UE was last registered; and

send page requests to at least one eNodeB; and

a processing unit configured to send page requests selectively to some eNodeBs of the plurality of eNodeBs, including;

initiating a sending of a first paging request to at least one eNodeB at least in part based on the first list;

identifying a second set of eNodeBs to receive a second paging request, the second set including a first subset of eNodeBs at least in part based on subscriber location activity of the UE, the subscriber location activity including one or more location identifiers associated with the UE, a first time window based on one or more system time stamps of the MME, and a subscriber identifier associated with the UE, and the second set having at least some different eNodeBs than the first set;

adding, to the second set of eNodeBs to receive the second paging request, a second subset of eNodeBs including one or more eNodeBs not included in the first subset, the second subset of eNodeBs having been selected at least in part based on the UE having communicated with the eNodeBs of the second subset more recently, and a fewer numbers of times, than with at least one of the eNodeBs of the first subset; and

initiating a sending of the second paging request to the second set of eNodeBs, if a response is not received responsive to the first paging request.

10. The MME of claim 9, wherein the location identifiers include at least one of a Tracking Area Code (TAC) or an eNodeB identifier.

11. The MME of claim 9, wherein the subscriber location activity further includes a count of the number of times the UE has responded to page requests at eNodeBs associated with the plurality of location identifiers.

12. The MME of claim 9, wherein the processing unit is further configured to

send the subscriber location activity to an analytics node so as to offload analysis of the subscriber location activity;

and to

receive, from the analytics node, the second set of eNodeBs identified at least in part based on patterns analyzed from the subscriber location activity.

13. The MME of claim 9, wherein the processing unit is configured to process packets received on the physical interface in response to subscriber events, the subscriber events including the UE attaching to the communications network, the UE detaching from the communications network, the UE sending a tracking area update (TAU), a handover of the UE, or processing packets at periodic time intervals.

14. The MME of claim 9, wherein the second set of eNodeBs includes eNodeBs from which the UE most frequently responds to paging requests or eNodeBs from which the UE responded to paging requests most recently.

15. An analytics node comprising:

a storage medium configured to store a list of eNodeBs from which a user equipment (UE) was actively communicating with a communication network, where the communication network includes a plurality of eNodeBs that are arranged into at least one tracking area;

a physical interface configured to receive, from a remote mobility management entity (MME), a subscriber location activity update, so as to offload analysis of subscriber location activity from the remote MME, where the MME communicates with at least one eNodeB in the communication network to page the UE, and where the subscriber location activity includes one or more location identifiers associated with the UE, a window of time based on one or more system time stamps of the MME, and a subscriber identifier associated with the UE; and

a processing unit configured to;

identify a first set of eNodeBs to receive a first paging request from the remote MME at least in part based on the list;

identify a second set of eNodeBs to receive a second paging request from the remote MME, the second set including a first subset of eNodeBs at least in part based on the subscriber location activity, the second set having at least some different eNodeBs than the first set;

add, to the second set of eNodeBs to receive the second paging request, a second subset of eNodeBs including one or more eNodeBs not included in the first subset, the second subset of eNodeBs having been selected at least in part based on the UE having communicated with the eNodeBs of the second subset more recently, and a fewer numbers of times, than with at least one of the eNodeBs of the first subset; and

send the first and second sets of eNodeBs over the physical interface to the remote MME.

16. The analytics node of claim 15, wherein processing unit is further configured to aggregate subscriber location activity from a plurality of UEs, and to identify the second set of eNodeBs based at least in part on the aggregated subscriber location activity.

17. The analytics node of claim 15, wherein the subscriber location activity further includes a count of the number of times the UE has responded to page requests at eNodeBs associated with the plurality of location identifiers.

18. The analytics node of claim 15, wherein the second set of eNodeBs includes eNodeBs from which the UE most frequently responds to paging requests or eNodeBs from which the UE responded to paging requests most recently.

19. The analytics node of claim 15, wherein the first subset of eNodeBs includes eNodeBs from which the UE most frequently responds to paging requests during the window of time, the window of time determined at least in part based on the time stamps, which correspond to times at which the UE previously responded to paging requests.

20. The analytics node of claim 15, wherein the second set of eNodeBs includes eNodeBs identified at least in part based on a probability that the UE will be associated with a particular location identifier at a current time, based on previous time stamps and previous subscriber location activity.