Method and system for signaling reduction on radio access networks using targeted intelligence for communication devices

• US 9,380,486 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2013
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mavenir Systems Incorporated (Mavenir Group Holdings Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kant, Nishi, Lim, Heeseon
• Primary Examiner(s): Elliott, IV, Benjamin H
• Application Number:
  US13/763,372
• Publication Number:
  US 20150327112A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,236 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2475 for supporting traffic characterised by the type of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0215 based on user or device properties, e.g. MTC-capable devices services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC] H04W4/70; wireless resource selection or allocation plan definition based on terminal or device properties H04W72/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0226 based on location or mobility handoff or reselection H04W36/00; mobile application services making use of the location of users or terminals H04W4/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0263 involving mapping traffic to individual bearers or channels, e.g. traffic flow template [TFT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/12 using signalling between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/02 Arrangements for increasing efficiency of notification or paging channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/08 using multi-step notification by increasing the notification area
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/00 Reducing energy consumption in communication networks

Abstract

An intelligent system and an algorithm at a packet network to reduce the amount of signaling in the radio access network and core network is defined. The system collects all the necessary information from the signaling exchange between the radio access network and the core network and takes the subscription characteristics and policy information into consideration to choose the optimal way of reducing the amount of signaling including selecting the optimal bearers for certain types of communications and paging selected area instead of the whole area for each device. The bearer selection algorithm takes several things as input to choose the optimal bearer to perform the task.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method performed within a network element of a packet core for selecting a bearer to transfer data with a user device responsive to a command from a network application to the user device, the method comprising:

receiving the command from the network application;

analyzing the command for various criteria, including at least one of frequency, size of data, quality of service, time criticality, mission criticality, and duration;

making a preliminary selection of the bearer to require minimum overall signaling exchanges with minimum overall packet counts for the data transfer to deliver the command to the user device based on the analysis;

collecting a current mobility and session state of the user device at a time of establishing the bearer;

modifying the preliminary bearer selection based on the current mobility and session state of the user device such that the minimum overall signaling exchanges for the data transfer is minimized at the time of establishing the bearer to form a final bearer selection; and

establishing the bearer based on the final bearer selection to send the command to the user device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein preliminary bearer selection further comprises:

selecting a packet data connection if the size of the data is big, the frequency of data transfer is short, or a high quality of service is requested;

selecting a non-real-time store and forward mechanism if the size of the data is small, the frequency of data transfer is long, or a quality of service is not requested; and

selecting a broadcast mechanism if the data transfer is not time or mission critical and the data associated with the command is sized to the broadcast mechanism'"'"'s maximum data size.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the components of the packet core are one of a serving general packet radio service (GPRS) support node (SGSN) or a serving gateway (S-GW), one of a gateway general packet radio service (GPRS) support node (GGSN) or a packet data network gateway (PDN-GW), a mobility management entity (MME), a home location register (HLR), and a policy and charging rule function (PCRF).

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the packet data connection is the data bearer through a packet data protocol (PDP) context, the non-real-time store and forward mechanism is a short message service (SMS), and the broadcast mechanism is a multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS).

5. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the bearer further comprises:

tracking the location of the user device periodically and storing the location over a period of time;

predicting a target area where the user device could be at the time of establishing a bearer;

sending a first paging request message only to a target area when the user device does not have a signaling connection to the network;

sending a second paging request message to a whole area when the user device does not respond to the first paging request message; and

establishing the bearer after the signaling connection is established via the first or second paging request message.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the target area is one of an enhanced node B (eNB) area or a radio network controller (RNC) area and the whole area is one of a routing area or a tracking area.

7. A network element for processing network traffic of a packet network, the network element comprising:

a packet network interface unit to interface with an application server providing commands to a remote node, the commands being received by the packet network interface unit;

a radio access network interface unit to interface with the remote node via a radio access network;

a request database unit to store all the related information of received commands provided by the application server to the remote node, the related information including at least some of frequency, size of the data, quality of service, time criticality, mission criticality, and duration, and a first bearer selection via which the command is to be sent to the remote node;

a remote node mobility and session state unit to provide information of the remote node'"'"'s mobility and session state and to provide the information of the location of the remote node periodically;

a policy decision unit to select a first bearer to send the command to the remote node in advance before sending the command, using information stored in the first request database unit and to select a final bearer at the time of sending the command using information provided by the remote node mobility and session state unit in conjunction with the first bearer selection; and

a bearer establishing unit to exchange the signaling with the remote node in order to establish the bearer as the final bearer selected by the policy decision unit and to send the command to the remote node.

8. The network element of claim 7, wherein the radio network is comprised of at least one of a 3G radio access network, a high speed packet access (HSPA) network, a long term evolution (LTE) access network or a Wi-Fi access network.

9. The network element of claim 7, wherein the bearer establishing unit further:

establishes the bearer selected by the policy decision unit through an existing signaling connection if the remote node already has a signaling connection toward the radio access network;

sends a paging message to the remote node to request the remote node to create signaling connection toward the radio access network when the remote note does not have a signaling connection toward the radio access network;

selects a small target area to send a first paging message using location information of the remote node provided by the remote node mobility session state unit;

selects a whole area to send a second paging message when the remote node does not respond to the first paging message;

waits for the remote node to respond and create a signaling connection toward the radio access network; and

establishes the bearer as the final bearer selected by the policy decision unit through a newly created signaling connection between the remote node and the radio access network.

10. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method within a network element of a packet core to transfer data with a user device responsive to a command from a network application to the user device, the method comprising:

receiving the command from the network application;

analyzing the command for various criteria, including at least one of frequency, size of data, quality of service, time criticality, mission criticality, and duration;

making a preliminary selection of the bearer to require minimum overall signaling exchanges with minimum overall packet counts for the data transfer to deliver the command to the user device based on the analysis;

collecting a current mobility and session state of the user device at a time of establishing the bearer;

modifying the preliminary bearer selection based on the mobility and session current state of the user device such that the minimum overall signaling exchanges for the data transfer is minimized at the time of establishing the bearer to form a final bearer selection; and

establishing the bearer based on the final bearer selection to send the command to the user device.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein preliminary bearer selection further comprises:

selecting a packet data connection if the size of the data is big, the frequency of data transfer is short, or a high quality of service is requested;

selecting a non-real-time store and forward mechanism if the size of the data is small, the frequency of data transfer is long, or a quality of service is not requested; and

selecting a broadcast mechanism if the data transfer is not time or mission critical and the data associated with the command is sized to the broadcast mechanism'"'"'s maximum data size.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the components of the packet core are one of a serving general packet radio service (GPRS) support node (SGSN) or a serving gateway (S-GW), one of a gateway general packet radio service (GPRS) support node (GGSN) or a packet data network gateway (PDN-GW), a mobility management entity (MME), a home location register (HLR), and a policy and charging rule function (PCRF).

13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the packet data connection is the data bearer through a packet data protocol (PDP) context, the non-real-time store and forward mechanism is a short message service (SMS), and the broadcast mechanism is a multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS).

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein establishing the bearer further comprises:

tracking the location of the user device periodically and storing the location over a period of time;

predicting a target area where the user device could be at the time of establishing a bearer;

sending a first paging request message only to a target area when the user device does not have a signaling connection to the network;

sending a second paging request message to a whole area when the user device does not respond to the first paging request message; and

establishing a bearer after the signaling connection is established via the first or second paging request message.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the target area is one of an enhanced node B (eNB) area or a radio network controller (RNC) area and the whole area is one of a routing area or a tracking area.