System, method and computer readable medium for bearer activation in a core network for wireless devices

• US 9,942,926 B2
• Filed: 09/01/2016
• Issued: 04/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Ejzak, Richard, Landais, Bruno, Viswanathan, Harish, Barclay, Deborah
• Primary Examiner(s): Wei, Siren
• Application Number:
  US15/254,437
• Publication Number:
  US 20160374126A1
• Time in Patent Office: 586 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels

Abstract

The method includes storing a gateway tunnel identifier, a base station identifier and a base station tunnel identifier; receiving, by the base station, a service request message from a device; establishing, by the base station, a radio bearer between the base station and the device in response to the service request message; receiving, by the base station, one or more first uplink data packets from the device using the radio bearer; modifying, by the base station, the one or more first uplink data packets such that the one or more first uplink data packets include the gateway tunnel identifier, the base station identifier and the base station tunnel identifier; and sending, by the base station, the modified uplink data packet to a gateway.

Claims

1. A network control entity comprising:

a memory; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory, the processor configured to,

receive a service request message from a device,

determine a gateway tunnel identifier and a gateway destination address based on the service request message,

send a message to a base station associated with the device, the message including the gateway tunnel identifier and the gateway destination address,

determine if an access point network (APN) designating a packet data network to which the device requests to be connected is accessible from a visited network, if the device requires one of best effort and static priority data transport, and if the device registers to only one APN at a time, and

send the message if each of the conditions of the determining step are true.

2. The network control entity of claim 1, wherein the network control entity does not send a Modify Bearer Request message to a gateway and does not receive a Modify Bearer Response message from the gateway if each of the conditions of the determining step are true.

3. A network control entity comprising:

a memory; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory, the processor configured to,

receive a service request message from a device,

determine a gateway tunnel identifier and a gateway destination address based on the service request message,

send a message to a base station associated with the device, the message including the gateway tunnel identifier and the gateway destination address,

determine if the device does not require a permanent Internet Protocol (IP) address, if seamless mobility for the device can be limited to a set of network control entities, if a gateway is a combined gateway and if the device is able to perform network communications using a tunnel established by the network control entity based on subscription information or a requested APN,

allocate an address for the device, a tunnel endpoint ID (TEID) for the device,

assign the combined gateway to the device,

provide a gateway destination IP address for tunneled uplink data packets for the combined gateway, and

send another message to the base station if each of the conditions of the determining step are true, the another message including the address for the device, the TEID and the gateway destination IP address.

4. The network control entity of claim 3, wherein the address for the device is one of an IPv4 or IPv6 IP address.

5. The network control entity of claim 3, wherein the processor is further configured to allocates the address for the device without signalling interaction with the gateway, such that the gateway does not store any permanent context information for packet data network connections established by the device.