System and methods for session management

• US 10,820,368 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2019
• Issued: 10/27/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Dao, Ngoc Dung, Zhang, Hang, Li, Xu
• Primary Examiner(s): Anwar, Mohammad S
• Application Number:
  US16/571,714
• Publication Number:
  US 20200015314A1
• Time in Patent Office: 407 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/342 between virtual entities, e.g. orchestrators, SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5041 characterised by the time relationship between creation and deployment of a service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1089 by adding media; by removing media
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/143 Termination or inactivation of sessions, e.g. event-controlled end of session
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/148 Migration or transfer of sessions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/327 in the session layer [OSI layer 5]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/24 Negotiating SLA [Service Level Agreement]; Negotiating QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0011 for data sessions of end-to-end connection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0016 Hand-off preparation specially adapted for end-to-end data sessions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0022 : for transferring data sessions between adjacent core network technologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0033 : with transfer of context information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/14 : Reselecting a network or an air interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 : Connection setup
• 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 76/34 : Selective release of ongoing connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/10 : adapted for application session management, e.g. SIP [Session Initiation Protocol] connection management H04W76/00; arrangements for session management H04L67/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/14 : Backbone network devices

Abstract

A network architecture and methods of managing packet data unit (PDU) sessions in a network are provided. The methods include PDU session establishment procedures, PDU session modification procedures, PDU session state transfer procedures, PDU session release procedures, and user equipment (UE) handover procedures.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

initiating, by a session management function (SMF), a release of a PDU session;

if a user equipment (UE) associated with the PDU session is unreachable, notifying, by the SMF, an access and mobility management function (AM F) that the PDU session is released; and

upon being notified, removing, by the AMF, a context associated with the PDU session, wherein a communication associated with a release of a resource is skipped, the resource being associated with the PDU session.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the AMF removes the context without the communication associated with the release of the resource.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein skipping the communication associated with the release of the resource comprises that the AMF does not receive, from the SMF, N1 SM information including a PDU session release command.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein skipping the communication associated with the release of the resource comprises that the AMF does not initiate, a service request procedure to transmit the N1 SM information to the UE which is in a CM-IDLE state.

5. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein skipping the communication associated with the release of the resource further comprises that the AMF does not receive an N2 SM resource release request from the SMF.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein skipping the communication associated with the release of the resource further comprises that the AMF does not transmit the N2 SM resource release request and the N1 SM information to an access network (AN) node.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein skipping the communication associated with the release of the resource further comprises that the AMF does not receive an acknowledgement of the N2 SM resource release request from the AN node.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein skipping the communication associated with the release of the resource further comprises that the AMF does not forward the acknowledgement of the N2 SM resource release request to the SMF.

9. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein skipping the communication associated with the release of the resource further comprises that the AN node does not signal to the UE to release an AN resource associated with the PDU session.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the SMF initiates the release of the PDU session by deciding to release the PDU session based on at least one of a trigger from a data network (DN), a trigger from a unified data management (UDM) function, and a locally configured policy.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the SMF notifies the AMF that the PDU session is released by invoking an operation including information associated with the PDU session.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the context is associated with at least one event subscription by the SMF on the AMF.

13. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

removing, by the SMF, a context associated with the PDU session, wherein the communication associated with the release of the resource is skipped.

14. A communication system comprising a session management function (SMF) and an access and mobility management function (AMF), wherein:

the SMF is configured to;

initiate a release of a PDU session; and

if a user equipment (UE) associated with the PDU session is unreachable, notify the AMF that the PDU session is released;

the AMF is configured to;

upon being notified, remove a context associated with the PDU session, wherein a communication associated with a release of a resource is skipped, the resource being associated with the PDU session.

15. The communication system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the AMF is configured to remove the context without the communication associated with the release of the resource associated with the PDU session.

16. The communication system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the AMF is further configured to remove the context without waiting for receiving, from the SMF, N1 SM information including a PDU session release command if being notified from the SMF that the PDU session is released.

17. The communication system as claimed in claim 16, wherein the AMF is further configured to remove the context without initiating a service request procedure to transmit the N1 SM information to the UE which is in a CM-IDLE state if being notified from the SMF that the PDU session is released.

18. The communication system as claimed in claim 16, wherein the AMF is further configured to remove the context without waiting for receiving an N2 SM resource release request from the SMF if being notified from the SMF that the PDU session is released.

19. The communication system as claimed in claim 18, wherein the AMF is further configured to remove the context without transmitting the N2 SM resource release request and the N1 SM information to an access network (AN) node if being notified from the SMF that the PDU session is released.

20. The communication system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the SMF is configured to initiate the release of the PDU session by deciding to release the PDU session based on at least one of a trigger from a data network (DN), a trigger from a unified data management (UDM) function, and a locally configured policy.

21. The communication system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the SMF is configured to notify the AMF that the PDU session is released by invoking an operation including information associated with the PDU session.

22. The communication system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the context is associated with at least one event subscription by the SMF on the AMF.

23. The communication system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the SMF is further configured to remove a context associated with the PDU session, wherein the communication associated with the release of the resource is skipped.