Method and device for information transfer

• US 9,088,918 B2
• Filed: 11/04/2011
• Issued: 07/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2007
• 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: Hu, Weihua, Wu, Wenfu
• Primary Examiner(s): Chery, Dady
• Application Number:
  US13/289,535
• Publication Number:
  US 20120051291A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,355 Days
• Field of Search: 370/328, 370/329, 370/330, 370/331, 370/332, 370/333, 370/334, 370/252, 370/466, 455/436, 455/437, 455/438, 455/439, 709/227, 709/228, 709/229
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0044 of quality context information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/22 Manipulation of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/24 between backbone network devices

Abstract

A method for information transfer includes: determining, by a source Mobility Management Network Element (MMNE) of a source Access Network (AN), version number of GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) used between the source MMNE and a destination MMNE of a destination AN; and transmitting, by the source MMNE, user information corresponding to the version number of the GTP used between the source MMNE and the destination MMNE to the destination MMNE. The embodiment of the invention also provides a device for information transfer. With the embodiment of present invention, corresponding user information transfer may be realized.

Claims

1. A method for information transfer, comprising:

determining, by a source Mobility Management Network Element (MMNE) of a source Access Network (AN), a version number of a GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) used between the source MMNE and a destination MMNE of a destination AN; and

transmitting, by the source MMNE, user information corresponding to the version number of the GTP used between the source MMNE and the destination MMNE to the destination MMNE;

wherein when the GTP version number is GTPV2, the user information corresponding to the version number of the GTP is user information corresponding to a higher version AN, or when the GTP version number is one of GTPV1 and GTPV0, the user information corresponding to the version number of the GTP is user information corresponding to a lower version AN; and

wherein the user information corresponding to the lower version AN comprises Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW) information, and the user information corresponding to the higher version AN comprises both P-GW information and Serving Gateway (S-GW) information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein when the source AN is of higher version and the destination AN is of lower version, the method further comprises:

transmitting, by the source MMNE, a Delete Bearer Request message to an S-GW;

deleting, by the S-GW, bearer resource used by a user; and

returning, by the S-GW, a Delete Bearer Response message to the source MMNE.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein when the destination AN is of higher version and the source AN is of lower version, the method further comprises:

selecting, by the destination MMNE, an S-GW;

transmitting, by the destination MMNE, a Create Bearer Request to the S-GW; and

receiving, by the destination MMNE, a Create Bearer Request Response message from the S-GW.

4. A device for information transfer comprising:

a determination module, configured to determine a version number of a GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) used between a source Mobility Management Network Element (MMNE) and a destination MMNE, and to transmit a determination result to an Information Element (IE) generation module;

the IE generation module, configured to generate an IE carrying user information, the user information comprising user information corresponding to the version number of the GTP used between the source MMNE and the destination MMNE;

a transmission module, configured to transmit the IE generated by the IE generation module to the destination MMNE;

a receiving module, configured to receive the IE carrying the user information from the source MMNE; and

a processing module, configured to obtain user information corresponding to a version of a local AN from the IE received by the receiving module;

wherein user information corresponding to a lower version AN comprises Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW) information, and user information corresponding to a higher version AN comprises Serving Gateway (S-GW) information.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein the processing module is further configured to select a Serving Gateway (S-GW) and obtain information of the S-GW.

6. A method for information transfer, comprising:

transmitting, by a source Mobility Management Network Element (MMNE) of a source Access Network (AN), both user information corresponding to a lower version AN and user information corresponding to a higher version AN to a destination MMNE of a destination AN, when the source AN is of higher version;

wherein the user information corresponding to the lower version AN comprises P-GW information and the user information corresponding to the higher version AN comprises both P-GW information and Serving Gateway (S-GW) information.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the transmitting, by the source MMNE, both user information corresponding to the lower version AN and user information corresponding to the higher version AN to the destination MMNE comprises:

transmitting, by the source MMNE, both one of Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context and bearer context Information Element (IE) of lower version and one of PDP context and bearer context IE of higher version to the destination MMNE, wherein one of the PDP context and bearer context IE of lower version carries the user information corresponding to the lower version AN, and one of the PDP context and bearer context IE of higher version carries the user information corresponding to the higher version AN.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein

the method further comprises:

extending, by the source AN, PDP context/bearer context IE of lower version; and

the transmitting, by the source MMNE, both user information corresponding to the lower version AN and user information corresponding to the higher version AN to the destination MMNE comprises;

transmitting, by the source MMNE, to the destination MMNE one of an extended PDP context and bearer context IE of lower version, which carries both the user information corresponding to the higher version AN and the user information corresponding to the lower version AN.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein

the method further comprises:

generating, by the source MMNE, an extended PDP context/bearer context IE of higher version; and

the transmitting, by the source MMNE, both user information corresponding to the lower version AN and user information corresponding to the higher version AN to the destination MMNE comprises;

transmitting, by the source MMNE, both one of PDP context and bearer context IE of lower version and one of extended PDP context and bearer context IE of higher version to the destination MMNE, wherein one of the PDP context and bearer context IE of lower version carries the user information corresponding to the lower version AN, and one of the extended PDP context and bearer context IE of higher version carries the user information corresponding to the higher version AN.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, by the source MMNE, from the destination MMNE a response message indicating version information of the destination AN.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the response message indicating the version information of the destination AN comprises:

a version indication IE indicating the version information;

or

a user plane anchor point change indication IE indicating the version information.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein when the source AN is of higher version and the destination AN is of lower version, the method further comprises:

transmitting, by the source MMNE, a Delete Bearer Request message to an S-GW;

deleting, by the S-GW, bearer resource used by a user; and

returning, by the S-GW, Delete Bearer Response message to the source MMNE.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein when the destination AN is of higher version and the source AN is of lower version, the method further comprises:

selecting, by the destination MMNE, an S-GW;

transmitting, by the destination MMNE, a Create Bearer Request to the S-GW; and

receiving, by the destination MMNE, a Create Bearer Request Response message from the S-GW.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein:

the P-GW information comprises address and Tunnel Endpoint Identity (TEID) information of the P-GW; and

the S-GW information comprises address and Tunnel Endpoint Identity (TEID) information of the S-GW.