Methods and systems of paging in cellular networks

A method of operating a mobile telecommunications system including a plurality of coverage areas, a plurality of transceiver node cells configured to communicate wirelessly with a plurality of terminals, each of the transceiver node cells serving one of the coverage areas and having a capability to communicate using at least one frequency band, wherein each of the terminals is allocated to one of the coverage areas and wherein each of the terminals has a capability to communicate using at least one of the frequency bands, the method comprising:

• initiating, via a controller, a paging procedure for one of the terminals in the coverage area allocated thereto using the transceiver node cells serving that coverage area, the paging procedure including extending a paging message that is to be sent for the one of the terminals, the paging message being extended to include a list of frequency bands that the one of the terminals supports while also ensuring that a paging function of the paging message is unchanged;
• obtaining, via the controller, frequency band capability data for the terminal, which indicates all of the frequency bands in which the terminal is capable of communicating;
• and
• modifying the paging procedure to page the terminal using all the transceiver node cells in the coverage area that operate in the frequency bands indicated by the frequency band capability data for the terminal, but not using the transceiver node cells in the coverage area that operate only in other ones of the frequency bands,
• wherein the controller is further configured to perform the paging procedure when the terminals are in an idle or inactive state, and wherein, while a particular one of the terminals is in the idle or inactive state, the controller periodically receives, from the particular terminal, a tracking area update (TAU) message that includes information regarding a current location of the particular terminal.