US 10,945,180 B2Granted

Mobility management method, apparatus, and system

AssigneeHuawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

InventorWeisheng Jin

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Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate to field of communications technologies, and provide a mobility management method that can effectively ensure normal communication between user equipment and a base station without using an anchor device, and ensure service continuity between the user equipment and a communication peer. A specific solution is as follows: User equipment establishes a first substream with a communication peer; when the user equipment moves from a first base station to a second base station, and a second gateway and a first gateway are not the same gateway, the user equipment obtains a second IP address; after obtaining the second IP address, the user equipment establishes a second substream with the communication peer; after the second substream is established, the communication peer removes the first substream; and after the first substream is removed, the first gateway releases a network resource occupied for transmitting the first substream.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A mobility management system, comprising:

a first gateway;
a second gateway;
a first base station connected to the first gateway;
a second base station connected to the second gateway;
a communication peer;
and
user equipment configured to:
establish a first substream with the communication peer by using a first Internet Protocol (IP) address allocated by the first gateway to the user equipment;
when moving from the first base station to the second base station, obtain a second IP address allocated by the second gateway to the user equipment;
establish with the communication peer after obtaining the second IP address a second substream by using the second IP address;
and
remove the first substream after establishing the second substream;
and, wherein
the mobility management system further comprises a second mobility management entity, wherein the second mobility management entity is configured to manage the second base station and the second gateway, and wherein obtaining the second IP address comprises:
when the second mobility management entity determines, according to a context of the user equipment, that the second gateway and the first gateway are not the same gateway, the second mobility management entity requests the second gateway to allocate the IP address to the user equipment, and sends the second IP address received from the second gateway to the user equipment.

12 more elements

User equipment, comprising:

a processor;
a memory;
and
a bus, wherein the processor and the memory are interconnected by the bus, wherein
when the user equipment is connected to a first base station, the processor is configured to establish with a communication peer a first substream by using a first Internet Protocol (IP) address allocated by a first gateway to the user equipment, and the first gateway is connected to the first base station;
when the user equipment moves from the first base station to a second base station, the processor is further configured to obtain a second IP address when a second gateway is different than the first gateway, wherein the second base station is connected to the second gateway, and the second IP address is an IP address allocated by the second gateway to the user equipment;
the processor is further configured to establish a second substream with the communication peer, wherein the second substream is established by the user equipment with the communication peer by using the second IP address;
and
the processor is further configured to remove the first substream after establishing the second substream;
and, wherein the user equipment further comprises a transmitter and a receiver, wherein
when the user equipment moves from the first base station to the second base station, the transmitter is configured to send the first IP address or a first gateway identity to a second mobility management entity, so that the second mobility management entity:
determines, according to the first IP address or the first gateway identity, whether the second gateway and the first gateway are the same gateway and when the second gateway is different than the first gateway,
requests the second gateway to allocate the IP address to the user equipment and
sends the second IP address received from the second gateway to the user equipment, wherein the first gateway identity is used to indicate the first gateway, and the second mobility management entity is configured to manage the second base station and the second gateway;
and
the receiver is configured to receive the second IP address sent by the second mobility management entity.

13 more elements

A mobility management method, applied to user equipment, wherein the method comprises:

when the user equipment is connected to a first base station, establishing, by the user equipment, a first substream with a communication peer, wherein the first substream is established by the user equipment with the communication peer by using a first Internet Protocol (IP) address, the first IP address is allocated by a first gateway to the user equipment, and the first gateway is connected to the first base station;
when the user equipment moves from the first base station to a second base station, obtaining, by the user equipment, a second IP address when a second gateway is different than the first gateway, wherein the second base station is connected to the second gateway, and the second IP address is an IP address allocated by the second gateway to the user equipment;
establishing, by the user equipment, a second substream with the communication peer, wherein the second substream is established by the user equipment with the communication peer by using the second IP address;
and
after establishing the second substream, removing, by the user equipment, the first substream;
and, wherein the method further comprises:
when the user equipment moves from the first base station to the second base station:
sending the first IP address or a first gateway identity to a second mobility management entity, so that the second mobility management entity:
determines, according to the first IP address or the first gateway identity, whether the second gateway and the first gateway are the same gateway and when the second gateway is different than the first gateway,
requests the second gateway to allocate the IP address to the user equipment, and
sends the second IP address received from the second gateway to the user equipment, wherein the first gateway identity is used to indicate the first gateway, and the second mobility management entity is configured to manage the second base station and the second gateway;
and
receiving the second IP address sent by the second mobility management entity.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/114,738Filed 28 Aug 2018 · continuation
Priority: 29 Feb 2016
Published: US 2018/0368042 A120 Dec 2018
Granted: 9 Mar 2021
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

H04W 36/12
Hand-off or reselection arrangements: reselecting a serving backbone network switching or routing node
H04W 76/15
Connection setup: setup of multiple wireless link connections
H04W 8/08
Processing of mobility data, e.g. registration information at HLR [Home Location Register] or VLR [Visitor Location Register]; Transfer of…:…
H04W 8/087
Mobility data transfer: for preserving data network PoA address despite hand-offs