Method and node for handling attachment of a UE

#This application is a 35 U.S.C. § 371 national stage application of PCT International Application No. PCT/EP2016/074312 filed on Oct. 11, 2016, the disclosure and content of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

#Embodiments herein relate generally to a local subscriber node and a method performed by the local subscriber node. More particularly the embodiments herein relate to handling attachment of a User Equipment (UE) to a central network.

#Today it is impossible for a UE to connect to any Mobile Network Operator (MNO) without a connection to a subscriber node such as e.g. a Home Location Register (HLR) or a Home Subscriber Server (HSS). The HLR and HSS are examples of subscriber nodes which comprises subscriber data. The terms subscriber information, subscriber data, subscription information and subscription information may be used interchangeably herein. This is specified in for example the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Technical Specification (TS) 23.060 V13.7.0 (2016-06) and 3GPP TS 23.401 V14.0.0 (2016-06) during the authentication/security step, Evolved Packet System Authentication and Key Agreement (EPS-AKA) and the Update Location procedure in the Attach procedure. FIG. 1a and FIG. 1b illustrates an example of an attach procedure, i.e. E-UTRAN Initial attach, which corresponds to FIG. 5.3.2.1-1 from 3GPP TS 23.401 (2016-06). FIG. 1a comprises steps 101-121 and FIG. 1b comprises steps 122-141. FIG. 1b is a continuation of FIG. 1a, i.e. steps 101-121 are performed first, and then steps 122-141 in FIG. 1b are performed. The authentication/security step mentioned above is illustrated in step 107 in FIG. 1a and the Update Location procedure is illustrated with steps 115-121 in FIG. 1a. The continuous arrows in FIGS. 1a and 1b illustrate compulsory steps and the dotted arrows in FIG. 1 indicate optional or conditional steps.

#The embodiments herein will now be further described in more detail in the following detailed description by reference to the appended drawings illustrating the embodiments and in which:

#FIGS. 1a and 1b are signaling diagrams illustrating an attach procedure

#FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating embodiments of a system.

#The drawings are not necessarily to scale and the dimensions of certain features may have been exaggerated for the sake of clarity. Emphasis is instead placed upon illustrating the principle of the embodiments herein.

#FIG. 2 depicts a communications system in which embodiments herein may be implemented. The communications network may in some embodiments apply to one or more radio access technologies such as for example Second Generation (2G), Third Generation (3G), Fourth Generation (4G), Fifth Generation (5g), or any other Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) radio access technology, or other radio access technologies such as e.g. Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN).

#FIG. 2 illustrates a central network 200a and a local network 200b. The central network 200a may be described as a macro EPS system providing national coverage while local network is a subset of the central network (e.g. rural deployment) that can function standalone with the embodiments herein. The local network 200b has a smaller size than the central network 200a, and the central network may comprise one or more local networks 200b. The local network 200b may be a small geographical area, a limited geographical area. Examples of a local network 200b may be a residence network, a school network, a laboratory network, a university campus network or an office building network. A local network 200b may be described as a Local Area Network (LAN).