Unified access control for a cellular network

A processor of a user equipment (UE) configured to perform operations comprising:

• determining a first access attempt to access a first network service is associated with a first access category, wherein the first access category is associated with a first Unified Access Control (UAC) rule, wherein the first UAC rule has a first priority, wherein the first network service is a Short Messaging Service (SMS) over Non-Access stratum (NAS), and wherein the first network service is ongoing and a mobile originating (MO) IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is ongoing;
• determining a second access attempt to access a second network service is associated with a second access category, wherein the second access category is associated with a second UAC rule, wherein the second UAC rule has a second priority, wherein the second network service is one of a service request procedure or a registration procedure, and wherein the first and second access attempts are initiated in 5G Mobility Management Idle (5GMM-IDLE) mode or 5GMM-IDLE mode with suspend indication for a purpose of NAS signaling connection recovery or following a service recovery indication from lower layers of the UE;
• and
• selecting one of the first access category or the second access category for the first and second access attempts based on, at least, a predefined rule indicating that an access category 6 is to be selected for the first and second access attempts when SMS over NAS is ongoing and MO IP IMS is ongoing.