Managing capability information for overhead reduction

A system comprising;

• a memory device storing, at an access node of a wireless network, a user equipment (UE) capability repository correlating identifying characteristics of user equipment with capabilities of UEs;
• and
• a processing device operating within a wireless network, the processing device performing operations including;
• in response to a connection request from a particular UE, the connection request including UE identifying characteristics comprising an international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) type allocation code (TAC) and an IMEI software version (SV) for the particular UE, searching the UE capability repository for UE capabilities correlated with the IMEI TAC and the IMEI SV for the particular UE;
• upon finding the UE capabilities correlated with the IMEI TAC and the IMEI SV:
• refraining from sending a UE capability enquiry message to the particular UE;
• and
• providing a core network with the UE capabilities;
• determining that the particular UE has not previously connected to the wireless network;
• and
• in response to determining that the particular UE has not previously connected to the network, storing an association of the UE identifying characteristics for the particular UE and the correlated UE capabilities with a globally unique temporary identifier (GUTI) for the particular UE at the access node and the core network;
• upon finding a partial match of only the IMEI TAC or the IMEI SV, transmitting a NULL message to the core network;
• and
• upon failure to find the UE capabilities correlating with the identifying characteristics, triggering sending of a UE capability information message to the access node from the particular UE, receiving the UE capability information message, and updating the UE capability repository with the UE capabilities contained in the UE capability information message.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• in response to a connection request from a particular user equipment (UE) to a wireless network, the connection request including UE identifying characteristics comprising an international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) type allocation code (TAC) and an IMEI software version (SV) for the particular UE, searching a UE capability repository for UE capabilities correlated with the IMEI TAC and the IMEI SV for the particular UE;
• upon finding the UE capabilities correlated with the IMEI TAC and the IMEI SV:
• providing an access node with the UE capabilities;
• determining that the particular UE has not previously connected to the wireless network;
• in response to determining that the particular UE has not previously connected to the network, storing an association of the UE identifying characteristics for the particular UE and the correlated UE capabilities with a globally unique temporary identifier (GUTI) for the particular UE at the access node and a core network;
• upon finding a partial match of only the IMEI TAC or the IMEI SV, transmitting a NULL message to the core network;
• and
• upon failure to find the UE capabilities correlating with the UE identifying characteristics, triggering sending of a UE capability information message to the access node from the particular UE, receiving the UE capability information message, and updating the UE capability repository with the capabilities contained in the UE capability information message.