Systems and methods for classifying user equipment and selecting tracking areas

A method for providing a tracking area identity list in a communications network, comprising:

• maintaining, at a mobility management entity, a tracking area transition likelihood, wherein the tracking area transition likelihood is indicative of a likelihood that a user equipment device moves from one tracking area to another tracking area;
• maintaining, at the mobility management entity, a tracking area group transition likelihood, wherein a tracking area group includes at least one tracking area, and wherein the tracking area group transition likelihood is indicative of a likelihood that the user equipment device moves from a first tracking area in a first tracking area group to a second tracking area in a second tracking area group;
• recording, at the mobility management entity, a mobility number, wherein the mobility number is indicative of a number of times a tracking area identity has changed for the user equipment device during a period of time;
• recording, at the mobility management entity, a paging number, wherein the paging number is indicative of a number of times the user equipment device is paged during a period of time;
• determining a category associated with the user equipment device based on the recorded mobility number and the recorded paging number;
• and
• generating the tracking area identity list for the user equipment device based on the category associated with the user equipment device and one or both of the tracking area transition likelihood and the tracking area group transition likelihood.