Handling wait time in a congested wireless communication network

An apparatus, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more computer-readable media comprising one or more instructions that when executed by at least one of the one or more processors cause the apparatus to:
• send an attach request message to a network controller;
• receive, at a first layer, an extended wait time (EWT) value from a second layer that is lower than the first;
• determine whether the attach request message has a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling low priority indicator;
• start a backoff timer with the EWT value, based on a determination that the attach request message has the NAS signaling low priority indicator;
• and
• ignore the EWT value and abort an attach procedure, based on a determination that the attach request message does not have the NAS signaling low priority indicator.

A computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to:

• receive, from a network controller, a message to release a radio resource (RR) connection;
• receive, at a first layer, an extended wait time (EWT) value from a second layer that is lower than the first layer;
• and
• ignore the EWT value based on a determination that the EWT value is received when no location updating or service request procedure is ongoing.

A method, comprising:

• receiving, from a network controller, a message to release a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling connection;
• receiving, at a first layer, an extended wait time (EWT) value from a second layer that is lower than the first layer;
• and
• determining whether to ignore the EWT value based on a determination of whether the EWT value is received when no attach, tracking area updating or service request procedure is ongoing.