# US 2014/0194150 A1 · Method, Apparatus And System For Determining Terminal State > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2014/0194150 A1 - Document ID: US20140194150A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 14/125,716 - Filed: 2012-04-25 - Published: 2014-07-10 - Earliest claimed: 2011-06-20 - Assignees: Zte Corporation - Inventors: Jian Wang; Chuanxi Wu; Hao Wu; Guoqiang Shang - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140194150A1 ## CPC - H04W 68/02: Arrangements for increasing efficiency of notification or paging channel - H04W 4/70: Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC] - H04W 60/02: by periodical registration - H04W 68/00: User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like - H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72) ## Abstract With a method, apparatus and system for determining a terminal state, that a network side considers that a terminal is in an offline state by mistake can be avoided. The method includes: judging that no location update initiated by the terminal is received when a reachable timer corresponding to the terminal is expired, then sending paging message to the terminal, and triggering the terminal to initiate an interaction process with a network side to determine the terminal state. The apparatus comprises a judgment module, a sending module, and a state determination module. By adopting the method, apparatus and system, the network side can timely acquire the state of an MTC terminal, and will not consider that the terminal is in the offline state and delete the mobility context of the terminal by mistake. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for determining a terminal state, comprising: a network side judging that no location update initiated by the terminal is received when a reachable timer corresponding to the terminal is expired, then sending paging message to the terminal, and triggering the terminal to initiate an interaction process with the network side to determine the terminal state. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method according to claim 1, wherein, sending paging message to the terminal and triggering the terminal to initiate an interaction process with the network side comprises: sending paging message carrying a tracking area update (TAU) indication to the terminal, and triggering the terminal to initiate a TAU process to a network management entity to which the terminal belongs currently. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method according to claim 1, wherein, sending paging message to the terminal and triggering the terminal to initiate an interaction process with the network side comprises: sending the paging message to the terminal, and triggering the terminal to initiate service request message to the network management entity to which the terminal belongs currently; and the method further comprises: the network management entity feeds back service reject message to the terminal after receiving the service request message. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method according to claim 1, wherein, sending paging message to the terminal and triggering the terminal to initiate an interaction process with the network side comprises: sending the paging message to the terminal, and triggering the terminal to initiate service request message to a first network management entity to which the terminal belongs currently; and the first network management entity feeding back reject message for which a reason is load balance to the terminal after receiving the service request message, and triggering the terminal to initiate a TAU process to a second network management entity. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method according to claims 1, wherein, determining the terminal state comprises: after the interaction process with the network side initiated by the terminal is completed, the network side determining that the terminal is in an online state, and restarting a reachable timer corresponding to the terminal. ### Claim 6 A method for determining a terminal state, comprising: the terminal initiating a location update to a network management entity to which the terminal belongs when a periodical timer of the terminal is expired within a time limit of a terminal, so as to make a network side determine that the terminal is in an online state. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The method according to claim 6, wherein, the time limit comprises a back-off time or a wait time; and the terminal comprises a machine type communication (MTC) terminal or a non-MTC terminal. ### Claim 8 A method for determining a terminal state, comprising: a network side lengthening a time of a reachable timer corresponding to a terminal, the time of the reachable timer after lengthening is equal to or greater than a maximum value of a time limit of the terminal; and if the terminal fails to trigger a location update before a periodical timer of the terminal is expired, then the terminal reinitiating a location update process to the network side when a timer for limiting time is expired, so as to make the network side determines that the terminal is in an online state. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The method according to claim 8, wherein, the time limit comprises a back-off time or a wait time; and the terminal comprises a machine type communication (MTC) terminal or a non-MTC terminal. ### Claim 10 An apparatus for determining a terminal state, comprising a judgment module, a sending module and a state determination module, wherein, the judgment module is configured to judge whether a location update initiated by the terminal is received when a reachable timer corresponding to the terminal is expired; the sending module is configured to send paging message to the terminal when the judgment module judges that no location update initiated by the terminal is received when the reachable timer corresponding to the terminal is expired, and trigger the terminal to initiate an interaction process with the network side; and the state determination module is configured to determine the terminal state. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein, the sending module is configured to send the paging message to the terminal and trigger the terminal to initiate the interaction process with the network side by means of: sending paging message carrying a tracking area update (TAU) indication to the terminal, and triggering the terminal to initiate a TAU process to a network management entity to which the terminal belongs currently; or the sending module is configured to send the paging message to the terminal and trigger the terminal to initiate the interaction process with the network side by means of: sending the paging message to the terminal, and triggering the terminal to initiate service request message to the network management entity to which the terminal belongs currently; and the sending module is further configured to feed back service reject message to the terminal after receiving the service request message; or the sending module is configured to send the paging message to the terminal and trigger the terminal to initiate the interaction process with the network side by means of: sending the paging message to the terminal, and triggering the terminal to initiate service request message to a first network management entity to which the terminal belongs currently; and the sending module is further configured to feed back reject message for which a reason is load balance to the terminal after receiving the service request message, and trigger the terminal to initiate a TAU process to a second network management entity. ### Claim 12 (depends on 10) The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein, the determination module is configured to determine the terminal state by means of: after the interaction process with the network side initiated by the terminal is completed, determining that the terminal is in an online state, and restarting a reachable timer corresponding to the terminal. ### Claim 13 An apparatus for determining a terminal state, located in a terminal, comprising a timer judgment module and a sending module, wherein: the timer judgment module is configured to judge whether a periodical timer of the terminal is expired within a time limit of the terminal; and the sending module is configured to initiate a location update to a network management entity to which the terminal belongs when the timer judgment module judges that the periodical timer of the terminal is expired within the time limit of the terminal, so as to make a network side determine that the terminal is in an online state. ### Claim 14 (canceled) ### Claim 15 (depends on 2) The method according to claim 2, wherein, determining the terminal state comprises: after the interaction process with the network side initiated by the terminal is completed, the network side determining that the terminal is in an online state, and restarting a reachable timer corresponding to the terminal. ### Claim 16 (depends on 3) The method according to claim 3, wherein, determining the terminal state comprises: after the interaction process with the network side initiated by the terminal is completed, the network side determining that the terminal is in an online state, and restarting a reachable timer corresponding to the terminal. ### Claim 17 (depends on 4) The method according to claim 4, wherein, determining the terminal state comprises: after the interaction process with the network side initiated by the terminal is completed, the network side determining that the terminal is in an online state, and restarting a reachable timer corresponding to the terminal. ### Claim 18 (depends on 11) The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein, the determination module is configured to determine the terminal state by means of: after the interaction process with the network side initiated by the terminal is completed, determining that the terminal is in an online state, and restarting a reachable timer corresponding to the terminal.