Mute Call Detection in a Communication Network System

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium including a program for a processing device, comprising software code portions for causing the processing device, when the program is run on the processing device, to perform operations comprising:

• acquiring information on a connection status between a user equipment and a core network of a communication network system, the user equipment accessing the core network via a radio access network of the communication network system;
• determining, from the information on the connection status, whether or not data packets should be communicated between the user equipment and the core network;
• in case it is determined that data packets should be communicated, detecting whether or not data packets are present on a user plane path between the user equipment and the core network;
• in case it is detected that data packets are not present on the user plane path, generating a silence report and indicating information on the detection result in the silence report;
• and
• detecting, based on the silence report, a mute call between the user equipment and the core network.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a memory comprising program instructions;
• a processor, wherein the memory and the program instructions are configured with the processor to cause the apparatus to create and configure a user plane entity and a control plane entity;
• wherein the control plane entity is configured to acquire information on a connection status between a user equipment and a core network of a communication network system, the user equipment accessing the core network via a radio access network of the communication network system, and determine, from the information on the connection status, whether or not data packets should be communicated between the user equipment and the core network,
• wherein, in case the control plane entity determines that data packets should be communicated, the user plane entity is configured to detect whether or not data packets are present on a user plane path between the user equipment and the core network,
• in case the user plane entity detects that data packets are not present on the user plane path, the user plane entity is configured to generate a silence report and indicate information on the detection result in the silence report, and wherein the control plane entity is configured to detect, based on the silence report, a mute call between the user equipment and the core network.