Methods and Apparatus for Selecting a Serving Gateway for a Session of a User Equipment (UE) in a Mobile Network Having 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) Architecture Deployments

Network equipment of a control plane (CP) entity for mobility management for use in a mobile network, the network equipment comprising:

• one or more processors;
• one or more interfaces for communication with one or more nodes in the mobile network;
• one or more processors being configured to:
• receive, from an eNodeB (eNB), a setup request message for establishing an association with the eNB, the setup request message including an indication which indicates whether the eNB is configured to support Dual Connectivity with New Radio (DCNR) with a connection to a New Radio (NR);
• store, in a memory, the indication in association with an identification of the eNB;
• receive a message including an identification of the eNB which is operative to serve a user equipment (UE) in the mobile network;
• retrieve, from the memory based on the identification of the eNB, the indication that is stored in association with the identification of the eNB;
• and
• select one of a plurality of serving gateways (SGWs) for a session of the UE served by the eNB based on the retrieved indication which indicates whether the eNB is configured to support DCNR with the connection to the NR.

A method comprising:

• at a network element comprising a control plane (CP) entity for mobility management for use in a mobile network,
• for each one of a plurality of eNodeBs (eNBs), receiving, from the eNB, an S1 setup request message for establishing an S1 association with the eNB, the S1 setup request message including an indication which indicates whether the eNB is configured to support Dual Connectivity with New Radio (DCNR) with a connection to a New Radio (NR), and storing in memory the indication in association with an identification of the eNB;
• receiving a message including an identification of one of the eNBs operative to serve a user equipment (UE) in the mobile network;
• retrieving, from the memory based on the identification of the eNB, the stored indication that is stored in association with the stored identification of the eNB;
• and
• selecting one of a plurality of serving gateways (SGWs) for a session of the UE based on the retrieved indication.