Private mobility management enhancements

Abstract

A method and apparatus described herein uses a mobility server to supplement the mobility management operations of a conventional mobile switching circuit (MSC). The mobility server receives mobility messages from a wireless terminal, and updates a location register associated with the MSC responsive to the received mobility messages. According to one exemplary embodiment, the mobility server has a pre-determined network address, such as a phone number, IP address, etc. The wireless terminal sends the mobility messages as user-plane messages to the pre-determined network address over a traffic data channel. In one exemplary embodiment, the mobility messages indicate the imminent loss of usable base station signals at an identified wireless terminal. For this embodiment, the mobility server may identify a satellite beam associated with the wireless terminal's location based on the received mobility messages, and update the location register accordingly.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.