Mobility mechanism for service continuity with core element failure
AssigneeBlackBerry Limited
InventorsXiaoming Zhao, Wei Wu, James Earl Womack, Zhijun Cai, Jan Hendrik Lucas Bakker
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Abstract
A system comprising an inter-RAT/inter-network redundancy controller (IRC) is provided. The IRC is configured to communicate with a source gateway in communication with a source radio access network (RAN) using a first radio access technology (RAT). The IRC is further configured to communicate with a target gateway in communication with a target RAN using a second RAT. The IRC is further configured to promote a handover of a user equipment from the source RAN connected to the source gateway to the target RAN connected to the target gateway when the source gateway fails.
Claims17
A device comprising:
- a controller configured to handover a connection associated with a user equipment (UE) from a first radio access network (RAN) to a second RAN due to a loss of connectivity at the first RAN;
- a first network element in communication with the first RAN, and a second network element in communication with the second RAN, the first network element and the second network element having respective logical functionalities of at least one of:
- a mobility management element,
- a user plane element,
- a serving gateway,
- a packet data network gateway, or
- another core network element;
- and
- at least one of the first network element and the second network element having a logical connection to at least one of:
- a home subscriber server, or
- an authentication, authorization and accounting server;
- and
- the first network element configured to support inter-RAT/inter-network redundancy functionality by:
- receiving at least one radio resource utilization report from a plurality of RANs with which the first network element is in communication;
- and passing the report to the controller, wherein the controller is an inter RAT/inter-network redundancy controller (IRC).
A method of handing over connections between networks, the method comprising:
- handing over a connection associated with a user equipment (UE) from a first radio access network (RAN) to a second RAN due to a loss of connectivity at the first RAN,
- wherein the first RAN is in communication with a first network element, and the second RAN is in communication with a second network element, wherein the first network element and the second network element have respective logical functionalities of at least one of:
- a mobility management element,
- a user plane element,
- a serving gateway,
- a packet data network gateway, or
- another core network element;
- wherein at least one of first network element and the second network element have logical connections to at least one of:
- a home subscriber server, or
- an authentication, authorization and accounting server;
- and
- wherein the first network element supports inter-RAT/inter-network redundancy functionality by:
- receiving at least one radio resource utilization report from a plurality of RANs with which the first network element is in communication;
- and
- passing the report to an inter RAT/inter-network redundancy controller (IRC).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.