Systems and methods for gateway relocation

#This disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for relocating mobile devices attached to a gateway in a communication network.

#Wireless networks are telecommunication networks that use radio waves to carry information from one node in the network to one or more receiving nodes in the network. Cellular telephony is characterized by the use of radio cells that provide radio coverage for a geographic area, with multiple cells arranged to provide contiguous radio coverage over a larger area. Wired communication can also be used in portions of a wireless network, such as between cells or access points.

#Wireless communication technologies are used in connection with many user equipment, including, for example, satellite communications systems, portable digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, and mobile devices (e.g., cellular telephones). Such devices can connect to a network (e.g., the Internet) as long as the user is within range of such a wireless communication technology.

#FIGS. 1-2 illustrate a communication network including a long term evolution (LTE) topology in accordance with certain embodiments;

#FIG. 3 shows a flow diagram illustrating a gateway relocation mechanism in accordance with certain embodiments;

#FIG. 4 shows a logical diagram of a user plane (UP) element in accordance with certain embodiments;

#Certain embodiments relate to a method that includes identifying communication sessions associated with a user equipment and identifying network condition information associated with a plurality of gateways, including a serving gateway of the user equipment. The method further includes determining if an explicit detach with reattach required (EDRR) procedure would disrupt the communication sessions by analyzing the communication sessions and the network condition information, and if the EDRR procedure would not severely disrupt the communication sessions, triggering a mobility management entity (MME), associated with the user equipment, to initiate the EDRR procedure for the user equipment.

#Network operators have addressed the rapid increase in data traffic by installing multiple network devices, for example, gateways in communication networks to handle the data traffic. These network devices are often deployed in a distributed manner so that each network device handles data traffic for a localized region. However, because the amount of data traffic can vary from one geographic location to another, some of the network devices can be overloaded while others are under-utilized. Such a load imbalance would counter the benefits of deploying multiple network devices.

#To evenly distribute user equipment to multiple network devices, network operators have devised methods to detach some user equipments from an overloaded network device and reattach the detached user equipments to an under-utilized network device. One of the devised methods is an “explicit detach with reattach required” procedure (EDRR procedure). Load distribution is one embodiment of an operational procedure which includes the EDRR procedure. Other embodiments may relate to alternative procedures, e.g., updating the configuration on an operational network element.