Handling user plane congestion in a wireless communication network

A mobility management entity (MME) comprising:

• communications circuitry configured to communicate with a plurality of serving gateways (SGWs) and a plurality of packet data network gateways (PGWs) of an evolved packet core for a wireless communications network;
• and
• management circuitry coupled to the communications circuitry and configured to:
• receive, via the communications circuitry, a proactive PGW congestion notification from individual PGWs of the plurality of PGWs indicating a level of congestion for respective PGWs;
• and
• manage access to the PGWs by a user equipment of the wireless communications network based on the received proactive PGW congestion notifications;
• wherein the management circuitry is further configured to receive a packet data network (PDN) request from the UE to establish a PDN connection with one of the plurality of PGWs, and to take an action in response to the request based on the levels of congestion of the plurality of PGWs;
• and
• wherein the management circuitry is further configured to proactively transmit a message to the UE indicating an overall congestion level of a user plane of the wireless communications network based on the received levels of congestion for the plurality of PGWs and/or SGWs.

An apparatus to be employed by a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising:

• communications circuitry configured to communicate with an evolved Node B (eNB) over a wireless communications network;
• and
• packet data network (PDN) circuitry configured to:
• transmit, to a mobility management entity (MME) of the wireless communications network, a request for a new PDN connection associated with the eNB;
• receive, from the MME, a notification giving the UE an option to terminate or modify an existing PDN connection associated with the eNB in exchange for establishing the new PDN connection associated with the eNB;
• and
• send a response, based on the notification, to the MME.

One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions, stored thereon, that, when executed cause a computing system to:

• receive proactive packet data network gateway (PGW) congestion notifications from a plurality of PGWs indicating a level of congestion for the respective PGWs;
• receive proactive serving gateway (SGW) congestion notification from a plurality of SGWs indicating a level of congestion for the respective SGWs;
• receive a packet data network (PDN) request from a user equipment (UE) to establish a PDN connection with one of the plurality of PGWs;
• and
• take an action in response to the PDN request based on the levels of congestion of the plurality of PGWs and SGWs;
• wherein the action includes sending a notification to the UE that the PDN connection was unsuccessful or negotiating with the UE to terminate or modify an existing PDN connection in exchange for establishing the requested PDN connection.