Tracking area list handling

A mobility management node comprising a processing unit, a memory and an interface unit, the mobility management node being adapted for collecting mobility data of user entities (UEs) in a mobile communication network comprising a plurality of cells, wherein at least one cell or a group of cells are forming a tracking area (TA) in which, when paging of a given UE is to be undertaken, paging of the given UE is undertaken;

• wherein at least the mobility management node is further adapted for holding a TA list for a given UE defining a larger paging area in which, when paging of the given UE is to be performed, paging is performed throughout the area and in which TA update need not be undertaken by the UE in question before moving out of said area;
• the UE being required to perform a TA update procedure if moving out of the larger paging area;
• the mobility management node further being adapted for:
• continuously registering mobility events pertaining to a plurality of UE's in the network, wherein for each of the plurality of UE's,
• extracting a first source TA, being a TA a given UE visited, and a first target TA, being a TA to which the given UE is moving;
• registering a link defined by the extracted first source TA and the first extracted target TA;
• assigning a link strength indicative of a frequency at which UE's are travelling a link in question;
• and
• building a table of links and associated link strengths in the network;
• the mobility management node further being adapted to, for a given UE when performing a TA update procedure and upon moving from a second source TA to a second target TA:
• investigate, based on at least the location of at least one of the second source TA and the second target TA;
• and
• one or more probable travel paths potentially comprising a series of interconnected links and originating in either the second source TA or the second target TA;
• the probable travel paths being selected by taking into account the strength of the associated links in the table;
• the probable travel paths moreover being selected by taking into account the limit of a TA list length applying for the UE in question;
• and
• the mobility management node further being adapted to:
• generate a TA list comprising the TA's constituted by the probable travel paths.