Handling tracking area update reject without extended delay
AssigneeNokia Technologies Oy
InventorsJarkko Koskela, Hannu Bergius, Jorma Kaikkonen, Ari Laukkanen
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Abstract
A method, apparatus and computer program product are described for reducing delay when making a network connection between user equipment (UE) and a network node when a tracking area update (TAU) request has been denied during LTE reselection. Following a revised signaling protocol, a UE can avoid activation of a NAS Attach Retry timer and move directly to establishing a connection to the network, reducing the UE communications delay from about eleven seconds to less than one second.
Claims12
A method comprising:
- receiving, at a user equipment, a message received from a network node, the message indicating a radio resource control connection to be released in response to a tracking area update reject;
- awaiting, at a non-access-stratum layer, a notification from a lower, radio resource control layer, the notification indicating the radio resource control connection release is completed;
- executing, at the user equipment and in response to the received message, a delay timer;
- allowing an attach procedure to start, when the delay timer expires;
- and
- allowing the attach procedure to start, when the notification from the lower, radio resource control layer is received, the notification bypassing the delay timer in order to allow the attach procedure to start.
An apparatus comprising:
- at least one processor;
- and
- at least one memory including computer program code,
- the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least:
- receive a message, from a network node, the message indicating a radio resource control connection to be released in response to a tracking area update reject;
- await, at a non-access-stratum layer, a notification from a lower, radio resource control layer, the notification indicating the radio resource control connection release is completed, the notification enabling a delay in the start of the attach procedure;
- execute, in response to the received message, a delay timer;
- allow an attach procedure to start, when the delay timer expires;
- and
- allow the attach procedure to start, when the notification from the lower, radio resource control layer is received, the notification bypassing the delay timer in order to allow the attach procedure to start.
A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having executable computer-readable program code instructions stored therein, the computer-readable program code instructions configured to at least:
- receive a message, at a user equipment from a network node, the message indicating a radio resource control connection to be released in response to a tracking area update reject;
- await, at a non-access-stratum-layer, a notification from a lower, radio resource control layer, the notification indicating the radio resource control connection release is completed;
- execute, in response to the received message, a delay timer;
- allow an attach procedure to start, when the delay timer expires;
- and
- allow the attach procedure to start, when the notification from the lower, radio resource control layer is received, the notification bypassing the delay timer in order to allow the attach procedure to start.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.