Mobile telecommunications routing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10182004-B2
Application number	US-201615560452-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 2, 2016
Priority date	Mar 25, 2015
Publication date	Jan 15, 2019
Grant date	Jan 15, 2019

Abstract

A telecommunications mobility management system is arranged to allocate a mobile unit to different switching routes for different classes of service, for example to allow services capable of operation over packet-switched and circuit-switched to be managed separately. Separate location updates are transmitted to a register, and flagged for selective retrieval by a routing function when an incoming connection request is made, the appropriate switch ID being selected according to the class of service to which the connection request relates.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a communications management server for a communications network arranged to respond to a routing request relating to a user identity by retrieving a routing instruction from a database of routing instructions, wherein the communications routing management server is arranged to distinguish between a first type of requested communications connection and a second type of requested communications connection, to retrieve a first routing instruction associated with the first type of requested communications connection and to retrieve a second routing instruction associated with the second type of requested communications connection; and
an attachment management server arranged to process an attachment request received from terminal equipment to cause a location update to be performed in a service register associated with the terminal equipment, and arranged to perform a service-aware attachment function to cause the service register to associate the user identity with two or more alternative routing managers, each appropriate for a respective type of incoming communication service types,
wherein the communications management server and the attachment management server are arranged to intercept attachment requests directed from a mobility management server to a home subscriber server, and to intercept routing requests directed from a gateway mobile switching center to the home subscriber server, in order to perform attachment and routing processes adapted to different types of requested service.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the communications management server is incorporated in the home subscriber server arranged for generation of routing instruction.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the first type of requested communications connection is carried by a circuit-switching protocol and the second type of requested communications connection is carried by a packet-switching protocol.

4. The system according to claim 1 , configured to direct voice calls to the first type of communications connection and to direct text messages to the second type of communications connection.

5. A method for processing a routing request relating to a user identity, the method comprising:
by a communications routing management server:
distinguishing between a first type of requested communications connection and a second type of requested communications connection,
associating respective first and second routing instructions associated with the user identity with the first and second types of requested communications connections, and
in response to a routing request in respect of the user identity for one of the first or second types of communications connections, retrieving the routing instruction associated with the respective type of requested communications connection from a database of routing instructions; and by an attachment management server:
processing an attachment request received from terminal equipment to cause a location update to be performed in a service register associated with the terminal equipment, and
performing a service-aware attachment function to cause the service register to associate the user identity with two or more alternative routing managers, each appropriate for a respective type of incoming communication service types,
wherein the communications routing management server and the attachment management server are arranged to intercept attachment requests directed from a mobility management server to a home subscriber server, and to intercept routing requests directed from a gateway mobile switching center to the home subscriber server, in order to perform attachment and routing processes adapted to different types of requested service.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the user identity is associated with a first default mobile switching center to which circuit switched traffic is routed and a second mobile switching center to which packet switched traffic is routed.

7. The method according to claim 5 wherein, in response to a routing request relating to the user identity, a routing instruction is retrieved from a database of routing instructions, in which a first routing instruction is retrieved in response to a first type of requested communications connection and a second routing instruction is retrieved in response to a second type of requested communications connection.

8. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the first type of communications connection is carried by a circuit-switching protocol and the second type of communications connection is carried by a packet-switching protocol.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein voice calls are directed to the first communications connection and text messages are directed to the second communications connection.

Assignees

• British Telecomm

Inventors

• Cuevas Ramirez Maria
• Bailey Scott

Classifications

• H04L45/42

  Centralised routing · CPC title

• H04L47/70

  Admission control; Resource allocation · CPC title

• H04L45/306 Primary

  Route determination based on the nature of the carried application · CPC title

• H04W36/14

  Reselecting a network or an air interface · CPC title

• H04W8/04

  Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server] · CPC title