Communication system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10623948-B2
Application number	US-201815972453-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 7, 2018
Priority date	Sep 29, 2009
Publication date	Apr 14, 2020
Grant date	Apr 14, 2020

Abstract

A communication system is described in which mobile telephones are able to roam between neighbouring home node base stations. Techniques are described for allocating U-RNTIs to mobile telephones by the home base stations or the home base station gateway. Techniques are also disclosed for target home base stations to be able to retrieve information needed to respond to a Cell Update request received from a mobile telephone.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method performed by target communication apparatus in a communications network, the method comprising:
receiving a cell update message from a user equipment (UE), the cell update message including a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) Radio Network Temporary Identifier (U-RNTI), wherein the U-RNTI has been assigned to the UE by a source home Node B (HNB), wherein the U-RNTI comprises a gateway (GW) radio network controller identifier (RNC ID) and further information previously assigned to the source HNB by a home Node B gateway (HNB-GW);
detecting the HNB-GW of the source HNB, by the GW RNC ID in the U-RNTI; and
communicating with the HNB-GW following said detection of the HNB-GW.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said communicating with the HNB-GW comprises forwarding a message comprising the received cell update message to the HNB-GW.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising engaging in a procedure to transfer a context associated with the UE from the source HNB to the target communication apparatus.

4. A target communication apparatus of a communications network, the target communication apparatus comprising:
a memory storing instructions; and
one or more processors configured to execute the instructions to:
receive a cell update message from a user equipment (UE), the cell update message including a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) Radio Network Temporary Identifier (U-RNTI), wherein the U-RNTI has been assigned to the UE by a source home Node B (HNB) and wherein the U-RNTI comprises a gateway (GW) radio network controller identifier (RNC ID) and further information previously assigned to the HNB by a home Node B gateway (HNB-GW);
detect the HNB-GW of the source HNB, by the GW RNC ID in the U-RNTI; and
communicate with the HNB-GW following said detection of the HNB-GW.

5. The target communication apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein said one or more processors are further configured to forward a message comprising the received cell update message to the HNB-GW.

6. The target communication apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein said one or more processors are further configured to engage in a procedure to transfer a context associated with the UE from the source HNB to the target communication apparatus.

7. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium comprising computer implementable instructions for causing a programmable device to perform a method comprising:
receiving a cell update message from a user equipment (UE), the cell update message including a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) Radio Network Temporary Identifier (U-RNTI), wherein the U-RNTI has been assigned to the UE by a source home Node B (HNB), wherein the U-RNTI comprises a gateway (GW) radio network controller identifier (RNC ID) and further information previously assigned to the source HNB by a home Node B gateway (HNB-GW);
detect the HNB-GW of the source HNB, by the GW RNC ID in the U-RNTI; and
communicate with the HNB-GW following said detection of the HNB-GW.

8. A method for a user equipment (UE) in a communications network, the method comprising:
including Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) Radio Network Temporary Identifier (U-RNTI) into a cell update message;
transmitting, to a target communication apparatus, the cell update message including the U-RNTI, wherein the U-RNTI has been assigned to the UE by a source home Node B (HNB), wherein the U-RNTI comprises a gateway (GW) radio network controller identifier (RNC ID) and further information previously assigned to the source HNB by a home Node B gateway (HNB-GW); and
receiving a cell update confirm message from the target communication apparatus after transmitting the cell update message.

9. A user equipment (UE) in a communications network, the user equipment comprising:
a memory storing instructions; and
one or more processors configured to execute the instructions to:
include Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) Radio Network Temporary Identifier (U-RNTI) into a cell update message;
transmit, to a target communication apparatus, the cell update message including the U-RNTI, wherein the U-RNTI has been assigned to the UE by a source home Node B (HNB), wherein the U-RNTI comprises a gateway (GW) radio network controller identifier (RNC ID) and further information previously assigned to the source HNB by a home Node B gateway (HNB-GW); and
receive a cell update confirm message from the target communication apparatus after transmitting the cell update message.

Assignees

• Nec Corp

Inventors

• Ganapathy Suresh
• Filipovic Milena
• Gupta Neeraj
• Kuwano Hiroaki

Classifications

• H04W8/26 Primary

  Network addressing or numbering for mobility support · CPC title

• H04W8/12

  between location registers or mobility servers · CPC title

• H04W36/0055

  Transmission or use of information for re-establishing the radio link · CPC title

• H04W88/16

  Gateway arrangements · CPC title

• H04W88/08

  Access point devices · CPC title