Facilitating conditional fast return to stand alone advanced networks after voice fall back based on network congestion awareness

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12477390-B2
Application number	US-202217817160-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 3, 2022
Priority date	Aug 3, 2022
Publication date	Nov 18, 2025
Grant date	Nov 18, 2025

Abstract

Facilitating conditional fast return to stand alone advanced networks after voice fall back with network congestion awareness is provided herein. Operations of a system can include controlling a first communication for a user equipment based on a connection request that comprises an indication of a fall back procedure. The operations can also include, based on a determination that the first communication has completed at the user equipment, releasing a first control of the user equipment. Further, the operations can include delaying a redirection of the user equipment to the network equipment for a second control of a second communication scheduled to occur at the user equipment. Delaying of the redirection is based on a determined network congestion level applicable to the communication network being determined to be at most a defined network congestion level.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method, comprising:
receiving, from first network equipment by second network equipment comprising a memory and a processor, a connection request that comprises an indication of a fall back procedure, wherein the connection request is associated with a user equipment via which a voice communication is scheduled to occur; performing, by the second network equipment, control of the voice communication for the user equipment; and based on a first determination that the voice communication has completed at the user equipment and based on a second determination that a network congestion condition at third network equipment fails to satisfy a defined network congestion condition, delaying, by the second network equipment, a release of the control of the voice communication for the user equipment from the second network equipment to the third network equipment.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
after expiration of a defined interval and based on a third determination that the network congestion condition satisfies the defined network congestion condition, triggering, by the second network equipment, the release of the control of the user equipment from the second network equipment; and redirecting, by the second network equipment, the user equipment to the third network equipment.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the indication of the fall back procedure comprises receiving an information element that comprises a release cause code related to the network congestion condition.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the network congestion condition is determined based on information indicative of a loading metric.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the loading metric is determined based on a control channel loading for an uplink transmission and a downlink transmission.

6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the loading metric is determined based on a data channel load, and wherein the method further comprises measuring the data channel load via physical resource block utilization.

7 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the loading metric is determined based on a number of radio resource control connections, and wherein the method further comprises determining that the number of radio resource control connections satisfies a defined connection level.

8 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the loading metric is determined based on a signaling load within a communication network.

9 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the loading metric is determined based on a core network signaling and data loading status.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first network equipment is configured to operate according to a new radio network communication protocol.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first network equipment is deployed in a standalone deployment architecture, and wherein the second network equipment is deployed in a non-standalone deployment architecture.

12 . A system, comprising:
a processor; and a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, perform operations, comprising:
controlling a first communication for a user equipment based on a connection request that comprises an indication of a fall back procedure, wherein the connection request is associated with the user equipment via which the first communication is scheduled to occur, and wherein the connection request is received from network equipment that is part of a communication network;
based on a determination that the first communication has completed at the user equipment, releasing a first control of the user equipment; and
delaying a redirection of the user equipment to the network equipment for a second control of a second communication scheduled to occur at the user equipment, wherein the delaying of the redirection is based on a determined network congestion level applicable to the communication network being determined to be at most a defined network congestion level.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the indication comprises a first information element that comprises a release cause code comprising information indicative of the determined network congestion level.

14 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the communication network comprises a core network, and wherein the determined network congestion level is an amount of congestion experienced via core network equipment of the core network.

15 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the communication network is a radio access network, and wherein the determined network congestion level is an amount of congestion experienced via radio access network equipment of the radio access network.

16 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the communication network is a long term evolution network, and wherein the determined network congestion level is determined based on a measurement of an amount of congestion experienced via long term evolution network equipment of the long term evolution network.

17 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the communication network is a new radio network, and wherein the determined network congestion level is determined based on a measurement of an amount of congestion experienced via new radio network equipment of the new radio network.

18 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the determination is a first determination, and wherein the operations further comprise:
after a defined interval and based on a second determination that the determined network congestion level is greater than the defined network congestion level, releasing a control of the user equipment to the network equipment.

19 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of first network equipment, perform operations, comprising:
determining that a first communication of a user equipment is to be controlled by second network equipment based on a connection request that comprises an indication of a fall back procedure; enabling control of the first communication by the second network equipment for a duration of the first communication; based on a first determination that the first communication has completed at the user equipment and that a network congestion of third network equipment is greater than a defined amount of congestion, delaying a release of the control of the user equipment by the second network equipment; and after expiration of a delay timer and based on a second determination that the network congestion level of the third network equipment is not greater than the defined amount of congestion after the delaying, transferring the control of the user equipment to the third network equipment by the second network equipment.

20 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the operations further comprise:
prior to the determining, receiving the indication of the fall back procedure and an information element that comprises a release cause code with information indicative of a network congestion type.

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Lei Hongyan
• Chen Ye
• Jia Yupeng
• Yang Wen

Classifications

• H04W36/00222

  between different packet switched [PS] network technologies, e.g. transferring data sessions between LTE and WLAN or LTE and 5G · CPC title

• H04W36/22

  for handling the traffic · CPC title

• H04W76/38

  triggered by timers · CPC title

• H04W28/0289 Primary

  Congestion control (load shedding arrangements in network planning H04W16/08; performing reselection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12) · CPC title