Techniques to facilitate mobility management entity (MME) identification for user equipment context transfer

US11234115B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Cisco Technology, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Ryo Watanabe · Tokyo, JP
• Aeneas Sean Dodd-Noble · Andover, US
• Santhosh Shenoy Panambur · Survanagiri, IN
• Om Prakash Suthar · Naperville, US
• Raghavendra Vidyashankar Suryanarayanarao · Nagamangala, IN
• Vivek Agarwal · Campbell, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 14, 2020
• Grant date: Jan 25, 2022
• Expiry date: Feb 14, 2040

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04W88/06
• WIPO field: Digital communication
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Presented herein are efficient techniques through which a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) may retrieve information for a Mobility Management Entity (MME) to support graceful mobility for various inter-Radio Access Technology (inter-RAT) mobility scenarios. In one example, a method includes determining, by an AMF, an inter-RAT mobility event for a user equipment; identifying, by the AMF, an MME associated with the inter-RAT mobility event based, at least in part, on MME information contained in a network database; and transferring context information for the user equipment between the AMF and the MME. In one instance, the network database may be a Network Repository Function (NRF) for a 3GPP Fifth Generation mobile network and the MME information may be associated with an MME network function type stored in the NRF.