Method and apparatus for paging and responding to paging in a mobile radio communications

Abstract

A paging origination identifier associated with an origination of a page to a mobile radio terminal is included with a mobile terminal's response to the page. For example, assuming that the page to the mobile terminal is in a first area, the mobile terminal responds to the page from a second area and includes the identifier in that response. The second area may be a cell controlled by another radio network control node, another radio network operator, or even another type of cellular system. The identifier is used to route the page response through the radio network ultimately to the paging originator. The identifier may be, for example, a paging area identifier, a registration area identifier, or a network exchange identifier. Another example identifier is the cell where the mobile terminal received the page. Cell evaluation and selection processes need only be performed while the mobile terminal is listening to the paging channel, for example, thereby saving mobile terminal battery life. Since the mobile terminal checks for an optimum cell just before it transmits a paging response, it ensures that the optimum cell is used, thereby improving the quality of the communication. As a result, there is less chance of increased interference caused by the uplink transmission, of a lost connection, or of an error in the message.

Description

[0001] related application [0002] This patent application is related to commonly assigned U.S. Patent Application (Serial No. 09 / 071,886), and filed February 26, 1999, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Transferring Information Between MobileTerminals and Entities in a Radio Access Network (Method and Apparatus for Routing Information Between Mobile Terminals and Entities in a Radio Access Network) "U.S. Patent Application (Serial No. 09 / 258,151). These disclosures are hereby incorporated by reference. technical field [0003] The present invention is applicable to cellular communication and relates to a mobile terminal responding to paging in a mobile communication system. Background technique [0004] Cellular telephones are one example of terms commonly referred to as "mobile stations" (MS), "mobile terminals" (MTs), or more generally "user equipment" (UEs). For descriptive purposes, the term mobile terminal is employed hereafter. Telecommunication services can be ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

If such evaluations are performed frequently, the results obtained are acceptable, but at the cost of those frequent evaluations increasing the battery drain of the mobile terminal

Also, even with inc

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