Methods to detect, in real time, whether a call failure in the network was caused by one particular subscriber or one particular type of device

Abstract

A method in an entity to detect whether a signaling failure in a RAN was caused by a particular subscriber or a particular type of device. The method includes receiving a copy of an abnormal release (AR) message having a time t1 of the AR and additional information comprising a cell ID, a frequency band and which 5QIs were used, UE radio conditions, and radio bearers the UE was using at the AR occurrence; receiving a notification from the AMF node containing an AMF UE identifier from the AR message and identification information of the UE comprising a UE PEI and a UE permanent identity; storing the time t1, the additional information and the identification information; and determining whether the AR and previous ARs correspond to a particular subscriber or a particular type of device.

Description

METHODS TO DETECT, IN REAL TIME, WHETHER A CALL FAILURE IN THE NETWORK WAS CAUSED BY ONE PARTICULAR SUBSCRIBER OR ONE PARTICULAR TYPE OF DEVICETECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure relates generally to communications, and more particularly to communication methods and related devices and nodes supporting wireless communications .BACKGROUND

[0002] Automation is beneficial in all fields. In the recent years, a lot of investment has been made in automation in all type of activities and areas in a wireless network. Three examples of such automations are:

[0003] 1. Before automation, in order to integrate an RBS (Radio Base Station), the operator had to dedicate one person for that purpose, and that one person had to run some commands and scripts in order to put the RBS on air. However, thanks to enhancement in automation, the integration of an RBS into a network has become automated. The technician installs the cabinet of the RBS, configures the cabinet with an IP (Internet Protocol) address, and then when he plugs the modules inside the cabinet, the integration will be done automatically by making the RBS software connect via that IP to a server and download necessary scripts to the RBS.

[0004] 2. Before automation, when an alarm came from any equipment in the network to the OSS (Operations Support System), an operator staff would look at this alarm and try to clear it. Now, thanks to an automation procedure installed at the OSS, when an alarm is received at the OSS, an automated action (that is, without human intervention) is taken by the OSS on the alarm, e.g., restart the equipment where the alarm has been raised.

[0005] 3. If one cell, e.g., celll of RBS1, covering one area, e.g., areal, goes down for any reason, then an automation procedure, called SON (Self Organization Networks), is triggered, and SON consists among others to adjust the tilt of the antennas of a neighboring cell(s), e.g., cell2 of RBS2 and cell3 of RBS3, in a way to cover as much area as possible of areal.

[0006] Automation not only reduces the load on the operational staff of the operator,but more importantly it reduces the duration of any impact in the network, e.g., when celll went down an immediate action is taken by neighboring cells to cover as much of areal as possible. Otherwise without an automation procedure, the reaction would come from the operator staff, and this always brings delay in comparison to an automated procedure.

[0007] There currently exist certain challenge(s). In wireless networks, every node e.g., a NR (New Radio) node or an AMF (Access and Mobility Management Function) node, etc., sends periodically (e.g., every 15 minutes) a report to the OSS, carrying different types of counters. Such reports are called KPI (Key Performance Indicator) reports and contain different call indicators, e.g., percentage of call request success rate, handover request success rate, user average throughput etc. The more counters there are, the more accurate is the network monitoring but results in more load on the staff to understand and analyze all these KPI counters. Usually, the operator has some staff dedicated to work on the radio side and some other staff dedicated to work on the Core side.

[0008] What happens on a daily basis is the following: The OSS staff monitors the KPI report coming from all the equipment every 15 minutes. Each report will have different indicators and a threshold is set on each of these indicators. For example, suppose that one operator staff is looking at KPI reports coming from NR equipment. Suppose that each NR in the network is composed of three cells and that the KPI thresholds, for each cell, are set as follows:If the call setup success rate, on one cell, is below 99.5%, e.g., 98%, then an investigation is initiated by the monitoring team on that cell to know why there is more than 0.5% failures on the call setup.If the handover procedure success rate between one cell, celll of one NR, NR1, towards another cell, cell2 of another NR, NR2, is below 99%, e.g., 95% or worse 80% etc., then an investigation is triggered by the monitoring team on all handover procedures between celll / NRl and cell2 / NR2.

[0009] In brief, every 15 minutes a new KPI report arrives at OSS where a dedicated staff checks the contents of the report and checks whether the success rate of any procedure, e.g., handover procedure, in the network is below a predefined threshold. If NO, then no further action is taken. Otherwise, the dedicated staff will either look at the issue by itself or call for the support of another team.

[0010] Based on the standards, the user identities in radio nodes, e.g., NR (New Radio) (5G) or eNodeB (4G), are temporary identities; the permanent identifiers are stored in theCore, and the Core can also translate between them (at least for some temporary identities). Further, the Core may also know the PEI (Permanent Equipment Identity).

[0011] Suppose that in one KPI report, the handover success rate has dropped to 90% between celll of NR1 and cell2 of NR2. The operator could take one, or both, of the following actions:

[0012] In a first scenario, only radio staff is taking and analyzing the traces.

[0013] In this first scenario, the radio staff does one of two actions: sends a driver to test on site, carrying a mobile phone with call traces software that shows all the signaling messages, and then moves from celll / NRl towards cell2 / NR2 and vice versa to check all the signaling messages on that mobile phone and tries to detect the reason of failures.Does not send anybody on site. Rather the radio staff puts traces, on NR1 and on NR2 equipment and checks all the signaling that are exchanged during a handover procedure between celll / NRl and cell2 / NR2 including the mobile phone.

[0014] On some occasions, it might happen that:Only one particular type of PEI (Permanent Equipment / terminal Identity) is causing the handover failure.Only one particular subscriber, e.g., one part of his house or his trajectory to his house, is by chance having radio issues and hence causing a drop call between celll / NRl and cell2 / NR2.

[0015] This raises an issue that as only temporary identities are used at the radio side, there is no way for the staff analyzing to directly detect that the issue is caused by one particular type of PEI or one particular subscriber.

[0016] In a second scenario, only the Core network staff is taking and analyzing the traces. In this case, a handover failure between celll / NRl and cell2 / NR2 is caused by any radio issue, e.g., there is a radio hole in the coverage on the road or inside the house of one particular subscriber.

[0017] This raises the issue that the Core network staff has no visibility on the radio side of the network. The Core network staff can tell that there are some failures coming from, e.g., NR1. The Core network staff could know whether those failures belong to the same subscriber or same PEI but could not tell whether those failures coming from the radio side are caused by a handover failure, a call setup failure, a carrier aggregation failure, or other types of failures. Moreover, the Core network staff could not tell whether thosefailures were coming from the same cell and / or the same geographical location.SUMMARY

[0018] The issues raised might be solved by putting in parallel traces on both sides, the Core and on the Radio. However, the identification of the issue is not in real time, but rather the identification might take some unknown time. This is due to the problem of delays when traces are to be taken by different teams and the problem of delays due to the operator ignoring a small difference of success rate or looking at it a period after its first occurrence, as the operator would prioritize work on other cells where a KPI has sufficiently deteriorated in comparison to one defined KPI threshold where the success rate is slightly lower than the threshold.

[0019] Certain aspects of the disclosure and their embodiments may provide solutions to these or other challenges. Various embodiments will immediately identify the call setup failure, handover failure, or similar of a specific user / terminal without any further delay. This is done through adding a new function that takes in input from both RAN (Radio Access Network) and Core domains instantly and combines / correlates the information from both domains measured over a very short time interval At = t2 - tl, where typically At « Vi min.

[0020] Consequently, the identified failure can immediately be further analyzed to be a network issue, as also the information captured from RAN and Core is used to generate several reports to find any possible correlation of similar failures e.g., an issue with a specific terminal type and software (SW) version, the correlation to used frequency band, used 5G quality of service, QoS, identifiers (5QIs), the cell where the failure happened, or if it can be reduced to a temporary issue.

[0021] According to various embodiments, a method to detect whether a signaling failure in a radio access network was caused by one of a particular subscriber or a particular type of device includes responsive to an abnormal call release message being sent by a radio access network, RAN, node to an access and mobility management function, AMF, node or from the AMF node to the RAN node, receiving a copy of the abnormal release message and additional information associated with the abnormal release message comprising a cell identity, ID, where the abnormal release occurred, a frequency band that was used, 5G quality of service, QoS, identifiers, 5QIs, which were used, user equipment, UE, radio conditions, and radio bearers which the UE was using when the abnormal release occurred,wherein the abnormal release message has a time tl of when an abnormal release of signaling of the UE occurred. The method includes receiving a notification from the AMF node associated with the abnormal release, the notification containing an AMF UE identifier from the abnormal release message and identification information of the UE comprising a permanent equipment identity, PEI of the UE and a permanent identity of the UE. The method includes storing the time tl, the additional information, and the identification information as abnormal release information. The method includes determining whether the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases associated with stored abnormal release information correspond to a particular subscriber or a particular type of device.

[0022] Analogous network nodes, computer programs, and computer program products are also provided.

[0023] Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantages. Various embodiments may reduce the time to identify the issue for a certain subscriber, reduce the time to identify the issue as a terminal, a network, or a temporary issue, and / or automate identification that will enable valuable resources / staff to be used elsewhere.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate certain non-limiting embodiments of inventive concepts. In the drawings:

[0025] Figures 1-9 are flowcharts illustrating a method of operating an entity according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0026] Figure 10 is a signaling diagram of the method of Figure 1 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0027] Figure 11 is a block diagram of an entity performing the methods of Figures 1-9 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0028] Figure 12 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance with some embodiments;

[0029] Figure 13 is a block diagram of a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

[0030] Figure 14 is a block diagram of a network node in accordance with some embodiments;

[0031] Figure 15 is a block diagram of a host computer communicating with a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

[0032] Figure 16 is a block diagram of a virtualization environment in accordance with some embodiments; and

[0033] Figure 17 is a block diagram of a host computer communicating via a network node with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art. , in which examples of embodiments of inventive concepts are shown. Inventive concepts may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of present inventive concepts to those skilled in the art. It should also be noted that these embodiments are not mutually exclusive. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present / used in another embodiment.

[0035] As previously indicated, one problem is that there will be delays when traces are to be taken by one or two different teams. In theory, human actions will always take more time in comparison to an automated procedure. A practical example of such a potential delay follows:

[0036] Suppose that for two cells, celll and cell2, in the network, the KPI report, for the period 12:00 to 12:15 pm, shows large degradation in for example, a handover procedure. The operator staff might highlight that issue but might wait for another report, before taking any action, to see if the issue will be resolved by itself or not. Suppose that the issue has also appeared in the KPI report for the period 12:15 pm to 12:30 pm. Whether or not the monitoring staff has taken an action immediately after 12:15 pm or after 12:30 pm or any time later can be an issue. Following are two common outcomes of such action:Decision to send a drive tester on site to collect call traces and check for the root cause of the issue. However, such outcome is unlikely to happen at this stage as it might take a long time before the drive tester reaches the site.Ask a support team member who has experience with call flows to take traces on celll and cell2 from the OSS (Operation Support System) and analyze those traces to check the issue. The period of time for the outcome of the traces is variable and depends on the following three factors:— At what time the support person has started to take traces from the time he / she was informed about the issue.— Finding the issue depends on the expertise of the support person who is looking at the traces, as the more experience and the more knowledge the support person has, the quicker the issue might be found.— Luck. It might happen that the issue during the last one or two 15 minutes reports was caused by one person or by one PEI, and at the time the support person has taken the traces, that issue was not encountered because the person or PEI that was causing the issue was in idle mode during the period where the traces were taken.

[0037] A second problem that occurs is from the delay due to priority of KPIs, e.g., when the success rate of one KPI is close to the threshold but other KPIs in the system have deteriorated much more. For example, suppose that the threshold for handover success rate is 99.5% and that in one area, areal, composed of three cells, the handover success rate is close to the value of the threshold e.g., 99.47% or 99.3% or similar. Within such very low difference from the threshold, and when knowing that in a live network, the operator staff might be looking at the different threshold for thousands of cells, there is a great possibility that the operator might ignore that small difference of success rate or might look at it after a period of its first occurrence, as the operator would prioritize his / her work on other cells where the KPI has sufficiently deteriorated in comparison to this one defined KPI threshold.

[0038] This low percentage (99.5% - 99.47%), or (99.5% - 99.3%), might consist of one particular subscriber or might consist of one particular model of a mobile phone or an loT (Internet of Things) device that was newly introduced in the network in that particular area.

[0039] This can be problematic because either those failures are not treated by the operator because of their few numbers, or there is a delay in looking at them. An example iswhen a new model of loT (internet of things) device is introduced in areal of the network. If the issue is ignored at the time when it first appeared in areal, then later when more of such particular devices are introduced in other areas, then the issue will become apparent in the whole network.

[0040] Hence, this second problem prevents the operator from detecting an issue at the beginning of its spread in the network. Note that finding such issue is valuable also for vendors. For example, suppose that one operator has introduced a new loT device, and it was found that in a live network, such loT device fails under some radio parameters or radio conditions. For the vendor supplying the loT device, knowing that fact would be of great value, because the vendor could spread knowledge of that issue on their internal support system; in case the same device is installed in another operator’s network, then the vendor's support team would know in advance the issue in order to avoid it (e.g., which parameters to change or which software version to run on the radio equipment).

[0041] The various embodiments address the above problems and will quickly, if not immediately, identify the call setup failure, handover failure or similar of a specific user / terminal without any further delay. This is done through adding a new function that takes in input from both RAN (Radio Access Network) and Core domains instantly and combines / correlates the information from both domains measured over a very short time interval At = t2 - tl, where typically At « Vi min.

[0042] Consequently, the identified failure can quickly, if not immediately, be further analyzed to be a network issue, as also the information captured from RAN and Core is used to generate several reports to find any possible correlation of similar failures e.g., an issue with a specific terminal type and SW version, the correlation to used frequency band, used 5QIs, the cell where the failure happened, or if it can be reduced to a temporary issue.

[0043] The various embodiments implement a methodology to detect in real time, whether or not a call failure was caused by one specific subscriber or a specific device type. The objective of this methodology is to let an operator know in real time whether or not all, or a majority, of the abnormal call releases experienced at any cell of the network are caused by one specific subscriber or a specific device type. Such information is very beneficial for troubleshooting and it solves the two problems described above.

[0044] Another objective that may be achieved is to be able to correlate if there are several occurrences of the same type and through that swiftly make an early identification of a problem that may be related to e.g., terminal type, terminal SW, frequency band, used5Qis, or other issues.

[0045] In order for the methodology to work, additional information related to the receipt of an abnormal release message are needed for an entity 1002 (see, e.g., Figure 11) implementing the methodology where the entity 1002 is instantiated by a network node (e.g., a network node in the OSS). Each time an abnormal release message is sent from the NR node or from the AMF node 1000, at least the below four information, collected from the NR node and the AMF node 1000, are sent to the entity 1002 as a new input:Timestamp, tl, of the receipt of an abnormal release message, sent from the NR node or the AMF node 1000. The timestamp is important to have as it could be matched with the timestamp of notifications received by other input. The cell identity where the abnormal call release has occurred. This is important to have in order to know in which cell the entity 1002 has to take an action.The PEI (Permanent Equipment / terminal Identity) of the UE. This information allows the network and / or operator to know whether the recent abnormal releases belong to the same type of UE hardware or to different types of hardware. This is important to have for better troubleshooting in order to prevent future abnormal release.The permanent identity of the UE, e.g., IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity). This information allows the network and / or operator to know whether the recent abnormal releases belong to the same subscriber or to different subscribers. This is important to have for better troubleshooting in order to prevent future abnormal release.

[0046] Figures 1-9 illustrate operations an entity 1002 performs when the entity 1002 is instantiated at a node such as a radio access network node or a core network node. In the description that follows, the entity 1002 is instantiated at a radio access network node and performs the operations illustrated in Figures 1-9. The role of this entity 1002 is to receive a copy of any of the following two abnormal release messages: one coming from the radio side, in particular from a NR node, and the other coming from the Core side, in particular the AMF node 1000.

[0047] Turning to Figure 1, the entity 1002 receives a copy of an abnormal release message sent from a radio access network node to an AMF node 1000 or from the AMF node 1000 to the radio access network node, and receives additional information and a timetl of when the abnormal release occurred (Block 101). The abnormal release may be an abnormal release of one of a call, a handover, carrier aggregation, and / or a location update. Thus, as illustrated in block 201 of Figure 2, responsive to an abnormal release message being sent by the radio access network node to an access and mobility management function, AMF, node 1000 or from the AMF node 1000 to the radio access network node, the entity 1002 receives a copy of the abnormal release message and additional information associated with the abnormal release message comprising a cell identity, ID, where the abnormal release occurred, a frequency band that was used, 5G quality of service, QoS, identifiers, 5QIs, which were used, user equipment, UE, (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) radio conditions, and radio bearers which the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) was using when the abnormal release occurred. The abnormal release message has a time tl of when an abnormal release of signaling of the UE occurred.

[0048] One way this can be done is where the NR node adds other fields that contain the cell ID where the abnormal call release has occurred, which frequency band that was used and which 5QIs the radio bearers had which the UE was using when the failure occurred. These fields are new information compared to the original UE Context Release request as illustrated below, but as they are only needed to be sent to the entity 1002, it is not necessary that they are standardized. However, they may be added to standards as well.

[0049] Based on 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.413 (vl6.8.0), which is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes, each time a running call drops abnormally on the radio side, the NR node, also called NG-RAN node in the standards, sends to the AMF node 1000 a signaling message called UE CONTEXT RELEASE REQUEST. Such message might contain the reason of the release, e.g., AN Link Failure, O&M intervention, unspecified failure, etc. as described in 3GPP TS 23.502 (vl6.11.0), which is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes. Below is a snapshot of the contents of that message, extracted from 3GPP TS 38.413.9.2.2.4 UE Context Release RequestThis message is sent by the NG-RAN node to request the release of the UE-associated logical NG-connection over the NG interface.Direction NG-RAN node AMF

[0050] In some embodiments, the entity 1002 transmits at time tl a notification to the operator about the occurrence of the abnormal release.

[0051] The NR node will send the abnormal release message to the AMF node 1000 and, in parallel, it will send a copy of that message to the entity 1002.

[0052] The entity 1002 receives a message from the AMF node 1000 comprising information comprising a reference to the received abnormal release message, a permanent equipment identity, PEI, of the user equipment, UE, and a permanent identity of the UE (Block 103). Thus, as illustrated in block 203 of Figure 2, the entity 1002 receives a notification from the AMF node 1000 associated with the abnormal release, the notification containing an AMF UE identifier from the abnormal release message and identification information of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) comprising a permanent equipment identity, PEI, of the UE 1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) and a permanent identity of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706).

[0053] When the Core network function, AMF node 1000, receives the UE Context Release Request message from the NR node, the AMF node 1000 sends a notification to the entity 1002 at the OSS, and such notification should contain at least the below three information:1. The value of AMF UE NGAP ID (in table above) that was received in the UE Context Release Request, to confirm to the entity 1002 that this notification is related to that particular UE Context Release Request received at a particular time and belonging to one particular subscriber.2. The PEI (Permanent Equipment Identity) of the UE (User Equipment).3. The permanent identity of the UE, e.g., IMSI.

[0054] Currently, this information is not sent from the Core network. One of at least two procedures could be used as described below.

[0055] A first procedure consists of creating a new notification, from the AMF node 1000 to where the entity 1002 is instantiated (e.g., the OSS), which contains all the information above and that is sent systematically each time the AMF node 1000 receives the UE Context Release Request message from the NR node.

[0056] For example, based on specification 3GPP TS 29.518 (vl6.10.0), which is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes, one event called Communication-Failure- Report is registered at AMF node 1000, e.g., when the communication between the UE and the NR node is lost. Below is a snapshot of the event Communication-Failure-Report, extracted from 3GPP TS 29.518.Event: Communication-Failure-ReportA NF subscribes to this event to receive the Communication failure report of a UE or group of UEs or any UE, when the AMF becomes aware of a RAN or NAS failure event.This event implements the "Communication failure" event in table 4.15.3.1-1 of 3GPP TS 23.502 [3],UE type: One UE, Group of UEs, any UEReport Type: One-Time Report, Continuous ReportInput: UE ID(s), "ANY_UE", optionally filters: Area identifier (a TA list, an area ID, or "LADN")Notification: UE ID, RAN / NAS release code.

[0057] As shown in the snapshot above, the AMF UE NGAP ID is not included in that event. Also, the PEI might not be part of UE ID, e.g., when the PEI is not included in the subscription request to the event. A second procedure accounts for this. The second procedure consists of adding to that event or to any other event that might be selected by the operator, two fields (the AMF UE NGAP ID and the PEI) for the subscriber that has experienced the event.

[0058] Note that asking the AMF node 1000 to send any event to any other entity,including the instantiated entity 1002, is done by making the instantiated entity 1002 to be a subscriber to the events of the AMF node 1000 as it is described in specification 3GPP TS 29.518.

[0059] Returning to Figures 1 and 2the entity 1002 stores the additional information and the information in the message of the notification from the AMF node 1000 (Block 105). Thus, as illustrated in block 205 of Figure 2, the entity 1002 stores the time tl, the additional information, and the identification information as abnormal release information. In some embodiments, the entity 1002 combines the time tl, the additional information, and the identification information before storage.

[0060] The stored abnormal release information may comprise the following information:An abnormal release has occurred at time tl.The cell id where the abnormal release has occurred. If by chance the geographical location was collected by the cell at the time of the event, then that location is also registered at entity 1002. permanent identity of the UE (e.g., IMSI of the subscriber).- PEI of the UE.Frequency band used.5QIs used.

[0061] The list of information might not be limited to the above list of parameters but could be expanded to other information of other types, e.g., UE radio events, e.g., UE radio conditions at the time of the abnormal call release, and UE geographical location as described below.

[0062] The entity 1002 determines whether or not the abnormal release and previously stored abnormal releases correspond to a particular subscriber or a type of device (Block 107). Thus, as illustrated in block 207 of Figure 2, the entity 1002 determines whether the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases associated with stored abnormal release information correspond to a particular subscriber or a particular type of device.

[0063] Figure 3 illustrates an approach in determining whether the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases associated with stored abnormal release information correspond to a particular subscriber or a particular type of device. Turning to Figure 3, the entity 1002 determines whether the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases were triggered by the particular subscriber or the particular type of device (Block 301). The entity1002, responsive to the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases being triggered by the particular subscriber or the particular type of device, determines that the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases correspond to the particular subscriber or the particular type of device (Block 303).

[0064] Turning to Figure 4, responsive to determining that an abnormal release results in passing a pre-defined value in absolute numbers or in a percentage of all users in a cell, the entity 1002 transmits a notification to an operator of the network (block 401). The notification indicates whether the abnormal release results in passing the pre-defined value in absolute numbers or in the percentage of all users in a cell.

[0065] The above methodologies are repeated when a new abnormal release message is received. This is illustrated in Figure 5 wherein the entity 1002 receives a copy of a new abnormal release message and additional information associated with the new abnormal release message, wherein the new abnormal release message has a time t2 (block 501). The new abnormal release message may have been sent by the RAN node to the AMF node 1000 or from the AMF node 1000 to the RAN node. The additional information associated with the new abnormal release message includes a cell identity, ID, where a new abnormal release occurred, a frequency band that was used, 5QIs which were used, UE radio conditions, and radio bearers which the UE 1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706 was using when the new abnormal release occurred.

[0066] The entity 1002 receives a new notification from the AMF node 1000 associated with the new abnormal release, the new notification containing an AMF UE identifier from the new abnormal release message and identification information of the UE 1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706 comprising the PEI of the UE 1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706 and a permanent identity of the UE 1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706 (block 503).

[0067] The entity 1002 stores the time t2, the additional information associated with the new abnormal release message, and the identification information from the new notification (Block 505).

[0068] The entity 1002 determines whether the new abnormal release and previous abnormal releases associated with stored abnormal release information correspond to a particular subscriber or a particular type of device (Block 507).

[0069] Figure 6 illustrates an approach in determining whether the new abnormal release and previous abnormal releases associated with stored abnormal release information correspond to a particular subscriber or a particular type of device. Turning to Figure 6, theentity 1002 determines whether the new abnormal release and previous abnormal releases were triggered by the particular subscriber or the particular type of device (Block 601). The entity 1002, responsive to the new abnormal release and previous abnormal releases being triggered by the particular subscriber or the particular type of device, determines that the new abnormal release and previous abnormal releases correspond to the particular subscriber or the particular type of device (Block 603).

[0070] Turning to Figure 7, with the entity 1002 storing the history of similar events, the entity 1002 generates one or more of the following reports, which can be generated in parallel and in addition to the above information: a number of abnormal releases per cell ID per At, where At = t2 - tl ; a number of abnormal releases per cell ID and frequency band per At; a number of abnormal releases per PEI-series including terminal type and terminal software release per At; a number of abnormal releases per 5 QI per At; a number of abnormal releases per permanent ID of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) per At; a number of abnormal releases per cell ID and cause code per At; a number of abnormal releases per cell ID and per geographical area per At; and / or a number of abnormal releases per cell ID and UE radio conditions per At.

[0071] Turning to Figure 8, the entity 1002 determines whether at least one of the one or more reports generated pass a pre-defined value in absolute numbers or in percentage of all users in the cell (Block 801). Responsive to determining that at least one of the one or more reports generated pass the pre-defined value, the entity 1002 transmits one of an alarm and a notification to an operator of the network (Block 803). The operator of the network may specify which report or reports generate the alarm and which report or reports generate a notification. A default may be an alarm is generated or a notification is generated. When there are a plurality of reports, the entity 1002 may generate the one or more reports in parallel.

[0072] In some situations, the geographical location may be an important factor in the troubleshooting. For example, assume a particular UE is frequently experiencing drop calls at the same location e.g., a house where the owner of the UE resides. In such a scenario, nothing might be done by the operator at least in the short term. Maybe, if other UEs in thesame building or same area are also experiencing drops of similar calls due to radio indoor coverage then the operator might take an action, e.g., add another NR node there or increase the transmission power of existing NR nodes etc.

[0073] In another scenario, if multiple UEs have experienced an abnormal call release within the same geographical area within At = t2 - tl, and typically At « Vi min, then one might conclude that a certain neighboring cell or a neighboring NR node went down due to an outage. And that outage might be the common root cause for all the abnormal call releases that occurred within the same At.

[0074] Note that the location of the UE could be estimated by the network, e.g., via triangulation method, or it could be reported by the UE based on a request from the network, e.g., the UE reports its GPS (Global Positioning System) coordinates. However, such information of location is calculated only when it is requested by the operator as this requires a lot of signaling and processing on the UE and on the NR. As a consequence, when the abnormal call release occurs, the UE location might not be available and this is inconvenient for any operator staff or automation tool that is interested in knowing the root cause of the abnormal call release, e.g., it could be an indoor issue.

[0075] There are at least two ways to get an estimation of the UE location in real time when such location was never requested for a particular UE.

[0076] Procedure based on 3GPP TS 38.331 (vl6.8.0), which is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes

[0077] When a call is dropped in one cell, celll, then based on the actual standards, see 3GPP TS 38.331, the UE will try to find a suitable cell within a timer, T311, period. If a cell is found within the T311 period, the call is then reestablished either on celll, e.g., when the UE passes by a radio coverage hole, or at a neighbor cell running on the same Radio Access Technology (RAT) as that of celll, e.g., cell2, which could happen when celll goes into outage. During the call reestablishment procedure, in particular in the IE (Information Element) UE-MeasurementsAvailable that is part of the RRCReestablishmentComplete message, the UE’s geographical location might be reported. The entity 1002 could collect the information contained in UE-MeasurementsAvailable as part of the information provided to the entity 1002, as the information contained might give the UE’s location after a dropped call.

[0078] Procedure based on collecting TA (Timing Advance)

[0079] When a UE is on a call, the TA parameter could be collected at any time, as theTA parameter is used in radio algorithms. The TA value could tell how far or close the UE is from the antennas of the cell. It could tell as well whether the UE is moving (TA value increases or decreases) or not (TA value remains stable). The advantage of the TA is that it is available at the UE and at the NR without the need for an explicit request by the operator as it is the case of the UE geographical coordinates. However, the disadvantage of the TA is that it tells that the UE is located on any point of a circle that has the antennas of the cell as a center; however, it does not give the UE location. But this might be a quick procedure that gives the information on how far the UE is from the antennas of the cell just by fetching the TA information from the NR. In an example, if for a particular UE, e.g., UE1, the abnormal call releases are occurring repetitively at the same approximate value of TA, then one might conclude that UE1 is only experiencing drop calls at a particular location with X meter distance from celll. Then later at any time, the operator could trigger a UE location procedure to extract the exact location of the UE that matches that TA.

[0080] The entity 1002 may use either procedure to determine the geographic area for the reports. Thus, as illustrated in Figure 9, the entity 1002 estimates a location of the UE 1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706 at the occurrence of the abnormal release (Block 901). The entity 1002 determines the geographical area based on estimated the location (Block 903).

[0081] Figure 10 illustrates a signaling flow diagram including the UE 1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706, the network node 1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704, the AMF node 1000 and the entity 1002 instantiated by a network node performing a method of detecting whether a signaling failure in a radio access network was caused by one of a particular subscriber or a particular type of device.

[0082] Turning to Figure 10, in operation 1001, the entity 1002 subscribes to a CommFailure report "Any_UE." An abnormal release of a UE-RAN communication occurs at time t in operation 1003.

[0083] The network node 1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704 transmits a UE context release request in operation 1005. In operation 1007, the network node 1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704 transmits a copy of the UE context release request and additional information (e.g., cell ID, frequency band used, 5QIs used, UE radio conditions, etc.) to the entity 1002. This corresponds to blocks 101 and 201 of Figures 1 and 2.

[0084] The AMF node 1000 receives the UE context release request and in operation 1009, transmits a CommFailure report to the entity 1002 that includes the UE ID, AMF UNNGAP ID, and the UE PEI. This corresponds to blocks 103 of Figure 1 and block 203 of Figure 2.

[0085] The entity 1002 processes the information received, including correlating the UE ID, identifying the cause related to the cell ID, the PEI of the UE, frequency band used, 5QI(s) used, TA information, and radio and / or network condition. This corresponds to blocks 105-107 of Figure 1 and blocks 205-207 of Figure 2.

[0086] In operation 1013, the entity 1002 outputs the analysis to an operator. For example, the entity 1002 generates and transmits alarms and notifications as described above.

[0087] Figure 11 is an entity 1002 according to some embodiments when the entity 1002 is instantiated. The entity 1002 has a configuration and control function 1100 that controls the service based interface (SBI) handler 1102 that interfaces with the AMF node 1000 and controls the interface handler 1104 that interfaces with the network node 1210A- 1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704 reporting the abnormal release.

[0088] The historic release with time stamps 1106 stores abnormal release information including the times of previous abnormal releases. The configuration and control function 1100 also controls the processing 1108 of the information received, including correlating the UE ID, identifying the cause related to the cell ID, the PEI of the UE, frequency band used, 5QI(s) used, TA information, and radio and / or network condition.

[0089] If the previous abnormal releases are relevant to the present abnormal release as determined at decision 1110, an alarm and / or notification is presented to an operator via present results 1112. If it is determined that the previous abnormal releases are not relevant to the present abnormal release, the results of the processing is logged at logger 1114.

[0090] Figure 12 shows an example of a communication system 1200 in accordance with some embodiments.

[0091] In the example, the communication system 1200 includes a telecommunication network 1202 that includes an access network 1204, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 1206, which includes one or more core network nodes 1208. The access network 1204 includes one or more access network nodes, such as access network nodes 1210A and 1210B (one or more of which may be generally referred to as access network nodes 1210), or any other similar 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access node or non-3GPP access point. The network nodes 1210 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 1212A, 1212B, 1212C, and 1212D (one ormore of which may be generally referred to as UEs 1212) to the core network 1206 over one or more wireless connections.

[0092] Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and / or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and / or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system 1200 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and / or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and / or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communication system 1200 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.

[0093] The UEs 1212 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 1210 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 1210 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 1212 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 1202 to enable and / or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and / or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunication network 1202.

[0094] In the depicted example, the core network 1206 connects the network nodes 1210 to one or more hosts, such as host 1216. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network 1206 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 1208) that are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, network nodes, and / or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 1208. Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDE), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network ExposureFunction (NEF), and / or a User Plane Function (UPF).

[0095] The host 1216 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 1204 and / or the telecommunication network 1202, and may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The host 1216 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio / video content, data collection services such as retrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.

[0096] As a whole, the communication system 1200 of Figure 12 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi); and / or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi (Light Fidelity), and / or any low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa (Long Range) and Sigfox.

[0097] In some examples, the telecommunication network 1202 is a cellular network that implements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network 1202 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 1202. For example, the telecommunications network 1202 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and / or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) / Massive loT (Internet of Things) services to yet further UEs.

[0098] In some examples, the UEs 1212 are configured to transmit and / or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 1204 on a predetermined schedule, whentriggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 1204. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi-RAT or multistandard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e., being configured for multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

[0099] In the example, the hub 1214 communicates with the access network 1204 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 1212C and / or 1212D) and network nodes (e.g., network node 1210B). In some examples, the hub 1214 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 1214 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 1206 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 1214 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes 1210, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 1214. As another example, the hub 1214 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 1214 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 1214 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 1214 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 1214 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular in if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.

[0100] The hub 1214 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 1210B. The hub 1214 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub 1214 and UEs (e.g., UE 1212C and / or 1212D), and between the hub 1214 and the core network 1206. In other examples, the hub 1214 is connected to the core network 1206 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 1214 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 1204 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 1210 while still connected via the hub 1214 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 1214 maybe a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to / from the UEs from / to the network node 1210B. In other embodiments, the hub 1214 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node 1210B, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.

[0101] Figure 13 shows a UE 1300 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, a UE refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and / or other UEs. Examples of a UE include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless cameras, gaming console or device, music storage device, playback appliance, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), smart device, wireless customerpremise equipment (CPE), vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded / integrated wireless device, etc. Other examples include any UE identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and / or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.

[0102] A UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or vehicle-to-everything (V2X). In other examples, a UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and / or operates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).

[0103] The UE 1300 includes processing circuitry 1302 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1304 to an input / output interface 1306, a power source 1308, a memory 1310, a communication interface 1312, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in Figure 13. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors,memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

[0104] The processing circuitry 1302 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 1310. The processing circuitry 1302 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 1302 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).

[0105] In the example, the input / output interface 1306 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and / or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into the UE 1300. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.

[0106] In some embodiments, the power source 1308 is structured as a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used. The power source 1308 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 1308 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 1300 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 1308. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source 1308 to make thepower suitable for the respective components of the UE 1300 to which power is supplied.

[0107] The memory 1310 may be or be configured to include memory such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 1310 includes one or more application programs 1314, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 1316. The memory 1310 may store, for use by the UE 1300, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0108] The memory 1310 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and / or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card.’ The memory 1310 may allow the UE 1300 to access instructions, application programs and the like, stored on transitory or non- transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 1310, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

[0109] The processing circuitry 1302 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 1312. The communication interface 1312 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 1322. The communication interface 1312 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 1318 and / or a receiver 1320 appropriate to provide networkcommunications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 1318 and receiver 1320 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna 1322) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0110] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 1312 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof.Communications may be implemented in according to one or more communication protocols and / or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol / internet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0111] Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 1312, via a wireless connection to a network node. Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE. The output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).

[0112] As another example, a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, the UE may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.

[0113] A UE, when in the form of an Internet of Things (loT) device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, city wearable technology, extended industrial application and healthcare. Non-limitingexamples of such an loT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door / window sensor, a flood / moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a head-mounted display for Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, an industrial robot, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and any kind of medical device, like a heart rate monitor or a remote controlled surgical robot. A UE in the form of an loT device comprises circuitry and / or software in dependence of the intended application of the loT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the UE 1300 shown in Figure 13.

[0114] As yet another specific example, in an loT scenario, a UE may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and / or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and / or measurements to another UE and / or a network node. The UE may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the UE may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, a UE may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and / or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.

[0115] In practice, any number of UEs may be used together with respect to a single use case. For example, a first UE might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second UE that is a remote controller operating the drone. When the user makes changes from the remote controller, the first UE may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g., by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed. The first and / or the second UE can also include more than one of the functionalities described above. For example, a UE might comprise the sensor and the actuator, and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.

[0116] Figure 14 shows a network node 1400 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and / oroperable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and / or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunication network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)), Core network nodes, OSS network nodes, and the like. The entity 1002 may be instantiated by, e.g., an OSS network node.

[0117] Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units and / or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).

[0118] Other examples of network nodes include multiple transmission point (multi- TRP) 5G access nodes, multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi- cell / multicast coordination entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and / or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).

[0119] The network node 1400 includes a processing circuitry 1402, a memory 1404, a communication interface 1406, and a power source 1408. The network node 1400 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 1400 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In someembodiments, the network node 1400 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 1404 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 1410 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 1400 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1400, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 1400.

[0120] The processing circuitry 1402 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and / or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 1400 components, such as the memory 1404, to provide network node 1400 functionality.

[0121] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1402 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1402 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1412 and baseband processing circuitry 1414. In some embodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1412 and the baseband processing circuitry 1414 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1412 and baseband processing circuitry 1414 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0122] The memory 1404 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer- readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and / or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device- readable and / or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and / or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 1402. The memory 1404 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and / or other instructionscapable of being executed by the processing circuitry 1402 and utilized by the network node 1400. The memory 1404 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 1402 and / or any data received via the communication interface 1406. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1402 and memory 1404 is integrated.

[0123] The communication interface 1406 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and / or data between a network node, access network, and / or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface 1406 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) 1416 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 1406 also includes radio front-end circuitry 1418 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 1410. Radio front-end circuitry 1418 comprises filters 1420 and amplifiers 1422. The radio front-end circuitry 1418 may be connected to an antenna 1410 and processing circuitry 1402. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1410 and processing circuitry 1402. The radio front-end circuitry 1418 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuitry 1418 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1420 and / or amplifiers 1422. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 1410. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 1410 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 1418. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 1402. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0124] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 1400 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 1418, instead, the processing circuitry 1402 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 1410. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 1412 is part of the communication interface 1406. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 1406 includes one or more ports or terminals 1416, the radio front-end circuitry 1418, and the RF transceiver circuitry 1412, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 1406 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 1414, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0125] The antenna 1410 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna 1410 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 1418 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting andreceiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 1410 is separate from the network node 1400 and connectable to the network node 1400 through an interface or port.

[0126] The antenna 1410, communication interface 1406, and / or the processing circuitry 1402 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and / or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 1410, the communication interface 1406, and / or the processing circuitry 1402 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment.

[0127] The power source 1408 provides power to the various components of network node 1400 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 1408 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 1400 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 1400 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 1408. As a further example, the power source 1408 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.

[0128] Embodiments of the network node 1400 may include additional components beyond those shown in Figure 14 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 1400 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 1400 and to allow output of information from the network node 1400. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 1400.

[0129] Figure 15 is a block diagram of a host 1500, which may be an embodiment of the host 1216 of Figure 12, in accordance with various aspects described herein. As usedherein, the host 1500 may be or comprise various combinations hardware and / or software, including a standalone server, a blade server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server, a virtual machine, container, or processing resources in a server farm. The host 1500 may provide one or more services to one or more UEs.

[0130] The host 1500 includes processing circuitry 1502 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1504 to an input / output interface 1506, a network interface 1508, a power source 1510, and a memory 1512. Other components may be included in other embodiments. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the devices of previous figures, such as Figures 13 and 14, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of host 1500.

[0131] The memory 1512 may include one or more computer programs including one or more host application programs 1514 and data 1516, which may include user data, e.g., data generated by a UE for the host 1500 or data generated by the host 1500 for a UE. Embodiments of the host 1500 may utilize only a subset or all of the components shown. The host application programs 1514 may be implemented in a container-based architecture and may provide support for video codecs (e.g., Versatile Video Coding (VVC), High Efficiency Video Coding (HE VC), Advanced Video Coding (A VC), MPEG, VP9) and audio codecs (e.g., FLAC, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), MPEG, G.711), including transcoding for multiple different classes, types, or implementations of UEs (e.g., handsets, desktop computers, wearable display systems, heads-up display systems). The host application programs 1514 may also provide for user authentication and licensing checks and may periodically report health, routes, and content availability to a central node, such as a device in or on the edge of a core network. Accordingly, the host 1500 may select and / or indicate a different host for over-the-top services for a UE. The host application programs 1514 may support various protocols, such as the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol, Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH), etc.

[0132] Figure 16 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1600 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality isimplemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 1600 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, UE, core network node, or host. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized.

[0133] Applications 1602 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment 1600 to implement some of the features, functions, and / or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein. For example, the entity 1002 may be implemented as an application 1602.

[0134] Hardware 1604 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and / or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and / or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input / output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 1606 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 1608 A and 1608B (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 1608), and / or perform any of the functions, features and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 1606 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 1608.

[0135] The VMs 1608 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1606. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 1602 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 1608, and the implementations may be made in different ways. Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.

[0136] In the context of NFV, a VM 1608 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, nonvirtualized machine. Each of the VMs 1608, and that part of hardware 1604 that executesthat VM, be it hardware dedicated to that VM and / or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more VMs 1608 on top of the hardware 1604 and corresponds to the application 1602.

[0137] Hardware 1604 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 1604 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1604 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g., such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 1610, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 1602. In some embodiments, hardware 1604 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station. In some embodiments, some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system 1612 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

[0138] Figure 17 shows a communication diagram of a host 1702 communicating via a network node 1704 with a UE 1706 over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments. Example implementations, in accordance with various embodiments, of the UE (such as a UE 1212A of Figure 12 and / or UE 1300 of Figure 13), network node (such as network node 1210A of Figure 12 and / or network node 1400 of Figure 14), and host (such as host 1216 of Figure 12 and / or host 1500 of Figure 15) discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to Figure 17.

[0139] Eike host 1500, embodiments of host 1702 include hardware, such as a communication interface, processing circuitry, and memory. The host 1702 also includes software, which is stored in or accessible by the host 1702 and executable by the processing circuitry. The software includes a host application that may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as the UE 1706 connecting via an over-the-top (OTT) connection 1750 extending between the UE 1706 and host 1702. In providing the service to the remote user, a host application may provide user data which is transmitted using the OTT connection 1750.

[0140] The network node 1704 includes hardware enabling it to communicate with the host 1702 and UE 1706. The connection 1760 may be direct or pass through a core network (like core network 1206 of Figure 12) and / or one or more other intermediate networks, such as one or more public, private, or hosted networks. For example, an intermediate network may be a backbone network or the Internet.

[0141] The UE 1706 includes hardware and software, which is stored in or accessible by UE 1706 and executable by the UE’s processing circuitry. The software includes a client application, such as a web browser or operator- specific “app” that may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE 1706 with the support of the host 1702. In the host 1702, an executing host application may communicate with the executing client application via the OTT connection 1750 terminating at the UE 1706 and host 1702. In providing the service to the user, the UE’s client application may receive request data from the host's host application and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 1750 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The UE’s client application may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides to the host application through the OTT connection 1750.

[0142] The OTT connection 1750 may extend via a connection 1760 between the host 1702 and the network node 1704 and via a wireless connection 1770 between the network node 1704 and the UE 1706 to provide the connection between the host 1702 and the UE 1706. The connection 1760 and wireless connection 1770, over which the OTT connection 1750 may be provided, have been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host 1702 and the UE 1706 via the network node 1704, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices.

[0143] As an example of transmitting data via the OTT connection 1750, in step 1708, the host 1702 provides user data, which may be performed by executing a host application. In some embodiments, the user data is associated with a particular human user interacting with the UE 1706. In other embodiments, the user data is associated with a UE 1706 that shares data with the host 1702 without explicit human interaction. In step 1710, the host 1702 initiates a transmission carrying the user data towards the UE 1706. The host 1702 may initiate the transmission responsive to a request transmitted by the UE 1706. The request may be caused by human interaction with the UE 1706 or by operation of the client application executing on the UE 1706. The transmission may pass via the network node 1704, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout thisdisclosure. Accordingly, in step 1712, the network node 1704 transmits to the UE 1706 the user data that was carried in the transmission that the host 1702 initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 1714, the UE 1706 receives the user data carried in the transmission, which may be performed by a client application executed on the UE 1706 associated with the host application executed by the host 1702.

[0144] In some examples, the UE 1706 executes a client application which provides user data to the host 1702. The user data may be provided in reaction or response to the data received from the host 1702. Accordingly, in step 1716, the UE 1706 may provide user data, which may be performed by executing the client application. In providing the user data, the client application may further consider user input received from the user via an input / output interface of the UE 1706. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE 1706 initiates, in step 1718, transmission of the user data towards the host 1702 via the network node 1704. In step 1720, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, the network node 1704 receives user data from the UE 1706 and initiates transmission of the received user data towards the host 1702. In step 1722, the host 1702 receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the UE 1706.

[0145] In an example scenario, factory status information may be collected and analyzed by the host 1702. As another example, the host 1702 may process audio and video data which may have been retrieved from a UE for use in creating maps. As another example, the host 1702 may collect and analyze real-time data to assist in controlling vehicle congestion (e.g., controlling traffic lights). As another example, the host 1702 may store surveillance video uploaded by a UE. As another example, the host 1702 may store or control access to media content such as video, audio, VR or AR which it can broadcast, multicast or unicast to UEs. As other examples, the host 1702 may be used for energy pricing, remote control of non-time critical electrical load to balance power generation needs, location services, presentation services (such as compiling diagrams etc. from data collected from remote devices), or any other function of collecting, retrieving, storing, analyzing and / or transmitting data.

[0146] In some examples, a measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve. There may further be an optional network functionality for reconfiguring the OTTconnection 1750 between the host 1702 and UE 1706, in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and / or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection may be implemented in software and hardware of the host 1702 and / or UE 1706. In some embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with other devices through which the OTT connection 1750 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which software may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of the OTT connection 1750 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not directly alter the operation of the network node 1704. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling that facilitates measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like, by the host 1702. The measurements may be implemented in that software causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection 1750 while monitoring propagation times, errors, etc.

[0147] Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes, hosts) may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and / or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and / or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination. Moreover, while components are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components. For example, a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and / or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communicationinterface. In another example, non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

[0148] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and / or by end users and a wireless network generally.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A method in an entity (1002) instantiated by a network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) to detect whether a signaling failure in a radio access network, RAN, was caused by one of a particular subscriber or a particular type of device, the method comprising: responsive to an abnormal release message being sent by a RAN node to an access and mobility management function, AMF, node (1000) or from the AMF node (1000) to the RAN node, receiving (201) a copy of the abnormal release message and additional information associated with the abnormal release message comprising a cell identity, ID, where the abnormal release occurred, a frequency band that was used, 5G quality of service, QoS, identifiers, 5QIs, which were used, user equipment, UE, (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) radio conditions, and radio bearers which the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) was using when the abnormal release occurred, wherein the abnormal release message having a time tl of when an abnormal release of signaling of the UE occurred; receiving (203) a notification from the AMF node (1000) associated with the abnormal release, the notification containing an AMF UE identifier from the abnormal release message and identification information of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) comprising a permanent equipment identity, PEI of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) and a permanent identity of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706); storing (205) the time tl, the additional information, and the identification information as abnormal release information; and determining (207) whether the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases associated with stored abnormal release information correspond to a particular subscriber or a particular type of device.

2. The method of Claim 1, wherein determining whether the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases correspond to a particular subscriber or a particular type of device comprises: determining (301) whether the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases were triggered by the particular subscriber or the particular type of device; and responsive to the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases being triggered by the particular subscriber or the particular type of device, determining (303) that theabnormal release and previous abnormal releases correspond to the particular subscriber or the particular type of device.

3. The method of Claim 2, further comprising: responsive to determining that an abnormal release results in passing a pre-defined value in absolute numbers or in a percentage of all users in a cell, transmitting (401) a notification to an operator of the network.

4. The method of any of Claims 1-3, further comprising: receiving (501) a copy of a new abnormal release message and additional information associated with the new abnormal release message, wherein the new abnormal release message has a time t2; receiving (503) a new notification from the AMF node (1000) associated with the new abnormal release, the new notification containing an AMF UE identifier from the new abnormal release message and identification information of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) comprising the PEI of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) and a permanent identity of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706); storing (505) the time t2, the additional information associated with the new abnormal release message, and the identification information from the new notification; and determining (507) whether the new abnormal release and previous abnormal releases associated with stored abnormal release information correspond to a particular subscriber or a particular type of device.

5. The method of Claim 4, wherein determining whether the new abnormal release and previous abnormal releases associated with stored abnormal release information correspond to a particular subscriber or a particular type of device comprises: determining (601) whether the new abnormal release and previous abnormal releases were triggered by the particular subscriber or the particular type of device; and responsive to the new abnormal release and previous abnormal releases being triggered by the particular subscriber or the particular type of device, determining (603) that the new abnormal release and previous abnormal releases correspond to the particular subscriber or the particular type of device.

6. The method of any of Claims 4-5, further comprising: generating (701) one or more of the following reports:a number of abnormal releases per cell ID per At, where At = t2 - tl ; a number of abnormal releases per cell ID and frequency band per At; a number of abnormal releases per PEI-series including terminal type and terminal software release per At; a number of abnormal releases per 5 QI per At; a number of abnormal releases per permanent ID of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) per At; a number of abnormal releases per cell ID and cause code per At; a number of abnormal releases per cell ID and per geographical area per At; and / or a number of abnormal releases per cell ID and UE radio conditions per At.

7. The method of Claim 6, further comprising: determining (801) whether at least one of the one or more reports generated pass a pre-defined value in absolute numbers or in percentage of all users in the cell; and responsive to determining that at least one of the one or more reports generated pass the pre-defined value, transmitting (803) one of an alarm and a notification to an operator of the network.

8. The method of any of Claims 6-7, wherein generating the one or more reports comprises generating the one or more reports in parallel when the one or more reports comprise a plurality of reports.

9. The method of any of Claims 6-8, further comprising: estimating (901) a location of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) at the occurrence of the abnormal release; and determining (903) the geographical area based on the estimated location.

10. The method of any of Claims 1-9, wherein the abnormal release comprises an abnormal release of one of: a call; a handover; carrier aggregation; and / or a location update.

11. A network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) in a radio access network, RAN, instantiating an entity (1002), the network node comprising: processing circuitry (1402); and memory (1404) coupled with the processing circuitry, wherein the memory includes instructions that when executed by the processing circuitry causes the network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) to perform, by the entity (1002) instantiated by the network node (1210A- 1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704), operations comprising: responsive to an abnormal call release message being sent by a RAN node to an access and mobility management function, AMF, node (1000) or from the AMF node (1000) to the RAN node, receiving (201) a copy of the abnormal release message and additional information associated with the abnormal release message comprising a cell identity, ID, where the abnormal release occurred, a frequency band that was used, 5G quality of service, QoS, identifiers, 5QIs, which were used, user equipment, UE, (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) radio conditions, and radio bearers which the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) was using when the abnormal release occurred, wherein the abnormal release message has a time tl of when an abnormal release of signaling of the UE occurred; receiving (203) a notification from the AMF node (1000) associated with the abnormal release, the notification containing an AMF UE identifier from the abnormal release message and identification information of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) comprising a permanent equipment identity, PEI of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) and a permanent identity of the UE (1212A- 1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706); storing (205) the time tl, the additional information, and the identification information as abnormal release information; and determining (207), by the entity, whether the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases associated with stored abnormal release information correspond to a particular subscriber or a particular type of device.

12. The network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) of Claim 11, wherein determining whether the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases correspond to a particular subscriber or a particular type of device comprises: determining (301) whether the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases were triggered by the particular subscriber or the particular type of devices andresponsive to the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases being triggered by the particular subscriber or the particular type of device, determining (303) that the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases correspond to the particular subscriber or the particular type of device.

13. The network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) of Claim 12, wherein the memory includes further instructions that when executed by the processing circuitry causes the entity instantiated by the network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) to perform operations comprising: responsive to determining that an abnormal release results in passing a pre-defined value in absolute numbers or in a percentage of all users in a cell, transmitting (401) a notification to an operator of the network.

14. The network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) of any of Claims 11-13, wherein the memory includes further instructions that when executed by the processing circuitry causes the entity (1002) instantiated by the network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) to perform operations comprising: receiving (501) a copy of a new abnormal release message and additional information associated with the new abnormal release message, wherein the new abnormal release message has a time t2; receiving (503) a new notification from the AMF node (1000) associated with the new abnormal release, the new notification containing an AMF UE identifier from the new abnormal release message and identification information of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) comprising the PEI of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) and a permanent identity of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706); storing (505) the time t2, the additional information associated with the new abnormal release message, and the identification information from the new notification; and determining (507) whether the new abnormal release and previous abnormal releases associated with stored abnormal release information correspond to a particular subscriber or a particular type of device.

15. The network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) of Claim 14, wherein determining whether the new abnormal release and previous abnormal releases associated with stored abnormal release information correspond to a particular subscriber or aparticular type of device comprises: determining (601) whether the new abnormal release and previous abnormal releases were triggered by the particular subscriber or the particular type of device; and responsive to the new abnormal release and previous abnormal releases being triggered by the particular subscriber or the particular type of device, determining (603) that the new abnormal release and previous abnormal releases correspond to the particular subscriber or the particular type of device.

16. The network node of any of Claims 14-15, wherein the memory includes further instructions that when executed by the processing circuitry causes the entity (1002) instantiated by the network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) to perform operations comprising: generating (701) one or more of the following reports: a number of abnormal releases per cell ID per At, where At = t2 - tl ; a number of abnormal releases per cell ID and frequency band per At; a number of abnormal releases per PEI-series including terminal type and terminal software release per At; a number of abnormal releases per 5 QI per At; a number of abnormal releases per permanent ID of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) per At; a number of abnormal releases per cell ID and cause code per At; a number of abnormal releases per cell ID and per geographical area per At; and / or a number of abnormal releases per cell ID and UE radio conditions per At.

17. The network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) of Claim 16, wherein the memory includes further instructions that when executed by the processing circuitry causes the entity (1002) instantiated by the network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) to perform operations comprising: determining (801) whether at least one of the one or more reports generated pass a pre-defined value in absolute numbers or in percentage of all users in the cell; and responsive to determining that at least one of the one or more reports generated pass the pre-defined value, transmitting (803) one of an alarm and a notification to an operator of the network.

18. The network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) of any of Claims 16-17, wherein generating the one or more reports comprises generating the one or more reports in parallel when the one or more reports comprise a plurality of reports.

19. The network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) of any of Claims 16-18, wherein the memory includes further instructions that when executed by the processing circuitry causes the entity (1002) instantiated by the network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) to perform operations comprising: estimating (901) a location of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) at the occurrence of the abnormal release; and selecting (903) the geographical area based on the estimated location.

20. The network node (1210A-1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) of any of Claims 11-19, wherein the abnormal release comprises an abnormal release of one of: a call a handover; carrier aggregation; and / or a location update.

21. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory storage medium including program code to be executed by processing circuitry (1402) of a network node (1210A, 1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704), whereby execution of the program code causes the network node (1210A, 1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) to instantiate an entity (1002) to perform operations comprising: responsive to an abnormal call release message being sent by a radio access network, RAN, node to an access and mobility management function, AMF, node (1000) or from the AMF node (1000) to the RAN node, receiving (201) a copy of the abnormal release message and additional information associated with the abnormal release message comprising a cell identity, ID, where the abnormal release occurred, a frequency band that was used, 5G quality of service, QoS, identifiers, 5QIs, which were used, user equipment, UE, (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) radio conditions, and radio bearers which the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) was using when the abnormal release occurred, wherein the abnormal release message has a time tl of when an abnormal release of signaling of the UE occurred;receiving (203) a notification from the AMF node (1000) associated with the abnormal release, the notification containing an AMF UE identifier from the abnormal release message and identification information of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) comprising a permanent equipment identity, PEI of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706) and a permanent identity of the UE (1212A-1212D, 1300, 1602, 1706); storing (205) the time tl, the additional information, and the identification information as abnormal release information; and determining (207) whether the abnormal release and previous abnormal releases associated with stored abnormal release information correspond to a particular subscriber or a particular type of device.

22. The computer program product of Claim 21 wherein non-transitory storage medium includes further program code whereby execution of the further program code causes the entity (1002) instantiated by the network node (1210A, 1210B, 1400, 1602, 1704) to perform operations according to any of claims 2-10.

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