Diameter Routing Agent Session Restoration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current mobile networking architectures face challenges in detecting failures of network elements like Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) and restoring sessions efficiently, leading to hanging or timed-out subscriber sessions in 3GPP communication networks.
Innovation Solution
A method where a Diameter Routing Agent (DRA) maintains availability status of network elements, detects unavailability of serving PCRFs or TDFs, and re-establishes user equipment (UE) sessions at alternative available elements without terminating the existing sessions, using messages like Gx Re-Authorization-Request and updating session identifiers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple PCRFs are deployed to provide redundancy, then reliability is improved, but session restoration becomes complex and sessions may hang or time-out
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a session management entity as an intermediary that maintains session state information and coordinates failover between PCRFs. This mediator manages the complexity of session restoration by centralizing session state tracking and automatically routing sessions to available PCRFs, preventing sessions from hanging or timing out during failures.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing session state information and maintaining readiness data before failures occur. When a PCRF fails, the session management entity already has the necessary session context prepared, enabling immediate restoration without complex real-time negotiations or timeouts.
2Duration of action of moving object
If session restoration is implemented without termination, then service continuity is improved, but network element availability monitoring becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where network elements continuously report their availability status to the session management entity. This feedback loop enables the system to detect unavailable elements and trigger session restoration procedures automatically, maintaining extended session duration without requiring complex manual monitoring or termination-reconnection cycles.
3Ease of manufacture
If traditional failure detection methods are used, then implementation simplicity is maintained, but session restoration efficiency decreases causing hanging sessions
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing session state information and maintaining readiness data before failures occur. When a PCRF fails, the session management entity already has the necessary session context prepared, enabling immediate restoration without complex real-time negotiations or timeouts.
Data Source
AI summary
A method is provided in one example embodiment and may include maintaining, by a Diameter Routing Agent (DRA), an availability status for a plurality of network elements; receiving a request associated with a user equipment (UE) session, wherein a first network element of the plurality of network elements is serving the UE session; determining that the first network element serving the UE session is unavailable; and re-establishing the UE session at a second network element of the plurality of network elements that is available, wherein the re-establishing is performed without terminating the UE session.