Mobility Management Entity Overload Detection in Wireless Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
In wireless communication networks, it is challenging for mobility management devices to accurately determine whether a Serving Gateway (SGW) or a Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW) is overloaded, leading to difficulties in identifying the cause of session establishment failures, as the error messages do not specify the origin of the failure between the SGW and PGW.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method where a mobility management entity (MME) sends session establishment requests to multiple SGWs and PGWs, tracks responses, and uses a data structure to analyze failure conditions, allowing it to distinguish between SGW and PGW failures, and adjust the distribution of session establishment signaling to avoid overloaded devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the MME sends session establishment requests to multiple SGWs and PGWs to detect overload conditions, then the accuracy of identifying overloaded devices is improved, but the complexity of the detection mechanism increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the detection process into distinct phases: sending session establishment requests to multiple SGWs and PGWs, receiving responses, analyzing failure conditions, and determining overload status. This segmentation allows the MME to systematically identify overloaded devices without creating a monolithic complex system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses session establishment responses as an intermediary mechanism to convey failure information from SGWs and PGWs back to the MME. This intermediary allows the MME to detect overload conditions indirectly through the response messages, avoiding the need for direct complex monitoring of each gateway's internal state.
2Measurement precision
If the MME tracks and analyzes failure conditions using a data structure, then the ability to distinguish between SGW and PGW failures is improved, but the processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-defining the data structure format for storing session establishment responses and failure conditions. This allows the MME to quickly populate and query the structure without dynamic allocation or complex processing during runtime, reducing the time penalty for detailed failure analysis.
3Loss of time
If the system dynamically selects less loaded gateways for session establishment, then the setup time is reduced and network performance is improved, but the complexity of gateway selection logic increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the gateway selection process adaptive rather than static. The MME dynamically adjusts its selection of SGWs and PGWs based on real-time overload detection from session establishment responses. This allows the system to optimize setup times without requiring a completely complex selection logic, as the adaptation is driven by simple overload indicators from the network elements themselves.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods are provided to allow detection of the load conditions on network devices. The load detection can occur using a mobility management device to track establishment of sessions and attempts at session establishment to determine the loading conditions on various network devices. This information can then be used by a selection logic to determine which devices are selected to send session establishment messaging for new session establishment requests. This can provide quicker setup times as highly loaded network devices or network devices experiences other failures are selected less until conditions are back to normal.