Mobility Management Node Postponing Subscriber Data Transmission

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing mobility management systems face challenges in efficiently handling updated subscriber data for User Equipment (UE) that is unreachable, leading to unnecessary signaling failures and complexities when the UE is in suspend or power saving states, or out of coverage.

Innovation Solution

Implementing a mechanism in mobility management nodes to postpone the transmission of updated subscriber data until the UE becomes reachable, allowing for optimized signaling by setting indications for pending data and clearing them once the data is successfully transmitted to the gateway node.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If updated subscriber data is transmitted immediately to the gateway node, then data freshness is improved, but signaling failures increase when UE is unreachable

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata freshnessVSAvoidsignaling failure rate

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The mobility management node performs preliminary actions by storing updated subscriber data locally and setting a pending indication before the UE becomes reachable. This preliminary storage ensures data freshness is maintained without immediate transmission, avoiding signaling failures when the UE is unreachable. The data is prepared in advance and will be transmitted once the UE is available.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Productivity

If signaling is sent to unreachable UE, then data transmission is attempted, but error scenarios increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata transmission efficiencyVSAvoiderror scenarios

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies preliminary anti-action by detecting UE unreachability before attempting data transmission and preventing the signaling from being sent. The mobility management node checks UE reachability status and blocks transmission attempts when the UE is unreachable, thereby avoiding error scenarios and signaling failures while maintaining productivity by readying the data for future transmission.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #9Preliminary anti-action

3Reliability

If data is stored for retry, then transmission success is improved, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetransmission success rateVSAvoiddata storage management

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The invention extracts the data storage function from complex retry management mechanisms. Instead of implementing sophisticated retry logic and multiple storage locations, the system simply stores the updated subscriber data in the mobility management node's existing data structures and sets a pending indication flag. This extraction approach maintains high transmission success rates while minimizing additional device complexity by using existing network node capabilities.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentUS11096038B2Methods and nodes for handling updated subscriber data

Publication Date: 2021.08.17 TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON (PUBL)

AI summary

The embodiments herein relate to a method in a first mobility management node (108a) for handling updated subscriber data associated with a UE (101). The UE (101) is currently unreachable by the first mobility management node (108a). The first mobility management node (108a) receives, from a subscriber database (128), updated subscriber data associated with the UE (101). At least part of the updated subscriber data is modified. The first mobility management node (108a) determines that transmission of the updated subscriber data to a gateway node (110) should be postponed until the UE (101) has become reachable.