Pre-established S5 Tunnels for Wireless Attachment Latency
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing attachment and bearer establishment process in cellular wireless networks is time-consuming due to the need for the Mobility Management Entity (MME) to wait for the Serving Gateway (SGW) and Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW) to engage in signaling and assign an IP address before setting up the S1-U tunnel.
Innovation Solution
Pre-establishing dummy or placeholder connections, including S5 tunnels between the SGW and PGW, and associated IP addresses, which can be quickly assigned to a UE upon attachment, allowing the MME to select and configure these pre-established connections for use as part of a bearer without waiting for the S5 tunnel establishment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the MME waits for the SGW and PGW to engage in signaling and assign an IP address before setting up the S1-U tunnel, then the bearer establishment is ensured to be complete and correct, but the attachment process time is increased
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-establishing the S5 tunnel between SGW and PGW, and pre-assigning IP addresses from the pool before the actual attachment process. This allows the MME to immediately set up the S1-U tunnel without waiting for S5 tunnel establishment and IP address assignment, thereby reducing attachment time while ensuring bearer establishment completeness through pre-configured resources
2Reliability
If the network establishes all bearers and tunnels sequentially in the traditional manner, then the resource allocation is ensured to be proper, but the network efficiency is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The network performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing S5 tunnels and pre-assigning IP addresses from the pool in advance. This enables parallel processing where the MME can immediately configure S1-U tunnels without sequential waiting, thereby improving network efficiency while maintaining proper resource allocation through pre-configured bearers and tunnels
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the bearer establishment process into independent phases: pre-establishment of S5 tunnels and IP address pool configuration, and subsequent UE-specific attachment processing. This segmentation allows different network elements to work in parallel on different tasks, improving overall network efficiency while ensuring each segment maintains proper resource allocation
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a method and system in which connections are pre-established without any UE association and are then a pre-established connection is selected and associated with a UE when the UE seeks to attach. Each pre-established connection could include an S5 tunnel between an SGW and PGW and an IP address assignment. And upon UE attachment, an MME could readily signal with a base station to establish an S1-U tunnel for the UE, and to convey the IP address assignment to the UE, without having to wait for establishment of the S5 tunnel and assignment of the IP address, and the MME could further signal with the SGW to cause the S5 tunnel and IP address assignment to be made UE specific and to tie the S5 tunnel with the newly established S1-U tunnel. Further, the quantity and service level of connections pre-established could be based on historical trends.