T-Mobile USA, Inc.

Christopher Harvey Joul

Karunakalage Viraj Rakitha Silva

Salvador Mendoza

Boris Antsev

Pablo Tapia

Jun Liu

Kun Lu

Suresh Thanneeru

Alan Denis MacDonald

Egil Gronstad

Ming Shan Kwok

Shujaur Rehman Mufti

Suliman Albasheir

John J Humbert

Rahul Pal

Neng-Tsann Ueng

Ahmad Arash Obaidi

Scott Francis Migaldi

Jean-Luc Rene Bouthemy

Gamze Seckin

Rushabhkumar Patel

Saqib Badar

Janne P Linkola

Christopher E Caldwell

Ryan N Jensen

Brian Allan Olsen

Magesh Annamalai

Terri L Brooks

Paulo S T Chow

Gary C Jones

Justin Mueller

Simon Chapman

John Foster Pottle

Hsin-Fu Henry Chiang

Kevin Lau

Jie Hui

Shelby Seward

Nassereddine Sabeur

Zeeshan Jahangir

William Michael Hooker

Cristian Asandului

Warren J McNeel

Alexandru Catalin Ionescu

Paul Bongaarts

Michael Engan

Subramania Kaushik

Andrew Gapin

Kunal Prakash Barawkar

Mallika Deshpande

Grant Morgan Castle

Kirti Krishnan

Marc A Proctor

Umair Rehmat

Steven S Farsai

Anthony Yiu

Brad Smith

A user equipment (UE) can be a mobile terminating (MT) device that may receive data from another UE or other network element via a telecommunication network. When a small data payload is available for an MT UE, a base station of the telecommunication network can send a paging message to the UE that includes a Mobile Terminating Small Data Transmission (MT-SDT) paging cause. Based on the MT-SDT paging cause in the paging message, the UE can use Small Data Transmission (SDT) procedures to respond to the paging message. The SDT procedures can allow the UE to obtain the small data payload while the UE remains in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) Inactive state.

Paging message for mobile terminating small data transmission

In a telecommunication network, network slices can be identified by slice identifiers used within a core network. The same slice identifiers can also be used by elements of an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) to identify the network slices. For example, a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) can be provisioned with user data associated with a user equipment (UE), including a slice identifier of a network slice that the UE is assigned to use. The HSS can provide the slice identifier to an S-CSCF in the IMS when the UE registers with the IMS. The S-CSCF can share the slice identifier with other IMS elements, such as a P-CSCF and/or one or more application servers. Accordingly, the IMS elements can determine key performance indicators (KPIs) and perform other operations in association with usage of network slices by UEs, based on the same slice identifiers used within the core network.

IMS slicing based on slice identifiers from HSS

A network provider implements network slicing. Each network slice instance is configured to provide a configured set of services that are associated with controlled access to a set of user devices. An access profile for a first user device is identified and analyzed. In response to determining that the access profile matches security capabilities of a configured set of services for one of the instantiated network instances, the first user device is enabled to securely access the matching instantiated network instance.

Security for network slicing in a communication system

An access network can allocate a bearer for a network service associated with a quality-of-service (QoS) value (QV) and a retention-priority value (RPV), and determine a bearer ID for the service based on the QV, the RPV, and a supplemental priority value (SPV) different from the QV and from the RPV. Upon handover of a terminal, session(s) carried by a bearer allocated by the terminal can be terminated. That bearer can be selected using IDs of the bearers and a comparison function that, given two bearer IDs, determines which respective bearer should be terminated before the other. Upon handover of a terminal to an access network supporting fewer bearers per terminal than the terminal has allocated, a network node can select a bearer based on respective QVs and RPVs of a set of allocated bearers. The network node can deallocate the selected bearer.

Telecommunications network bearer allocation and deallocation

Systems, devices, and techniques described herein relate to migrating a communication session from a path including a stressed user plane function (UPF) to a path including a replacement UPF. A communication session may traverse a first path including the first UPF. After establishing the communication session, the first UPF may be determined to be stressed. In response, the communication session can be proactively migrated to a second path including a second UPF. According to various implementations, the existing communication session can be maintained during the migration, thereby substantially eliminating interruptions caused by the stressed first UPF.

Transparent session migration between user plane functions

Techniques for handling emergency calls in a fifth generation (5G) telecommunication network are discussed herein. Some 5G-compatible user equipment (UEs) support 5G emergency calls, while other 5G-compatible UEs do not support 5G emergency calls. If a UE supports 5G emergency calls, the 5G telecommunication network may instruct the UE during network registration to use the 5G telecommunication network for any emergency calls attempted later. However, if a UE does not support 5G emergency calls, the 5G telecommunication network may instruct the UE during network registration to instead use Long-Term Evolution (LTE) emergency fallback procedures for emergency calls. Such LTE emergency fallback procedures can cause the 5G telecommunication network to steer the UE to LTE for an emergency call almost immediately after receiving a service request from the UE, even though the 5G telecommunication network itself supports emergency calls.

Emergency service fallback based on user equipment capability

In a 4G LTE wireless carrier network, network slice instances are instantiated that are configured to provide a configured set of services that are accessible to a controlled set of user devices. A service profile for a user device is identified and analyzed. When the service profile matches a configured set of services for one of the instantiated network slice instances, the user device is enabled to access the matching instantiated network instance. The provisioning of the network slice instances is performed by a dedicated node.

Network slicing using dedicated network node

A network provider implements network slicing. Network instances are instantiated on a communication network that are configured to provide a configured set of services that are accessible to a controlled set of devices. When a first device is either registered or authenticated with the communication network or has entered a service area, a service profile is identified and analyzed. In response to determining that the service profile matches a configured set of services for one of the instantiated network instances, the first device is enabled to access the matching instantiated network instance.

Provisioning of network slicing in a communication system

A service-based architecture (SBA) IP Multimedia Network Subsystem (IMS) network exposes Network Functions (NFs) to nodes within a 5G core network (CN), nodes within the SBA IMS network, and/or nodes within another network. In contrast to the SBA IMS network, legacy IMS networks are non-SBA IMS stateful networks that may utilize the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Utilizing the SBA IMS network, a node in the 5G core network can communicate directly with any node in the SBA IMS network. The SBA IMS network is stateless and open as opposed to stateful and closed as in SIP based legacy IMS networks. In some configurations, the SBA IMS network utilizes a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). For instance, instead of using the application layer SIP protocol, techniques can include using HTTP. The SBA IMS may also connect to legacy SIP IMS networks.

Service-based IP multimedia network subsystem (IMS) architecture

Systems and methods for selectively routing a connect to a network through a control function associated with the network. The system can distinguish between control functions based on functionalities associated with the control function itself or capabilities associated with a user device. The system can select between the control functions based at least in part on an identifier associated with the user device, a subscriber account associated with the user device, or another trait of the connection. The system can select the control function based on a determination made by a control node associated with the network and may be further based on a Network Resource Function, a Domain Name System server, internal static listings of the control functions, or other resource that associates one or more identifiers with the control function. The system can obtain the identifier once the user device requests a connection with the network and provide the identifier to the control node.

Network component selection based on device identifier

A first access node of a first wireless access network receives, via a first entry node of the first network, a service-request message from a terminal registered with the first network. The first access node requests first network-capacity information associated with the first wireless access network from the first entry node, and second network-capacity information associated with a second wireless access network from a second access node of the second network. The first access node selects a target access network based on the service-request message and the first and second network-capacity information. The first access node, in response to a selection of the first wireless access network, sends a service-reply message to the first entry node. The first access node, in response to a selection of the second wireless access network, triggers a handover of the terminal to the second wireless access network.

Triggering terminal handover after session-request message

Techniques for web access in a 5G wireless networking environment are discussed herein. In particular, techniques can be implemented in 5Generation (5G) environments via a web access component configured to accept HTTP requests or WebSocket requests from a user equipment and initialize a session in various components in the 5G environment to utilize a user plane function. In some instances, the web access can be provided by a web access inter-working function (WxIWF) interface in communication with an access and mobility management function (AMF) and a user plane function (UPF). In some instances, this arrangement facilitates seamless transitions between non-3GPP access and 3GPP access because traffic associated with both types utilize a same session in the 5G environment components.

Web access in 5G environments

Growing community of inventors

Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Christopher Harvey Joul