British Telecommunications Public Limited Company

Maria Cuevas Ramirez

Ruth Brown

Jonathan Hart

Andrew Corston-Petrie

Scott Bailey

David Townend

Stephen Johnson

Alistair Gomez

Francisco Faus Gregori

Ian Mings

Svilen Mirtchev

A method of managing a telecommunications network, the telecommunications network having a first user and a second user, the method comprising the step of: ascertaining a competitive characteristic associated with the first user and a competitive characteristic associated with the second user; comparing the ascertained competitive characteristics; identifying whether there is a disparity between the competitive characteristics that exceeds a threshold, thereby to identify a competitive advantage associated with the first or second user; and if it is identified that the disparity exceeds the threshold, adapting a network configuration of a network connection associated with the first user so as to offset the competitive advantage associated with the first or second user.

Network management

This disclosure provides a method, and a network node for implementing the method, for establishing a multi-domain network slice in a telecommunications network, the telecommunications network being an internetwork of a first network domain and second network domain, in which the first network domain and second network domain are of different network types being one of an access network, backhaul network and a core network, wherein a network node includes a network slice database storing data on a plurality of network slices established in the first and second network domains.

Telecommunications network

A method of operating a telecommunications network (), said telecommunications network being accessible to a User Equipment (UE) () and comprising a cellular telecommunications network (-) and a fixed-access telecommunications network (-), the method comprising the steps of: providing a set of user plane functions for processing user traffic for the UE, said set comprising at least two user plane functions; providing a combined user plane function () for processing user traffic for the UE according to the set of user plane functions; following establishing a network connection between the UE and the cellular telecommunications network via the fixed-access telecommunications network (), identifying inefficient routing of user traffic associated with the UE (), said inefficient routing comprising routing user traffic to at least the set of user plane functions; in response to identifying inefficient routing, re-routing user traffic associated with the UE to the combined user plane function so as to process the user traffic at the combined user plane function instead of at the set of user plane functions ().

Method of operating a telecommunications network

A method of controlling an Autonomous Vehicle (AV), comprising the steps of: detecting a fault in a first AV-; in response to detecting said fault, transmitting a communication for alerting an AV of the fault, wherein said communication is a device-to-device wireless communication; receiving said communication at a second AV-; identifying the second AV as being capable of retrieving at least part of the first AV and delivering said at least part to an intended destination; and instructing the second AV to perform the retrieving and delivering.

Vehicle management

A method of operating a wireless routing device to control access to a voice communication service by a mobile device connected to a wireless local area network (WLAN) of the wireless routing device, the mobile device having a cellular network interface and a non-cellular wireless network interface, the method including identifying a request from the mobile device to a cellular network gateway of the cellular network for access to the voice communication service; performing a process prior to forwarding the request to the cellular network gateway comprising: calculating a quality score for a non-cellular wireless link between the mobile device and the cellular network gateway for accessing the voice communication service; requesting observed network information from the mobile device; and comparing the quality of the non-cellular wireless network link against the respective quality of at least one alternative network observed by the mobile device; and if the quality of the non-cellular wireless network link is greater than the quality of an available alternative network; allowing the request to proceed to the cellular network gateway; if the quality of at least one of the alternative networks is higher than the non-cellular wireless network link, rejecting the voice service request.

Access network selection

A method of selecting competitors for a multi-user competitive activity being performed over a telecommunications network, in which a first UE and a second UE are in communication with the telecommunications network, and the telecommunications network providing at least one network slice, wherein the method comprises the steps of: identifying a network slice onto which the first UE is allocated; identifying a network slice onto which the second UE is allocated; determining that the first UE and the second UE are intending to participate in the multi-user competitive activity; and selecting the first UE and the second UE to participate in the multi-user competitive activity in dependence on the identified network slices onto which the first UE and the second UE is allocated.

Competitor selection

In a LTE network user devices can access voice application service via Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi). To detect faults in the data link associated with an evolved packet data gateway for providing access by the user device to the LTE network from a non-trusted network which will affect VoWiFi capability, a packet data gateway monitors the status of ePDG and if a fault is detected, the user device is notified that it should connect to voice services via VoLTE.

IMS registration management

This disclosure invention relates to a method of operating a network node in a cellular telecommunications network, wherein the cellular telecommunications network further includes a first base station and a first User Equipment (UE), and the first UE is connected to the first base station by a first and second connection having resources associated with a first and second subscription, respectively, the method including determining that the first connection and second connection relate to the first and second subscription respectively; determining that the first connection and second connection relate to the first UE; monitoring a first resource usage of one or both of the first and second connections with the first UE; and initiating a handover of one or both of the first and second connections based on the first resource usage.

Cellular telecommunications network

In a method of operating a content delivery network having a plurality of content caches to deliver requested content to at least one user device, the user device has one or more access network interfaces for connection to content caches of the content delivery network via one or more respective access networks, and the method is performed by a content delivery route decision function running on the user device and interfacing with the content delivery network and the access networks.

Path selection for content delivery network

A method of managing traffic flow through a multi-node network, the multi-node network interlinking a first mobile network and a second mobile network, the method including, when a subscriber user equipment entity that has as a home network the first mobile network and that is operating in the second mobile network attempts to establish a connection to a correspondent user equipment entity: communicating a connection request message from the second network to the first network over a first route via a set of nodes of the multi-node network; at least one of the nodes of the set: identifying a candidate alternative route between nodes of the multi-node network for at least part of a connection between the subscriber user equipment entity and the correspondent user equipment entity; and transmitting an indication of the candidate alternative route to a controller; and the controller selecting, in accordance with predetermined criteria, one of the first route and the at least one candidate alternative route and causing the connection to be established between the subscriber user equipment entity and the correspondent user equipment entity at least partially over the selected route.

Roaming route optimization

A method of operating a device, the device being configured to communicate with a wireless telecommunications network and the device being in the form of an Autonomous Vehicle (AV), the method comprising the steps of: detecting a fault associated with the AV; and in response to detecting said fault, causing the AV to transmit a mayday wireless network communication for alerting the wireless telecommunications network of the fault; in response to the mayday wireless network communication, identifying a recovery AV that is capable of retrieving at least part of the AV and delivering said at least part to an intended destination; and instructing the recovery AV to perform the retrieving and delivering by communicating an instructing message, wherein the instructing message is in the form of a system information message.

Device management

A method of operating a mobile device to access a voice service available at a cellular network, the mobile device having a cellular network interface for accessing the voice service via a cellular network base station and a non-cellular local area network interface for accessing the voice service via a wireless routing device and a cellular network gateway, the method including connecting to a non-cellular wireless local area network of the wireless routing device; sending a request to the cellular network gateway to access the voice service; receiving a request from a voice service access controller, for any observed wireless local area networks and cellular networks; generating a list of any observed non-cellular wireless local area networks and observed cellular networks; sending said list to the voice service access controller via the non-cellular local area network interface; receiving an identity of one of the listed networks from the voice service access controller, the identified network representing an candidate network for accessing the voice service; and enabling the respective cellular or non-cellular network interface associated with the identified network to access the voice service.

Network discovery

A method of operating a network gateway in a cellular network to control access of at least one mobile device to a voice service accessible via the cellular network, the mobile device being connected to the network gateway via a wireless access router and wide area network, WAN, the method including receiving a request from the mobile device to access the voice service; measuring performance metrics for a non-cellular wireless network link to the mobile device; requesting observed network information from the mobile device; and comparing the quality of the non-cellular wireless network link to the mobile device against the respective quality of at least one observed network; if the quality of the non-cellular wireless network link is greater than the quality of an available observed network, allowing the request to proceed to the cellular network; and if the quality of at least one of the observed networks is higher than the current non-cellular wireless network link, rejecting the voice service request of the mobile device.

This disclosure relates to a method of operating a management node in a cellular telecommunications network, the cellular telecommunications network further including a User Equipment (UE) and a first and second base station, wherein the UE is connected to the first base station by a first connection and to the second base station by a second connection, and the first and second connection relate to a first and second subscription, respectively, the method including detecting a first home network identifier of the first connection; detecting a first network operator identifier of the first base station; determining that a first home network identifier of the first connection is different to the first network operator identifier of the first base station; determining a preferred partner network associated with the first home network identifier; and initiating a transfer of the first connection to the preferred partner network.

A mobile device capable of connecting to a voice service using Voice over LTE (VoLTE) via a cellular network and Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) via a wireless local area network is connected to VoWiFi and arranged to receive notifications from a wireless access point when the voice service via VoWiFi is disrupted and to disconnect from VoWiFi and connect to VoLTE to maintain the voice service. The mobile device is operable to test the connection to the cellular network and if the cellular network connection is insufficient to support VoLTE, the mobile device ignored the notification and remains connected to VoWiFi.

Growing community of inventors

London, United Kingdom

Maria Cuevas Ramirez