Heterogeneous slice deployment within a registration area of a cellular communications network

Abstract

Systems and methods for heterogeneous slice deployment within a registration area are provided. In some embodiments, a method performed by a User Equipment (UE) for accessing a network slice includes: during registration with a network node, requesting network slice assistance; receiving network slice assistance from the network node indicating access to a first network slice in a first Tracking Area (TA) but not in an entire Registration Area (RA); and accessing the first network slice in the first TA. Some embodiments enable deploying slices in very small geographical areas to suit special use cases without necessarily having to deploy small RAs. Some of the potentially realizable use cases are in stadiums, factory slices, etc. The ability to deploy small slices within a large RA mitigates problems, such as high registration load, that one might deal with when the RA is too small.