This application is a U.S. national phase application under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. §371 of International Patent Application No. PCT/CN08/73614 filed Dec. 19, 2008, which in turn claims priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 200810134223.1 filed Jul. 21, 2008. The disclosures of such international patent application and Chinese priority patent application are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their respective entireties, for all purposes.
The present invention relates to communication field, and in particular to a method for entering an idle mode in a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) system.
At present an idle mode has been defined in WiMAX system. When a terminal enters the idle mode from an active mode, both the corresponding wireless connection thereof and the connection of an access network are released; meanwhile, the information of the terminal is saved in an anchor paging controller, thus the terminal occupies no wireless resource and the resource of the access network; the terminal which has entered into the idle mode receives downlink broadcast messages periodically, and does not need to register at a particular base station when traveling among a plurality of base stations, thus energy consumption can be saved.
No matter whether the procedure for entering the idle mode is initiated by the terminal or by the network, a paging agent will send terminal related information to the anchor paging controller of this terminal via an IM_Entry_State_Change_Request message which carries the information of this terminal required to be saved by the anchor paging controller (named as idle mode entering parameters hereinafter). The information comprises part or all of the following: an anchor paging controller identifier, an anchor authenticator identifier, an anchor gateway identifier, a current accessed base station identifier, a paging parameter, service flow information, an SBC (terminal basic capability) context, a REG (registration) context, a PKM (private key management) context, safety association description, and service flow information.
The anchor paging controller will also interact message(s) with the anchor authenticator of this terminal so as to make the anchor authenticator judge whether this terminal is allowed to enter the idle mode, upon receiving the IM_Entry_State_Change_Request message sent by the page proxy; the anchor authenticator will save the anchor paging controller identifier of this terminal only when it is determined that the terminal is allowed to enter the idle mode, further the anchor paging controller will save the above-mentioned idle mode entering parameters.
101: the paging agent sends an IM_Entry_State_Change_Request message to the anchor paging controller (each anchor paging controller has one corresponding location register, and the location register records the information of the terminal in the idle mode); this message contains the parameters such as the current base station identifier, the paging parameters and idle mode reservation information; this message can arrive at the anchor paging controller via one or more relay paging controller.
102: the anchor paging controller sends the IM_Entry_State_Change_Request message to the anchor authenticator, and the anchor authenticator judges whether the terminal is allowed to enter the idle mode after receiving this message: if it is allowed, the anchor authenticator saves the anchor paging controller identifier.
103: the anchor authenticator sends an idle mode entering status change response message to the anchor paging controller; and this response message contains the judging result (result identifier) of the anchor authenticator; if the judging result indicates that the terminal is allowed to enter the idle mode, the anchor paging controller saves the above idle mode entering parameters of the terminal.
104: the anchor paging controller sends the idle mode entering status change response message to the paging agent; and this message may arrive at the anchor paging agent via one or more relay paging controllers.
In the above procedure for entering an idle mode in the current WiMAX system, no consideration is put to the mobility restriction characteristics of the terminal. The mobility restriction means that the user of a WiMAX system operator, without a mobility license, has to restrict its terminal in mobility; or that even the operator having a mobility license, the operator, in order to attract the low level users to use the WiMAX network, allows the low level users to use the WiMAX network with a low price by restricting the mobility of this type user terminal.
Therefore, by applying the current method for entering an idle mode, it is unable to judge the mobility restriction in the subsequent process procedures (for example, an idle mode exiting procedure, a location update procedure, and a procedure for re-distributing by the anchor paging controller or the anchor authenticator, etc.), which will result in the problems such as that the terminal will be erroneously allowed to exit an idle mode and enter an active mode or update its location in a non-authorized region.
The present invention aims to overcome the shortcomings in the prior art and to provide a method for entering an idle mode to perform a mobility restriction to a terminal.
The present invention provides a method for entering an idle mode in order to solve the above problem, which is used in a WiMAX system, and the method comprises:
Moreover, the paging agent sends the mobility restriction parameters to the mobility restriction parameter storage network element by IM_Entry_State_Change_Request message containing the mobility restriction parameters.
In addition, if the mobility restriction parameter storage network element is the anchor paging controller, after receiving the IM_Entry_State_Change_Request message, the anchor paging controller sends the IM_Entry_State_Change_Request message to the anchor authenticator; and saves the mobility restriction parameters only when receiving a response message of the anchor authenticator allowing the terminal to enter the idle mode; and if the mobility restriction parameter storage network element is the anchor authenticator, or the function entity including the function of the anchor paging controller and the function of the anchor authenticator, the mobility restriction parameter storage network element judges whether the terminal is allowed to enter the idle mode after receiving the IM_Entry_State_Change_Request message, and saves the mobility restriction parameters only when it is determined that the terminal is allowed to enter the idle mode.
Moreover, the mobility restriction parameters comprise one or more of the following: an identifier list of base stations allowing or forbidding to be accessed, an identifier list of access service networks allowing or forbidding to be accessed, times of successive handover, an allowed minimum interval for the handover, an allowed or forbidden re-orientation region of a serving base station, and service continuity supporting identifier of the re-orientation region.
Further, the IM_Entry_State_Change_Request message comprises current location information of the terminal;
Further, the location information comprises a base station identifier, and the mobility restriction parameters comprise: an identifier of the base station allowed to access or an identifier of the base station forbidden to access; and the terminal is determined to satisfy the mobility restriction condition only when the base station identifier belongs to the identifier of the base station allowed to access of the mobility restriction parameters or does not belong to the identifier of the base station forbidden to access of the mobility restriction parameters; or the location information comprises an identifier of an access serving network, and the mobility restriction parameters comprise: an identifier of the access serving network allowed to access or an identifier of the access serving network forbidden to access; and the terminal is determined to satisfy the mobility restriction condition only when the identifier of the access serving network belongs to the identifier of the access serving network allowed to access of the mobility restriction parameters or does not belong to the identifier of the access serving network forbidden to access of the mobility restriction parameters.
The present invention also provides a method for entering an idle mode, which is applied to a WiMAX system, and the method comprises:
Further, before sending the IM_Entry_State_Change_Response message, the anchor authenticator also judges whether the terminal is allowed to enter the idle mode; and the anchor authenticator sends the mobility restriction parameters to the anchor paging controller by putting the mobility restriction parameters into the IM_Entry_State_Change_Response message only when the terminal is allowed to enter the idle mode; the anchor paging controller saves the mobility restriction parameters of the terminal only when the IM_Entry_State_Change_Response message received contains information of the anchor authenticator allowing the terminal to enter the idle mode.
Moreover, during the procedure of the terminal entering the idle mode from the active mode and before the anchor authenticator sending the IM_Entry_State_Change_Response message, the method further comprises: a paging agent of the terminal sending the IM_Entry_State_Change_Response message containing current location information of the terminal to the anchor paging controller; before anchor paging controller saving the mobility restriction parameters, the anchor paging controller performs a mobility restriction judgment to the terminal according to the location information and the mobility restriction parameters; if it is determined that the terminal can not satisfy a mobility restriction condition, the following operations will be executed:
Further, the location information comprises a base station identifier, and the mobility restriction parameters comprise: an identifier of the base station allowed to access or an identifier of the base station forbidden to access; and the terminal is determined to satisfy the mobility restriction condition only when the base station identifier belongs to the identifier of the base station allowed to access of the mobility restriction parameters or does not belong to the identifier of the base station forbidden to access of the mobility restriction parameters; or the location information comprises an identifier of an access serving network, and the mobility restriction parameters comprise: an identifier of the access serving network allowed to be accessed or the identifier of the access serving network forbidden to be accessed; the terminal is determined to satisfy the mobility restriction condition only when the identifier of the access serving network belongs to the identifier of the access serving network allowed to be accessed of the mobility restriction parameters or does not belong to the identifier of the access serving network forbidden to be accessed of the mobility restriction parameters.
In conclusion, it can be achieved to save the mobility restriction parameters of a terminal when the terminal enters an idle mode via the method of the present invention, so that a mobility restriction judgment is performed to the terminal in the subsequent process procedures, and thereby the problem of erroneously allowing the terminal to quit from the idle mode and enter an active mode or to update its location when the terminal is in the non-authorized regions can be avoided.
WiMAX system may restrict the mobility of the terminal by employing the mobility restriction parameters; and the mobility restriction parameters, which may be determined according to the particular requirements of the operator, comprise but not limit to part or all of the following parameters: a region allowing to be accessed (or a region forbidding to be accessed), times of successive switch, an allowed minimum interval for the switch, an allowed or forbidden re-orientation region of serving base stations, and a service continuity supporting identifier of the re-orientation region.
The region allowing/forbidding to be accessed may be an identifier list of base stations allowing/forbidding to be accessed or an identifier list of access serving networks allowing/forbidding to be accessed.
Wherein the serving base station re-orientation refers to that a terminal will be re-oriented to another base station for being served when one of the base stations is overloaded; and the service continuity supporting identifier of the re-orientation region is used to indicate whether the service continuity is supported when a terminal is re-oriented to another base station (i.e., the current service of the terminal is kept uninterrupted).
The present invention will be described in detail in conjunction with the drawings and the embodiments hereinafter.
If the terminal is not allowed to enter an idle mode, the terminal will be kept in an active status, and the anchor paging controller may not save the mobility restriction parameters of the terminal to save storage resource in this situation.
According to the basic principle of the present invention, above embodiments may have a plurality of variations, for example:
(1) the IM_Entry_State_Change_Request message sent by the paging agent may also carry the location information other than the current base station identifier, for example, an identifier of an access serving network.
(2) the anchor paging controller or the anchor authenticator, before saving the mobility restriction parameters of the terminal, may also perform mobility restriction judgment to judge whether the current location information of the terminal satisfies the mobility restriction condition (i.e., judging whether the location information belongs to the identifier of the base station allowing to be accessed or the identifier of the serving network allowing to be accessed, or the identifier of the base station forbidding to be accessed or the identifier of the serving network forbidding to be accessed) according to the current location information and the mobility restriction parameters of the terminal; if it satisfies the mobility restriction condition, the mobility restriction parameters of the terminal will be saved; otherwise, the following processing will be performed which does not satisfy the mobility restriction condition:
In addition, if the anchor paging controller is selected to save the mobility restriction parameters of the terminal, the above mobility restriction judging operation may be executed when the anchor paging controller receives the IM_Entry_State_Change_Request message sent by the paging agent, when it is determined that the current location information of the terminal does not satisfy the mobility restriction condition, the processing for not satisfying the mobility restriction condition may be directly performed without the subsequent Steps 203 and 204, so as to save unnecessary processing. Certainly, above mobility restriction determination operation may also be executed when the IM_Entry_State_Change_Response message sent by the anchor authenticator is received, in this case, if it is determined that the current location information of the terminal does not satisfy the mobility restriction condition, the processing for not satisfying the mobility restriction condition will be performed.
In addition, if the anchor authenticator is selected to save the mobility restriction parameters of the terminal, the above result of the mobility restriction judging may be sent to the anchor paging controller by incorporating the result into the IM_Entry_State_Change_Response message, and the anchor paging controller determines to perform the processing for not satisfying mobility restriction condition.
(3) for the fourth embodiment, if the anchor authenticator does not allow the terminal to enter the idle mode, the mobility restriction parameters of the terminal may not be contained in the IM_Entry_State_Change_Response message which is sent to the anchor paging controller by anchor authenticator.
Based on above description, it can be achieved, via the method of the present invention, to save the mobility restriction parameters of a terminal when the terminal enters an idle mode, so that a mobility restriction judgment is performed to the terminal in the subsequent process procedures, and thereby the problem of erroneously allowing the terminal to quit from the idle mode and enter an active mode or to update its location when the terminal is in the non-authorized regions can be avoided.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2008 1 0134223 | Jul 2008 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/CN2008/073614 | 12/19/2008 | WO | 00 | 4/13/2011 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2010/009599 | 1/28/2010 | WO | A |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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