Protection of privacy in paging of user equipment

1. A method comprising:

determining at a mobility management element of a communication system that a paging operation is to be initiated for given user equipment;

receiving, at the mobility management element from a core network of the communication system, a first paging request comprising a permanent identifier for the given user equipment;

restricting the paging operation between the mobility management element and the given user equipment to use of a temporary identifier for the given user equipment by:

utilizing the permanent identifier in the first paging request to retrieve the temporary identifier for the given user equipment from a cache of the mobility management element;

generating a second paging request comprising the retrieved temporary identifier for the given user equipment; and

sending the second paging request to a base station element of the communication network to initiate the paging operation utilizing the temporary identifier for the given user equipment;

wherein the mobility management element comprises a processor and memory configured to execute the above steps.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the paging operation restricting step further comprises:

determining at the mobility management element existence of one or more conditions associated with the given user equipment; and

in response to the existence of the one or more conditions, paging the given user equipment using the temporary identifier for the given user equipment.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more conditions associated with the given user equipment comprise the given user equipment being non-communicative from the perspective of the mobility management element.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more conditions associated with the given user equipment comprise the mobility management element no longer having a security context for the given user equipment.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more conditions associated with the given user equipment comprise the given user equipment providing an indication to the mobility management element that the given user equipment will not listen for a paging message that uses a permanent identifier for the given user equipment.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the mobility management element storing the temporary identifier for the given user equipment in the cache in association with the permanent identifier for the given user equipment.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the temporary identifier for the given user equipment is a Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (TMSI) or equivalent.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the permanent identifier for the given user equipment is an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) or equivalent.

9. The method of claim 6 , further comprising the mobility management element performing a search of the cache for the temporary identifier for the given user equipment when the security context for the given user equipment is no longer available.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining step further comprises arrival of downlink packet data at a serving gateway element of the communication system.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the mobility management element comprises an access and mobility management function.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the serving gateway element comprises a session management function and a user plane function.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein communication between the mobility management element and the given user equipment is through the base station element of the communication system.

14. An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied therein executable program code that when executed by a processor causes the processor to perform the method of claim 1 .

15. An apparatus comprising:

a network element in a communication system configured to provide a mobility management function and further configured to:

determine that a paging operation is to be initiated for given user equipment;

receive, from a core network of the communication system, a first paging request comprising a permanent identifier for the given user equipment; and

restrict the paging operation between the mobility management function and the given user equipment to use of a temporary identifier for the given user equipment by:

utilizing the permanent identifier in the first paging request to retrieve the temporary identifier for the given user equipment from a cache of the network element;

generating a second paging request comprising the retrieved temporary identifier for the given user equipment; and

sending the second paging request to a base station element of the communication network to initiate the paging operation utilizing the temporary identifier for the given user equipment;

wherein the network element comprises a processor and memory configured to execute the above operations.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the paging operation restriction further comprises:

determining the existence of one or more conditions associated with the given user equipment; and

in response to the existence of the one or more conditions, paging the given user equipment using the temporary identifier for the given user equipment.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the one or more conditions associated with the given user equipment comprise the given user equipment being non-communicative from the perspective of the mobility management function.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the one or more conditions associated with the given user equipment comprise the mobility management function no longer having a security context for the given user equipment.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the one or more conditions associated with the given user equipment comprise the given user equipment providing an indication to the mobility management function that the given user equipment will not listen for a paging message that uses a permanent identifier for the given user equipment.

20. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the mobility management function is further configured to store the temporary identifier for the given user equipment in the cache in association with the permanent identifier for the given user equipment.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the temporary identifier for the given user equipment is a Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (TMSI) or equivalent.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the permanent identifier for the given user equipment is an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) or equivalent.

23. The apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the network element is further configured to perform a search operation of the cache for the temporary identifier for the given user equipment when the security context for the given user equipment is no longer available.

24. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the determining step further comprises arrival of downlink packet data at a serving gateway element of the communication system.

25. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein communication between the network element and the given user equipment is through the base station element of the communication system.

26. A method comprising:

determining at a mobility management element of a communication system that a paging operation is to be initiated for given user equipment; and

restricting the paging operation between the mobility management element and the given user equipment to use of a temporary identifier for the given user equipment;

wherein the mobility management element comprises a processor and memory configured to execute the above steps;

wherein the paging operation restricting step further comprises:

determining at the mobility management element existence of one or more conditions associated with the given user equipment; and

in response to the existence of the one or more conditions, paging the given user equipment using the temporary identifier for the given user equipment;

wherein the one or more conditions associated with the given user equipment comprise the given user equipment providing an indication to the mobility management element that the given user equipment will not listen for a paging message that uses a permanent identifier for the given user equipment; and further comprising:

the mobility management element storing the temporary identifier for the given user equipment in a cache in association with a permanent identifier for the given user equipment; and

the mobility management element performing a search of the cache for the temporary identifier for the given user equipment when the security context for the given user equipment is no longer available.