UE mobility across super-cells
Systems and methods are disclosed for a 3G gateway. In a first embodiment, a method is disclosed for a network, comprising: receiving a relocation request message at a home nodeB gateway (HNBGW), the HNBGW coupled to an operator core network, the relocation request message including a target super cell identifier and a user equipment (UE) identifier; sending a second relocation request message from the HNBGW to a coordinating node, the coordinating node having as its identifier the target super cell identifier; querying a lookup table at the coordinating node using the UE identifier to determine a target cell identifier; replacing, in the second relocation request message, the target super cell identifier with the target cell identifier to create a third relocation request message; and sending the third relocation request message to a target cell identified by the target cell identifier.
1. A method, comprising:
receiving a relocation request message at a home nodeB gateway (HNBGW), the HNBGW coupled to an operator core network, wherein the relocation request message includes a target super cell identifier and a user equipment (UE) identifier;
sending a second relocation request message from the HNBGW to a coordinating node, the coordinating node having its identifier as the target super cell identifier;
querying a lookup table at the coordinating node using the UE identifier to determine a target cell identifier;
replacing, by the coordinating node, in the second relocation request message, the target super cell identifier with the target cell identifier to create a third relocation request message; and
sending, by the coordinating node, the third relocation request message to a target cell identified by the target cell identifier;
wherein cells are clustered, virtualized, and represented as a logical super cell, wherein the coordinating node is a back-to-back user agent and registers with the HNBGW with the target super cell identifier, and acts as a cell to the HNBGW, and wherein at least one cell connected to the coordinating node is hidden from the HNBGW, and wherein the back-to-back user agent abstracts small cells connected to it towards the HNBGW;
maintaining and learning about a cell-identity of a logical super-cell based on a cell-identity of a small-cell attached to the logical super-cell; and
for UE mobility across small-cells connected to two different super-cells, replacing a target-cell-ID value in an outbound relocation message with a cell ID of a target super-cell; and
creating an entry in a lookup table based on UE-IMSI, cell-identity of target-small-cell, and cell identity of target-Super-Cell.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving the relocation request message at the HNBGW via a signaling connection between the target cell and the coordinating node.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising proxying requests at the coordinating node to relocate the UE to the target cell.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the UE identifier is an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI).
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the coordinating node is a virtualization server configured to act as a proxy and back-to-back user agent for connecting a plurality of cells to the operator core network.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the coordinating node maintains a list of cell identifiers for a plurality of cells.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the coordinating node is a home eNodeB gateway (HeNBGW).
8. A method, comprising:
receiving a handover request from a home NodeB gateway (HNBGW) at a coordinating node, the handover request having a user equipment (UE) identifier and having as a destination address an address managed by the coordinating node;
querying a lookup table at the coordinating node using the UE identifier to retrieve a target cell identifier of a target cell, visibility of the target cell being managed by the coordinating node;
swapping, by the coordinating node, in a message, the destination address for the target cell identifier; and
forwarding, by the coordinating node, the message to the target cell,
wherein cells are clustered, virtualized, and represented as a logical super cell, wherein the logical super cell is a back-to-back agent and registers with the HNBGW with its own super-Cell-Id, and acts as a cell to the HNBGW and wherein cells connected to the logical super cell are hidden from the HNBGW, wherein the back-to-back user agent abstracts small cells connected to it towards the HNBGW;
maintaining and learning about a cell-identity of a logical super-cell based on a cell-identity of a small-cell attached to the logical super-cell;
for UE mobility across small-cells connected to two different super-cells, replacing a target-cell-ID value in an outbound relocation message with a cell ID of a target super-cell; and
creating an entry in a lookup table based on UE-IMSI, cell-identity of target-small-cell, and cell identity of target-Super-Cell.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the address managed by the coordinating node is a radio network controller (RNC) identifier.
10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the request is a handover request or a radio access network application part (RANAP) relocation request.
11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the UE identifier is an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) and wherein the coordinating node is a virtualization server configured to act as a proxy and back-to-back user agent for connecting a plurality of cells to the operator core network, and wherein the coordinating node is a home eNodeB gateway (HeNBGW).