Presence reporting areas for the UE
An Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) provides the UE with a UE Reporting Area, URA. The URA is a sub-area of the Reporting Area, RA and is defined by a set of cells, gNBs or traffic area identifiers, TAIs, or a combination of them. The UE sends a notification to the AMF when it crosses the border of URA. The AMF determines the URA by retrieving or determining a RA for the UE, retrieving a PRA of the UE, and determining the URA in dependence on the RA and PRA.
1. An Access Mobility Function (AMF) in a communication network; the communication network comprising a user entity (UE), a radio access node (RAN) and a core network; the core network comprising a user plane function communicating with a data network and a control plane; the control plane comprising the AMF and a Session Management Function (SMF); the AMF comprising:
processing circuitry;
memory containing instructions executable by the processing circuitry whereby the AMF is operative to:
retrieve or determine a registration area (RA) for the UE;
retrieve a presence reporting area (PRA) for the UE;
define or retrieve a UE Reporting Area (URA) based on the RA and the PRA, wherein the URA is defined as the overlapping or joint area of the PRA and RA; and
transmit the URA to the UE or the RAN.
2. The AMF of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are such that the AMF is operative to:
receive an indication of direction of movement of the UE into or out of the URA;
transmit an indication of the direction of movement to the SMF or a plurality of SMF's.
3. The AMF of claim 1 :
wherein the communication network comprises a Policy Control Function (PCF), an Online Charging System (OCS), and/or a Network Exposure Function (NEF);
wherein the instructions are such that the AMF is operative to transmit an indication of direction of movement of the UE into or out of the URA to the PCF, OCS, and/or NEF.
4. A Radio Access Node (RAN) in a communication network; the communication network comprising a user entity (UE), the RAN, and a core network; the core network comprising a user plane function communicating with a data network and a control plane; the control plane comprising an Access Mobility Function (AMF) and a Session Management Function (SMF); wherein the UE has a plurality of states including the CM-IDLE mode, the CM-CONNECTED mode RRC INACTIVE state, and a CM-CONNECTED mode RRC ACTIVE state; the RAN comprising:
processing circuitry;
memory containing instructions executable by the processing circuitry whereby the RAN is operative to:
report, in response to the UE moving in a direction into or out of a UE Reporting Area (URA) while the UE is in CM-CONNECTED mode RRC ACTIVE state, the direction of the move of UE to the AMF;
wherein a Registration Area (RA) and a Presence Reporting Area (PRA) exist, and wherein the URA is defined as the overlapping or joint area of the PRA and the RA.