Granted Patent B2

US 12,317,347 · App. 16/859,266 · Granted May 27, 2025

Inventors: Aeneas Sean Dodd-Noble (Andover, MA); Om Prakash Suthar (Bolingbrook, IL); Raghavendra Suryanarayanarao Vidyashankar (Bangalore South, IN); Vivek Agarwal (Chelmsford, MA)

Assignee: CISCO TECHNOLOGY, INC.

H04W76/15H04W8/08H04W76/11H04W80/10H04W88/16

Abstract

Claims (58)

1. A method comprising:

obtaining a first connectivity request for a first network connection between a user equipment and a first network comprising an Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) core;

providing a Domain Name System (DNS) query for a plurality of identifiers of a plurality of candidate control plane serving gateway nodes that serve a particular tracking area identifier (TAI);

obtaining the plurality of identifiers for each of the plurality of candidate control plane serving gateway nodes that serves the particular TAI and, for each of the plurality of candidate control plane serving gateway nodes, a network capability indication indicating whether each of the plurality of candidate control plane serving gateway nodes are co-located with a control plane packet data network gateway node;

selecting a first control plane serving gateway node from among the plurality of candidate control plane serving gateway nodes based, at least in part, on a particular network capability indication for the first control plane serving gateway node indicating that the first control plane serving gateway node is co-located with a first control plane packet data network gateway node, wherein the first control plane packet data network gateway node is configured to support network connectivity with a second network comprising a Packet Data Network (PDN) and wherein the first control plane serving gateway node interfaces with a second control plane packet data network gateway node that is different from the first control plane packet data network gateway node and that is configured to support network connectivity with the IMS core;

establishing the first network connection with the first control plane serving gateway node and the second control plane packet data network gateway node for the IMS core;

obtaining a second connectivity request for a second network connection between the user equipment and the second network comprising the PDN; and

establishing the second network connection with the first control plane serving gateway node and the first control plane packet data network gateway node.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first control plane serving gateway node and the first control plane packet data network gateway node are co-located with a session management function node.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein one or more of the first control plane serving gateway node, the first control plane packet data network gateway node, or the session management function node are configured to communicate with a co-located user plane serving gateway node, a user plane packet data network gateway node, and a user plane function node via a concatenated Sxa and N4 interface.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

selecting one of a plurality of candidate control plane packet data network gateway nodes as the first control plane packet data network gateway node for the first network connection, wherein:

determining that a time to live associated with the plurality of candidate control plane packet data network gateway nodes has not expired; and

in response to determining that the time to live has not expired, establishing the second network connection between the user equipment and the second network comprising the PDN.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

obtaining a user equipment usage type information element indicating that a particular control plane serving gateway node should be selected that is co-located with a particular control plane packet data network gateway node configured to support the second network connection between the user equipment and the second network comprising the PDN, wherein selecting the first control plane serving gateway node includes selecting the first control plane serving gateway node based further on obtaining the user equipment usage type information element.

6. An apparatus comprising:

a network interface configured to obtain or provide network communications; and

one or more processors coupled to the network interface, wherein the one or more processors are configured to:

obtain a first connectivity request for a first network connection between a user equipment and a first network comprising an Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) core;

provide a Domain Name System (DNS) query for a plurality of identifiers of a plurality of candidate control plane serving gateway nodes that serve a particular tracking area identifier (TAI);

obtain the plurality of identifiers for each of the plurality of candidate control plane serving gateway nodes that serves the particular TAI and, for each of the plurality of candidate control plane serving gateway nodes, a network capability indication indicating whether each of the plurality of candidate control plane serving gateway nodes are co-located with a control plane packet data network gateway node;

select a first control plane serving gateway from among the plurality of candidate control plane serving gateway nodes based, at least in part, on a particular network capability indication for the first control plane serving gateway node indicating that the first control plane serving gateway node is co-located with a first control plane packet data network gateway node, wherein the first control plane packet data network gateway node is configured to support network connectivity with a second network comprising a Packet Data Network (PDN) and wherein the first control plane serving gateway node interfaces with a second control plane packet data network gateway node that is different from the first control plane packet data network gateway node and that is configured to support network connectivity with the IMS core;

establish the first network connection with the first control plane serving gateway node and the second control plane packet data network gateway node for the IMS core;

obtain a second connectivity request for a second network connection between the user equipment and the second network comprising the PDN; and

establish the second network connection with the first control plane serving gateway node and the first control plane packet data network gateway node.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the first control plane serving gateway node and the first control plane packet data network gateway node are co-located with a session management function node.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein one or more of the first control plane serving gateway node, the first control plane packet data network gateway node, or the session management function node are configured to communicate with a co-located user plane serving gateway node, a user plane packet data network gateway node, and a user plane function node via a concatenated Sxa and N4 interface.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

select one of a plurality of candidate control plane packet data network gateway nodes as the first control plane packet data network gateway node for the first network connection;

in response to obtaining the second connectivity request, determine that a time to live associated with the plurality of candidate control plane packet data network gateway nodes has not expired; and

in response to determining that the time to live has not expired, establish the second network connection.

10. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

obtain a user equipment usage type information element indicating that a particular control plane serving gateway node should be selected that is co-located with a particular control plane packet data network gateway node configured to support the second network connection between the user equipment and the second network comprising the PDN; and

select the first control plane serving gateway node based further on obtaining the user equipment usage type information element.

11. One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

obtain a first connectivity request for a first network connection between a user equipment and a first network comprising an Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) core;

provide a Domain Name System (DNS) query for a plurality of identifiers of a plurality of candidate control plane serving gateway nodes that serve a particular tracking area identifier (TAI);

obtain the plurality of identifiers for each of the plurality of candidate control plane serving gateway nodes that serves the particular TAI and, for each of the plurality of candidate control plane serving gateway nodes, a network capability indication indicating whether each of the plurality of candidate control plane serving gateway nodes are co-located with a control plane packet data network gateway node;

select a first control plane serving gateway node from among the plurality of candidate control plane serving gateway nodes based, at least in part, on a particular network capability indication for the first control plane serving gateway node indicating that the first control plane serving gateway node is co-located with a first control plane packet data network gateway node, wherein the first control plane packet data network gateway node is configured to support network connectivity with a second network comprising a Packet Data Network (PDN) and wherein the first control plane serving gateway node interfaces with a second control plane packet data network gateway node that is different from the first control plane packet data network gateway node and that is configured to support network connectivity with the IMS core;

establish the first network connection with the first control plane serving gateway node and the second control plane packet data network gateway node;

obtain a second connectivity request for a second network connection between the user equipment and the second network comprising the PDN; and

establish the second network connection with the first control plane serving gateway node and the first control plane packet data network gateway node.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 11 , wherein the first control plane serving gateway node and the first control plane packet data network gateway node are co-located with a session management function node.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 12 , wherein one or more of the first control plane serving gateway node, the first control plane packet data network gateway node, or the session management function node are configured to communicate with a co-located user plane serving gateway node, a user plane packet data network gateway node, and a user plane function node via a concatenated Sxa and N4 interface.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 11 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

select one of a plurality of candidate control plane packet data network gateway nodes as the first control plane packet data network gateway node for the first network connection;

in response to obtaining the second connectivity request, determine that a time to live associated with the plurality of candidate control plane packet data network gateway nodes has not expired; and

in response to determining that the time to live has not expired, establish the second network connection between the user equipment and the second network comprising the PDN.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 11 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

obtain a user equipment usage type information element indicating that a particular control plane serving gateway node should be selected that is co-located with a particular control plane packet data network gateway node configured to support the second network connection between the user equipment and the second network comprising the PDN; and

select the first control plane serving gateway node based further on obtaining the user equipment usage type information element.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first connectivity request and the second connectivity request comprise requests for 5G network communications.

17. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the first connectivity request and the second connectivity request comprise requests for 5G network communications.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first connectivity request is obtained from the user equipment and includes a user equipment (UE) capability indication for the user equipment indicating that the user equipment is capable of both 4G and 5G network communications.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising:

obtaining usage type information for the user equipment indicating a preference of the user equipment that a particular control plane serving gateway node should be selected that is co-located with a particular control plane packet data network gateway node configured to support the second network connection between the user equipment and the second network comprising the PDN, wherein selecting the first control plane serving gateway node is based additionally on both of the UE capability indication for the user equipment and the usage type information for the user equipment.

20. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the first connectivity request is obtained from the user equipment and includes a user equipment (UE) capability indication for the user equipment indicating that the user equipment is capable of both 4G and 5G network communications.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (53)