Method for providing automatic cell access control to high-priority mobile users in overload and emergency situations

1. Method for providing automatic cell access control to high-priority mobile users in overload situations, said high-priority mobile users mapped to at least one of Access Class (AC) 11 to 15, the method comprising:

detecting an overload situation in a mobile network, said overload situation being detected when at least one failure rate parameter exceeds a determined threshold TH 1 for a type of failure rate corresponding to the failure rate parameter; and

upon the overload situation being detected, carrying out at least one action to give more priority to the at least one AC associated with said high-priority mobile users.

2. Method for providing automatic cell access control to high-priority mobile users in overload situations according to claim 1 , characterized in that the at least one action to give more priority to the at least one AC associated with said high-priority mobile users comprises dedicating Physical Random. Access Channel (PRACH) resources specifically to the at least one AC associated with said high-priority mobile users.

3. Method for providing automatic cell access control to high-priority mobile users in overload situations according to claim 2 , characterized in that the PRACH resources specifically dedicated to the high-priority mobile users are at least PRACH signatures.

4. Method for providing automatic cell access control to high-priority mobile users in overload situations according to claim 2 , characterized in that the PRACH resources specifically dedicated to the high-priority mobile users are at least PRACH sub-channels.

5. Method for providing automatic cell access control to high-priority mobile users in overload situations according to claim 2 , characterized in that the overload situation is detected when either a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection failure rate or Radio Bearer (RB) setup failure rate or PRACH collisions failure rate exceeds determined thresholds (THRC 1 , THRB 1 , THRP 1 ) for the type of failure rate.

6. Method for providing automatic cell access control to high-priority mobile users in overload situations according to claim 2 , characterized in that it comprises:

if at least one failure rate parameter exceeds the threshold TH 1 but not a second threshold TH 2 , activating a 1 st AC differentiation for dedicating PRACH resources specifically to the at least one AC associated with said high-priority mobile users; and

if at least one failure rate parameter exceeds the threshold TH 1 and the second threshold TH 2 , activating a 2 st AC differentiation for dedicating more PRACH resources than in the 1 st AC differentiation specifically to the at least one AC associated with said high-priority mobile users.

7. Method for providing automatic cell access control to high-priority mobile users in overload situations according to claim 6 , in which at least one failure rate parameter has exceeded its corresponding threshold TH 1 , characterized in that it comprises:

when said at least one failure rate parameter goes below its corresponding threshold TH 1 , the 1 st AC differentiation is removed.

8. Method for providing automatic cell access control to high-priority mobile users in overload situations according to claim 6 , in which at least one failure rate parameter has exceeded its corresponding threshold TH 2 , characterized in that it comprises:

when said at least one failure rate parameter goes below its corresponding threshold TH 2 , activating the 1 st AC differentiation.

9. Method for providing automatic cell access control to high-priority mobile users in overload situations according to claim 6 , characterized in that the 1 st AC differentiation comprises dedicating PRACH signatures initially mapped to Access Service Class (ASC) 1 to an ASC associated with the high-priority mobile users.

10. Method for providing automatic cell access control to high-priority mobile users in overload situations according to claim 6 , characterized in that the 2 nd AC differentiation comprises dedicating PRACH signatures and sub-channels initially mapped to ASC 1 to an ASC associated with the high-priority mobile users.

11. Method for providing automatic cell access control to high-priority mobile users in overload situations according to claim 1 , characterized in that the at least one action to give more priority to the at least one AC associated with the high-priority mobile users comprises activating access class barring for, at least, part of the users associated with any of AC 0 to 9.

12. Method for providing automatic cell access control to high-priority mobile users in overload situations according to claim 11 , characterized in that it comprises:

if at least one failure rate parameter exceeds a restricting threshold (THRC B , THRB B ), restricting the access to at least one access class from AC1 to AC9.

13. Method for providing automatic cell access control to high-priority mobile users in overload situations according to claim 12 , characterized in that the restriction is applied to all the access classes defined within a range X range .

14. Method for providing automatic cell access control to high-priority mobile users in overload situations according to claim 12 , characterized in that the restriction is applied sequentially, according to a restriction interval T R , and repeatedly to different groups of access classes.