Granted Patent B2

US 12,200,651 · App. 17/638,851 · Granted Jan 14, 2025

Inventors: Lasse Olsson (Träslövsläge, SE); Qian Chen (Mölndal, SE); Peter Ramle (Mölnlycke, SE)

Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)

H04W60/04H04W12/06H04W40/34H04W48/18

Abstract

Claims (44)

1. A method for Access and Mobility Function, AMF, re-allocation, comprising:

at an initial AMF:

receiving a registration request for a User Equipment, UE, from a Radio Access Network, RAN; o deciding to initiate an AMF re-allocation procedure by forwarding the registration request to a target AMF for the AMF re-allocation procedure via the RAN;

sending the registration request to the RAN for delivery to the target AMF; and

sending a UE security context of the UE to other Network Function, NF,

wherein:

sending the registration request to the RAN for delivery to the target AMF comprises sending, to the RAN for delivery to the target AMF, the registration request together with information that identifies the other NF, and sending the UE security context of the UE to the other NF comprises storing the UE security context of the UE at the other NF;

at the other NF:

receiving the UE security context of the UE from the initial AMF; and

providing the UE security context of the UE to the target AMF for the AMF re-allocation procedure;

at the target AMF:

receiving a message from the RAN, wherein the message comprises the registration request from the UE;

obtaining the UE security context of the UE from the other NF; and

performing protected NAS signaling related to a registration procedure for the UE using the UE security context of the UE.

2. A method performed by an initial Access and Mobility Function, AMF, for a AMF re-allocation procedure, the method comprising:

receiving a registration request for a User Equipment, UE, from a Radio Access Network, RAN;

deciding to initiate an AMF re-allocation procedure by forwarding the registration request to a target AMF via the RAN;

sending the registration request to the RAN for delivery to the target AMF; and

sending a UE security context of the UE to other Network Function, NF,

wherein:

sending the registration request to the RAN for delivery to the target AMF comprises sending, to the RAN for delivery to the target AMF, the registration request together with information that identifies the other NF, and

sending the UE security context of the UE to the other NF comprises storing the UE security context of the UE at the other NF.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein storing the UE security context of the UE at the other NF comprises storing, at the other NF, the UE security context of the UE and information that indicates a set of AMFs that can serve one or more network slices requested by the UE.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein sending the registration request to the RAN for delivery to the target AMF comprises sending, to the RAN for delivery to the target AMF, the registration request together with the information that indicates the set of AMFs.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein storing the UE security context of the UE at the other NF comprises storing, at the other NF, the UE security context of the UE and a token.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein sending the registration request to the RAN for delivery to the target AMF comprises sending, to the RAN for delivery to the target AMF, the registration request together with token.

7. The method of claim 2 the method further comprises: in response to sending the registration request to the RAN for delivery to the target AMF, receiving, from the RAN, a message comprising a pointer to the target AMF; wherein sending the UE security context of the UE to the other NF comprises sending, to the other NF, the UE security context of the UE and the pointer to the target AMF.

8. A method performed by a target Access and Mobility Function, AMF, for an AMF re-allocation procedure, the method comprising:

receiving a message from a Radio Access Network, RAN, wherein the message comprises a registration request from a User Equipment, UE;

obtaining a UE security context of the UE from a Network Function, NF, other than an initial AMF for the AMF re-allocation procedure; and

performing protected NAS signaling related to a registration procedure for the UE using the UE security context of the UE,

wherein:

the message received from the RAN comprises information that identifies the NF, and fetching the UE security context of the UE from the other NF comprises fetching the UE security context of the UE from the NF using the information that identifies the NF; and obtaining the UE security context of the UE from the NF comprises fetching the UE security context of the UE from the NF.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising obtaining a token from the RAN, and using the token to validate the UE security context of the UE.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein obtaining the UE security context of the UE from the NF comprises receiving the UE security context of the UE from the other NF via a push mechanism.

11. A method performed by Network Function, NF, for an Access and Mobility Function, AMF, re-allocation procedure, the method comprising:

receiving a User Equipment, UE, security context of a UE from an initial AMF for an AMF re-allocation procedure; and

providing the UE security context of the UE to a target AMF for the AMF re-allocation procedure, wherein:

message that the target AMF received from the initial AMF via RAN comprises a registration request from the UE and information that identifies the NF, and fetching the UE security context of the UE from the NF comprises fetching the UE security context of the UE from the NF using the information that identifies the NF; and obtaining the UE security context of the UE from the NF comprises fetching the UE security context of the UE from the NF.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the UE security context of the UE is stored by the NF, and providing the UE security context of the UE to the target AMF comprises: receiving, from the target AMF, a request for the UE security context; and sending the UE security context to the target AMF in response to the request.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein receiving the UE security context of the UE from the initial AMF comprises receiving the UE security context together with information that indicates a set of AMFs that can serve one or more network slices requested by the UE.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein receiving the UE security context of the UE from the initial AMF comprises receiving the UE security context together with information that indicates a set of AMFs that can serve one or more network slices requested by the UE and a token.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the request for the UE context comprises a second token, and the method further comprises validating the request based on a comparison of the token and the second token.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein: receiving the UE security context of the UE from the initial AMF comprises receiving, from the initial AMF, the UE security context of the UE together with a pointer to the target AMF; and providing the UE security context of the UE to the target AMF comprises pushing the UE security context of the UE to the target AMF using the pointer to the target AMF.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (16)