Granted Patent B2

US 12,425,929 · App. 17/628,572 · Granted Sep 23, 2025

Inventors: Vivek Sharma (Basingstoke, GB); Yuxin Wei (Basingstoke, GB); Hideji Wakabayashi (Basingstoke, GB); Yassin Aden Awad (Basingstoke, GB); Lars Nord (Lund, SE)

Assignee: SONY GROUP CORPORATION

H04W36/0033H04W36/0061H04W36/125

Abstract

Claims (37)

1. A method of requesting a handover of a communications device in a source cell by a source infrastructure equipment in a wireless communications network, the wireless communications network including the source infrastructure equipment and a non public network (NPN) portion including a target infrastructure equipment providing a wireless access interface in a target cell, and the source infrastructure equipment and the target infrastructure equipment being connected to a core network part, the method comprising:

transmitting, by the source infrastructure equipment to the target infrastructure equipment, without involving the core network part, and via an interface connecting the source infrastructure equipment and the target infrastructure equipment, a handover request message requesting the handover of the communications device; and

receiving, via the interface connecting the source infrastructure equipment and the target infrastructure equipment, a handover response message from the target equipment indicating that the handover may proceed,

wherein the handover request includes an indication of one or more identities associated with non-public cells which the communications device is permitted to access,

wherein the handover response message is received from the target infrastructure equipment after the target infrastructure equipment performs a permission determination based upon at least the indication of the one or more identities associated with the non-public cells which the communications device is permitted to access included in the handover request transmitted by the source infrastructure equipment to the target infrastructure equipment.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more identities include one or more of:

a non-public network identity,

a closed access group identity,

a slice identifier, and

an access point name.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the wireless communications network includes a public network (PN) portion including the source infrastructure equipment providing a wireless access interface in the source cell.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein

access to the source cell is restricted to one or more closed access groups (CAGs), and

the one or more identities include an indication of the one or more closed access groups associated with the source cell.

5. The method according to claim 1 , the method comprising:

receiving a list of closed access groups (CAGs) associated with the communications device, the CAGs corresponding to NPN cells which the communications device is permitted to access, wherein

the indication of the one or more identities associated with the non-public cells which the communications device is permitted to access includes the list of CAGs.

6. The method according to claim 1 , the method comprising:

transmitting, via a wireless access interface of the source cell, a handover command to the communications device.

7. The method according to claim 1 , the method comprising receiving, via the interface, an indication that the communications device is not permitted to access the target cell.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the handover request includes:

a key for transmission and reception of access stratum data in the target cell, and

an indication of a type of subscriber identity used to derive the key.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein

the type of subscriber identity is selected from a plurality of types of subscriber identity, and

each of the plurality of types of subscriber identity is associated with a different format.

10. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the type of subscriber identity is one of a public network (PN) subscriber identity and a NPN subscriber identity.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the core network part includes one or more access and mobility management function (AMF).

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the AMF provides an endpoint for a non-access stratum control plane.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the interface connecting the source infrastructure equipment and the target infrastructure equipment is an inter-infrastructure equipment interface.

14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the interface connecting the source infrastructure equipment and the target infrastructure equipment is and X2 or Xn interface.

15. A method of requesting a handover of a communications device in a source cell by a source infrastructure equipment in a wireless communications network, the wireless communications network including the source infrastructure equipment and a non public network (NPN) portion including a target infrastructure equipment providing a wireless access interface in a target cell, the method comprising:

transmitting, by the source infrastructure equipment to the target infrastructure equipment via an interface connecting the source infrastructure equipment and the target infrastructure equipment, a handover request message requesting the handover of the communications device,

wherein the handover request includes:

an indication of one or more identities associated with non-public cells which the communications device is permitted to access,

a key for transmission and reception of access stratum data in the target cell, and

an indication of a type of subscriber identity used to derive the key.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (29)