Provisioning mobile station with destination communication address during de-registration

摘要

A method, apparatus, and system for provisioning a mobile station with a destination communication address, such as a public safety answering point address for instance, during de-registration of the mobile station from a cellular radio access network (RAN). During de-registration of the mobile station from the cellular RAN, a location of the mobile station may be determined. The location may then be used as a basis to look up a communication address of a PSAP or other such destination, and the communication address may be provided to the mobile station in a de-registration response message, or the de-registration response message may be otherwise used as a basis to convey the communication address to the mobile station. Thereafter, when the mobile station seeks to place an emergency service call while not registered with the RAN, the mobile station may conveniently retrieve the communication address and place the call to that address.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
receiving into a radio access network (RAN) wirelessly from a mobile station registered with the RAN a de-registration message seeking to de-register the mobile station from the RAN; and sending from the RAN wirelessly to the mobile station, in response to the de-registration message, a de-registration response message; determining a communication address that the mobile station can contact when the mobile station has de-registered from the RAN and is thus not registered with the RAN; using by the RAN the de-registration response message to communicate to the mobile station the determined communication address so that the mobile station can contact the communication address after the mobile station has de-registered from the RAN and is thus not registered with the RAN, wherein the RAN uses the de-registration response message to communicate to the mobile station the determined communication address by carrying out a function selected from the group consisting of (i) specifying the determined communication address in the de-registration response message, to provide the communication address to the mobile station in the de-registration response message and (ii) providing in the de-registration response message a directive for the mobile station to retrieve the determined communication address from a particular network address.