Method and system for maintaining multiple PDN network connection during inter-technology handover in the idle mode

摘要

Supporting an optimized idle mode handoff of user equipment from a 3GPP to a non-3GPP system. Namely, during an idle mode registration of the user equipment with the non-3GPP system, the user equipment may provide an indication to the access node on the non-3GPP system so that the access point in that non-3GPP system contacts the appropriate entity (HSS or AAA) on the home network for the user equipment to download the addresses of the multiple PDN gateway addresses that are currently in use by the user equipment. This indication to the non-3GPP access node, the contact message from the access node to the home network, and the response from the home network to the access node on the non-3GPP system provide the access node with sufficient information to maintain multiple PDN connectivity to the user equipment during an idle mode handover.

主权项

1. A method for maintaining connectivity between user equipment and multiple packet data network (PDN) connections during an idle mode handover from a source network operating under the 3GPP communications protocol to a target network operating under a non-3GPP communications protocol, comprising the steps of:
at one or more nodes of the target network:
receiving a connection request message from the user equipment;transmitting a request message to an authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) server on a home network assigned to the user equipment;receiving a response message from the AAA server on the home network assigned to the user equipment, wherein the response message comprises the addresses for all PDN gateways currently in use by the user equipment;using the addresses for all PDN gateways currently in use by the user equipment to exchange messages with the PDN gateways to maintain PDN connections with the user equipment after handover of user equipment communications to the target network, wherein said using the addresses for all PDN gateways currently in use by the user equipment to exchange messages with the PDN gateways to maintain PDN connections with the user equipment is performed by a serving gateway node of the target network.