NETWORK SIGNAL TRACING USING CHARGING IDENTIFIERS AS TRACE RECORDING SESSION REFERENCES

摘要

Signaling through a plurality of network elements is traced during a trace session. The network elements generate trace records that record information associated with a communication session and that include a charging identifier that is used as a trace recording session reference for the trace session. The charging identifier is a unique network-wide identifier for a subscriber, UE or service and can be used by an operations support system to correlate which trace records are associated with a same subscriber, UE or service that is being traced and, thereby, may enable end-to-end tracing through a network.