SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY CONFIGURING NETWORK SERVICE ENTITY IDENTIFIERS UTILIZING A Gb-OVER-IP INTERFACE IN A GPRS NETWORK

摘要

A system and method in a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network for automatically configuring Network Service Entity Identifiers (NSEIs) in a Base Station System (BSS(32)) and a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN(33)) when the BSS is reconfigured. The Gb interface between the BSS and the SGSN is modified to operate using the Internet Protocol (IP), and the BSS and the SGSN are configured to run on IP. Whenever a new Network Service Entity (NSE) is added (57) to an existing BSS, or a new BSS is added to the network, the BSS automatically sends (52) a modified Network Service (NS')-Reset message to the SGSN requesting an NSEI. The SGSN dynamically allocates (53) a free NSEI from a pool of NSEIs and sends (54) it to the BSS. When an NSE is removed (61) from the BSS, the BSS automatically sends (62) a modified NS'-Reset message to the SGSN to free an NSEI. The SGSN de-allocates (63) the NSEI, and returns the NSEI to the pool of free NSEIs. All related entries for Base Station Systems GPRS Protocol (BSSGP) Virtual Circuit Identifiers (BVCIs) under the de-allocated NSEI are also removed by the SGSN.