Method and apparatus for allocating a tracking area list

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Figure 3 illustrates an operational scenario of application of a first embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, TA1, TA2 and TA4 are adjacent to each other. TA1, TA2 and TA3 are adjacent to each other and TA3 is adjacent to TA5.

As illustrated in Figure 4, the method in the first embodiment includes the following steps:

Step S401: The MME entity receives a follow-up area update (TAU) message that includes a Last TAI and a Current TAI. The Last TAI (also known as the Last Visited TAI) is an ID identifier of the last TA visited by the UE before the UE enters the current TA zone; and the Current TAI is an ID identifier of the TA zone currently visited by the UE.

Step S402: The MME entity locates the record in Table 1 using the Last TAI in the TAU Demand message as a source TA and using the Current TAI as a target TA. If no record is found, the MME entity creates the record. If the record is successful, the MME entity modifies the counting field in the record. As a mode of modifying the counting field, the MME can add 1 to the counter or perform a weighting operation based on the user property of the UE, target TA and the time segment, that is, add a weighted value to the count existing. As an example, for a TAU initiated by a VIP user, the count increases by 1.2; for a TAU initiated by an ordinary user, the count increases by 1; for a TAU initiated in hours of bursts the count increases by 1.2; for a TAU initiated in ordinary time segments, the count increases by 1.

Table 1

<dl><dt>TA origin </dt><dd>Target TA Count Is the target TA on the current preferred TA list? Counting after a scale factor is applied (0.6) Percentage Percentage order Recent movement frequency (number of times per second, last 10 minutes) </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA1 </dt><dd /><dt>TA1 </dt><dd>500 Yes 500 51.0% 1 7.9 </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA1 </dt><dd>TA2 500 No 30 3.1% 4 2.0 </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA1 </dt><dd>TA3 300 Yes 300 30.6% two 5.3 </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA1 </dt><dd>TA4 150 Yes 150 15.3% 3 2.5 </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA3 </dt><dd>TA1 700 Yes 700 35% 1 8.3 </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA3 </dt><dd>TA2 200 Yes 200 10% 4 3.0 </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA3 </dt><dd /><dt>TA3 </dt><dd>650 Yes 650 32.5% two 5.1 </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA3 </dt><dd>TA5 450 Yes 450 22.5% 3 3.5 </dd></dl>

As illustrated in Table 1, a record includes these fields: source TA, target TA, Count, is the target TA on the current preferred TA list ?, Count after a scale factor, percentage, order is applied percentage and frequency of recent movement. Each record uses the source TA zone plus the target TA zone as an index. The term "Counting" measures how many times an EU team or EU teams travel from the source TA to the target TA within the current statistical period. The expression "Is the target TA in the current preferred TA list?" Indicates whether the TA list assigned to the UE team includes the target TA when the MME entity assigns the TA list to the UE in the source TA zone after analyze the data in the historical record. In practice, the MME can analyze the most recent data in the historical record at intervals such as 10 minutes and update the TA zone included in the TA list for a source TA. The expression "Count after a scale factor is applied" will be interpreted below. The term "Percentage" is a ratio of a first count to a second count, where the first count is a result of multiplying a scale factor for each record in a set of records with the same value of TA origin in Table 1 and the second count is a total count of multiplying the scale factor by all the records in the recordset. The expression "Recent movement frequency" refers to the number of movements of the UE team from the originating TA to the target TA within a recent period and is measured by the number of times per second. The statistical period of "Recent movement frequency" is not necessarily equal to, but may be shorter than, the statistical period of the number of movements from the originating TA to the target TA.

Table 1 is only an example. In practice, the content of the table depends on the actual needs. TO

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As illustrated in Figure 6, the method in the second embodiment includes the following steps:

Step S601: The MME receives a TAU Demand message. The TAU Demand message includes the Last TAI, the Last TAI 2 and the Current TAI. The meanings of the Last TAI, the Last TAI 2 and the Current TAI have been described previously.

Step S602: The MME locates the record in Table 1 using the Last TAI 2 in the TAU Demand message as a source TA, using the Last TAI as an intermediate TA and using the Current TAI as an objective TA. If no record is found, the MME creates the record. If the record is successful, the MME modifies the counting field in the record. As a way of modifying the counting field, the MME can add 1 to the counter or perform a weighting operation based on the user property of the UE, operational TA and time segment, that is, add a weighted value to the existing count.

Table 2

<dl><dt>TA origin </dt><dd>Intermediate TA Target TA Count Is the target TA on the current preferred TA list? Counting after a scale factor is applied (0.6) Percentage Percentage order Recent movement frequency (number of times per second, last 10 minutes) </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA1 </dt><dd>TA2 TA1 10 No 6 NA * 1 NA 0.5 </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA1 </dt><dd>TA2 TA2 40 NA NA NA * 2 NA 2.1 </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA1 </dt><dd>TA2 TA3 850 Yes 850 93.4% 1 10 </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA1 </dt><dd>TA2 TA4 100 No 60 6.6% two 5.7 </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA3 </dt><dd>TA2 TA2 100 NA NA NA * 2 NA 2.5 </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA3 </dt><dd>TA2 TA1 1400 Yes 140 100% 1 15.4 </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA2 </dt><dd>TA3 TA3 300 NA NA NA * 2 NA 6.4 </dd></dl>

<dl><dt>TA2 </dt><dd>TA3 TA5 700 Yes 700 100% 1 12.5 </dd></dl>

* 1: In this register, since the recent movement frequency is less than the threshold value, the factors to calculate and classify the percentages in this embodiment are excluded.

* 2: In this embodiment, records whose target TA is the current TA do not participate in the calculation or classification of percentages.

The MME calculates and recovers the percentage of movements from the same origin TA and the intermediate TA to each target TA in real time or at periodic intervals and classifies the movements according to the percentage.

Taking as an example the first four records in Table 2, the MME receives and counts 1000 TAU Demand messages, where the Last TAI 2 is the ID identifier of TA1 and the Last TAI is the ID identifier of TA2 In these messages, there are 10 TAU Demand messages in which the target TA is still TA1; There are 40 TAU Demand messages where the target TA is TA2; TAU demand messages, which use TA3 as the target TA, are more than TAU Demand messages that use TA4 as the target TA. That is, among the UEs that move from TA1 to TA2, a majority of them enter TA3 and a minority enter TA4.

The fifth record and the sixth record, in Table 2, are statistics of 1500 TAU demand messages where the Last TAI 2 is the ID identifier of TA3 and the Last TAI is the ID identifier of TA2.

The last two records in Table 2 are statistics of 1000 TAU Demand messages, where the Last TAI 2 is the ID identifier of TA2 and the Last TAI is the ID identifier of TA3. It should be noted that after the UE is moved from TA2 to TA3, the frequency counted for the UEs moving to TA3 is relatively high. One possible reason is that: a rest zone exists in TA3 and the vehicle that includes UE remains in the rest zone for a long period of time and multiple periodic TAU procedures occur in TA3.

Table 2 is by way of example only. In practice, the content of the table depends on the needs

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