KR101832932B1 - Home subscriber management apparatus and method for managing information of subscriber - Google Patents

Abstract

In the subscriber information management in the home subscriber management apparatus according to the location registration of the terminal in the EPC network, the subscriber-specific location registration DB includes information on PDN-GW information and MME identification information provided from the MME, And stores the detailed information in a separate DB table or system parameter, thereby reducing the DB size of the home subscriber management apparatus.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a home subscriber management apparatus and a subscriber information management method,

The present invention relates to subscriber information management in an HLR / HSS of an evolved packet core (EPC) network, and more particularly, to subscriber information management in a home subscriber management apparatus according to location registration of a user element (UE) A location registration DB (data base) for each subscriber for packet data network gateway (PDN-GW) information and MME identification information provided from a mobility management entity (MME) Of the home subscriber management apparatus and to reduce the size of the DB of the home subscriber management apparatus by storing the detailed information in a separate DB table or system parameter, and a subscriber information management method .

A 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) mobile communication system based on WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) radio access technology is widely deployed all over the world. HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), which can be defined as the first evolutionary phase of WCDMA, provides 3GPP mobile communication system with highly competitive wireless access technology in the mid-term future.

However, as the requirements and expectations of users and operators continue to increase and competition for developing wireless access technologies continues, there is a need to evolve new technologies in 3GPP mobile communication systems in order to gain competitiveness in the future. Reduced cost per bit, increased service availability, the use of flexible frequency bands, simple structure and open interfaces, and proper power consumption of terminals are becoming a requirement. In addition, prevention of unnecessary latency at the network node and efficient use of network resources can also promote the technology evolution in 3GPP.

In 3GPP Release 8, a Network Architecture called Evolved Packet Core (EPC) is described as one of mobile communication systems for meeting the above-mentioned requirements. EPC is a set of network nodes for 3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution) system. The EPC evolves the core network of the existing 3GPP system architecture to support Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), which is an evolved RAN, And has an efficient network structure that simplifies the network node. A wireless communication system including an EPC and an E-UTRAN is called an evolved packet system (EPS).

The EPC network is divided into three logical entities: a Packet Data Network Gateway (PDN-GW), a Serving Gateway (S-GW), and a Mobility Management Entity do.

First, in the user plane, the PDN-GW is a gateway to an external network and a global mobility anchor for mobility between 3GPP access technology and non-3GPP access technology (CDMA2000, WiMAX or WIFI) And maintains S-GW and external network and routing information for packet service as a user plane, and performs tunneling and IP (Routing) control on the external network and non-3GPP network, Routing function.

Next, as another user plane entity, the S-GW is a mobile anchor for mobility between 3GPP accesses (E-UTRAN, UTRAN, GERAN). The S-GW interworks with eNodeB and S1-U interface as a session control and user plane node that processes payload traffic according to a set session and supports Inter LTE / 3GPP handover (Handover) .

Next, the mobility management entity (MME) is a control plane entity responsible for mobility management of UEs moving between different EUTRAN base stations (eNodeBs) and also for session management.

Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 10-2009-0050858 discloses a technique relating to a cell re-searching method in a GSM / GPRS system on May 20, 2009.

Meanwhile, when the UE attaches to the EPC network in the EPC network, a PDN-GW for performing call processing for the UE is allocated. In order to manage the location of the UE, the PDN- GW is transmitted to the HLR or HSS which is the home subscriber management apparatus.

Then, when the home subscriber management apparatus stores the information of the PDN-GW allocated to the terminal and re-location registration is performed due to location change or handover of the terminal, the PDN-GW information stored So that a data session can be made via the same PDN-GW.

However, the PDN-GW information managed by the home subscriber management apparatus for the location registration of the terminal is composed of an access point name (APN), a PDN-GW IPv4 address, a PDN-GW name, The DB size managed by the home subscriber management apparatus becomes too large and resources are wasted.

In addition, in order to distinguish the location registration through an MME when the terminal is connected in the EPC network, MME identification information such as an MME name of a path accessed by the terminal to the home subscriber management apparatus is provided.

At this time, the MME identification information is expressed in the form of a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) as shown in Table 1 below and is stored in the DB of the home subscriber management apparatus. Such MME-FQDN information is stored in the existing WCDMA network When the data size is relatively larger than the subscriber information and all the information is stored per subscriber, there is a problem that the DB size managed by the home subscriber management apparatus becomes too large and resources are wasted.

[Table 1]

Accordingly, in the subscriber information management in the home subscriber management apparatus according to the location registration of the terminal in the EPC network, the subscriber's location information is stored in the subscriber-specific location registration DB for the PDN-GW information and the MME identification information provided from the MME, A home subscriber management apparatus and a subscriber information management method capable of reducing a DB size of a home subscriber management apparatus by storing only a part of information and storing detailed information as separate DB tables or system parameters.

The present invention provides a home subscriber management apparatus comprising: a subscriber-specific location registration DB for storing subscriber-specific location registration information of a terminal connected to a communication network; a communication unit for receiving MME identification information related to location registration of the terminal; And a subscriber information management unit for storing, as location registration information for each subscriber in the location registration DB, first data of an area in which data is changed according to the change of the MME among the data constituting the identification information.

The subscriber information management unit may combine the first data of the MME identification information of the corresponding terminal stored in the location registration DB with the second data previously stored in the system storage parameter, And the identification information.

The MME identification information is transmitted from an MME connected to the terminal in the communication network.

In addition, the re-location registration request of the terminal is generated by a location change or a handover of the terminal.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a home subscriber management apparatus comprising: a subscriber-specific location registration DB for storing subscriber location registration information of a subscriber terminal connected to a communication network; and a PDN-GW GW information is present in a field for indicating presence / absence of the PDN-GW information on the subscriber-specific location registration DB when receiving the PDN-GW information, and the PDN- And a subscriber information management unit for storing the detailed data of the GW information in a separate additional information table.

The subscriber information management unit searches for and provides PDN-GW information of a corresponding terminal stored in the sub information table associated with the location registration DB when re-location registration of the terminal is requested.

The PDN-GW information includes an access point name (APN), an IPv4 address of the PDN-GW, an IPv6 address of the PDN-GW, and name information of the PDN-GW.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for managing subscriber information in a home subscriber management apparatus, comprising: receiving location registration information for the terminal from an MME according to a terminal's communication network connection; Storing the data in the subscriber-specific location registration DB; and, when re-location registration of the terminal is requested, storing first data of the MME identification information of the corresponding terminal stored in the location registration DB, 2 data to provide MME identification information.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of managing subscriber information in a home subscriber management apparatus, the method comprising: receiving PDN-GW information allocated for call processing of the terminal from an MME according to a terminal's communication network connection;

GW information is present in a field for indicating presence / absence of the PDN-GW information on the subscriber-specific location registration DB, and displays detailed data of the PDN-GW information in a separate additional information table And searching for and providing PDN-GW information of the corresponding terminal stored in the additional information table associated with the location registration DB when re-location registration of the terminal is requested.

In the subscriber information management in the home subscriber management apparatus according to the location registration of the terminal in the EPC network, the subscriber-specific location registration DB includes information on PDN-GW information and MME identification information provided from the MME, And stores the detailed information in a separate DB table or system parameter in a shortened amount of time, thereby reducing the DB size of the home subscriber management apparatus.

1 is a network configuration diagram of an EPC network to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied;
2 is a detailed block diagram of a home subscriber management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention,
3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the entire format of MME identification information according to an embodiment of the present invention,
4 is a conceptual diagram for storing PDN-GW information in the conventional location registration DB for each subscriber,
5 is a conceptual diagram for storing PDN-GW information in a subscriber-specific location registration DB according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Hereinafter, the operation principle of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear. The following terms are defined in consideration of the functions of the present invention, and these may be changed according to the intention of the user, the operator, or the like. Therefore, the definition should be based on the contents throughout this specification.

1 illustrates a network configuration of an EPC network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

A user equipment (UE) 100 communicates with network nodes or other terminals constituting a core network through a radio access network (RAN) such as Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) . Such a terminal may include a mobile station (MS), a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a cellular telephone, a digital assistant (PDA), a computer, or any other type of user device capable of operating in a wireless environment, But is not limited thereto.

In addition, the terminal 100 includes a transceiver for transmitting and receiving a radio signal to and from a processor, which is a signal generating and processing means, and a radio access network (RAN). Although not shown in the drawing, the terminal 100 includes a memory for storing user data and programs, a display unit for displaying various information or data of the terminal, a keypad, a touch screen, ), And the like.

Meanwhile, a core network includes a plurality of network nodes constituting a core of a mobile communication system. The core network may be a network node of a PS communication system such as, for example, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) system, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), or an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) But it is not limited thereto.

FIG. 1 illustrates only a minimum number of components of a core network necessary for explaining an embodiment of the present invention, and the configuration of the core network is not limited to the components disclosed in FIG. In the following, the case where the core network is composed of the network nodes of the EPC is described, but this is merely for convenience of explanation, and the embodiment of the present invention should not be construed as being limited thereto.

Hereinafter, each component in the core network will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

First, the eNodeB 102 is a device that supports next generation technologies and services such as LTE, and includes radio frequency (RF) signals of transmission signals, signal strength and quality of transmission and reception signals, baseband signal processing, and channel card resource management Function.

A Serving Gateway (S-GW) 108 is a session control and user plane node for processing payload traffic according to a set session, -U interface and supports inter-LTE / 3GPP handover, sets up a packet data network gateway (PDN-GW) 110 and an EPS bearer, and performs tunneling And transmits a PDU (Packet Data Unit).

The PDN-GW 110 allocates the IP of the terminal 100 and performs session control and interworking with the external Internet network and the Non-3GPP network as a user plane. The PDN-GW 110 includes an S-GW 108, ) Information, and has tunneling and IP routing functions. It also delivers the PDU to the S-GW 108 and the external network.

A Mobility Management Entity (MME) 106 is a node for managing subscriber information and mobility of the AT 100, and is responsible for session management, idle subscriber management, paging, . That is, the mobility management entity 106 processes the control signal when there is a combination request from the terminal 100 or another network node, for example, the PDN-GW 110 or the S-GW 108, And performs functions such as setting of an evolved packet system bearer (EPS), an IP tunnel, and mobility management.

A home subscriber management server (HSS / HLR) 104 is a network node including a data base including subscriber information on a wireless communication system, Information, authentication and location-related data are stored.

Meanwhile, the home subscriber management apparatus 104 stores the MME identification information and the PDN-GW information for each subscriber according to the location registration of the terminal 100. The MME identification information and the PDN-GW information are all stored in the subscriber- There is a problem that resources are wasted because the size of the DB is increased when storing.

Therefore, in the present invention, instead of storing all of the MME identification information in the DB, the home subscriber management apparatus 104 stores only the data portion changed according to the MME among the MME identification information, So that the size of the DB can be reduced.

In addition, in the management of the PDN-GW information, the home subscriber management apparatus 104 adds only a field indicating only whether the PDN-GW information exists or not, and when the PDN-GW information is received from the MME 106 GW information in the added field for the PDN-GW information of the subscriber-specific location registration DB 210. [ And the detailed PDN-GW information is stored in a separate additional information table so that the DB size can be reduced.

The Policy & Charging Rule Function (PCRF) 112 provides a dynamic QoS and a charging rule according to a service data flow to perform a communication policy and a charging process in the communication network.

The OCS (Online Charging Server) 116 receives the charging information of the subscriber requiring the real-time charging information, and provides a credit management function such as a limit service. The EPC-GW receives the charging information And generates billing information of a flow (packet flow). The OFFlineCharging System (OFCS) 114 collects the billing information generated by the EPC-GW and processes the billing data requested by the BS (billing system) and transmits the billing data. In addition, the OFCS 114 receives a variety of charging protocols such as Radius, Diameter, and GTPP, and provides a unified BS interface.

2 is a detailed block diagram of a home subscriber management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, operation of each component of the home agent management apparatus 104 of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

First, the communication unit 200 interfaces data transmitted and received between network units in the EPC network such as the home subscriber management apparatus 104 and the MME 106 or the MSC (not shown) of the WCDMA network.

The control unit 202 controls the overall operation of the home subscriber management apparatus 104 and stores personal information such as a phone number of each subscriber of the terminal 100 and location information to change the location of the terminal 100 or hand- Provide information. Also, the subscriber information management unit 204 is controlled to manage the MME identification information provided from the MME 106 when the terminal 100 is registered in the location and the PDN-GW information for the PDN-GW 110 connected to the terminal.

The storage unit 206 includes a subscriber profile DB 208, a subscriber-specific location registration DB 210, a sub information table 212 and the like. Provide the requested information from the DB.

The subscriber profile DB 208 stores a profile of subscribers of the subscriber station 100 subscribed to the mobile communication service. The subscriber profile includes, for example, an identifier (e.g., IMSI) capable of identifying the AT 100, a subscribed call service, a data service, a text service information, and the like.

The subscriber-specific location registration DB 210 stores PDN-GW information, MME identification information, and the like related to the location of the AT 100. [ The additional information table 212 stores detailed information about the PDN-GW 110 connected to the terminal by the DB linked with the PDN-GW information.

The subscriber information management unit 204 manages the MME identification information provided from the MME 106 and the PDN-GW 106 connected to the terminal 100 in the location registration process performed when the terminal 100 accesses the EPC network. PDN-GW information.

That is, when the terminal 100 connects to the EPC network, the MME 106 of the EPC network uses the Diameter protocol to register the location of the terminal 100 to the home subscriber management apparatus 104, And provides information about the connected MME identification information and the PDN-GW 110 allocated to perform call processing for the terminal 100. The information for location registration of the terminal 100 is applied to the subscriber information management unit 204 through the communication unit 200. The subscriber information management unit 204 stores the information in the storage unit 206 for each subscriber, .

At this time, the MME identification information is configured in the MME-FQDN format as shown in Table 1, and includes a relatively large amount of data. However, the MME identification information can be divided into a data portion which is always fixed constantly in the same communication carrier network, and a data portion which is changed in accordance with the MME.

Accordingly, the subscriber information management unit 204 does not store all of the MME identification information in the subscriber-specific location registration DB 210, but stores only the data portion changed in accordance with the MME among the MME identification information in the subscriber-specific location registration DB 210 And the size of the location registration DB 210 can be reduced by managing the unchanged data portion with system storage parameters.

3, when the MME identification information of the entire format is displayed, the total data amount of the MME identification information may be 55 bytes. The subscriber information management unit 204 stores the unchanged data portion P2 ) Is stored as the system storage parameter, and only the data part P1 that is changed according to the MME is stored in the location registration DB 210. When the data part P2 is changed, The size of the location registration DB 210 can be greatly reduced.

Next, the PDN-GW information includes an access point name (APN), a PDN-GW IPv4 address, and a PDN-GW name. The size of the PDN-GW information is defined as about 40 bytes. In this case, for example, since a plurality of PDN-GW information can be given to a subscriber in a communication company, 320 bytes or more is required for assuming that a required data space for PDN-GW information is given per subscriber, It can be seen that much space is consumed in the location registration DB 210 only by the GW information.

Accordingly, in the subscriber information management unit 204, only a field indicating only whether the PDN-GW information exists for the subscriber is added to the subscriber-specific location registration DB 210, and the PDN-GW GW information in the added field for the PDN-GW information of the subscriber-specific location registration DB 210 when the information is received. The detailed PDN-GW information is stored in a separate additional information table 212 in the storage unit 206 so that only the necessary subscribers are recorded in the location registration DB 210, thereby reducing the DB size.

That is, the subscriber information management unit 204 records all the PDN-GW information on the subscriber-specific location registration DB 210 as shown in FIG. 4 illustrating the conventional location registration DB, GW information is received from the MME 106 as shown in FIG. 5 illustrating the structure of the subscriber, only a field 500 indicating only whether the PDN-GW information exists is added to the subscriber, GW information in the field 500 added for the PDN-GW information of the registration DB 210 and stores the detailed PDN-GW information in a separate additional information table 212, So that DB size can be reduced.

As described above, according to the present invention, in the subscriber information management in the home subscriber management apparatus according to the location registration of the terminal in the EPC network, the PDN-GW information and the MME identification information provided from the MME, The DB size of the home subscriber management apparatus can be reduced by storing the data amount in an abbreviated manner by storing only a part of the information in the location registration DB and storing the detailed information in a separate DB table or system parameter.

While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should not be limited by the described embodiments but should be defined by the appended claims.

In the present invention, in the subscriber information management in the home subscriber management apparatus according to the location registration of the terminal in the EPC network, in the subscriber-specific location registration DB for the PDN-GW information and the MME identification information provided from the MME, And the DB size can be reduced by storing only a part of the detailed information in a separate DB table or system parameter, and can be applied to a wireless communication network and a wireless communication apparatus.

200: communication unit 202:
204: Subscriber information management unit 206:
208: Subscriber profile DB 210: Location registration DB for each subscriber
212: additional information table

Claims (9)

A subscriber-specific location registration DB for storing subscriber-specific location registration information of terminals connected to a communication network,
A communication unit for receiving MME (Mobility Management Entity) identification information serving as a basis of location registration of the terminal from an MME connected to the terminal in the communication network;
And a subscriber information management unit for storing the first data of the area in which the data is changed as location registration information for each subscriber in the location registration DB as the MME of the data constituting the MME identification information is changed,
The location registration DB stores the second data of the area which is not changed even if the MME of the MME identification information is different, as system parameters
Home subscriber management device.
The method according to claim 1,
The subscriber information management unit,
And combines the first data of the MME identification information of the corresponding terminal stored in the location registration DB with the second data to provide the MME identification information when re-location registration of the terminal is requested.
Home subscriber management device.
The method according to claim 1,
The management apparatus includes:
Further comprising an additional information table storing PDN-GW information for performing call processing of the terminal related to location registration of the terminal from an MME (Mobility Management Entity) according to a communication network connection of the terminal,
Wherein,
Further receiving the PDN-GW information,
The subscriber information management unit,
Upon receiving the PDN-GW information, a field for indicating presence / absence of the PDN-GW information is added to data indicating information on the terminal stored in the per-subscriber location registration DB to indicate that the PDN-GW information exists , The detailed data of the PDN-GW information is separately stored in the additional information table
Home subscriber management device.
The method of claim 3,
The subscriber information management unit,
And searching for and providing PDN-GW information of the requested terminal stored in the additional information table associated with the location registration DB when re-location registration of the terminal is requested.
Home subscriber management device.
A subscriber information management method in a home subscriber management apparatus,
Receiving MME identification information as a basis of location registration of the terminal from an MME (Mobility Management Entity) according to a communication network connection of the terminal;
And storing the first data of the area in which the data is changed in the subscriber-specific location registration DB as the MME of the data constituting the MME identification information is changed,
The location registration DB stores the second data of the area which is not changed even if the MME of the MME identification information is different, as system parameters
How to manage subscriber information.
6. The method of claim 5,
The method comprises:
Receiving PDN-GW information allocated for call processing of the terminal from the MME according to a communication network connection of the terminal;
Upon receiving the PDN-GW information, a field for indicating presence / absence of the PDN-GW information is added to data indicating information about the terminal stored in the per-subscriber location registration DB to indicate that the PDN-GW information exists And storing the detailed data of the PDN-GW information in a separate additional information table in addition to the location registration DB
How to manage subscriber information. delete delete delete

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