CN103068044B - A kind of paging method and system - Google Patents

Abstract

Embodiments provide a kind of paging method and system, to solve owing to the MME all base stations in TA list send paging request, and take more paging resource, the problem reducing the performance of network.Wherein, method includes: receives downlink business signaling, is gone out the mark of target UE by described downlink business signaling resolution；Choosing N number of tracking area from the tracking area list pre-set that described mark is corresponding, and the base station in described N number of tracking area sends paging request, wherein, N is positive integer；Judge whether to receive the page response of described target UE within the default very first time；If receiving described page response, it is determined that this paging success；Without receiving described page response, in described tracking area list, the base station in remaining tracking area sends paging request the most respectively.The embodiment of the present invention can effectively save paging resource, reduce the quantity of paging request, reduce impact on network performance.

Description

Paging method and system

Technical Field

The embodiment of the invention relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a paging method and a paging system.

Background

In the 3G system, since there is no longer a distinction between a circuit Area and a packet Area, a method of registering a Location Area (LA) and a Routing Area (RA) is not adopted for the location management of a user, but a Tracking Area (TA) is uniformly adopted to perform the location management by assigning a corresponding identifier to the user, and one tracking Area is generally composed of a plurality of base stations or cells.

A Mobility Management Entity (MME), which is a key control node of a third generation partnership project (3GPP) protocol Long Term Evolution (LTE) access network, is responsible for positioning and paging processes of idle mode User Equipment (UE), including relaying.

The MME stores tracking areas through which the UE passes to form a tracking area list (TA list), and when the MME receives downlink data transmission or signaling triggered by a network side, the MME sends paging requests to all base stations in the TA list so as to page the UE.

However, in the above method, the MME needs to send paging requests to all base stations in the TA list, and if the TA list is large or the number of base stations in the TA list is large, the downlink service frequently triggers the paging requests, and at this time, the MME occupies more paging resources, and reduces the performance of the network.

Disclosure of Invention

The technical problem to be solved by the embodiments of the present invention is to provide a paging method and system, so as to solve the problems that as an MME sends paging requests to all base stations in a TA list, more paging resources are occupied and the performance of a network is reduced.

In order to solve the above problem, the present invention discloses a paging method, which includes:

receiving a downlink service signaling, and analyzing the identifier of target user equipment through the downlink service signaling;

selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, and sending paging requests to base stations in the N tracking areas, wherein N is a positive integer;

judging whether a paging response of the target user equipment is received within a preset first time;

if the paging response is received, determining that the paging is successful;

and if the paging response is not received, respectively sending paging requests to the base stations in the remaining tracking areas in the tracking area list.

Optionally, after sending paging requests to the base stations in the remaining tracking areas in the tracking area list, the method further includes:

judging whether a paging response of the target user equipment is received within the preset first time;

if the paging response is received, determining that the paging is successful;

and if the paging response is not received, determining that the paging fails.

Optionally, before selecting N tracking areas from the preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, the method further includes:

judging the current paging state, wherein the paging state comprises paging and paging ending;

and when the paging state is paging ending, executing the step of selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier.

Optionally, after the sending the paging request to the base stations in the N tracking areas, the method further includes:

updating the current paging state to be paging;

after the determining that the paging is successful and the determining that the paging is failed, the method further includes:

and updating the current paging state to the paging end.

Optionally, the selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier includes:

acquiring the updating time of each tracking area in the tracking area list;

sequencing the tracking areas in the tracking area list in a reverse order according to the sequence of the update time;

and selecting the first N tracking areas from the sorted tracking area list.

Optionally, before selecting N tracking areas from the preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, the method further includes:

acquiring the latest updating time of the tracking area in the tracking area list, and judging whether the interval between the paging time of the paging and the latest updating time is less than a preset second time or not;

if yes, executing the step of selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identification;

if not, sending paging requests to the base stations in all the tracking areas in the tracking area list.

Optionally, before selecting N tracking areas from the preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, the method further includes:

comparing the number of tracking areas in the tracking area list with the size of N;

when the number of the tracking areas is larger than N, executing the step of selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier;

and when the number of the tracking areas is less than or equal to N, sending paging requests to the base stations in all the tracking areas in the tracking area list.

On the other hand, the invention also discloses a paging system, which comprises:

the analysis module is used for receiving the downlink service signaling and analyzing the identification of the target user equipment through the downlink service signaling;

a first sending module, configured to select N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, and send a paging request to a base station in the N tracking areas, where N is a positive integer;

a first judging module, configured to judge whether a paging response of the target user equipment is received within a preset first time;

a determining module, configured to determine that the paging is successful when the determination result of the first determining module is yes;

and a second sending module, configured to send paging requests to base stations in remaining tracking areas in the tracking area list respectively when the determination result of the first determining module is negative.

Optionally, the system further comprises:

a second determining module, configured to determine whether a paging response of the target user equipment is received within the preset first time after the second sending module sends paging requests to base stations in remaining tracking areas in the tracking area list respectively;

the determining module is further configured to determine that the paging is successful when the determination result of the second module is yes, and determine that the paging is failed when the determination result of the second module is no.

Optionally, the system further comprises:

a state judgment module, configured to judge a current paging state before the first sending module selects N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, where the paging state includes paging being performed and paging being completed;

and when the paging state is paging end, the first sending module executes the operation of selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier.

Optionally, the system further comprises:

a first updating module, configured to update a current paging status to paging after the first sending module sends a paging request to the base stations in the N tracking areas;

and the second updating module is used for updating the current paging state to the paging ending after the determining module determines that the paging is successful and determines that the paging is failed.

Optionally, the first sending module comprises:

the time acquisition submodule is used for acquiring the updating time of each tracking area in the tracking area list;

the sorting submodule is used for carrying out reverse sorting on the tracking areas in the tracking area list according to the sequence of the update time;

and the selection submodule is used for selecting the first N tracking areas from the sorted tracking area list.

Optionally, the system further comprises:

the time judgment module is used for acquiring the latest updating time of the tracking areas in the tracking area list before the first sending module selects N tracking areas from the preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, and judging whether the interval between the paging time of the paging and the latest updating time is less than the preset second time or not;

when the judgment result of the time judgment module is yes, the first sending module executes the operation of selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier;

and a third sending module, configured to send a paging request to the base stations in all tracking areas in the tracking area list when the determination result of the time determining module is negative.

Optionally, the system further comprises:

the comparison module is used for comparing the number of the tracking areas in the tracking area list with the size of N before the first sending module selects N tracking areas from the preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier;

the first sending module executes the operation of selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier when the comparison result of the comparison module indicates that the number of the tracking areas is greater than N;

and a fourth sending module, configured to send a paging request to the base stations in all tracking areas in the tracking area list when the comparison result of the comparison module is that the number of tracking areas is less than or equal to N.

Compared with the prior art, the embodiment of the invention has the following advantages:

in the embodiment of the invention, after receiving a downlink service signaling, an MME firstly analyzes an identifier of target user equipment through the downlink service signaling, then selects N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, sends a paging request to base stations in the N tracking areas, judges whether a paging response of the target user equipment is received within a preset first time after sending the paging request, and if the paging response is received, determines that the paging is successful; and if the paging response is not received, respectively sending paging requests to the base stations in the remaining tracking areas in the tracking area list. In the embodiment of the invention, the MME does not directly send the paging requests to the base stations in all the tracking areas in the tracking area list, but selects N tracking areas and sends the paging requests to the base stations, and if the paging response is not received, the MME sends the paging requests to the base stations in the rest tracking areas, thereby effectively saving paging resources, reducing the number of the paging requests and reducing the influence on network performance.

Secondly, before selecting the tracking area for paging, the embodiment of the present invention may determine the current paging state, if the current paging state is paging, the current paging process is not executed, and when the current paging state is paging end, the current paging process is executed. By judging the current paging state, the next paging can be controlled to be carried out only after the previous paging is finished, so that when a large number of downlink service signaling arrives, the mutual influence caused by simultaneous paging can be avoided, and the ineffective paging is reduced.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a paging method according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a flowchart of a paging method according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a flowchart of a paging method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a block diagram of a paging system according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the aforementioned objects, features and advantages of the present invention comprehensible, embodiments accompanied with figures are described in further detail below.

In the embodiment of the invention, when the MME sends the paging request to the base station, the MME does not directly send the paging request to the base stations in all the tracking areas in the tracking area list, but selects N tracking areas which meet the conditions, sends the paging request to the base stations in the N tracking areas, and sends the paging request to the rest tracking areas when the paging response is not received, thereby effectively saving the paging resources and reducing the number of the paging requests.

The first embodiment is as follows:

when the network has a downlink data transmission or network side triggered signaling flow, the network can issue a downlink service signaling to the MME to request the MME to connect with the UE, at this time, the MME sends a paging request to the corresponding base station, and the base station forwards the paging request to the corresponding UE, thereby establishing a link with the UE.

The method comprises the steps that tracking areas through which UE passes are stored in an MME, the tracking areas can form tracking area lists (TA list), each UE corresponds to one tracking area list, when the MME receives downlink service signaling, the MME can directly send paging requests to all base stations in the TA list, the base stations forward the paging requests to the UE, and if paging responses of the UE are received within preset time, paging success is indicated.

However, in the above method, the MME sends paging requests to all base stations in the TA list, which may cause the downlink service to frequently trigger the paging requests during the paging process, thereby occupying a larger paging resource and reducing the network performance.

In view of the above problems, an embodiment of the present invention provides a paging method, where an MME directly sends a paging request to base stations in all tracking areas in a tracking area list corresponding to a UE, but selects base stations in a part of the tracking areas to send a paging request.

Referring to fig. 1, a flowchart of a paging method according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, and specifically, the method may include:

step 100, receiving a downlink service signaling, and analyzing an identifier of a target user equipment through the downlink service signaling.

When the network has a downlink data transmission or a signaling flow triggered by the network side, the network can issue a downlink service signaling to the MME, where the downlink service signaling carries some information of the target user equipment, and the MME can analyze the downlink service signaling to obtain an identifier of the target user equipment, so as to establish a connection with the target UE.

And 102, selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, and sending paging requests to base stations in the N tracking areas, wherein N is a positive integer.

The MME may store that the UE passes through tracking areas, and then compose the tracking areas into a tracking area list, where the UE and the tracking area list are in a one-to-one correspondence relationship, and may correspond to the tracking area list through an identifier of the UE.

After the identifier of the target UE is analyzed, N tracking areas may be selected from the tracking area list corresponding to the identifier of the target UE according to a certain condition, and then a paging request is sent only to the base stations in the N tracking areas.

And 104, judging whether the paging response of the target user equipment is received within a preset first time.

And step 106, if the paging response is received, determining that the paging is successful.

Each paging process is limited by the paging time, if the paging response of the UE is received within the specified time, the paging is successful, the paging process can be stopped, and the service access process is entered; if the paging response of the UE is not received within the specified time, the paging is failed, and therefore the service access process cannot be executed.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, a first time, which is a time for limiting paging, is preset. The specific value of the first time may be set by a person skilled in the art according to practical experience, and the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

And step 108, if the paging response is not received, respectively sending paging requests to the base stations in the remaining tracking areas in the tracking area list.

If it is determined in step 104 that the paging response of the target UE is not received within the preset first time, it indicates that none of the target UEs are within the coverage of the base stations in the N tracking areas selected before, and the target UE may be within the coverage of the base stations in the remaining tracking areas.

The embodiments of the present invention are described in a simpler way for the above steps of the paging method, and the specific procedures thereof will be described in detail in the following embodiments.

In the embodiment of the invention, after receiving a downlink service signaling, an MME firstly analyzes an identifier of target user equipment through the downlink service signaling, then selects N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, sends a paging request to base stations in the N tracking areas, judges whether a paging response of the target user equipment is received within a preset first time after sending the paging request, and if the paging response is received, determines that the paging is successful; and if the paging response is not received, respectively sending paging requests to the base stations in the remaining tracking areas in the tracking area list. In the embodiment of the invention, the MME does not directly send the paging requests to the base stations in all the tracking areas in the tracking area list, but selects N tracking areas and sends the paging requests to the base stations, and if the paging response is not received, the MME sends the paging requests to the base stations in the rest tracking areas, thereby effectively saving paging resources, reducing the number of the paging requests and reducing the influence on network performance.

Example two:

next, a paging method proposed in the embodiment of the present invention is described in detail.

Referring to fig. 2, a flowchart of a paging method according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, where the method specifically includes:

step 200, receiving a downlink service signaling, and analyzing the identifier of the target user equipment through the downlink service signaling.

When the network has a downlink data transmission or a signaling flow triggered by the network side, the network will issue a downlink service signaling to the MME, and the MME can analyze the identifier of the target UE through specific information in the downlink service signaling.

The target UE mainly refers to which UE the downlink traffic signaling is directed to, for example, to which UE downlink traffic data is to be transmitted, and the like.

For example, the downlink service signaling may include a mapping relationship between the downlink service signaling and an identifier of a target UE (each UE may have an identifier for distinguishing the UE from other UEs), and the identifier of the corresponding target UE may be obtained by analyzing the mapping relationship. For the specific process of resolving the mapping relationship, the embodiments of the present invention will not be discussed in detail herein.

Certainly, the downlink service signaling may further include some other information about the target UE, and the identifier of the target UE may also be analyzed through the information, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

Step 202, judging the current paging state, wherein the paging state comprises paging and paging ending.

In the paging process, if a plurality of pages are simultaneously carried out, the paging processes may be mutually influenced, so that some paging processes are likely to fail, and invalid paging occurs.

In order to solve the above problem, in the embodiment of the present invention, before paging for the downlink service signaling received this time, a current paging state may be determined, where the paging state may include a paging state and a paging end state, where the paging state may indicate that the current paging process is in a previous paging process (that is, the previous paging process has not been ended), and the paging end state may indicate that the paging process is not currently executed (that is, all previous paging processes have been ended).

If the current paging state is paging, in order to avoid mutual influence caused by simultaneous paging, the embodiment of the present invention may not page the downlink service signaling received this time temporarily, the paging process is finished, and when the downlink service signaling is received again, the determination is performed.

If the current paging state is paging end, it indicates that the paging process is not currently executed, and the current paging process can be executed. At this time, the process of selecting N tracking areas from the preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier as described in the following step 208 may be performed.

However, the embodiment of the present invention further proposes a manner of determining the number of tracking areas in the tracking area list, which is described in the following step 204, and different operations are performed for different cases of the number of tracking areas. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, when it is determined in step 202 that the current paging status is paging end, the following comparison process in step 204 may be performed.

Step 204, when the paging state is paging end, comparing the number of tracking areas in a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier of the target UE with the size of N.

In the embodiment of the invention, the MME stores UE passing tracking areas, and the tracking areas form a tracking area list, wherein each UE can correspond to one tracking area list and can correspond to the tracking area list through the identification of the UE.

In step 202, the embodiment of the present invention determines that the current paging state is paging end, and before paging, the size of the tracking area list (i.e. the number of tracking areas in the tracking area list) may be determined first. If the tracking area list is larger, only the base stations in part of the tracking areas can be selected for paging; if the tracking area list is small, paging can be directly conducted to all base stations in the tracking area.

Specifically, a positive integer N may be preset according to an actual situation, and then the number of tracking areas in a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier of the target UE is compared with N, if the number of tracking areas is greater than N, the tracking area list may be considered to be large, and if the number of tracking areas is less than or equal to N, the tracking area list may be considered to be small.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, when it is determined that the number of the tracking areas is greater than N, a part of the base stations in the tracking area may be selected from the tracking area list for paging, and at this time, the process of selecting N tracking areas from the preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier in step 208 may be performed.

However, the embodiment of the present invention further proposes a manner of determining a time interval between the paging time of the current paging and the latest update time of the tracking area list in the following step 206, and different operations are performed according to different situations of the time interval. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, when it is determined in the step 204 that the number of the tracking areas is greater than N, the following determination process of the step 206 may be performed.

When the number of tracking areas is less than or equal to N, a paging request may be sent to the base stations in all tracking areas in the tracking area list, and step 214 is performed.

For the above specific value of N, those skilled in the art may set the value accordingly according to practical experience. For example, the range of N may be set to [2, 7], for example, N may be set to 3, and dynamic adjustment is performed according to networking conditions, and if the number of base stations covered by the tracking area inside the network is large, the constant may be set to a small value; if the moving speed of the predetermined user of the network is smaller, the constant may also be set to a smaller value, and the embodiment of the present invention is not limited.

Step 206, when the number of the tracking areas is greater than N, obtaining the latest updating time of the tracking areas in the tracking area list, and judging whether the interval between the paging time of the current paging and the latest updating time is less than a preset second time.

When the location of the UE is updated, a Tracking Area Update (TAU) procedure is triggered, the MME is notified to Update the Tracking Area, and the MME can record the Update time. In the embodiment of the present invention, the update time of each tracking area in the tracking area list may be first obtained, and then the latest update time of each tracking area may be obtained.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a second time (the second time is used to control whether the time interval between the current paging and the last TAU is too long) may be preset, and it is determined whether the interval between the paging time of the current paging and the obtained latest update time is less than a preset second time.

If the result of the determination is negative, it may indicate that the UE has not been active in the network for a long time, and the tracking area in the tracking area list corresponding to the UE may be out of date, so that it cannot be determined in which tracking area the UE is located. At this time, step 214 may be performed to transmit paging requests to the base stations in all tracking areas in the tracking area list.

If so, the process of selecting N tracking areas from the preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier in step 208 may be executed.

It should be noted that, for the specific value of the preset second time, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited.

And 208, selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, and sending paging requests to base stations in the N tracking areas.

In this embodiment of the present invention, N tracking areas that have been updated recently may be selected from the tracking area list, and a paging request may be sent to base stations in these tracking areas, specifically, step 208 may include:

1. and acquiring the updating time of each tracking area in the tracking area list.

2. And sequencing the tracking areas in the tracking area list in a reverse order according to the sequence of the update time.

The reverse sorting is performed to arrange the tracking area with the later update time in front of the sequence.

3. And selecting the first N tracking areas from the sorted tracking area list.

In the embodiment of the invention, after the paging request is sent to the base stations in the N tracking areas, the current paging state is updated to be paging, so that the influence of other paging processes on the paging process is avoided.

Step 210, determining whether a paging response of the target ue is received within a preset first time.

And after the MME sends paging requests to the base stations in the N tracking areas, the paging requests are forwarded to the UE through the base stations. Each paging process is limited by the paging time, and if the paging response of the UE is received within the specified time, the paging is successful; if the paging response of the UE is not received within the specified time, the paging failure is indicated.

Therefore, in this step 210, it may be determined whether a paging response of the target ue is received within a preset first time.

If the paging response is received, it indicates that the target UE is in the coverage area of the base station in the selected N tracking areas, so step 216 may be executed to determine that the paging is successful, and update the current paging status to paging end.

If the paging response is not received, it indicates that the target UE is not within the coverage of the base station in the N tracking areas selected before, and the target UE may be within the coverage of the base stations in the remaining tracking areas, so that the embodiment of the present invention may further perform step 212 to send paging requests to the base stations in the remaining tracking areas in the tracking area list, respectively.

Step 212, if the paging response is not received, respectively sending paging requests to the base stations in the remaining tracking areas in the tracking area list.

Step 214, determining whether a paging response of the target ue is received within the preset first time.

After sending the paging request to the base stations in the tracking areas remaining in the tracking area list, it may also be determined whether a paging response of the target user equipment is received within the preset first time.

If the paging response is received, it indicates that the target UE is in the coverage of the base stations in the remaining tracking areas, so step 216 may be executed to determine that the paging is successful, and update the current paging state to paging end.

If the paging response is not received, it indicates that the target UE is not within the coverage of the base station in the tracking area list, so step 218 may be executed to determine that the paging fails, and update the current paging status to paging end.

Note that, when the number of tracking areas is determined to be less than or equal to N in step 204 and the determination result of step 206 is no, step 214 is also executed after the paging request is transmitted to the base stations in all the tracking areas in the tracking area list. If the paging response is received, the paging is successful, and the current paging state is updated to paging end; if the paging response is not received, the paging fails, and the current paging state is updated to the paging end.

Step 216, when receiving the paging response, determining that the paging is successful, and updating the current paging state to paging end.

After it is determined in step 210 or step 214 that the paging response of the target ue is received within the preset first time, it may be determined that the paging is successful, and at this time, the paging process is ended, so that the current paging status may be updated to the paging end.

Step 218, when the paging response is not received, determining that the paging fails, and updating the current paging state to paging end.

If it is determined in step 214 that the paging response of the target UE is not received within the preset first time, it indicates that the target UE is not within the coverage of the base stations in all tracking areas in the tracking area list, and therefore it may be determined that the paging is failed, at this time, the paging process is finished, and the current paging status may be updated to the paging end.

Next, a specific procedure of a paging method according to an embodiment of the present invention is described with reference to a specific embodiment.

In this specific embodiment, the determination process of each time may be controlled by a Timer, for example, 3 timers, i.e., Timer1, Timer2, and Timer3, may be set respectively.

Timer 1: the timer may be used to control repeated paging during a single page. When the network triggers paging for the first time, the network starts and when the paging is finished, the network closes. The threshold of the Timer is greater than 2 times the threshold of Timer3 (as can be seen from the above description, during one paging procedure, two paging requests may be sent, and therefore, the threshold of Timer1 is greater than 2 times the threshold of Timer 3).

In addition, the embodiment of the present invention may further set a switch variable, and the current paging state may be represented by the switch variable, for example, if the switch variable is 0, the current paging state may be represented as paging end, and if the switch variable is 1, the current paging state may be represented as paging.

Of course, the switch variable may also be set to other values, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

Timer 2: the Timer2 may correspond to the second time mentioned above, and is used to control the time interval between the current paging and the last TAU. When the Timer value is greater than a threshold, the user is considered to be not active in the network for too long, and the TA in the TA list may be expired. The timer is automatically controlled by the network, and is started when the network considers that the user is in an IDLE state (IDLE state), and is reset to an initial value when the network considers that the user is in a CONNECTED state (CONNECTED state).

Timer 3: the Timer3 may correspond to the first time described above for controlling the paging procedure. When sending out paging request, it starts, receives paging response or closes automatically after overtime.

Referring to fig. 3, a flowchart of a paging method according to the embodiment is shown, which specifically includes:

a1, receiving the downlink service signaling, and analyzing the identifier of the target UE.

a2, judging whether the switch variable is 0.

If yes, go to step a 3; otherwise, no paging is carried out aiming at the downlink service signaling received this time.

a3, start Timer1, set the switch variable to 1.

a4, judging whether the number of TA areas in the TA list is less than N.

If yes, the tracking area list is considered to be small, and the step a is executed; otherwise, the tracking area list is considered large and step a5 is performed.

a5, determining whether Timer2 times out.

If yes, the user is not considered to be in contact with the network for a long time, and the TA area in which the user is located is not determined, and step a7 is executed; otherwise, step a6 is executed to perform a full page.

a6, paging all base stations in the tracking area in the TA list corresponding to the identification of the target UE, and executing step a 10.

a7, selecting the base stations in the N TA areas which are updated recently from the TA list corresponding to the identification of the target UE for paging, and starting the Timer 3.

a8, judging whether receiving paging response before Timer3 time out.

If yes, go to step a 11; otherwise, step a9 is performed.

a9, paging the base stations in the TA area remained in the TA list, and starting Timer 3.

a10, judging whether receiving paging response before Timer3 time out.

If yes, the user is considered to be in an invalid state, and step a12 is executed; otherwise, step a11 is performed.

a11, determining the paging is successful, turning off Timer1 and Timer3, and setting the switch variable to 0.

a12, determining the paging failure, and closing the Timer 1.

In the embodiment of the invention, when the MME sends the paging request to the base station, the MME does not directly send the paging request to the base stations in all the tracking areas in the tracking area list, but selects N tracking areas which meet the conditions, sends the paging request to the base stations in the N tracking areas, and sends the paging request to the rest tracking areas when the paging response is not received, thereby effectively saving the paging resources and reducing the number of the paging requests.

Secondly, before selecting the tracking area for paging, the embodiment of the present invention may determine the current paging state, if the current paging state is paging, the current paging process is not executed, and when the current paging state is paging end, the current paging process is executed. By judging the current paging state, the next paging can be controlled to be carried out only after the previous paging is finished, so that when a large number of downlink service signaling arrives, the mutual influence caused by simultaneous paging can be avoided, and the ineffective paging is reduced.

Example three:

referring to fig. 4, a block diagram of a paging system according to a third embodiment of the present invention is shown, where the paging system may include: the system comprises a parsing module 400, a first sending module 402, a first judging module 404, a determining module 406, a second sending module 408, a second judging module 410, a state judging module 412, a first updating module 414, a second updating module 416, a time judging module 418, a third sending module 420, a comparing module 422 and a fourth sending module 424.

Wherein,

the parsing module 400 is configured to receive a downlink service signaling, and parse an identifier of a target user equipment through the downlink service signaling;

a first sending module 402, configured to select N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, and send a paging request to a base station in the N tracking areas, where N is a positive integer;

the first sending module 402 comprises:

the time acquisition submodule is used for acquiring the updating time of each tracking area in the tracking area list;

the sorting submodule is used for carrying out reverse sorting on the tracking areas in the tracking area list according to the sequence of the update time;

and the selection submodule is used for selecting the first N tracking areas from the sorted tracking area list.

A first determining module 404, configured to determine whether a paging response of the target ue is received within a preset first time;

a determining module 406, configured to determine that the paging is successful when the determination result of the first determining module is yes;

a second sending module 408, configured to send paging requests to base stations in remaining tracking areas in the tracking area list respectively when the determination result of the first determining module is negative;

a second determining module 410, configured to determine whether a paging response of the target user equipment is received within the preset first time after the second sending module sends paging requests to base stations in remaining tracking areas in the tracking area list respectively;

the determining module is further configured to determine that the paging is successful when the determination result of the second module is yes, and determine that the paging is failed when the determination result of the second module is no;

a state determining module 412, configured to determine a current paging state before the first sending module selects N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, where the paging state includes paging being performed and paging ending;

the first sending module executes the operation of selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier when the paging state is paging end;

a first updating module 414, configured to update a current paging status to paging after the first sending module sends a paging request to the base stations in the N tracking areas;

a second updating module 416, configured to update the current paging status to paging end after the determining module determines that the paging is successful and determines that the paging is failed;

a time determining module 418, configured to obtain the latest update time of the tracking areas in the tracking area list before the first sending module selects N tracking areas from the preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, and determine whether an interval between the paging time of the current paging and the latest update time is smaller than a preset second time;

when the judgment result of the time judgment module is yes, the first sending module executes the operation of selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier;

a third sending module 420, configured to send a paging request to base stations in all tracking areas in the tracking area list when the determination result of the time determining module is negative;

a comparing module 422, configured to compare the number of tracking areas in the tracking area list with the size of N before the first sending module selects N tracking areas from the preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier;

the first sending module executes the operation of selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier when the comparison result of the comparison module indicates that the number of the tracking areas is greater than N;

a fourth sending module 424, configured to send a paging request to base stations in all tracking areas in the tracking area list when the comparison result of the comparing module is that the number of tracking areas is less than or equal to N.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the paging process may be controlled by an MME, and therefore, each of the modules may be a module in the MME, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

In the embodiment of the invention, when the MME sends the paging request to the base station, the MME does not directly send the paging request to the base stations in all the tracking areas in the tracking area list, but selects N tracking areas which meet the conditions, sends the paging request to the base stations in the N tracking areas, and sends the paging request to the rest tracking areas when the paging response is not received, thereby effectively saving the paging resources and reducing the number of the paging requests. Secondly, before selecting the tracking area for paging, the current paging state can be judged, when the current paging state is the paging end, the current paging process is executed, and the current paging state is judged, so that the next paging can be controlled to be executed only after the previous paging is finished, therefore, when a large number of downlink service signaling arrives, the mutual influence caused by simultaneous paging can be avoided, and the ineffective paging is reduced.

For the system embodiment, since it is basically similar to the method embodiment, the description is simple, and for the relevant points, refer to the partial description of the method embodiment.

The embodiments in the present specification are described in a progressive manner, each embodiment focuses on differences from other embodiments, and the same and similar parts among the embodiments are referred to each other.

Embodiments of the invention may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.

While, for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the foregoing method embodiments have been described as a series of acts or combination of acts, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited by the illustrated ordering of acts, as some steps may occur in other orders or concurrently with other steps in accordance with the invention. Further, those skilled in the art should also appreciate that the embodiments described in the specification are preferred embodiments and that the acts and modules referred to are not necessarily required by the invention.

Finally, it should also be noted that, herein, relational terms such as first and second, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. Also, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. The use of the phrase "including a" does not exclude the presence of other, identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the same element, whether or not the same element is present in all of the same element.

The above detailed description is provided for the paging method and system provided by the present invention, and the principle and the implementation of the present invention are explained by applying specific examples, and the description of the above embodiments is only used to help understanding the method and the core idea of the present invention; meanwhile, for a person skilled in the art, according to the idea of the present invention, there may be variations in the specific embodiments and the application scope, and in summary, the content of the present specification should not be construed as a limitation to the present invention.

Claims (10)

1. A method for paging, comprising:

receiving a downlink service signaling, and analyzing the identifier of target user equipment through the downlink service signaling;

judging the current paging state, wherein the paging state comprises paging and paging ending;

when the paging state is paging ending, selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, and sending paging requests to base stations in the N tracking areas, wherein N is a positive integer;

judging whether a paging response of the target user equipment is received within a preset first time;

if the paging response is received, determining that the paging is successful;

if the paging response is not received, respectively sending paging requests to the base stations in the remaining tracking areas in the tracking area list;

wherein, the selecting N tracking areas from the preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier comprises: acquiring the updating time of each tracking area in the tracking area list; sequencing the tracking areas in the tracking area list in a reverse order according to the sequence of the update time; and selecting the first N tracking areas from the sorted tracking area list.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after sending paging requests to base stations in tracking areas remaining in the tracking area list, respectively:

judging whether a paging response of the target user equipment is received within the preset first time;

if the paging response is received, determining that the paging is successful;

and if the paging response is not received, determining that the paging fails.

3. The method of claim 1,

after the sending of the paging request to the base stations in the N tracking areas, further comprising:

updating the current paging state to be paging;

after the determining that the paging is successful and the determining that the paging is failed, the method further includes:

and updating the current paging state to the paging end.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein before selecting N tracking areas from the preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, the method further comprises:

acquiring the latest updating time of the tracking area in the tracking area list, and judging whether the interval between the paging time of the paging and the latest updating time is less than a preset second time or not;

if yes, executing the step of selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identification;

if not, sending paging requests to the base stations in all the tracking areas in the tracking area list.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein before selecting N tracking areas from the preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, the method further comprises:

comparing the number of tracking areas in the tracking area list with the size of N;

when the number of the tracking areas is larger than N, executing the step of selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier;

and when the number of the tracking areas is less than or equal to N, sending paging requests to the base stations in all the tracking areas in the tracking area list.

6. A paging system, comprising:

the analysis module is used for receiving the downlink service signaling and analyzing the identification of the target user equipment through the downlink service signaling;

the state judging module is used for judging the current paging state, wherein the paging state comprises paging and paging ending;

a first sending module, configured to select N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier when the paging status is paging end, and send a paging request to a base station in the N tracking areas, where N is a positive integer; the method specifically comprises the following steps: the time acquisition submodule is used for acquiring the updating time of each tracking area in the tracking area list; the sorting submodule is used for carrying out reverse sorting on the tracking areas in the tracking area list according to the sequence of the update time; the selecting submodule is used for selecting the first N tracking areas from the sorted tracking area list;

a first judging module, configured to judge whether a paging response of the target user equipment is received within a preset first time;

a determining module, configured to determine that the paging is successful when the determination result of the first determining module is yes;

and a second sending module, configured to send paging requests to base stations in remaining tracking areas in the tracking area list respectively when the determination result of the first determining module is negative.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

a second determining module, configured to determine whether a paging response of the target user equipment is received within the preset first time after the second sending module sends paging requests to base stations in remaining tracking areas in the tracking area list respectively;

the determining module is further configured to determine that the paging is successful when the determination result of the second determining module is yes, and determine that the paging is failed when the determination result of the second determining module is no.

8. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

a first updating module, configured to update a current paging status to paging after the first sending module sends a paging request to the base stations in the N tracking areas;

and the second updating module is used for updating the current paging state to the paging ending after the determining module determines that the paging is successful and determines that the paging is failed.

9. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

the time judgment module is used for acquiring the latest updating time of the tracking areas in the tracking area list before the first sending module selects N tracking areas from the preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier, and judging whether the interval between the paging time of the paging and the latest updating time is less than the preset second time or not;

when the judgment result of the time judgment module is yes, the first sending module executes the operation of selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier;

and a third sending module, configured to send a paging request to the base stations in all tracking areas in the tracking area list when the determination result of the time determining module is negative.

10. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

the comparison module is used for comparing the number of the tracking areas in the tracking area list with the size of N before the first sending module selects N tracking areas from the preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier;

the first sending module executes the operation of selecting N tracking areas from a preset tracking area list corresponding to the identifier when the comparison result of the comparison module indicates that the number of the tracking areas is greater than N;

and a fourth sending module, configured to send a paging request to the base stations in all tracking areas in the tracking area list when the comparison result of the comparison module is that the number of tracking areas is less than or equal to N.