Patent ID: 11871309
Assignee: ORACLE INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A method for network function (NF) discovery using preferred-locality information, the method comprising:
at a first network function (NF) comprising at least one processor:
receiving a message relating to a transaction involving a consumer NF, wherein receiving the message relating to the transaction involving the consumer NF includes receiving an NF discovery request from the consumer NF and determining that the NF discovery request is lacking relevant preferred-locality information;
identifying, from the message, an NF instance identifier (ID) corresponding to the consumer NF. wherein identifying the NF instance ID from the message includes obtaining the NF instance ID from a User-Agent header of the NF discover request and wherein the NF discovery request is modified by the first NF;
determining, using the NF instance ID and a data store including NE related information and corresponding preferred-locality information, a preferred-locality value;
including the preferred-locality value in a preferred-locality information element (IE) of the NF discovery request; and
transmitting the NE discovery request toward a second NF.