Patent ID: 11910237
Assignee: DISH WIRELESS L.L.C.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 7:
8. A method, comprising:
electronically maintaining a plurality of load thresholds for each user plane function (UPF) of a plurality of UPFs in a cellular telecommunication network, wherein:
the plurality of UPFs serve as anchor points between user equipment (UE) in the cellular telecommunication network and a data network (DN);
each UPF of the plurality of UPFs is a virtual network function responsible for interconnecting packet data unit (PDU) sessions between the user equipment (UE) and the DN by anchoring the PDU sessions on individual UPFs;
the plurality of load thresholds for each UPF depend on a respective capacity of each UPF to have PDU sessions anchored thereon; and
an amount of load put on a UPF by a UE appearing in the cellular telecommunication network is assumed to be identical for all UEs appearing in the cellular telecommunication network;

electronically receiving a request to anchor on a UPF a PDU session of a new UE newly appearing on the cellular telecommunication network;
electronically selecting a UPF of the plurality of UPFs on which to anchor the PDU session based on determined load-regions for each UPF of the plurality of UPFs defined by the plurality of load thresholds; and
electronically anchoring the PDU session of the new UE to the selected UPF.