Patent ID: 9503877
Filing Date: 2016-11-22
CPC Classification: H04L,H04W

Claim Text:
1. A method for retrieving an External Identifier (EID) of a terminal, comprising: storing, by a network side, a corresponding relationship between an EID of a terminal and a Reference Number (RN) of the EID of the terminal; and when a terminal responds to a trigger request from a Machine Type Communications (MTC) server, retrieving, by the network side, an EID of the terminal which corresponds to an RN according to the RN of the EID of the terminal and the corresponding relationship; wherein the RN of the EID of the terminal is pre-configured at the network side, or dynamically allocated by a Core Network (CN) network element at the network side; wherein storing, by the network side, the corresponding relationship between an EID of a terminal and an RN of the EID of the terminal is: when a terminal accesses a network, configuring, for the terminal by an operator, a corresponding relationship between an EID of the terminal and an RN of the EID of the terminal, and storing the corresponding relationship into a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) of the network side as subscription data of the terminal; wherein when the terminal responds to the trigger request from the MTC server, retrieving, by the network side, the EID of the terminal which corresponds to the RN, according to the RN of the EID of the terminal and the corresponding relationship is: receiving and reading out, by a Machine Type Communications Inter-Working Function (MTC-IWF), an International Mobile Subscriber Identification Number (IMSI) of the terminal and the RN of the EID of the terminal which are contained in a trigger message transmission report transmitted by a serving Mobility Management Entity (MME) of the terminal, and looking up EIDs of the terminal corresponding to the read-out IMSI of the terminal in information of the terminal which is stored locally according to the read-out IMSI of the terminal, and retrieving the EID of the terminal corresponding to the read-out RN of the EID of the terminal from the found EIDs of the terminal according to the read-out RN of the EID of the terminal; and transmitting, by the MTC-IWF, the trigger message transmission report containing the retrieved EID of the terminal to the MTC server.