Patent ID: 9344938
Filing Date: 2016-05-17
CPC Classification: H04W

Claim Text:
1. A method operable in a communication network, wherein the communication network has a plurality of network controllers configured to serve user equipment devices (UEs), wherein each network controller stores a UE context record respectively for each of a plurality of UEs that the network controller serves, and wherein each network controller has a respective context record limit defining a maximum number of UE context records storable by the network controller, the method comprising: detecting, by a first network controller of the plurality of network controllers, threshold storage of UE context records by the first network controller; and responsive to the detecting, selecting by the first network controller a UE that is served by the first network controller but that is in an idle mode of operation, wherein selecting the UE is based on the UE being in the idle mode of operation, and temporarily offloading the UE context record of the selected UE from the first network controller to a second network controller for storage by the second network controller even though the second network controller is not serving the UE, wherein the second network controller rather than the first network controller then stores the UE context record for the selected UE.