Patent ID: 9326312
Filing Date: 2016-04-26
CPC Classification: H04W

Claim Text:
1. A method in a communications network, the method comprising: a packet gateway node (PGW) receiving a downlink user plane data packet destined for a user entity (UE) on a Packet Data Network (PDN) connection associated with a restarted serving gateway (SGW); the PGW, as a consequence of receiving the downlink user plane data packet, determining whether the PDN connection has been relocated to a new SGW; and as a consequence of determining that the PDN connection has not been relocated to a new SGW, the PGW i) selecting a SGW from a set of SGWs and ii) transmitting to the selected SGW a control plane signal comprising a UE identifier for identifying the UE and a mobile management node identifier for identifying a mobility management node, wherein the steps of selecting at least one SGW and transmitting to the selected SGW a control plane signal identifying at least the UE are further dependent on that a bearer context, for which the user plane data packet has been received, is preconfigured for allowing PGW initiated control plane signaling based on operator policies.