Patent ID: 8856328

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, by a network device and from a user device, a request to access a Long Term Evolution network, wherein the network device includes a Long Term Evolution Serving Gateway or a Long Term Evolution Mobility Management Entity; communicating, by the network device, a request, to a subscriber data storage device, for subscriber data, corresponding to the user device, to verify whether the user device is permitted to access the Long Term Evolution network; determining, by the network device and in response to communicating the request to the subscriber data storage device, that the subscriber data storage device is nonresponsive; and executing, by the network device, a fail-open function in response to determining that the subscriber data storage device is non-responsive, wherein executing the fail-open function comprises: selecting to bypass a call processing operation associated with the subscriber data storage device, wherein the call processing operation is used by the network device to verify that the user device is permitted to access the Long Term Evolution network, and granting access to the Long Term Evolution network to the user device without performing the call processing operation.