Patent ID: 8174986

Claim:
A method for performing routing area updates comprising: determining at least one of whether a remote unit is within an edge portion of a routing area or whether the remote unit is within an end portion of a routing area update interval; determining whether at least one condition is present for the remote unit to perform a resource-efficient routing area update; and when at least one of the remote unit is determined to be within the edge portion or the remote unit is determined to be within the end portion and when the at least one condition is present, performing a routing area update, wherein determining whether the at least one condition is present for the remote unit to perform a resource-efficient routing area update comprises at least one of receiving signaling from a network node having a signal strength greater than a threshold signal strength value, determining that the remote unit detects a threshold number of signal strength bars, determining that the remote unit is in a coverage area in which access classes of a lowest tier of access classes are allowed, or determining that a loading level of a network node is below a threshold loading level.