Patent ID: 8744474

Claim:
In a wireless communication system in which a plurality of radio access network (RAN) base stations are organized into a number of tracking areas with each tracking area of the number of tracking areas having a respective size and at least one user equipment (UE) registered therein, wherein each given base station of the plurality of base stations broadcasts over an air interface a respective tracking area ID that is indicative of the tracking area in which the given base station is included, and wherein a pool of RAN entities pages a UE registered in a given tracking area of the number of tracking areas by delivering to base stations included in the given tracking area a paging message destined for the UE, the pool of RAN entities comprising a non-zero number of RAN entities, a method comprising: the pool of RAN entities determining that there has been a reduction in the number of RAN entities in the pool of RAN entities; and in response to the determining, the pool of RAN entities reducing the size of at least one tracking area, wherein reducing the size of at least one tracking area comprises reorganizing the plurality of base stations into an increased number of tracking areas, and wherein reorganizing the plurality of base stations into an increased number of tracking areas comprises instructing each base station of the plurality of base stations to broadcast a tracking area ID indicative of one of the increased number of tracking areas.