Patent ID: 8755352

Claim:
A method for handling handover of a user equipment (UE) in a telecommunications network from one access technology to another access technology, comprising: detecting, in a target access gateway, that a handover state of the UE is unknown; sending, from the target access gateway, a gateway control session (GCS) establishment message to a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) node, wherein the GCS establishment message comprises an indication instructing the PCRF node to defer leg linking of a session until reception of corresponding control signaling from a packet data network gateway (PDN GW), wherein the handover state is associated with handover from a 3GPP access technology to a non-3GPP access technology, wherein the controlling signaling is from the PDN-GW and is communicated over a Gx interface, and wherein the GCS establishment message causes the PCRF node, after the PCRF node receives the GCS establishment message, to (i) defer leg linking of the existing session; (ii) obtain a control signal from the packet data network gateway (PDN GW) of a session establishment for the UE; and (iii) link GCS to a new session.