Optimizing management entity selection resiliency for geo-redundancy and load balancing in mobile core network

Abstract

Techniques are presented in which a new information element signaling priority of a management entity is included in a setup (e.g., S1-Setup) response or configuration update message sent by a management entity to a base station entity. The base station entity interprets this priority information along with the relative capacity information in an appropriate way to load-distribute the traffic/calls to highly preferable management entity instances (at a local site) when they are available, and switchover/failover to lower preference management entity instances (at a remote site) when there is a local site outage/failure or insufficient capacity in a geo-resilient pooled network.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method performed by a management node in a mobile core network, the method comprising:
 obtaining, by the management node, priority update information that indicates a change in priority assigned to the management node, wherein the priority is to be used by a base station for selection of the management node among a plurality of management nodes to manage connections of the base station;   determining to provide, to a particular base station, the priority update information for the management node; and   providing, to the particular base station, the priority update information for the management node according to which of a plurality of groups of base stations the particular base station is a part.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 obtaining, by the management node from a service orchestrator node, priority information, assigned to the management node, that indicates different priorities for the plurality of groups of base stations, wherein the priority information is to be used by a respective base station for selection of the management node among a plurality of management nodes to manage connections of the respective base station;   determining to provide, to the particular base station, the priority information for the management node; and   providing, to the particular base station, the priority information for the management node according to which of the plurality of groups of base stations the particular base station is a part.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the priority update information indicates a different priority from the priority assigned to the management node based on the priority information. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein obtaining the priority update information is in response to an availability change of another management node assigned to the particular base station. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein obtaining the priority update information is in response to an auto scaling event. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 obtaining, from the particular base station, an acknowledgement of a configuration update at the particular base station.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a higher priority in the priority update information provided to the particular base station indicates to the particular base station that it is to select the management node for primary usage over management nodes that have a lower priority, and the particular base station is to select a lower priority management node for backup usage. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the higher priority in the priority update information indicates that the management node is part of a primary management node pool for the particular base station and the lower priority in the priority update information indicates that the management node is part of a backup management node pool for the particular base station. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein there are a plurality of backup management node pools, and wherein the lower priority in the priority update information depends on which one of the plurality of backup management node pools the management node is a part. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the primary management node pool is at a local site with respect to the base station and the backup management node pool is at a remote site with respect to the base station. 
     
     
         11 . A method performed by a radio network management node for a mobile core network that includes a plurality of sites at which one or more management nodes are provided to manage connections of user equipment served by a base station, the method comprising:
 obtaining, by the radio network management node, information about a plurality of base stations;   assigning each of the plurality of base stations, by the radio network management node, into one of a plurality of base station groups each of which includes one or more base stations of the plurality of base stations; and   changing, by the radio network management node, a priority assigned to a management node of the one or more management nodes, wherein the priority is to be used for selection by a base station in a particular base station group of the plurality of base station groups.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein changing the priority assigned to the management node includes:
 assigning the management node from a backup management node pool for the particular base station group to a primary management node pool for the particular base station group, or   assigning the management node from the primary management node pool for the particular base station group to the backup management node pool for the particular base station group.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the management node is at a local site or at a remote site with respect to the particular base station group. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein changing the priority assigned to the management node includes changing the priority assigned to the management node with respect to the particular base station group and not other base station groups of the plurality of base station groups. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 providing, to a service orchestration node, priority configuration information that includes the priority assigned to the management node, wherein the service orchestration node provides the priority to the management node.   
     
     
         16 . A method performed by a base station in a wireless network, the method comprising:
 obtaining, from a management node of a plurality of management nodes, a message indicating a change in priority assigned to the management node, wherein the priority is to be used by the base station when selecting among the plurality of management nodes to manage connections of user equipment served by the base station, wherein a higher priority indicates, to the base station, that the management node is to be selected from among the plurality of management nodes for a primary usage over other management nodes that have a lower priority, which the base station is to select for a backup usage; and   selecting the management node for the primary usage or the backup usage based on the change in the priority in the message.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising:
 determining that the management node cannot be used for new connections; and   switching to another management node for managing connections of the base station, wherein the another management node has the lower priority than the management node.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising:
 determining that the management node has restored based on another message indicating the change in the priority;   continuing to use the another management node for managing existing connections; and   selecting the management node to use for new connections of the base station based on the another message.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein obtaining the message is in response to an availability change of another management node assigned to the base station. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein obtaining the message is in response to an auto scaling event.