US 12,010,614 B2
Non-terrestrial networks for international areas
Mohammed Sadique, Auburn (AU); Alosious Pradeep Prabhakar, Singapore (SG); Chunlei Lin, Hong Kong (HK); Han Pu, Hong Kong (HK); Krisztian Kiss, Rancho Santa Fe, CA (US); Rohit R. Matolia, Bangalore (IN); Vijay Venkataraman, San Jose, CA (US); and Sarma Vangala, Campbell, CA (US)
Assigned to Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US)
Filed by Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US)
Filed on Jan. 14, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/576,578.
Claims priority of application No. 202141001961 (IN), filed on Jan. 15, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0232463 A1, Jul. 21, 2022
Int. Cl. H04W 8/08 (2009.01); H04W 48/16 (2009.01); H04W 48/18 (2009.01); H04W 84/04 (2009.01); H04W 84/06 (2009.01)
CPC H04W 48/18 (2013.01) [H04W 8/08 (2013.01); H04W 48/16 (2013.01); H04W 84/042 (2013.01); H04W 84/06 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A user equipment (UE), comprising:
a radio; and
a processor coupled to the radio, wherein the UE is configured to:
receive a downlink message from a non-terrestrial network (NTN), wherein the downlink message comprises a public land mobile network (PLMN) identifier of a first PLMN of the NTN including an information element (IE), wherein the IE indicates that the NTN is dedicated to an international area;
responsive to receiving the downlink message, determine a current location of the UE;
determine whether the current location is in the international area;
provide an international area notification to an access and mobility management function (AMF) servicing the UE to forward to a home PLMN (HPLMN) of the UE, wherein the international area notification indicates whether the current location is in the international area;
based on a determination that the current location is in the international area:
determine a distance of the UE from a border of a first country within which the UE has most recently established a network connection;
based on a determination that the distance is less than a predetermined threshold distance, register with a home PLMN with a mobile country code (MCC) of the first country; and
based on a determination that the distance is greater than the predetermined threshold distance, perform a PLMN search procedure based on a priority ranking indicated by a network of the first country.