US 12,423,266 B2
Systems and methods for immutable archiving of user equipment connection data for wireless communications networks
Lyle Walter Paczkowski, Mission Hills, KS (US); Oliver Philippe Coudert, Arlington, VA (US); Alfred Richard Balakier, Kirkland, WA (US); and Ronald Richard Marquardt, Woodinville, WA (US)
Filed by T-Mobile Innovations LLC, Overland Park, KS (US)
Filed on Dec. 23, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/560,709.
Prior Publication US 2023/0205733 A1, Jun. 29, 2023
Int. Cl. G06F 16/13 (2019.01); H04B 17/318 (2015.01); H04B 17/345 (2015.01); H04L 9/00 (2022.01); H04L 9/32 (2006.01); H04W 24/10 (2009.01)
CPC G06F 16/137 (2019.01) [H04B 17/318 (2015.01); H04B 17/345 (2015.01); H04L 9/3239 (2013.01); H04W 24/10 (2013.01); H04L 9/50 (2022.05)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system for collecting wireless user equipment connection data for an immutable witness data archive, the system comprising:
at least one controller configured to execute one or more network functions of a network operator core for a wireless communications network, wherein the network operator core is configured to communicate with one or more user equipment (UE) over one or both of uplink (UL) radio frequency (RF) signals and downlink (DL) RF signals, the one or more network functions including:
an operator core witness data collection module coupled to an immutable witness data archive, wherein the operator core witness data collection module is configured to receive a UE monitoring session block sequence from a distributed witness data collection application executing on a first UE coupled to the network operator core, the UE monitoring session block sequence comprising a sequence of blocks each comprising collected witness data characterizing a connection between the first UE and the network operator core; and
wherein the operator core witness data collection module is configured to,
initiate activation of witness data collection service executed by the first UE upon the first UE gaining access to the network operator core and in response to a determination that the first UE is operating on a predefined network slice of a plurality of network slices maintained by the network operator core, wherein the network slice is selected from the plurality of network slices based on a class of device associated with the first UE;
store the UE monitoring session block sequence as a ledger archive to the immutable witness data archive based on when a UE monitoring session associated with the first UE is completed,
prior to determination that the UE monitoring session is complete, detect a disconnection event between the first UE and the wireless communications network facilitating access to the network operator core,
responsive to detecting the disconnection, initiate a time-out counter that computes a duration between a time when a previous block in the sequence of blocks was received and a current time,
prior to determining that the UE monitoring session is complete and subsequent to initiating the time-out counter, detect a reconnection event between the first UE and the wireless communications network facilitating access to the network operator core,
responsive to detecting the reconnection event, compare the duration associated with the time-out counter and a predetermined duration threshold,
responsive to a determination that the duration is less that the predetermined duration threshold, determine when the UE monitoring session block sequence associated with the first UE is still open,
when the UE monitoring session block sequence associated with the first UE is still open,
instruct the first UE to initiate transmission of any previously un-transmitted UE monitoring session blocks, and
instruct the first UE to continue transmission of the UE monitoring session block sequence to the network operator core.