US 12,114,223 B2
Handovers between 5G radio access networks and IPV4 public data network sessions
Romil Kumar Sood, Bothell, WA (US); and Kunal Prakash Barawkar, Bothell, WA (US)
Assigned to T-Mobile USA, Inc., Bellevue, WA (US)
Filed by T-Mobile USA, Inc., Bellevue, WA (US)
Filed on Nov. 1, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/500,054.
Application 18/500,054 is a continuation of application No. 17/680,127, filed on Feb. 24, 2022, granted, now 11,877,202.
Prior Publication US 2024/0064599 A1, Feb. 22, 2024
Int. Cl. H04W 36/32 (2009.01); H04W 36/00 (2009.01)
CPC H04W 36/32 (2013.01) [H04W 36/0022 (2013.01); H04W 36/0033 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium carrying instructions, which, when executed by at least one data processor of a system, cause the system to:
receive a communication indicating a request by user equipment (UE) to transfer from:
(i) a communication session with a gNodeB (gNB) associated with a 5th Generation New Radio (5G NR) telecommunications network in which the UE is assigned an Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) address to enable communications by the UE in a packet data unit (PDU) session, to
(ii) a communication session with an eNodeB (eNB) associated with a 4th Generation Long-Term Evolution (4G LTE) telecommunications network, in which the UE is assigned an Internet protocol version 4 (IPv4) address;
transfer a context of the UE to a mobility management entity (MME) associated with the 4G LTE telecommunications network that does not include the IPv6 address assigned to the UE,
wherein the context causes the MME to notify the UE that the IPv6 PDU session is inactive and to facilitate initiation of an IPv4 packet data network (PDN) session with a core network of the 4G LTE network; and
release the IPv6 address assigned to the UE.