Abstract: Some embodiments provide methods for selecting tracking areas, including: receiving a plurality of messages from a plurality of base transceiver stations, each message including a list of tracking areas handled by the base transceiver station from which the message is received; performing domain name system queries for the tracking areas to retrieve information identifying serving gateways serving the tracking areas; based on the information identifying serving gateways, storing, in a local memory, a list of tracking area identities handled by each identified serving gateway; receiving a message from user equipment indicating a first tracking area; selecting at least one tracking area handled by a serving gateway serving the first tracking area based on the list of tracking areas handled by each identified serving gateway stored in the memory; and sending a tracking area identity list to the user equipment based on the selected at least one tracking area.

Abstract: Some embodiments provide methods for selecting tracking areas in a network, comprising: receiving messages from a plurality of base transceiver stations, the messages identifying a previous tracking area identity and a current tracking area identity; storing probabilities based on a count of transitions between the received previous tracking area identities and current tracking area identities; receiving a message from a user equipment device indicating the user equipment device is located in a first tracking area identified by a first tracking area identity; and selecting at least a second tracking area identity based on the stored probabilities and the first tracking area identity; and sending a tracking area identity list to the user equipment device based on the selected second tracking area.

Abstract: Some embodiments disclose methods for classifying user equipment in a network, comprising: recording a first number of times a tracking area identity has changed for a user equipment device during a period of time based on messages exchanged between the user equipment device and a mobility management entity; recording a second number of times the user equipment device is paged during a second period of time; classifying the user equipment device into one of at least three categories based on the first and second recorded numbers; generating a tracking area identity list for the user equipment based device on its category; and sending the generated tracking area identity list to the user equipment device.

Abstract: Some embodiments provide methods for selecting a serving gateway, including: receiving a message from a base transceiver station including a list of tracking areas handled by the base transceiver station; performing a domain name system query for at least one tracking area to retrieve and store in a local memory information identifying a serving gateway serving the at least one tracking area; receiving an attach request from the base transceiver station identifying the user equipment and a tracking area from which the user equipment is connected to the network; searching the information identifying a serving gateway serving the at least one tracking area stored in the local memory to identify a serving gateway to service the user equipment based on the tracking area from which the user equipment is connected to the network; and sending a message identifying the identified serving gateway to the base transceiver station.