A system and method in a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network for automatically
configuring Network Service Entity Identifiers (NSEIs) in a Base Station System
(BSS) and a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) when the BSS is reconfigured. The
Gb interface between the BSS and the SGSN is modified to operate using the Internet
Protocol (IP), and the BSS and the SGSN are configured to run on IP. Whenever a
new Network Service Entity (NSE) is added to an existing BSS, or a new BSS is added
to the network, the BSS automatically sends a modified Network Service (NS)-Reset
message to the SGSN requesting an NSEI. The SGSN dynamically allocates a free NSEI
from a pool of NSEIs and sends it to the BSS. When an NSE is removed from the BSS,
the BSS automatically sends a modified NS-Reset message to the SGSN to
free an NSEI. The SGSN de-allocates the NSEI, and returns the NSEI to the pool
of free NSEIs. All related entries for Base Station System GPRS Protocol (BSSGP)
Virtual Circuit Identifiers (BVCIs) under the de-allocated NSEI are also removed
by the SGSN.
