In a wireless network, a wireless communication device (e.g., a Mobile Station (MS) or User Equipment (UE)) communicates with one or more radio access nodes to send and/or receive information, such as voice traffic, data traffic, and control signals. In some cases, the radio access node initiates sending information to the wireless communication device via a page request. As an example, the radio access node sends a page request to trigger a corresponding page response from the wireless communication device and thereby acquire knowledge of its precise location as required for a wireless communication device in an idle or dormant state to initiate setting up a traffic channel for sending information to the wireless communication device.
The wireless communication device monitors the radio access node's paging channel according to a paging cycle. Devices running less time critical applications may be able to use a long paging cycle in order to use less energy; a long paging cycle corresponds to a paging cycle longer than what is supported by specification 3GPP TS 44.018 version 12.1.0. In a long paging cycle, the device wakes up to monitor the paging channel less frequently than when a legacy paging cycle is used; a legacy paging cycle corresponds to a paging cycle supported by specification 3GPP TS 44.018 version 12.1.0. For example, a device using a legacy paging cycle wakes up every couple of seconds to monitor the paging channel, whereas a device using a long paging cycle might only wake up every couple of hours, days, or weeks to monitor the paging channel.
The radio network does not necessarily have capacity to store page requests for the duration of a long paging cycle (e.g., hours, days, or weeks). The radio network discards a page request received from the core network if the radio network does not have capacity to store the page request until a device's next monitoring window. In some cases, the core network will retry the page request and the radio network will again discard the page request if the radio network does not have capacity to store the page until a device's next monitoring window. Sending page requests that the radio network discards increases the messaging overhead in the network.