Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Zoned or cellular telephone system
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-30
2003-05-27
Vuong, Quochien (Department: 2681)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Zoned or cellular telephone system
C370S913000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06571095
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and systems for identifying and addressing service providers in packet data networks from whom mobile terminals can obtain application level services.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Voice over IP (VoIP) networks having a network architecture of a cellular network connected to a packet data network map addresses from the numerically based addressing of the cellular mobile networks to the alphanumeric addressing mechanism such as universal resource locators (URLs) of packet data networks such as IP networks. Such systems are specified under H.323 and include gatekeepers.
Gatekeeper discovery mechanisms have been proposed in order for mobile terminals to have access to application level network services such as VoIP. With one of these mechanisms a mobile terminal will actively communicate with the servers in the packet data network from which available services may be obtained by using multicast probing to access the servers in the network. With the other mechanism, the mobile terminals will monitor communications in the network to identify periodic announcements from servers in the packet data network from which application level services are available and, in response to an announcement from server(s) that services are available, the mobile terminal will register with the available server(s). The foregoing mechanisms by which mobile terminals may obtain the location of application level services provided by servers in a packet data network increase the transmissions through the packet data network in proportion to the number of available servers providing services to the mobile terminals and can reach an undesirable level, especially when the communications are over mobile packet data networks which have limited bandwidth.
The service location protocol (SLP) defines agents in a network which may be discovered by use of dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP). When a terminal powers up and executes DHCP procedures, it may request location of a SLP agent, such as a service agent, by utilizing option
78
in the DHCP discovery message.
FIG. 1
illustrates the architecture of the general packet radio system (GPRS)
10
. The GPRS
10
has entities which support radio transmission of packet data transmissions. A plurality of mobile terminals
12
, which may be connected to a computer
14
, communicate via radio communications
16
to a base station
18
which includes a transmitter
20
and a controller
22
. Each base station is associated with a mobile switching center (MSC) and visiting location register (VLR)
24
with which the mobile terminals
12
register when activated in the network. The base station
18
and the MSC and VLR
24
may be in accordance with the GSM (global system for mobile communications) network specifications. The GPRS
10
has an infrastructure
26
which includes a plurality of serving general packet radio systems support nodes (SGSN)
28
which perform the functions of authenticating the mobile terminal when the user wishes to connect to the GPRS network and also act as the nodes responsible for setting up GPRS sessions for carrying such traffic as IP. The GPRS infrastructure
26
further includes a backbone network
30
which provides wireline interconnections to the various entities in the GPRS infrastructure
26
. The GPRS infrastructure
26
further includes at least one gateway general packet radio system support node (GGSN)
32
which provides gateway functions to external data networks
34
which may be without limitation the internet or an X.25 data network from which services may be accessed by the mobile terminals
12
. Firewalls
36
may be provided between the GGSN
32
and the external networks
34
. Additionally, at least one gateway
37
provides gateway services between the GPRS infrastructure
26
and other GPRS operators
38
through a firewall
40
. The GPRS
10
further includes an SS
7
network
42
of known design which provides support for the establishment of communications between different entities in the network such as without limitation between different mobile terminals
12
. A home location register (HLR)
44
provides functionality of the type performed by the HLR in the GSM system. Additionally, other data networks
46
, such as the internet are connected through a GGSN
32
to a plurality of corporate entities via a router
48
to a local area network including a corporate server
50
.
The GPRS
10
may include. at least one mobile service providing server
52
which may be, without limitation, at least one host application level service entity, such as a call processing server (CPS), a streaming server, or an application server. A CPS performs the functions of setting up, controlling and tearing down of VOIP calls among other functions. A streaming server performs the functional of providing movies, audio or other playback of information on demand from a packet data network. An application server performs the function of running functions that either the mobile terminals
12
cannot support or runs functions for the mobile server.
The GPRS
10
suffers from the deficiencies discussed above regarding discovery and registration by the mobile terminals with the at least one mobile service providing server
52
to obtain application level services for the mobile terminals. The active or passive discovery technique by which the mobile terminals
12
obtain application level services from at least one mobile service providing server
52
burdens and overloads the GPRS
10
with undesirable communications especially in view of the limited bandwidth available.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a network and a method of providing mobile terminals in a packet data network with an address of at least one storage device which stores the address of at least one service providing entity, such as a server from which application services are obtainable, by the mobile terminals. In accordance with the invention, a directory storage, which may be implemented as an advertisement server, provides addresses to the mobile terminals in the network of at least one mobile service providing server from which diverse types of application level services may be obtained by the mobile terminals. The advertisement server is a repository of addresses of servers in the network with which the plurality of mobile terminals may register and obtain application level servers therefrom. Once a mobile terminal obtains an address of at least one mobile service providing server from the directory storage for use by a mobile terminal, the mobile terminal communicates with each mobile service providing server to further discover specific application services that are available to the mobile terminal. The network may operate under specified access control rules so that at least one service from the mobile service providing servers is made available to the mobile terminal based upon specified conditions such as, but not limited to, the identity of the mobile terminal, preferences of services which the mobile terminal desires to procure from the mobile service providing servers, any roaming protocol which is to be used, or prevailing network conditions including, e.g. load on the individual server(s), or any other type of conditions which are desired to be used as a basis to control access. The directory storage may be implemented in accordance with the Service Location Protocol (SLP) as a service agent. However, discovery of such an agent when DHCP is not available and multicast-based approaches are not desirable is addressed by the present invention in which the address of the directory storage is provided to the mobile terminal upon its network registration. However, the invention is not limited to SLP and/or dynamic host control protocol.
The mobile terminals, upon activation, register with the network which may be performed by either of two service registration processes. The address of the directory storage is required before application level s
Antonelli Terry Stout & Kraus LLP
Nokia Internet Communications Inc.
Vuong Quochien
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