Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer session/connection establishing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-22
2004-11-02
Burgess, Glenton B. (Department: 2153)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer session/connection establishing
Reexamination Certificate
active
06813638
ABSTRACT:
TECHNOLOGICAL FIELD
The invention concerns generally the use of certain protocols and services for conveying certain types of information between the different nodes of a telecommunication network. Especially die invention concerns the preparations for and execution of the transmission of multimedia-related information between a terminal of a cellular radio network and a node computer of a fixed packet-switched network.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Multimedia is generally understood as the synchronized presentation of audiovisual objects to a user. It is typical to multimedia-related information that it may contain elements of highly different nature, lice text, still images, simple graphical elements, video and sound.
MMS or Multimedia Messaging Service is a proposed way for arranging the delivery of messages containing multimedia-related information from one telecommunication device to another. With “multimedia-related” information we mean both the actual payload data that represents presentable objects and the control information that tells a presentation device how to handle the payload data. According to the proposals, MMS should be applicable for conveying such messages to and from the terminals of packet-switched cellular radio networks such as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and the packet-switched parts of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) in a store-and-forward manner much like the SMS (Short Messaging Service) text messages are conveyed in the second generation digital cellular networks, e.g. GSM (Global System for Mobile telecommunications).
FIG. 1
illustrates some system aspects of a known proposal for arranging the transmission of MMS messages between two mobile terminals (or generally: terminal arrangements)
101
and
102
. In
FIG. 1
each terminal is operating in a cellular telephone system of its own: terminal
101
is a UMTS terminal operating in a UMTS network
103
and terminal
102
is an enhanced GSM terminal operating in an enhanced GSM network
104
. From both networks there is a connection to a GPRS network
105
. The UMTS network
103
comprises a UTRAN or UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network
106
as well as a CN or Core Network
107
. In the enhanced GSM network
104
a BSS or Base Station Subsystem
108
and an MSC or a Mobile Switching Centre
109
are shown. The detailed structure of the network elements is unessential to the present invention, but it is known that for example a UTRAN consists of a number of Radio Network Subsystems, each of which in turn comprises a Radio Network Controller and a number of Node Bs roughly corresponding to base stations. A BSS in turn comprises a Base Station Controller and a number of Base Transceiver Stations operating under it. Various mixed-mode cellular telephone systems are possible; for example the BSS
108
might operate under the same CN as the UTRAN
106
. The terminals could also be exactly similar terminals operating close to each other in a single cell.
In
FIG. 1
there is a connection both from the UTRAN
106
and from the BSS
108
to a corresponding SGSN or Serving GPRS Support Node
110
and
111
. Both of these are in turn coupled, through the GPRS trunk lines, to a GGSN or Gateway GPRS Support Node
112
which here also operates as an MMSC or a Multimedia Messaging Service Center. In analogy with the known SMS arrangements a terminal
101
may transmit an MMS message by identifying both the intended recipient's terminal
102
and the MMSC through which the message is to be transmitted (actually the latter may even be left out if there is a default MMSC for each terminal). A Packet Control Unit or a corresponding functionality in the UTRAN
106
takes the MMS transmission and routes it through the current SGSN
110
to the MMSC
112
which stores the MMS message and commences the attempts for delivering it to the intended recipient. If there is an existing connection to the recipient's terminal
102
the MMSC may deliver the message through the corresponding SGSN
111
and the BSS
108
to the terminal
102
. If, however, the terminal
102
is temporarily shut off, out of coverage or otherwise unreachable, the MMSC retries the delivery at certain time intervals until either the message is successfully delivered or a timeout expires indicating that the message is obsolete and can be deleted undelivered. A positive or negative acknowledgement, depending on the success in delivery, may be returned through the MMSC to the transmitting terminal
101
if required.
At the time of filing this patent application there does not exist an unambiguously defined way of using the lower-level protocol layers and PDP Contexts (Packet Data Protocol) in the terminals and fixed network devices to convey the MMS messages. Somewhere at a relatively high level in the protocol stacks of both the terminals and tie MMSC there must be an MMS-TP (Multimedia Messaging Service-Transport Protocol) entity that uses the services offered by the lower level protocols to convey an MMS message first from the transmitting device to the MMSC and then further to the receiving device. The actual name of the protocol entity may also be something else. Additionally the MMS messages must be mapped into PDP Contexts of certain type; the mapping will be closely related to the choice of lower protocol layers under the MMS-TP entity. We anticipate that network operators will require the MMS messaging to be distinguishable from other forms of packet-switched data transmission in order to arrange for a suitable charging scheme for the MMS services.
A prior art solution which has been proposed for conveying MMS messages is to have a PDP Type separately defined for MMS, and to set up a PDP Context of that type between a terminal and an MMSC each time an MMS message has to be conveyed in either direction. This approach has the drawback of requiring a considerable amount of completely new specification and standardization work. Additionally new PDP Types are only very reluctantly accepted to the already frozen standards.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a feasible method and a corresponding arrangement for setting up and configuring a connection suited for conveying MMS messages between terminals and MMSCs. It is an additional object of the invention that the proposed method does not require exhaustive respecification in the framework of existing standards and proposals.
The objects of the invention are met by using the IP or Internet Protocol PDP Context type, known as such, to carry a data stream comprising the required multiedia-related information, and by configuring the IP address of a MMSC to a terminal dynamically, most advantageously as a part of the PDP Context activation process.
The method according to the invention is characterized in that it comprises the steps of
defining a multimedia messaging transport protocol layer as a certain layer above the Internet Protocol layer in certain first and second protocol stacks so that the defined multimedia messaging transport protocol layers are peer entities and
exchanging multimedia-related information between the multimedia messaging transport protocol layer in a terminal arrangement and the multimedia messaging transport protocol layer in a network device arrangement through the use of additionally defined Internet Protocol layers as well as other lower layers in the first and second protocol stacks.
The invention also applies to a terminal which is characterized in that its control block is arranged to
implement a multimedia messaging transport protocol layer in a protocol stack and
exchange multimedia-related information between said multimedia messaging transport protocol layer in the protocol stack and a certain network device arrangement through the use of an Internet Protocol layer as well as other lower layers in the protocol stack.
Additionally the invention applies to a network device which is characterized in that its control block is arranged to
implement a multimedia messaging transport protocol layer in
Puuskari Mikko
Sevanto Jarkko
Burgess Glenton B.
Flynn Kimberly
Nokia Mobile Phones Ltd.
Perman & Green LLP
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