Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Zoned or cellular telephone system
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-03
2002-05-14
Legree, Tracy (Department: 2681)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Zoned or cellular telephone system
C455S411000, C455S507000, C345S215000, C713S152000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06389282
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an operation and maintenance system for a mobile communications network.
A mobile communications network is a hierarchically structured system of various network elements, in which the lowest hierarchical level is formed by the mobile telephones, also called mobile stations (MS). These mobile stations communicate with radio base stations forming the next hierarchical level, which are also called base stations or base transceiver station equipment (BTSE), via a so-called Um interface or radio interface.
Due to the relatively short radio range of such base stations, a mobile communications network of a normal size contains a large number of base stations. These base stations are combined in regions for leading and controlling the data traffic between them. The higher-level network elements provided for this purpose are called base station controller (BSC). The base stations communicate with the base station controllers via a so-called Abis interface. If necessary, a transcoder and rate adapter unit (TRAU) can be allocated to a base station controller for optimizing the data communication. The base stations, the base station controllers and the transcoder and rate adapter units form a base station subsystem (BSS) of the mobile communications network. In this configuration, base stations, base station controllers and transcoder and rate adapter units are network devices of the base station subsystem.
The base station controllers communicate via so-called A interfaces with one or a few mobile switching centers (MSC), which are also used as gateways to other telephone networks, among other things. Together with a few databases, the mobile switching centers form the network switching subsystem (NSS).
Apart from the network element hierarchies described above, there is an operation and maintenance subsystem (OMS). The operation and maintenance subsystem is used for configuring and monitoring all network elements. For this purpose, monitoring measures and configuration measures are in most cases remotely controlled from operation and maintenance centers (OMC), which are usually located in the area of mobile switching centers.
One of the tasks of the operation and maintenance subsystem is the execution of a configuration management (CM), which represents one of five management function areas which identify the telecommunication management network principles. The configuration management defines a number of services which enable the structure, and thus the characteristics of a communications network to be changed by the operator. These services are always related to entities or instances of managed objects which together form the network-specific management information base (MIB).
In principle, the configuration of a mobile communications network can be managed from two sides, namely either centrally from a workstation of an operation and maintenance center, also called operation and maintenance terminal (OMT), or in the area of the network peripherals with the aid of a maintenance device which is also called local maintenance terminal (LMT) which can be connected to any network devices of the base station subsystem, i.e. to a base station, a base station controller or a transcoder and rate adapter unit via a so-called T interface. In this configuration, a number of LMT maintenance devices can be simultaneously connected to various network devices. For the purpose of changing function-related entities of managed objects, LMT maintenance devices connected to network devices are operated in two different modes. If an LMT maintenance device is directly connected to a base station, base station controller or transcoder and rate adapter unit, the LMT maintenance device is operating in the normal mode in which it directly acts on the corresponding network device. If the LMT maintenance device is connected to a base station or to a transcoder and rate adapter unit, it is operated in the base station controller remote control mode and acts on the associated base station controller from a distance. The LMT maintenance device is logically connected to the base station controller in these two types of configuration.
A managed object in the sense of the configuration management is a logical abstraction of a resource in the mobile communications network. In this connection, a distinction is made between hardware-related managed objects which describe a proprietary implementation of a function, and between function-related managed objects which are in each case the abstraction of a nonproprietary functionality.
Hardware-related managed objects can be configured via an LMT maintenance device which is operated in normal mode, i.e. in local mode and is connected to a base station or transcoder and rate adapter unit affected.
Within the scope of a configuration management, a number of operators of operating and maintenance devices of the operation and maintenance center, which are working independently of one another, and operators of LMT maintenance devices connected peripherally can simultaneously change the configuration of a mobile communications network in the form of configuration processes. A configuration process is usually initiated with a ‘start configuration’ command which is issued by an operation and maintenance device or an LMT maintenance device, and in the normal case, such a configuration process is concluded with an ‘end configuration’ command when all changes in configuration are entered. An initiated configuration process can also be aborted with an ‘abort configuration’ command when changes made to the configuration are discarded.
The operation and maintenance center regulates the control of operator accesses to the mobile communications network via the operation and maintenance center with the aid of security mechanisms which are implemented on the basis of so-called authentication and authorization checks, i.e. of user identification and allocation of corrections in central supervisory computers. Accordingly, control of user accesses via an operation and maintenance center is ensured. LMT accesses, i.e. configuration accesses via local maintenance devices which are connected to any network device of the base station subsystem provide an operator with the same configuration capabilities as accesses via the operation and maintenance center. For an access to the operation and maintenance system of a mobile communications network via such an LMT, an operator identification and an authorization check are frequently only carried out within this LMT. This has the result that an operator, who knows a local password for the LMT, can manipulate the entire mobile communications network.
From the international patent publication WO 96/30823, a radio communications system and a number of computer systems, in each case operating independently, are known which are connected to one another in a computer network. The autonomous computer system is connected to a central radio database via this computer network. Each computer system is exclusively responsible for operating a part of the radio communication system and stores configuration data in a local computer database as a map of the central radio database. During this process, the data must be continuously synchronized between the central computer database and the radio database. The European patent document EP 0 442 839 also discloses a number of independently operating computer systems which are connected to one another in a computer network. This document, therefore, does not deal with a communications network or an operation and maintenance system but with a computer network including a control of access to resources of this network. Whenever an access occurs, a resource manager requests the data required for authentication from a local reference monitor service. After having received this data, the resource manager checks whether corresponding rights of access to the resource exist. In the report “Sign and be safe” by Johnson J. T., Data Communications 24 (1995), Jan
Greenberg Laurence A.
Legree Tracy
Lerner Herbert L.
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Stemer Werner H.
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