Multiplex communications – Pathfinding or routing – Switching a message which includes an address header
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-18
2003-12-02
Vu, Huy D. (Department: 2665)
Multiplex communications
Pathfinding or routing
Switching a message which includes an address header
C370S469000, C709S230000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06658011
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 the invention concerns the use of such protocols and services to facilitate the use of the Wireless Application Protocol between a terminal of a cellular radio network and a node computer of a fixed packet-switched network.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a result of the efforts of an internationally acknowledged instance known as the WAP Forum to promote industry-wide specifications for technology used for developing applications and services that operate over wireless networks, such as GSM (Global System for Mobile telecommunications). WAP specifies an application framework and a set of network protocols for wireless devices such as mobile telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). The lowest layer of the WAP protocol stack is the WDP (Wireless Datagram Protocol) layer. The WDP layer should operate above a bearer service supported by a wireless network and capable of conveying data transmissions. In the existing GSM networks WAP is usually implemented using the Short Message Service or SMS as the bearer below the WDP layer, but in such arrangements the limitations inherent to the SMS are seriously restricting the applicability of the WAP.
Novel radio telecommunication systems with inherent packet-switched communication capabilities and/or connections to fixed packet-switched networks are currently being specified. As an example we will consider the system of
FIG. 1
, where a terminal
101
is a UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) 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 (General Packet Radio Service) 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
from which there is a further connection to WAP gateway
113
. The WAP gateway may also be known as a WAP proxy, and it could also be realised as a part of the GGSN
112
; in
FIG. 1
it is independent of the GGSN and not even a part of the GPRS network but connected to it through the Internet
114
. If the above-mentioned SMS arrangement were used as the bearing service between a terminal
101
or
102
and the WAP gateway
113
, there should also be a SMSC or Short Message Switching Centre coupled to the CN
107
and the MSC
109
, and the direct connections from the UTRAN
106
and the BSS
108
to the GPRS network could not be utilized. However, it has been proposed that the routing shown in
FIG. 1
should in the future be used for all data traffic between the terminals and the fixed packet-switched networks.
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 messages related to the use of the WAP. It is clear that somewhere at a relatively high level in the protocol stacks of both the terminals
101
and
102
and the WAP-GW
113
there must be a WDP entity that uses the services offered by the lower level protocols to convey the WAP-related messages. Additionally those 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 WDP entity. We anticipate that network operators will require the WAP usage to be distinguishable from other forms of packet-switched data transmission in order to arrange for a suitable charging scheme for the WAP-related services.
A proposed prior art approach for conveying WAP-related messages is to build the WAP-related messaging on top of the known IP or Internet Protocol PDP Type. This would require the GGSNs to reserve and allocate dynamic IP addresses to mobile users. The use of dynamic addresses is not efficiently combined to WAP services, and in any case using the IP PDP Type for WAP messaging would consume the scarce IP addresses and involve the whole complexity of allocating and maintaining IP addresses and dynamically configuring hosts. A terminal roaming in another network should in practice always use the WAP-GW of its home network, because there is no possibility of dynamically telling the IP addresses of other WAP-GWs to the terminal.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a feasible method and a corresponding arrangement for conveying WAP-related messages between terminals and WAP-GWs. 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. A further object of the invention is to minimize the required protocol overhead in the WAP-related traffic between the terminals and the WAP-GWs. An even further object of the invention is to provide means for distinguishing the WAP-related traffic from other types of packet-switched information transfer.
The objects of the invention are met by using the OSP or Octet Stream Protocol, known as such, to carry a data stream comprising the required WAP-related information.
The method according to the invention is characterized in that it comprises the steps of
defining a Wireless Datagram Protocol layer as a certain layer above the octet stream protocol layer in the protocol stacks of a terminal arrangement and a network device arrangement and
exchanging information related to the use of the Wireless Application Protocol between the Wireless Datagram Protocol layer in the terminal arrangement and the Wireless Datagram Protocol layer in the network device arrangement through the use of the octet stream protocol layer as well as other lower layers in the first and second protocol stacks.
The invention also applies to a terminal arrangement which is characterized in that its control entity is arranged to
implement a Wireless Datagram Protocol layer in a protocol stack and
exchange information related to the use of the Wireless Application Protocol between said Wireless Datagram Protocol layer in the protocol stack and a network device arrangement through the use of the octet stream protocol layer as well as other lower layers in the protocol stack.
Additionally the invention applies to a network device arrangement which is characterized in that its control entity is arranged to
implement a Wireless Datagram Protocol layer in a protocol stack and
exchange information related to the use of the Wireless Application Protocol between said Wireless Datagram Protocol layer in the protocol stack and a terminal arrangement through the use of the octet stream protocol layer as well as other lower layers in the protocol stack.
The Octet Stream Protocol or OSP is a previously defined way in GPRS for carrying relatively unstructured
Sevanto Jarkko
Sivanandan Mohan
Ho Duc
Vu Huy D.
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