Multiplex communications – Communication over free space – Having a plurality of contiguous regions served by...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-22
2002-11-19
Maung, Nay (Department: 2681)
Multiplex communications
Communication over free space
Having a plurality of contiguous regions served by...
C370S429000, C370S468000, C455S452200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06483820
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the mobile communications field and, in particular, to a system and method for efficient radio resource allocation for high speed circuit switched data services over mobile communications network.
2. Description of Related Art
The provision of data services in a mobile environment is recently finding greater demand. Data services are herein defined as bearer services and, more particularly, as the service bearer's ability to provide internetworking between a wireless network, e.g. the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and a fixed network. GSM was designed to provide basic data services, e.g. facsimile, data circuit asynchronous services, data circuit synchronous services, unrestricted digital information towards ISDN, and alternate speech/FAX. To provide these services within the GSM Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) and between the GSM network and other external networks, it is necessary to establish InterWorking Functions (IWF), which are essentially a gateway between the fixed and wireless network. In GSM, the Radio Link Protocol (RLP) was defined for this specific intention of protecting data across the radio path. However, the low bandwidth of the radio channels provides for a maximum transmission rate of only 9600 bit/s per channel.
In order to provide more bandwidth demanding services, e.g. Internet access, in a mobile environment with reasonable performance, high-speed circuit-switched data services have been developed that can provide data transfers over multiple traffic channels in parallel. Tariffs are accordingly imposed based on the number of traffic channels used during the call. In such an arrangement, a fair imposition of tariffs is problematic when data transfers are bursty in nature as is the inherent nature of Internet access and, in general, packet data services.
When data transfers occur in bursts, the data transfer rate is not constant and likely changes continually, and often dramatically, during the span of the call. Consequently, dedicated traffic channels are not used optimally. For example, if the data transfer rate is lower than the capacity of the traffic channels, the traffic channel resources are wasted proportionately to the channel capacity and data transfer differential. Conversely, if the data transfer rate is greater than the capacity of the traffic channels allocated for the transfer, the data transfer on the network side of the IWF will have to be stopped while the transfer on the mobile side continues to process the data, thereby increasing the time required to transfer the data respective to the time required to transfer the data on a greater number of channels.
Another problem. in networks providing high-speed circuit-switched data services is encountered when calls use autobauding. In this scenario, the subscriber is able to set the maximum data transfer rate by selecting, during call setup, a certain number of traffic channels to be used for the data transfer. The subscriber does so, however, with no knowledge of the data transfer rate that will be obtained on each channel since autobauding is used in the call set up. Thus, if the subscriber chooses an air interface configuration that does not provide sufficient capacity for the rate selected as a result of the autobauding, the data transfer will not take place at the highest possible rate. Conversely, if the subscriber chooses an air interface configuration that provides a higher capacity than needed for the rate selected at autobauding, excessive capacity will be allocated for the call resulting in the subscriber paying a tariff greater than needed for the call performance provided.
In GSM, the User Initiated Service Level Up and Downgrading (USLUD) procedure is defined to address the above-mentioned complications of implementing high-speed circuit-switched data services in a mobile environment. The USLUD provides the mobile terminal with the capability to request an increase or decrease of the air interface bandwidth. However, the USLUD procedure is unable to be implemented when the air interface bandwidth is too low since the mobile terminal cannot tell it is too low. Also, the mobile terminal does not have control over the air interface resources. Every request to increase or decrease the air interface bandwidth requires additional signaling between the mobile terminal and the Mobile Services Switching Centre which leads to a high signaling load when the frequency of requests is high.
It is, therefore, a first object of the present invention to provide an improved system and method for allocating bandwidth in a mobile communications network.
It is another object of the present invention to provide for improved system resource allocation in a mobile communications network providing data services.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide more efficient channel utilization in a mobile communications network providing high-speed circuit-switched data services.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide dynamic management of high-speed circuit-switched data service channels in a mobile communications network.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide channel allocation in a manner which results in optimal resource utilization in a mobile communications network providing high-speed circuit-switched data services.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a dynamic management of high-speed circuit-switched data service channel allocation that automatically averts allocation of channel bandwidth resulting in subscriber over or under-utilization of the allocated bandwidth.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a system and method for providing dynamic demand based management of traffic channel allocation in a mobile communications network providing high-speed circuit-switched data services. Traffic channel allocation for the data services is controlled dynamically by an IWF which monitors the status of associated buffers. The need for additional radio resources and the under-utilization of current radio resources is automatically detected by the IWF which respectively responds by initiating new traffic channel assignments via the Mobile Services switching Center or requesting that the Mobile Services switching center deallocate an appropriate portion of the allocated radio spectrum.
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patent: 6311055 (2001-10-01), Boltz
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Davidson Lee
Hameleers Heino
Hundscheidt Frank
Ericsson Inc.
Jenkens & Gilchrist P.C.
Maung Nay
Trinh Sonny
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