GB2359451A

GB2359451A - Communication network including a virtual terminal

Info

Publication number: GB2359451A
Application number: GB0003508A
Authority: GB
Inventors: David Freeman; Erick O'connor; Vernon Fernandes; Paul Crichton
Original assignee: Motorola Inc
Current assignee: Motorola Solutions Inc
Priority date: 2000-02-15
Filing date: 2000-02-15
Publication date: 2001-08-22
Also published as: GB0003508D0

Abstract

A communication network includes, for example, a receiving station 1 communicating with a base station 2-6. The base station includes a virtual terminal 7 which includes a processor and store maintaining replica data of the receiving station 1 providing the functions and capabilities needed for operation of the receiving station. The virtual terminal 7 communicates with the receiving station 1 using the capabilities of the receiving station. The virtual terminal may interpret and transform incoming data into a form that is acceptable to the receiving station. The arrangement may find application in allowing a second generation mobile access to a third generation system. Alternatively, the virtual terminal receives and stores services or applications while the receiving station is unavailable and transmits the received signals at a later time to the receiving station. In an alternative embodiment, a virtual terminal is provided in each network so that information pertinent to a receiving station is transferred from a virtual terminal in one network to a virtual terminal in a roamed to network.

Description

1 COMaMICATION NETWORK

1. Field of the Invention

2359451 This invention relates to a communication network for providing communications to a receiving station. The invention is particularly useful to a mobile communication system, especially a cellular communication system but is not limited thereto.

2. Description of the Related A-rt

As communication systems, and particularly mobile communication systems, develop using more sophisticated mobile stations, e.g. mobile handsets, and more detailed and customised applications or services, there are developing situations where a user finds an application or t>ervice that they would like to use but the mobile, station does not have the capability required to run the application or perform the service. The reasons for the mobile station being unable to run the application or perform the service are diverse and may include lack of memory storage, processing capability, or lack of resource. In such a circumstance, a user could purchase a new mobile station with the requisite added capabilities, but it is more cost effective to the user for the network to handle the extra capability required and communicate to the mobile station in such a manner that can be handled by the mobile station. In such a case, it is likely that the network will need to increase transmission rates over the air interface and thereby costs more for the delivery of the service. Nevertheless, it would allow users to sample or emergency use facilities that they have not previously invested in by purchasing more capable terminal equipment. This will be particularly relevant with applications or applets that are downloaded to run the service required.

As an example, a current mobile communication system is the Pan-European standard of Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication, a so-called second generation mobile communication system, the first generation being an analogue cellular system such as Advance Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) or Extended Total Access Communication System (ETACS) used in the U.S.A. and U.K. respectively.

A so-called third generation system known as Universal Mobile Telephone System (UMTS) is in development and whilst third generation systems are entering the market, it will be necessary for those systems to support second generation system networks and mobile stations. There is also a socalled Unstructured Suppiementary Service Data (USSD) which opens a communication path from a mobile station to a Home Location Register (HLR) or Mobile Switching Centre (MSC) in a network which allows non- specific transfer of information, e.g. the use of the or # key on a mobile station handset for transmitting data which is not part of a telephone number. Using USSD it is possible to communicate basic feature actions so as to find out the last number that was called from the mobile station handset even when that service is not provided by the handset itself.

When a new or improved system is installed, there is a necessity for that system to provide legacy support, i.e. to support the existing system, but such legacy support has previously been extremely limited because mobile telecommunication systems operators also provide 2 all of the services available on their networks. It is envisaged in the future a more Internet-like system model will be used where wireless users may access content and services from anywhere they choose.

In the existing Internet, applications that are needed to handle a service may be downloaded or may already exist, but if the user's computer cannot handle the application, for example due to memory constraint or too little processing power, it is not possible to use the service offered.

The existing GSM USSD is a slow data link providing only a few kb/s and so is only useful for small data transfers such as interrogating network information and has never been intended for the transfer of traffic.

Another problem associated with mobile communication systems is how to handle instances when a mobile station is switched off and is unable to receive or transmit information. The conventional methodology is to use the network to collate and re-route the information so that, for example, an incoming voice call to an unobtainable mobile station will be diverted either to a voice mail system or another number, as defined by the user. Where the services supported are simple, such a method is suitable, but as the number of individual services increases so too does the complexity of the re-routing and the need to ensure that the user's "profAe" is accurately maintained.

The foregoing system also relies on the user's host server network to support the mobile station when the mobile station is unobtainable. In many instances, this will mean that both the network signalling set up and bearer traffic, e.g. speech or data information, will 3 need to be routed back to the home network with resultant increase in capacity utilisation and potential expense.

The present invention seeks to at least substantially mitigate the foregoing problems and disadvantages.

SM4MARY OF THE INVENTION According to this invention there is provided a communication network for providing communications to a receiving station, said network including a virtual terminal arranged to act as the receiving station by intercepting communications to said receiving station for subsequent transmission to said receiving station.

In one embodiment, the virtual terminal has means for interpreting the communication and transforming the communication into a form that is acceptable to the receiving station.

In said one embodiment said virtual terminal includes means for receiving signals indicative of services or applications, means for re-encoding said signals into a form understandable by said mobile station, and means for transmitting said re- encoding signals to said mobile station.

In another embodiment, if said mobile station is unobtainable, said virtual terminal includes store means for storing said received or said interpreting signals for subsequent transmission to said mobile station.

In said another embodiment of the invention, said virtual terminal includes means for receiving signals indicative of services or applications while said mobile station is unavailable, and means for transmitting said signals at a later time to said mobile station.

4 Preferably, said mobile station is a second generation device and said network is a third generation network.

In yet a further embodiment of the invention, where a second generation base station network is interposed between a third generation mobile station and a third generation base station network, said virtual terminal is connected to said third generation network for receiving and interpreting signals received by said third generation network, and said virtual terminal has means for forwarding said interpreted signals in a form acceptable to said second generation network for onward transmission to said mobile station.

In a still further embodiment of this invention there is provided two or more public land mobile networks, each including store means and virtual terminal store means, wherein information and subscription data of a mobile station is hel-d in a f irst network and, when said mobile station roams from said first network to another network, a signal from said mobile station received by said another network causes said another network to access said store means of said first network and said data is transferred to the store means of the another network and, similarly, information held in the virtual terminal store means of said one network is transferred to said virtual terminal store means in said another network. By the use of such an expedient, the, "profile" of the mobile station is maintained and accurately transferred to the network to which the base station has roamed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 shows, in block schematic form, a first embodiment of a communication network in accordance with this invention, Figure 2 shows another embodiment of a communication network in accordance with this invention, and Figure 3 shows a further communication network in accordance with this invention.

In the Figures like reference numerals denote like parts.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In a first embodiment of this invention there is provided a communication network having a mobile station 1 in communication with, for example, a cellular base station transceiver 2 which is controlled by a base station controller 3, the base station controller determining handover of the mobile station between plural base transceiver stations. The base station controller 3 is connected to a mobile switching centre 4 which is arranged to control plural base station controllers. The mobile switching centre may be connected to a home location register 5 which contains subscriber details and allows non-specific transfer of information, as mentioned herein above. The subscriber details may be, for example, details for call barring, call transfer or set up to an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Associated 6 with the mobile switching centre may also be provided a visitor location register 6 which enables subscription details to be stored that are transferred from one network to another for facilitating roaming. As thus far described the communication network is conventional and is typical of a GSM network.

In accordance with this i nvention a virtual terminal 7 is provided which is connected to the mobile switching centre 4. The virtual terminal includes a processor and storage means which is able to interpret a communication to be transmitted to the mobile station and which transforms that communication into a form that is acceptable to the mobile station.

As an example, suppose a video phone device which can handle moving pictures at 384kb/s is designed for short video phone calls. With effluxion of time, video coding evolves and high power processors become available such- that a new coder is developed which maintains the% quality at a coding rate of only 72kb/s. If there is a video library supplying videos that is chosen by the subscriber using mobile station 1 and the video library uses the new coding technology to reduce their storage requirements and transmission costs, it is necessary for some adaptation of the communication transmission to allow the user with the older video phone mobile station to be able to hire a movie from the video library. The video library sends the movie at 72kb/s to the virtual terminal 7 via the mobile switching centre 4 and the virtual terminal transforms by re-encoding the movie to the 384kb/s standard for transmission to the mobile station 1.

Alternatively, if the user wants to watch/listen to a specific repeat of a previous transmission, that has 7 been earlier stored by the service provider for subsequent browsing by WWW or similar access, the older video 'phone may identify that it is not capable of performing the video download. The network or virtual terminal repeatedly performs the transformation so that the user can receive the repeated transmission.

Such an arrangement may also apply to audio or other types of services where use of increased, or decreased, communications capability may be adopted to achieve a communicational service which would otherwise not be acceptable to a mobile station. Hence, resources are shared on an actively determined basis when lack of resources in an existing network is found.

Such a virtual terminal could also be used to maintain certain functions that the mobile station have maintained if given the opportunity but where more of the functions were temporarily unavailable features could include'last incoming call numbers, mobile stations maintain a list of the last ten or numbers that call in to the mobile station. When switched off, the mobile station is unaware of the incoming calls, but such calling numbers may be'stored by the virtual terminal 7. Similarly, if the mobile station is active on another call or if the mobile station is disabled, incoming messages for the mobile station could be stored by the virtual terminal for subsequent access and transmission to the mobile station 1.

Another embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to Figure 2 which shows a scenario in which a third generation (UMTS) mobile station 21 is required to communicate with a third generation base station 22, via a second generation (e.g. GSM) base station coupled to a mobile switching centre Such where so 8 24, which, in turn, is operably coupled to a third generation network controller 23 linked to the third generation base station 22. The mobile switching centre 24 may have, or be coupled to, a visitor location register 26 and the third generation network controller may be associated with a home location register 27. The third generation network controller 23 is connected, in this exemplary embodiment, to an originating network 28 which may be any network, for example, an Internet network via an ISP or a data channel providing information such as CNN. A virtual terminal 29 is provided which is a virtual representation of the third generation mobile station 21 containing the user's profile. The virtual terminal is responsible for completing all incoming calls or events, regardless of which network type to which the user is communicating.

If the mobile station 21 was communicating dit-ectly with the third generation base station, then voice calls, e-mails, short messages, etc. could be passed directly to the mobile station unmodified.

However, in the situation envisaged in Figure 2 where the user is in communication with a legacy second generation base station 25, then the virtual terminal 29 either adapts the incoming event to the capabilities of the second generation system network, such as speech, codec modification, or text to speech encoding, andor enacts the appropriate user-defined response. Where desired, say when the event is better suited to third generation technology, the virtual terminal stores the event for later access by the user of the mobile station 21, when the user is re-connected to a third generation network.

9 By the use of a virtual terminal, service providers do not need to ensure that they support legacy networks different capabilities, nor are service providers forced to track their users and modify every incoming event in an appropriate fashion. Effectively, the host network delegates authority to the virtual terminal to ensure that re-formatting and presentation of the signals is handled correctly regardless of the network interface.

A further advantage of the arrangement shown in Figure 2 is that if, instead of a third generation mobile station being used, a second generation, legacy, mobile station is used, that second generation mobile will be able to access basic services using their virtual terminal.

A further embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to Figure 3 which particularly envisages a user of a mobile station roaming from one network to another, since in, for example, a cellular system there is a requirement for the mobile station to be in communication with a base station at any time irrespective of the network. When a user roams from one network to another it is desirable for the profile of the user/mobile station to be transferred to the roamed-to network. The profile information may include, but is not limited to, for example services subscribed to, the manner by which the services are handled, such as voice calls being diverted to another number or call barring, and any mobile station specific settings or user applications. By such an expedient, an incoming event such as a speech telephone call, e-mail, short message, is always delivered and acted upon regardless of the network currently in communication with the mobile station.

Where a user roams with the mobile station, it is necessary for the user to remember to set up the actions required for all services at the roamedto network and to ensure. that all events are consistently handled. For the network operator, revenue may increase as all calls are effectively terminated and the signalling load between host and serving entities is reduced. The latter is particularly important where one user may subscribe to multiple service providers for many different services and applications. The updating of these entities each time the terminal becomes unavailable imposes a substantial signalling load on the networks. The embodiment described in relation to Figure 3 having a virtual terminal is able to satisfy the foregoing requirements.

A further benefit of the virtual terminal to be described is to host applications independently of the physical mobile station. An example is to initiate a task to collate the best airline ticketing deal for a user. Immediacy in such an example is not an issue, but maintaining the mobile station on-line during the process of collation is unnecessary and is a drain on terminal resources which is overcome by the virtual terminal of this invention. With the virtual terminal an exact representation of the real mobile station is provided and a queried network is able to gather all the necessary information without user intervention or during periods when it is inconvenient to be using the mobile station, i. e. keeping the mobile station in direct communication line".

In Figure 3, an application server 30 containing software-based functionality, including the profile of a user, is connected to a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) 11 32 including a Mobile Switching Centre (MSC) 34 which, in turn, is connected to a Home Location Register (HLR) 35, a Visitor Location Register (VLR) 36 and a Virtual Terminal (VT) 37.

Another PLMN 41 includes an MSC 44, an HLR 45, a VLR 46, a VT 47 and a base station controller 43 with which a mobile station 31 is in communication.

It is assumed that the mobile station 31 roams from PLMN 32 to PLMN 41. Information and subscription data of the user (profile data) is required to be passed from PLMN 32 to PLMN 41 to allow for consistency of service. Upon registration of the mobile station, e.g. when powered ON, a signalling link is set up between HLR 35 and VLR 46 or between VLR 36 and VLR 46 in dependence upon whether PLMN is the home network or another visited network. The HLR 35 is informed of the location of the mobile station to permit incoming calls to trace the mobile station. Thus, -when the roamed- to PLMN 41 recognises the mobile station 31, a signalling link is created between the visited PLMN 41 and the HLR 35. The user profile is also desirably transferred to the visited network by transferring information between VT 37 and VT 47. The VLR 46 obtains the roaming user's data from HLR 35 and PLMN 41 extracts the parameters of virtual terminal 37 and transfers that information to the roamedto virtual terminal 47.

Thus, the roamed-to PLMN virtual terminal contains a complete representation of all the characteristics that make up the user's mobile station terminal and service profile, since the data is transferred from the user's home network or a previously visited network having a virtual terminal.

12 It will, therefore, be understood that the user's terminal and service profile is able to follow the user to roamed-to networks, thereby saving time and expense.

It will be realised that communication with the virtual terminal may be from any known form of mobile station, for example personal computer, palm PC or mobile telephone handset.

From the foregoing, it will be understood that the present invention provides a virtual terminal which is a replica of the functions and capabilities needed for a mobile station to complete communication with a network. Also, the virtual terminal is able to communicate with the mobile station using the capabilities of the mobile station when the mobile station is available.

It is to be understood that other modifications can such modifications falling within the of the appended claims are intended to present application. 1 be made and all spirit and scopE be included in thE 13

Claims

EP CLAIMS CLAIMS:

1. A communication network for providing communications to a receiving station (1), said network including a virtual terminal (7) arranged to act as the receiving station (1) by intercepting communications to said receiving station for subsequent transmission to said receiving station.

2. A network as claimed in claim 1, wherein the virtual terminal (7) has means for interpreting the communication and transforming the communication into a form that is acceptable to the receiving station (1).

3. A network as claimed in claim 2, wherein said virtual terminal (7) includes means for receiving signals indicative of services or applications, means for reencoding said signals into a form understandable by said receiving station, and means for transmitting said reencoding signals to said receiving station.

4. A network as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein if said receiving station is unobtainable, said virtual terminal includes store means for storing sai received or said interpreting signals for subsequent transmission to said receiving station.

5. A network as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said communication network is a mobile communication network and said receiving station (1) is a mobile radio station.

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6. A network as claimed in claim 5, wherein said mobile station is a second generation device and said network is a third generation network.

7. A network as claimed in claim 1, wherein where a second generation base station network (25) is interposed between a third generation mobile station (21) and a third generation base station network (22, 23), said virtual terminal (29) is connected to said third generation network (22, 23) for receiving and interpreting signals received by said third generation network, and said virtual terminal has means for forwarding said interpreted signals in a form acceptable to said second generation network for onward transmission to said receiving station (21).

81.- A network as claimed in claim 1, wherein there -is provided two or more public land mobile networks (32, 42) each including store means (35, 36, 45, 46) and virtual terminal store means (37, 47), wherein information and subscription data of a receiving station (31) is held in a first network (32) and, when said receiving station roams from said first network (32) to another network (42), a signal from said receiving station (31) received -by said another network (42) causes said another network to access said store means (35, 36) of said first network and said data is transferred to the store means (46) of the another network and, similarly, information held in the virtual terminal store means (37) of said one network is transferred to said virtual terminal store means (47) in said another network.

9. A communication network substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and/or as illustrated by Figure 1, Figure 2 or Figure 3 of the drawings.

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