Patent Application
20070297450
The following drawings are presented by way of example and not limitation, wherein like references indicate similar elements throughout the several views of the drawings, and wherein:
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding components throughout the several views of the drawings. Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions, sizing, and/or relative placement of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary meaning as is usually accorded to such terms and expressions by those skilled in the corresponding respective areas of inquiry and study except where other specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.
The following description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, rather for the purpose of describing by specific examples the general principles that are incorporated into the illustrated embodiments. For example, certain actions or steps may be described or depicted in a specific order; however, practitioners of the art will understand that the specific order depicted is not a requirement. Also, the terms and expressions used in the description have the ordinary meanings accorded to such terms and expressions in the corresponding respective areas of inquiry and study except where other meanings have been specifically set forth herein.
Pursuant to the following teachings, in accordance with one embodiment, a layered packet data protocol (PDP) such as that defined by the 3GPP technical specification 23.060 may be modified as described below to communicate an application description from the application layer to the lower protocol layers in the packet data protocol (PDP) environment while maintaining the advantages of a layered protocol architecture. By passing an application description to lower layers of a layered packet data protocol, a substantial improvement in overall performance may be obtained with relatively minor protocol coupling compared to that resulting from political mechanisms, standards, backward compatibility, and deployment.
Various embodiments for passing an application description to a lower layer protocol system of a telecommunication system are provided. One embodiment includes a method comprising steps of executing an application in a telecommunications system, the step of executing the application occurring in the application control layer of the packet data protocol system; and communicating an identification of the application to a lower layer of the packet data protocol system.
Another embodiment includes a packet data protocol system of a telecommunications system comprising an application control layer of the packet data protocol system; a lower layer of the packet data protocol system; and an information element that includes an identification of an application to be run in the application control layer, the identification of the application provided to the lower layer of the packet data protocol system.
Prior to describing more details of various embodiments for communicating an application description from the application layer to the lower protocol layers in the packet data protocol (PDP) system, certain relevant aspects of telecommunication systems are briefly described.
In
The Mobile Station (MS) 102 may be, for example, a mobile handset, a desktop computer, or any communication device used to send and/or receive messages in the telecommunication system 100 that is compatible with the 3GPP Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) standard. The Mobile Station (MS) 102 generates an ACTIVATE PDP CONTEXT REQUEST message including a Quality of Service (QoS) element or profile for each data session being started, which is defined in the telecommunication standard 3GPP TS 24.008 and is described in more detail below.
The Base Station Subsystem (BSS) 106 provides communication between the Mobile Station (MS) 102 and the Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) 110 over the Gb interface 108.
The Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) 110 caches (i.e., saves to a temporary memory location) and sends the Quality of Service (QoS) element or profile to the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) 114, and in some cases, with a change of the Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) 110, may retrieve the Quality of Service (QoS) profile from the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) 114 over the Gn interface 112. The Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) 110 may combine multiple Quality of Service (QoS) elements to form an Aggregate Base Station Subsystem (BSS) Quality of Service (QoS) Profile (ABQP) that is communicated to the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) 106.
The Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) 114 stores the Quality of Service (QoS) element generated by the Mobile Station (MS) 102.
The Um interface 104 is a mobile air interface used to communicate between the Mobile Station (MS) 102 and the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) 106. The Gb interface 108 and the Gn interface 112 are General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network interface protocols for communicating between the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) 106, the Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) 110, and the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) 114.
In
The network control layer 206 includes more detailed rules for addressing and error control between networks and routing for Internet protocol messages.
The data link control layer 204 includes rules for error control and access within a network of the telecommunication system 100 in
The physical control first layer 202 includes the GSM Radio Frequency interface protocol 220 and the L1bis protocol 222. The GSM Radio Frequency interface protocol 220 provides the physical radio link.
The Relay 224 in the Base Station System (BSS) 106 relays LLC Protocol Data Units (PDU) between the Um and Gb interfaces. The L1bis protocol 222 provides the physical medium between the base station system (BSS) 106 and the Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) 110 in
The Relay 226 relays Packet Data Protocol (PDP) PDU between the Gb and Gn interfaces in the Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) 110. The GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) 232 tunnels user data and signals between GPRS Support Nodes (GSN) in the GPRS backbone network. All Point to Point (PTP) Packet Data Protocol (PDP) Protocol Data Units (PDU) are encapsulated by the GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) 232 as specified in GSM 09.60. The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) 234 carries GTP Protocol Data Units (PDU) for protocols that do not require a highly reliable data link, for example, Internet Protocol (IP). The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) 234 is defined in RFC 768. The L2 protocol 238 and the L1 protocol 240 may be any layer 2 and layer 1 protocols.
The information element 216 is generated by the Mobile Station (MS) 102 and contains information about the Quality of Service (QoS) resources required for an application such as push-to-talk (PTT), push-to-talk over cellular (PoC), and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP). Examples of information in the information element 216 include a quality of service information element identifier, a length of the quality of service information element, a peak throughput, a maximum uplink bit rate, a maximum downlink bit rate, a guaranteed uplink bit rate, and a guaranteed downlink bit rate. The maximum bit rate is the upper limit on the bit rate that a user or application can accept or provide. The guaranteed bit rate describes the bit rate the bearer service guarantees to the user or application. The guaranteed bit rate may be used to facilitate admission control based on available resources, and for resource allocation within the system.
After the information element 216 is generated by the Mobile Station (MS) 102, the information element 216 is propagated through the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) 106 to the Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) 110 over the Gb interface 108 and to the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) 114 over the Gn interface 112. The information element 216 is cached and sent to the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) 114 where it is stored. Upon an inter-SGSN cell change, the information element 216 is retrieved from the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) 114 and cached by the new Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) 110. The Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) 110 combines multiple Quality of Service (QoS) elements to form an Aggregate Base Station Subsystem (BSS) Quality of Service (QoS) Profile (ABQP) that is communicated to the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) 106.
A disadvantage of the layered packet data protocol system 200 is that the identity of the application to be run by the mobile station 102 for which the system resources are required is not seen by the lower layers of the layered packet data protocol system 200. If the identity of the application were known to the lower layers of the protocol stack 200, the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) 106 and the Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) 110 could perform significant protocol optimizations in the Radio Link Control/Media Access Control (RLC/MAC) protocol 218 and in the subnetwork-dependent convergence protocol (SNDCP) 210 of layer 2. The lack of information about the application to be run in the application control seventh layer (layer 7) 214 may be advantageously overcome by modifying the Packet Data Protocol (PDP) to include an application description in an information element as described below.
In
In operation, the application layer 214 provides data about the identification of the application to the data link control layer 204. The identification of the application can include an application description and an application version. The GMM in the data link control layer 204 then generates the information element 216 including the identification of the application. For example, in one embodiment, the information element 216 includes the application description 304 and the application version 306. The information element then propagates through the packet data protocol system as shown by path 350. The information element including the identification of the application eventually is received by the BSS allowing the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) 106 and the Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) 110 to perform significant protocol optimizations in the Radio Link Control/Media Access Control (RLC/MAC) protocol 218 and in the subnetwork-dependent convergence protocol (SNDCP) 210 of layer 2.
In
After the information element 302 is generated by the Mobile Station (MS) 102, the information element 302 is propagated through the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) 106 to the Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) 110 over the Gb interface 108 along the control path 402 where it is cached before being sent to the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) 114 over the Gn interface 114 along the control path 404. The information element 302 is stored as the user profile 410 in the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) 114 where it is retrieved and cached when needed by the Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) 110, for example, upon an inter-SGSN cell change, by the new Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) 110. The Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) 110 combines multiple Quality of Service (QoS) elements to form an Aggregate Base Station Subsystem (BSS) Quality of Service (QoS) Profile (ABQP) that is communicated to the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) 106 along the user data path 408.
Some of the other octets include a quality of service information element identifier (octet 1), a length of the quality of service information element (octet 2), a peak throughput (octet 4), a maximum uplink bit rate (octet 8), a maximum downlink bit rate (octet 9), a guaranteed uplink bit rate (octet 12), and a guaranteed downlink bit rate (octet 13).
In step 604, a telecommunications system is provided that includes a layered packet data protocol system, for example, the telecommunications system of
In step 606, an application is provided that is to be performed by the telecommunications system. In one embodiment, the application is running within the telecommunications system in the application control layer. Examples of an application include data transfer (Data), push-to-talk (PTT), push-to-talk with data transfer (PTT+Data), push-to-talk over cellular (PoC), push-to-talk over cellular with data transfer (PoC+Data), Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), Voice over Internet protocol with data transfer, Multimedia Broadcast/Multimedia Service, Real-time Streaming Video, and Non-real time Video.
In step 608, an identification of the application is communicated from the application control layer to one or more lower layers of the packet data protocol system.
In step 610, in accordance with some embodiments, an application description 304 and an application version number 306 of the application to be performed in an application layer of the packet data protocol are included in an information element 302. By way of example, the application description 304 and the application version number 304 may be embodied as two added bytes in the information element 302.
In step 612, the application description 304 and the application version number 306 are propagated through the packet data protocol system to optimize overall performance of each connection in the telecommunications system. For example, the information element 302 specifying the Quality of Service (QoS) information may be communicated to the session management control layer. The session management control layer then passes the application description 304 and the application version number 306 included in the information element 302 to one or more lower layers of the packet data protocol system.
Step 614 is the exit point of the flow chart 600.
Although the flowchart description above is described and shown with reference to specific steps performed in a specific order, these steps may be combined, subdivided, or reordered without departing from the scope of the claims. Unless specifically indicated, the order and grouping of steps is not a limitation of other embodiments that may lie within the scope of the claims.
The flow chart of
A computer program product in accordance with one embodiment includes: a medium for embodying a computer program for input to a computer; and a computer program embodied in the medium for causing the computer to perform steps of: executing an application in a telecommunications system, the step of executing the application occurring in the application control layer of a packet data protocol system; and communicating an identification of the application to a lower layer of the packet data protocol system.
Step 702 is the entry point of the flow chart 700.
In step 704, a telecommunications system is provided including a layered packet data protocol system. The layered packet data protocol system includes an application control layer and at least one lower layer, for example, as described above with respect to
In step 706, an application to be performed by the telecommunications system in the application control layer is provided, for example, data transfer, push-to-talk, push-to-talk with data transfer, push-to-talk over cellular, push-to-talk over cellular with data transfer, Voice over Internet protocol, Voice over Internet protocol with data transfer, Multimedia Broadcast/Multimedia Service, Real-time Streaming Video, and Non-real time Video. In one embodiment, the application is running within the telecommunications system in the application control layer.
In step 708, the application to be performed in the application control layer of the packet data protocol system is identified to the lower layer of the packet data protocol system. Following the lower layer packages the identification of the application in an information element 302 passed between layers of the packet data protocol system, for example, by an application description 304 and an application version number 306 embodied in the added bytes 17 and 18 of the information element as described above.
Step 710 is the exit point of the flow chart 700.
As may be appreciated from the method of passing an application description to lower layers of a layered packet data protocol described above, a substantial improvement in overall performance may be obtained while maintaining most of the advantages of a layered packet data protocol.
While the invention herein disclosed has been described by means of specific embodiments and applications thereof, other modifications, variations, and arrangements of the present invention may be made in accordance with the above teachings other than as specifically described to practice the invention within the spirit and scope defined by the following claims.
