The present invention relates to the control of calls in a radiocommunication network.
A radiocommunication network is generally arranged for routing incoming calls to radio terminals and out-going calls from radio terminals. The incoming calls can originate from radio terminals or fixed terminals. Similarly, the out-going calls can terminate to radio terminals or fixed terminals.
Although the signalling used for such routing may differ between the incoming calls and the out-going calls, the equipments and interfaces of the radiocommunication network involved are often the same for both directions.
While the communication service rendered by such radiocommunication network is highly appreciated, it can, under certain circumstances, have undesirable or even harmful effects.
In particular, with the development of terrorism all over the world, it is been observed that radio terminals could be used as detonators for bombs. Indeed, a radio terminal can easily be coupled to a bomb, in such a way that an electrical signal generated in the terminal due to the reception of a call, can trigger the bomb explosion, e.g. by making the buzzer of the terminal vibrate. In this way, bombs can be remotely controlled through simple calls to the radio terminals they are coupled to.
In recent attacks, it appeared that several bombs exploded quasi simultaneously or with low delays. Knowing that, it would be highly desirable to prevent new explosions once a first bomb attack has occurred.
A simple way of doing so is to completely turn off the radiocommunication network over a whole city for instance, so as to ensure that no call will trigger a further bomb explosion.
However, this implies a total absence of telephone service for mobile users, which can be prejudicial. For example, radio terminals could be the only means available for calling for emergency.
An object of the present invention is to overcome the above mentioned problem.
Another object is to limit the use of a radiocommunication network in a not too prejudicial way.
Another-object is to forbid the possible bad use of a radiocommunication network without suspending its use for good reasons.
The invention thus proposes a method for controlling calls in a radiocommunication network arranged for routing incoming calls to radio terminals and out-going calls from radio terminals. Responsive to a command, at least some of the incoming calls intended for radio terminals located in at least one determined area are prevented from being routed to said radio terminals by the radiocommunication network, while the out-going calls from radio terminals located in said at least one determined area keep on being routed by the radiocommunication network.
In this way, it is possible to inhibit some or all the incoming calls in a particular area served by the radiocommunication network, on demand. Thus, the called terminal does not receive any radio signal which could result in the generation of an electrical signal in the terminal, which could be used, in its turn, to activate a function of the terminal, such as the ringing tone, the buzzer, etc. But, the network is still available to make out-going calls.
In a first embodiment of the invention, the incoming calls can be prevented from being routed by a core network of the radiocommunication network, whereas in a second embodiment of the invention, the incoming calls can be prevented from being routed by a radio access network of the radiocommunication network.
Advantageously, a paging message to be broadcasted in a paging area is usually transmitted prior to the routing of an incoming call intended for a radio terminal located in said paging area. In this case, no paging message is transmitted when the paging area is at least part of said at least one determined area.
The invention also proposes a radiocommunication network comprising means for routing incoming calls to radio terminals and means for routing out-going calls from radio terminals. Responsive to a command, the means for routing incoming calls to radio terminals do not route the incoming calls intended for radio terminals located in at least one determined area, while the means for routing out-going calls from radio terminals keep on routing the out-going calls from radio, terminals located in said at least one determined area.
The invention also proposes an equipment of a radiocommunication network comprising means for participating in the routing of incoming calls to radio terminals and out-going calls from radio terminals. Responsive to a command, the means for participating in the routing of incoming calls to radio terminals prevent the incoming calls intended for radio terminals located in at-least one determined area from being routed to said radio terminals, while the means for participating in the routing of out-going calls from radio terminals keep on routing the out-going calls from radio terminals located in said at least one determined area.
The equipment can belong to a core network or to a radio access network of the radiocommunication network.
The invention also proposes an IP multimedia system comprising means for providing radio terminals with services through incoming calls routed via a radiocommunication network, said means for providing radio terminals with services being arranged for preventing from being routed via the radiocommunication network, incoming calls related to services intended for radio terminals located in at least one determined area, responsive to a command.
The invention also proposes an element of an IP multimedia system, comprising means for participating in the provision of radio terminals with services through incoming calls routed via a radiocommunication network, said means being arranged for preventing from being routed via the radiocommunication network, incoming calls related to services intended for radio terminals located in at least one determined area, responsive to a command.
The preferred features of the above aspects which are indicated by the dependent claims may be combined as appropriate, and may be combined with any of the above aspects of the invention, as would be apparent to a person skilled in the art.
The invention is illustrated here in its application to a UMTS (“Universal Mobile Telecommunication System”) network. Of course, it could also apply to any other radiocommunication system, such as GSM (“Global Service for Mobile communications”) for instance.
Such system allows communications with radio terminals 14, called UEs (“User Equipments”), each radio terminal incorporating a SIM (“Subscriber Identity Module”) card identifying its user.
In the example of
It must be noted that, in the present application, a “call” means any type of communication involving a radio terminal. It can thus be a communication of the CS (“Circuit Switched”) type, e.g. a voice call, or a communication of the PS (“Packet Switched”) type, e.g. a data transmission. A call can also designate the transmission of a short message known as SMS (“Short Message Service”) from or to a radio terminal, as well known in the art, a push service, etc.
It must also be noted that, in practice, a call may be related to a subscriber rather than to a terminal, a particular subscriber being able to use different terminals. To simplify the reading of the description, the notion of terminal will be used to designate either the UE itself or the subscriber using the UE in what follows.
An incoming call, i.e. a call intended for a radio terminal served by the radiocommunication system, is preceded by a signalling phase. In the UMTS system, this signalling phase generally comprises the transmission of a paging message. This message aims at informing the radio terminal (or its user) concerned that a call is being received for it, and also at detecting precisely the location of the radio terminal so that the call can be served to it in an appropriate way, via the right Node-B in particular. Of course, other kinds of messages could be used instead or in addition to a paging message during the signalling phase.
This message includes an identifier of the subscriber for which the call is intended. It is detailed particularly in sections 8.15 and 9.1.23 of the technical specification TS 25.413, V3.14.0, “UTRAN lu interface RANAP signalling (Release 1999)”, published in September 2003 by the 3GPP (“3rd Generation Partnership Project”).
The RANAP paging message can include an indication of a paging area in which the UE 14 (or the subscriber using UE 14) is located. This paging area can be a location area LA or a routing area RA as well known in the art (see section 9.2.1.21 of the above mentioned TS 25.413). On reception of the RANAP paging message, the RNC 9 is thus informed of the area in which the UE 14 to be paged is located. In case there is no paging area indication included in the RANAP paging message, the whole RNC 9 area will be used as a paging area, which means that the paging will be broadcasted through all the Node-Bs 10-12 connected to the RNC 9.
Under normal circumstances, after having received the RANAP paging message, the RNC 9 transmits a RRC paging message so that it can be broadcasted through at least some Node-Bs connected to it. In the example illustrated in
The RRC paging message is detailed in sections 8.1.2 and 10.2.20 of the technical specification TS 25.331, V3.16.0, “Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification, (Release 1999)”, published in September 2003 by the 3GPP. It is sent on an appropriate paging occasion over a radio channel called PCCH (“Paging Control Channel”). As shown in
The RRC paging message is thus advantageously broadcasted to the paging area indicated by the RANAP paging message. In order that the radio terminals receiving the RRC paging message can check whether the message was intended for them (or their user), the RRC paging message contains a paging record field identifying the recipient of the message (see section 10.3.3.23 of the above mentioned TS 25.331).
The paging signalling phase as illustrated in
During the call setup, electrical signals can be generated in the called UE, that can be used internally e.g. for making its tone ring or its buzzer vibrate.
Similarly, the signalling used for establishing an out-going call from a radio terminal, although it has not been illustrated in a figure, is well known by one skilled in the art and is also fully described in the relevant UMTS technical specifications.
According to the invention, responsive to a command, the incoming calls intended for radio terminals located in at least one determined area are prevented from being routed to said radio terminals by the radiocommunication network. This can be achieved in several ways and at different levels.
In a first embodiment of the invention, the incoming calls inhibition is performed at the CN level. In this case, the inhibition command is advantageously given to the CN. For instance, MSCs, like the MSC 4 of
Then, when an incoming call is detected in the CN, for instance at the MSC 4, it is checked whether or not the called subscriber is located in the determined area. This can be achieved by querying the VLR associated to the MSC 4 on whether the called subscriber is located in a LA or an RA which is whole or part of the determined area.
When the called subscriber is located in the determined area, the RANAP paging message shown in
Alternately, the RANAP paging message could always be sent and only the following call setup message would be discarded by the CN 1, before being transmitted to the UE 14.
When the called subscriber is not located in the determined area, the RANAP paging message shown in
It should be noted that the incoming calls inhibition can be performed at the CN level in the CS domain as indicated with reference to
In a second embodiment of the invention, the incoming calls inhibition is performed at the RAN level. In this case, the inhibition command is advantageously given to the RNC. For instance, the RNC 9 of
In this embodiment, the RNC 9 receives a RANAP paging message from the CN 1. If the RANAP paging message contains no paging area indication, the RNC 9 can simply discard it and does not transmit any RRC paging message.
If the RANAP paging message received at the RNC 9 contains a paging area indication, such as a LA or a RA, the RNC 9 checks whether this paging area is whole or part of said determined area. If the paging area is whole or part of the determined area, the RNC 9 does not transmit the RRC paging message that usually follows the reception of such RANAP paging message, by contrast with
Thus, the called UE 14 will not be informed of the incoming call to its attention and no signalling will reach the UE 14. Thus, the incoming call will not be established. But, the UE 14 can still make an out-going call which will be routed to the CN 1 via the Node-B 10 and the RNC 9 in a conventional way. Thus, only out-going calls are possible for this UE 14 located inside the determined area.
If the paging area does not correspond to said determined area or is not part of said determined area, the RRC paging message is broadcasted in the paging area in a conventional way as shown in
As indicated above, the incoming calls inhibition in the determined area results from a command, i.e. information given to the relevant part of the radiocommunication network, in order to activate such incoming calls inhibition mode. Such command can advantageously be remotely sent to the relevant part of the CN (e.g. MSCs) or to the relevant RNCs for instance.
In an interesting application of the present invention, the command for inhibiting the incoming calls in a determined area may be given after a first bombing attack has occurred in this area, which can be a quarter, a city or a state for instance. Since no incoming call is routed in the area, responsive to the command, the risk that another bomb is remotely triggered by calling a radio terminal coupled to the bomb is thus limited. Moreover, since the out-going calls keep on being routed normally, the operation of the network is not disturbed too much. In particular, people having radio terminals can still call for help or emergency.
Of course, the incoming calls can be restored once the threat has disappeared. This can be achieved by a new command submitted to the relevant part of the radiocommunication network.
Many other applications are also possible within the framework of the present invention. For example, when a congress or exhibition place is entirely covered by a paging area, it is possible to command the inhibition of the incoming calls in this place, while the out-going calls are performed normally. This can be interesting especially when silence is required in the place. Indeed, ringing tones can thus be avoided in the place, while it is still possible to make out-going calls if necessary.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the filtering of the incoming calls takes account of the type of the incoming calls. It is performed upstream in the network architecture, compared to the above described cases. For instance, only the incoming calls resulting from a high level service unsolicited by radio terminals, e.g. a push service, can be inhibited.
IMS architecture and functions are described in the technical specification TS 23.228, version 5.14.0, Release 5, “Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS); Stage 2”, published in September 2005 by the 3GPP, and in the technical specification TS 24.228, version 5.13.0, Release 5, “Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Signalling flows for the IP multimedia call control based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Session Description Protocol (SDP); Stage 3”, published in June 2005 by the 3GPP.
Such network is arranged for the provision of multimedia services. It can allow a mobile wireless network operator to offer its subscribers multimedia services based on and built upon Internet applications, services and protocols.
As defined in the above mentioned specifications, the IMS network of
The IMS network of
Moreover, a PDF 19 (“Policy Decision Function”) can manage the quality of service for the UE 15 and an HSS (“Home Subscriber Server”) 20 can be used as an extension of the HLR (“Home Location Register”) usually part of the mobile wireless networks, to store subscribers information.
With such IMS network, the UE 15 can be provided with IP services and applications, after being registered to the S-CSCF 21.
So, first of all, the user of the UE 15 is registered to the S-CSCF 21. The IMS registration mechanism is described in section 6.2 of the above mentioned TS 24.228. During the registration phase, the P-CSCF 18 is the first SIP node seen by the UE 15 and it stays in the signalling path until the user of the UE 15 de-registers from IMS.
It should be noted that the REGISTER message used in the IMS registration mechanism, like other IMS SIP messages received by the P-CSCF from the UE, contains an indication of the current user location area and/or cell ID with respect to the UE. This information can be contained in the SIP parameter of the message header called “P-Access-Network-Info”. It advantageously includes a concatenation of the following parameters: MCC (“Mobile Country Code”), MNC (“Mobile Network Code”), LAC (“Location Area Code”) and cell ID.
The cell ID is not only present in the REGISTER message, but also in other SIP messages sent by the UE, e.g. at the very beginning of a SIP session set up, when the session is initiated by the network towards an IMS registered UE.
As shown in
After several non-represented messages, in accordance with the above mentioned TS 24.228, the S-CSCF 21 receives a SIP UPDATE request 27 from the originating endpoint. This UPDATE is then forwarded (messages 28-29) to the UE 15 via the P-CSCF, and the radiocommunication network 16 (not represented in
Once the UPDATE message has been received by the UE 15 and the resource reservation is complete successfully, a session can be established between the calling party and the UE 15 as a terminating endpoint. Such session establishment can be assimilated to an incoming call intended for the UE 15 and routed via the radiocommunication network 16. In this way, the UE 15 can be provided with a particular service or application through an incoming call.
According to the invention, responsive to a command, the UPDATE message can be discarded before it is received by the UE 15. For example, responsive to the command, the S-CSCF 21 can ignore the received UPDATE request 27 and not forward it to the P-CSCF 18 (the message 28 is thus not transmitted). Alternately, responsive to the command, the P-CSCF could ignore the received UPDATE message 28 and not forward it to the UE 15 (the message 29 is thus not transmitted).
Alternately, the message INVITE 26 itself is not forwarded to the UE 15. Still alternately, any other message is not forwarded from the S-CSCF 21 or the P-CSCF 18 to the UE 15, so that the session is never completed with the UE 15.
In this way, the UE 15 is not totally informed of the incoming call intended for it, since the IMS session establishment is stopped before the end. The reception of no signalling message, such as the INVITE message 26 or the UPDATE 29, prevents from triggering an action in the UE 15, e.g. for making its tone ring or its buzzer vibrate.
In order to inhibit the incoming calls usually routed by the IMS elements in a determined area only, the P-CSCF 18 or the S-CSCF 21 can take into account information about the current location of the UE 15, such as a cell ID or a location area, received from the UE 15 in SIP messages. Advantageously, the location information is received at the P-CSCF 18 or at the S-CSCF 21 in a “session progress” SIP message 30 or 31 transmitted by the UE 15 after the reception of the INVITE message 26, as specified in TS 24.228 (where it is identified as “message 183”). Thus, only if the UE 15 is located in said determined area, it will not receive incoming calls from the IMS network, like in the previous examples.
Of course, the UE 15 can keep on making outgoing calls, even for an IP service using the IMS network as shown in
This embodiment has also the advantage that the incoming calls are filtered at a high level, i.e. upstream to the radiocommunication network 16. It is thus possible to prevent incoming calls from being performed from the IMS network, without affecting the operation of the mobile network itself. In particular, other incoming calls, independent from the IMS network, can keep on being routed.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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05292500.5 | Nov 2005 | EP | regional |