The present invention generally relates to radio communication technology, and particularly, to a method for a radio access control device implementing media gateway function, a radio access control device and a radio access system.
In the mobile communication network including Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) network and Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CD 2000) network, the core network of circuit domain adopts an architecture separating bearer from control; Mobile Switching Center (MSC) has been divided into a Mobile Soft-switch device and a Media Gateway (MGW); and 1P bearer network is generally used for a bearer between network entities in the mobile communication network. All IP network has become a trend in the industry.
In the CDMA2000 network, the MSC is divided into a Mobile Switching Center emulation (MSCe) and the MGW; In the WCDMA network, the MSC is divided into an MSC server and the MGW. And in the CDMA2000 network, the network radio access control device is a Base Station Controller (BSC); in the WCDMA network, the network radio access control device is a BSC or Radio Network Controller (RNC).
In the following, the CDMA2000 network is hereinafter described as an example, which is the same as the WCDMA network apart from the different entity names.
In
A procedure of transmitting traffic data in
As shown in the above description, signalling and traffic data of CDMA2000 system are all carried by IP. For the traffic data transmitted by IP between BSC and MGW, and between MGWs, the destination IP of traffic data may be directly designated in BSC and the traffic data may be routed according to the IP, since each entity takes IP as its bearer and the media access method is simple. Therefore, the forwarding function of media gateway is of no particular significance, but increases the switch number of an IP packet and wastes the system resource.
At present, a manufacturer of industry provides architecture for combining MSC with BSC device and setting an IP interface, which is shown in
In addition, combining MSC with BSC device is unable to embody the advantage of separating bearer from control. For example, when bearer is separated from control, an MSCe may manage multiple MGWs, and it is only necessary for upgrading a few site MSCe to add service support; however, it is necessary for upgrading all MSC/BSC combination devices in the case of combining MSC with BSC device, which improves the complexity for maintaining a system and increases the cost for maintaining a system.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for implementing media gateway function, and also provide a radio access control device having the media gateway function, and a radio access system.
The method for implementing media gateway function includes: receiving a first signalling message;
determining to perform a processing of a base station application layer or a processing of a media gateway control application layer according to an SCTP link, wherein the SCTP link is indicated by the first signalling message;
if determine to perform the processing of the media gateway control application layer, routing traffic data to a destination device.
The radio access control device includes: a signalling plane comprising an SCTP link layer; wherein the SCTP link layer is configured for determining to transmit a first signalling message received from an external device to the base station application layer or a media gateway control application layer for processing, according to an SCTP link indicated by the first signalling message;
a media gateway control application layer, configured for receiving the first signalling message sent from the SOW link layer, performing a processing of the media gateway application layer;
a traffic plane, configured for routing traffic data to a destination device upon the processing of the media gateway application layer.
The radio access system includes: a radio access control device;
an MSC serving device connected to the radio access control device;
wherein an SCTP link layer of the radio access control device is configured for determining to transmit a first signalling message received from an external device to a base station application layer or a media gateway control application layer of the radio access control device for processing, according to an SCTP link indicated by the first signalling message; and
the media gateway control application layer of the radio access control device is configured for receiving the first signalling message sent from the SCTP link layer, performing a processing of the media gateway application layer;
a traffic plane of the radio access control device is configured for routing traffic data to a destination device upon the processing of the media gateway application layer.
Embodiments of the invention are hereinafter described in detail with reference to the drawings.
In the embodiments of the present invention, a method for implementing media gateway function, a radio access control device implementing a media gateway function and the radio access system are disclosed. And the radio access control device implements the media gateway function by adding a media gateway control application layer. So the radio access control device routes traffic data to a destination device directly according to the IP address. Since the media gateway device is not required in the system, the exchange number of IP packets is reduced. And since the radio access control device and the MSC serving device are separated, the embodiments of this invention have advantages of separating bearer from control.
Therefore, the MSCe controls the BSC directly; in the case of a mobile user calling another mobile user, a traffic data may be routed from BSC1 to USC2 directly according to an IP address. In the case of a mobile user calling a fixed user, the traffic data may be routed from BSC1 to Media Gateway of the local Gateway MSC or the fixed network. Since the MGW is not required in the local exchange, it is possible to save network element and reduce exchange number of IP packets.
Session Initiated Protocol or SIP for Telephone (SIP/SIP-r) is used to transmit a signalling between MSCes.
The peer protocol stack is applied between the signalling planes (referred to as control plane) of the MSCe and the BSC. The signalling directly transmitted by the MSCe and BSC includes a standard BSSAP application protocol signalling defined by 3GPP2 and a standard ITU-T H.248 signalling for controlling the traffic data interaction. The two kinds of signalling may use same IP address and may be processed by same processor within the BSC.
As can be seen from
During processing of the MSCe at BSSAP application layer, the BSSAP application layer creates a signalling message, i.e. IOS: Paging Request, IOS: Assignment Request etc. The signalling message is transmitted to a BSC; after the signalling message is processed by the Signalling Connection Control Part User Adaptation Layer (SUA), Signalling Connection Control Part (SCCP) layer, or Message Transfer Part3—User Adaptation layer (M3UA), an SCTP link is selected (the destination processing layer of the SCTP link is the BSSAP application layer of BSC) and an IF header is added to the signalling message in the IF layer, and the signalling message may be transmitted to a BSC via the link layer and physical layer, wherein a destination address of the signalling message is an IP address and port of the signalling plane of BSC.
The MSCe calls an Megaco application to add a bearer during call processing, and the Megaco application layer creates a signalling message, i.e. Megaco: ADD[Trunk sendrecv] etc. The signalling message is transmitted to a Media Gateway and processed by the H.248 layer. In this embodiment, the media gateway is combined with the BSC, an SCTP link (the destination processing layer of the selected SCTP link is a preset Megaco application layer of BSC) is selected and an IP header is added to the signalling message in the IP layer. The signalling message may be transmitted to a BSC via a link layer and a physical layer wherein the destination address of the signalling message is the IP address and port of the signalling plane of BSC.
The processing of BSC signalling plane at the BSSAP application layer is also the same as the processing in prior art. the BSSAP application layer creates a signalling message, i.e. IOS: CM-Service Request, IOS: Assignment Complete etc, which will be transmitted to an MSCe; after the signalling message is processed by the SUA (or SCCP/M3UA), an SCTP link (the destination processing layer of the selected SCTP link is the BSSAP application layer of MSCe) is selected, an IP header is added to the signalling message in the IP layer, and the signalling message may be transmitted to an MSCe via the link layer and physical layer, wherein a destination address of the signalling message is an IP address of MSCe.
Since a Megaco application layer is added in the BSC, the media gateway processing function is added to the BSC. The BSC determines whether the signalling message passing through the IP layer from an MSCe is a Megaco message or a BSSAP message according to SCTP links, the signalling message is a preferred example of the first signalling message; if the signalling message is a Megaco message, the BSC sends the Megaco message to the H.248 protocol layer for processing, and glen sends the Megaco message to the Megaco application layer for processing; the media gateway processing in the BSC is same as the processing in the media gateway, for example the media gateway processing of allocating the IP address and port of the service bearer. If the signalling message is a BSSAP message, the BSC sends the BSSAP message to the SUA (or SCCP/M3UA) for processing, and then sends the BSSAP message processed to the BSSAP application layer for further processing.
In this embodiment, the method for determining whether the signaling message is a Megaco message or a BSSAP message includes: the BSC determines, according to the source IP address and port as well as the destination IP address and port of the SCUP link indicated by the signalling message, whether the SCTP link indicated by the signalling message is an SCTP link preset for a base station application layer or an SCTP link preset for a media gateway control application layer; if the SCTP link indicated by the signalling message is an SCTP link preset for a base station application layer, the signalling message is a BSSAP message; if the SCTP link indicated by the signalling message is an SCTP link preset for a media gateway control application layer, the signalling message is an Megaco message.
The Megaco application layer of the BSC may also create a signalling message which is a preferred example of the second signalling message, for example Megaco: REPLY[ ]. The signalling message will be transmitted to the MSCe after the signalling message is processed. After the signalling message is processed by the H.248 layer, an SCTP link is selected, the destination address of the signalling message is the IP address of the MSCe, and an IP header is added to the signalling message in the IP layer, so that the signalling message may be transmitted to the MSCe through the link layer and physical layer, wherein the destination address of the signalling message is the IP address of MSCe.
The Megaco application layer sends a media resource request to the MRFP according to the signalling received from the MSCe. The MRFP allocates media resources according to the media resource request, and returns information of the media resources to the Megaco application layer. The Megaco application layer is connected to the media resource according to the information of the media resources.
The peer protocol stack is used between the signalling plane of the MSCe and the signalling plane of the BSC. In the embodiment of the present invention, the BSSAP application and the Megaco application are combined in the BSC, the BSSAP application and the Megaco application may be processed in a processing board.
The MGW is set in the BSC in this embodiment, traffic data may be routed to the Media Gateway of the destination BSC, the local Gateway MSC or the fixed network according to the IP address in the traffic plane of BSC directly.
As the destination IP address of traffic data is obtained, the signalling plane sends the obtained destination IP address to the traffic plane. The BSC traffic plane has obtained the destination IE address and port to which traffic data to be sent, and the traffic data is received from an MS through a channel at radio side. The destination IP address may be IP address of an MGW of another BSC, other Gateway or fixed network. In the traffic plane, the format of the traffic data may be G.711. The format of the traffic data may be determined during the interaction between the signalling planes. The processing for a data packet of the traffic plane is similar with the processing in media gateway, the data packet of the traffic plane is processed by the RTP layer and the UDP layer, and an IP header is added to the data packet in the IP layer. The data packet is transmitted through a link layer and a physical layer. Destination IP address and port are contained in the IP header.
In this embodiment, the data packet may be sent to the destination entity in the IP bearer network. The destination entity receives the data packet from the corresponding IP address and port, and sends the data packet to the destination MS by a corresponding radio side channel according to the information got by the interaction of the signalling plane. In this embodiment, the exchange number of an IP packet may be reduced.
The processing of transmitting traffic data in this embodiment is hereinafter described as an example:
MS1 within the coverage area of BTS11 communicates with MS2 within the coverage area of BTS22. As traffic data received is processed in the media gateway control application layer, BSC1 obtains the destination IP address of traffic data, i.e. the IP address of BSC2. The BSC1 routes the traffic data to the destination device directly according to the IP address of BSC2 in the traffic plane. The BSC1 receives the traffic data sent by MS1, adds the IP address of the BSC2 in the traffic data, and sends the traffic data added with the P address of the BSC2 to the BSC2. The BSC2 then delivers the traffic data added with the IP address of the BSC2 to the MS2 via the BTS22.
In this embodiment, the BSC of this embodiment includes a signalling plane protocol stack and a traffic plane protocol stack without an MRFP. And an extended H.248 protocol is used in the signalling plane protocol stack to perform a protocol interaction with the MRFP. The traffic plane protocol stack is similar to the traffic plane protocol stack in the embodiment shown in
In this embodiment, the signalling transmission and reception between MSCe and BSC is basically the similar to that of the embodiment shown in
The MSCe sends a signalling message to the MRFP. The signalling message is used to notify the MRFP to prepare corresponding media resource. The signalling message carries relevant session description information of the BSC (SDP-bsc). The SDP-bsc includes IP address and port of the BSC. As the media resource is ready, the returns session description information of the MRFP (SDP-mrfp) to the MSCe. The SDP-mrfp includes IP address and port of media resource. The SDP-mrfp is used for connecting the media resource externally. The MSCe sends the SDP-mrfp to the BSC. As connecting to the corresponding IP address and port of MRFP in the traffic plane, the BSC gets the corresponding media resource service.
The signalling transmission between MSCe and MRFP is the similar to the signalling transmission between MSCe and MGW. As the media resource is needed, the MSCe creates a signalling message in the processing procedure of the application layer. The signalling message is processed in turn by the H.248 layer, the SCTP layer and the IP layer. An IP header is added to the signalling message, and the destination address in the IP header is the IP address of MRFP signalling plane. The MSCe sends the signalling message to the MRFP over an IP bearer network. As receiving the signalling message, the MRFP sends the signalling message to the application layer through the IP layer, the SCTP layer and the H.248 layer in turn. The procedure for the MRFP sending a signalling message to the MSCe is similar to the procedure mentioned above.
In this embodiment, the H.248 signalling should be extended. The extended H.248 signalling includes: the signalling for the MSCe carrying t session description information of the FOP (SDP-mrfp) to the BSC, wherein the SDP-mrfp includes IP address and port of MRFP; and the signalling for the MSCe carrying session description information of the BSC (SDP-bsc) to the MRFP, wherein the SDP-bsc includes IP address and port of BSC.
The application layer of the MRFP signalling plane in this embodiment is mainly used for allocating media resource. The application layer of the MRFP signalling plane communicates with MSCe over the extended H.248 protocol layer.
In this embodiment, the protocol stack of the traffic plane is used for transmitting data with the BSC.
The procedure for sending and receiving traffic data between MRFP and BSC is hereinafter described.
As the participation of the MSCe, the media resource has been prepared in the MRFP, and the relevant information such as IP address and port to be connected has been obtained by the BSC.
For the playing announcement resource, as the data packet is processed in turn by the RTP layer and the UDP layer, and an IP header is added to the data packet in the IP layer, the MRFP sends the data packet to the IP bearer network. And the IP header includes an IP address and port of destination BSC. The data packet may be sent to the destination BSC in the IP bearer network. The destination BSC receives the data packet from the IP address and port, and sends the data packet to the destination MS over a corresponding radio side channel according to information got by the interaction between the signalling plane and MSCe. The MS receives the playing announcement.
For the conference call resource, as the data packet is processed in turn by the RTP layer and the UDP layer, and an IP header is added to the data packet in the IP layer, the BSC sends the data packet to a destination MRFP. The data packet is transmitted to the MRFP over the IP bearer network, wherein the if, header includes the IP address and port of destination MRFP. The destination MRFP receives the data packet from the IP address and port. The data packet is transmitted to the corresponding resource processor for audio mixing processing according to the information got by the interaction between the signalling plane and MSCe. The procedure for an MRFP sending a data packet to a BSC is similar as the procedure mentioned above.
The above embodiments are about the CDMA2000 system, which is also adapted to the WCDMA system. In the CDMA2000 system, the radio access control device is a BSC, wherein the radio access control device in WCDMA system is a BSC or an RNC. The MSC serving device in CMA2000 system is an MSCe, wherein the MSC serving device in WCDMA system is an MSC server.
In the embodiments of the present invention, as a media gateway device is not required in the system, the exchange number of an IP packet is reduced. As a configuration for separating a radio access control device from an MSC serving device, the embodiments of the present invention also keep the advantage for separating bearer from control.
The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided to enable those skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art and generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed in the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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200510051044.8 | Feb 2005 | CN | national |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/CN2006/000281 | Feb 2006 | US |
Child | 11844481 | Aug 2007 | US |