Patent Application
20080043697
Further embodiments, details, advantages and modifications of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments which is to be taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The embodiments of the present invention described below provides an apparatus including a streaming quality optimization network element and method which enables a network operator to define that a Maximum Bitrate (MBR) received from a Home Location Register (HLR) be used in Quality of Service (QoS) negotiation instead of the MBR requested by a mobile station.
Network communication providers attempt to allocate resources to maximize efficiency. For example, in Universal Mobile Communication System (UMTS) networks, there is an effort to allocate only the appropriate bandwidth for any particular communication session. The appropriateness of a particular bandwidth allocation is determined based on a QoS level subscribed for by a communication service subscriber and the needs of a particular communications application. For instance, e-mail and messaging traffic may need a lower QoS (i.e., bitrate) than voice or video communication sessions. Additionally, in order to conserve network resources so that the resources can be allocated to subscribers who have paid for, or are willing to pay for high bandwidth, it is important that subscribers that do not need, or are unwilling to pay for broadband communication are not allocated network resources beyond those that are necessary to provide the communication services that are required or subscribed for. Part of the process of allocating appropriate resources is a negotiation between network components to establish an agreement about communication attributes or parameters associated with a particular communication session.
In UMTS networks, for instance, one of those attributes or parameters is a Maximum Bitrate (MBR). In one embodiment, there may be a first MBR associated with an uplink (i.e., from a mobile station to a mobile communications network) and a second MBR associated with a downlink (from the mobile communications network to the mobile station). MBR attributes define a data rate upper limit associated with a QoS level subscribed for by a subscriber. Guaranteed Bitrates (GBR) may define lower limits for the Quality of Service level. GBR may be used to facilitate admission control based on available resources, and for resource allocation within UMTS.
However, QoS negotiations are not as efficient as they could be. In some instances, when a mobile station or an application running on a mobile station, requests a particular MBR, that request is simply granted or accommodated. Streaming servers are usually not controllable by a network operator and are, therefore, unaware of the negotiated QoS by a network. The network performs the QoS negotiation according to the mobile station MBR requested values. If the mobile station requests too low of an MBR, the streaming service provided by the streaming server may be less than optimal. The streaming server is not authorized to intervene. As illustrated in
To resolve such poor data transmission, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus and a method allowing a network operator to influence the policing done in a network. The apparatus and method, to be described with reference to
Various user equipment such as computers (fixed or portable), mobile telephones, and personal data assistants or organizers are known to those skilled in the art which may be used to access the Internet to obtain services. Mobile stations are one example of user equipment that may communicate via a wireless interface with another device, such as a base station of a mobile telecommunication network or any other station.
The term “service” used above and hereinafter will be understood to broadly cover any service, which a subscriber may desire, require or be provided with. The term also may be understood to cover the provision of complimentary services. In particular, but not exclusively, the term “service” may be understood to include Internet Protocol multimedia IM services, conferencing, telephony, gaming, rich call, presence, e-commerce, and messaging.
As illustrated in
Each BS 12 is further arranged such that it is capable of receiving and transmitting to MS 10 within a predefined area 16. These areas interlock and can partially overlap to create a patchwork of mobile station coverage. The RNC/BSC 14 can be linked to one or more BSs 12.
The RNC/BSC 14 is linked to a core network 20. The core network 20 includes one or more serving nodes that can provide communication services to a connected mobile station, for example a mobile switching centre (MSC) 22 and a SGSN 26. These units are connected to the RNC/BSC 14. The core network 20 may be also connected to other telecommunications networks such as a fixed line network, other mobile networks (e.g. another core network) or packet data networks such as the Internet or proprietary networks to allow onward connection of communications outside the network. The core network 20 may also include other units such as an HLR 24 and a visitor location register (VLR) 28 which help to control access to the network. The HLR 24 stores the subscription details of mobile station subscribers. The VLR 28 stores information on mobile stations that are currently attached to the core network 20, but which are not subscribed to that network. Such mobile stations may be referred to as roaming subscribers or visiting subscribers. The core network 20 may also include one or more charging gateway functionality entities and a billing system (not shown) for performing billing operations.
In the core network 20, each serving node such as the MSC 22 or SGSN 26 may provide a set of services to the mobile station. For example, the MSC 22 can provide circuit switched (CS) communications, for example for speech, fax or non-transparent data services, and therefore has a link to other entities in the circuit switched domain such as other CS mobile networks such as GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) and CS fixed wire networks such as conventional voice telephony networks. The SGSN 26, in turn, can provide packet switched (PS) communications, for instance, for Internet Protocol (IP) data transmission, and therefore has a link to other entities in the packet switched domain such as GPRS-equipped GSM networks and the Internet. The packet switched services may include traditional data services such as file transfer, e-mail and world-wide web (WWW) browsing, and derived data services such as voice-over-IP (e.g., by means of the H.323 protocol).
A Gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) 30 functions as a gateway between the core network elements and external networks the subscriber wishes to connect to. The external networks may include, for example, a packet switched network such as a corporate intranet or the Internet, or a separate core network belonging to another network provider. A streaming server 40 performs the functional of providing movies, audio or other playback of information on demand from a packet data network.
The division of functions between serving nodes may be specified by a system specification and may be tied to the assumed network architecture. For example there may be other nodes than the MSC 22 or the SGSN 26 providing overlapping or additional functions.
During operation, the MS 10 would send a packet data protocol (PDP) context request message to the SGSN 26. The message includes, among other parameters, the QoS requested by the MS 10. A QoS information element (QoS IE) includes among other parameters the MBR for both UL and DL direction, in accordance with 3GPP TS 24.008 v 6.7.0, January 2005, and in accordance with 3GPP TS 23.060 v 6.11.0, December 2005. Thus, the requested QoS would include, among other parameters, the MBR also being requested by the MS 10. The MS 10 may request different values for the MBR according to each traffic class.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, in an override feature, the network operator may be able to define in the SGSN 26, for instance, through an operation and management interface (not shown), whether the MBR from the HLR 24 should be used for QoS negotiations or whether the MBR requested by the MS 10 should be used QoS negotiations based on specific rules or conditions. Such definition may be done numerically, as an activation/deactivation set-up, or using a Boolean value. Thus, the SGSN 26 could be configured to include a determining unit 32 to determine whether an override feature is activated by an operator, to use the MBR from the HLR 24 to perform a QoS negotiation with a network if the override feature is activated, and to use the MBR from the MS 10 to perform the QoS negotiation with the network if the override feature is deactivated. A receiving unit 34 in the SGSN 26 would receive the QoS negotiated with the network.
Thus, the network operator may override, based on specific rules or conditions, the MBR requested by the MS 10 and define the MBR to be used for QoS negotiations for each traffic class, such as interactive, streaming, and conversational. Such rules or conditions that may be implemented for the network operator to override the MBR requested by the MS 10 include: the MBR is to be overridden only for defined International Mobile Equipment Identifications (IMEIs), International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), or Access Point Names (APNs); the MBR is to be overridden when the MBR requested by the MS 10 is below the operations and maintenance defined value; the MBR is to be overridden to increase the MBR requested by the MS 10 by an operations and maintenance predefined multiplier; or the MBR is to be overridden only for specific or defined services. These services could include using the MBR of an Internet Service Node (ISN) so as to allow the MBR of the ISN to upgrade QoS over the MBR requested by the MS 10 if the service requires it.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention,
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the network operator may define the override feature either during system initialization or at any time during packet transmission, for instance, when it is determined that the streaming service is less than optimal. In addition, if the MBR requested by the MS 10 is to be ignored, the network operator may define in the SGSN 26 the MBR to be used as some configured minimum value; as some configured minimum value defined for IMEI, IMSI, or APN; or increase the MBR requested by the mobile station by a predefined multiplier.
Referring to
However, if it is determined at step 120 that the override feature is activated, at step 150, the process uses the MBR from the HLR 24. At step 160, the QoS negotiation begins with the core network 20 or the other network using the MBR from the HLR 24. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the SGSN 26 may send the negotiated QoS to the core network 20 where the QoS may still be changed. The process would then proceed to step 170. At step 170, the process receives the negotiated QoS from the core network 20.
One of the many advantages of the present invention is because millions of mobile stations that request too low MBR, it is beneficial for a more effective and efficient streaming services to allow a network operator to define to the SGSN that the MBR received from the HLR is to be used in QoS negotiations instead of the MBR requested by the mobile station. Mobile stations may receive larger bursts of data than requested or than negotiated MBR.
It is to be understood that in the embodiment of the present invention, the operations are performed in the sequence and manner as shown although the order of some operations and the like may be changed without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It is also to be understood that the described procedures may be applied equally well to Uplink (UL) and Downlink (DL) MBR values or to Guaranteed Bitrates (GBR).
With respect to the present invention, network devices may be any device that utilizes network data, and can include switches, routers, bridges, gateways or servers. In addition, while the terms packet or data have been used in the description of the present invention, the invention has import to many types of network data. For purposes of this invention, the term packet or data includes cell, frame, datagram, bridge protocol data unit packet, packet data and any equivalents thereof.
The many features and advantages of the invention are apparent from the detailed specification and, thus, it is intended by the appended claims to cover all such features and advantages of the invention which fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation illustrated and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.
