MXPA99007818A - Wireless communication service management - Google Patents

Abstract

Network resources associated with a wireless communication network are assigned to a wireless communication device in accordance with its device type and required service type. A profile is associted with each wireless communication device, and includes a travelling class mark field which identifies the device type of the wireless communication device, and a service class mark field which identifies the required service for the wireless communication device. Different wireless communication devices are accomodated via different profiles. The profiles are permanently stored at a service control point which is accessible to a plurality of mobile service centers.

Description

ADMINISTRATION OF WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES FIELD OF THE INVENTION: The present invention relates to wireless communications and more specifically is directed to managing the resources of a wireless communication network, to efficiently allow different types of wireless communication devices and associated services. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Figure 1 shows a conventional wireless communications service configuration. The mobile service center (MSC = Mobile Service Center) 100 communicates through the base stations 120, 122, 124 with a community of 150 cordless telephones. The MSC 100 also communicates with the public switched telephone network (PSTN = Public S itched Telephone Network 70, so that cordless telephones 150 can direct calls to and receive calls from conventional physical line telephones (not shown). MSC 100 includes processor 102, service area location register (HLR = Home Location Register) 104, visitor location register (VLR = Visitor Location Register) 106, PSTN interface 108, base station communications interface 110 and the network interface 112. HLR 104 and VLR 106 comprise storage devices and / or computer memory. The MSC 100 also includes additional computer memory REF .: 30951 and / or storage devices for use by the processor 102, but is not illustrated. HLR 104 is adapted to store profiles for permanently associated wireless telephones 150. This is. when a user contracts wireless communications service with a service provider, the service provider creates a data record in the MSC 100 for the user, referred to as a profile and stored in HLR 104, which contains billing information and descriptive information for the user. wireless communications device and the wireless communications service for the wireless communications device. When the user uses the wireless communication service in the area served by the MSC 100, the profile of the HLR 104 is accessed. When a user of a wireless telephone with a profile not stored in HLR 104 referred to as a visiting user, attempts to use the wireless communication service of the MSC 100, the MSC creates a data record in VLR 106 for the user. The MSC 100 has a list of area codes and exchanges that identify the mobile service area switch number for a visitor who has a particular area code and central, uses this list to obtain the service area mobile switch number for the visiting user and then converts the mobile service area switch number to an HLR address associated with the visiting user. By the communication network 180 coupled with the network interface 112, the MSC 100 requests the profile for the visiting user telephone of the associated HLR. It is illustrated that the MSC 190 represents a plurality of MSCs that are accessible to the MSC 100 through the communications network 180, which for example can be the AT & SS7 switching network. The profile for the visiting user is stored in VLR 106, while the requestor is in the area served by MSC 100. When the visiting user leaves the area served by MSC 100, MSC 100 removes the VLR profile 106. Data records for profiles and fixed size to accommodate users who have contracted a variety of enhanced communication features, such as call forwarding, call classification, multi-party calling, caller ID, waiting for message, blocking priority and so on.

Since the fixed size is a large number of octets, such as one thousand octets per profile, MSC 100 is limited in the number of wireless telephones it can service with the requirements of profile memory. In general, users are assigned similar amounts of wireless communications network resources that become more inefficient as the variety of available services increases. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, the network resources associated with a wireless communications network are administered when evaluating, for a wireless communications device, a type of device and a required service; and allocating the network resources to the wireless communications device according to the type of the device and the service required. A profile is associated with the wireless communications device. The profile includes a travel class marking field that identifies the device type of the wireless communication device and a service class marking field that identifies the service required for the wireless communication device. Also in accordance with the present invention, a method and a service control point for managing resources in a wireless communication network are provided. A profile for a wireless communication device is stored in a service control point and the profile of the wireless communication device is provided in response to a profile request from a mobile service center.

In addition, according to the present invention, a method and a mobile service center (MSC) for obtaining information regarding a wireless communications device and wireless communications service for the wireless communications device are provided. The MSC determines that the wireless communications device is in the area served by the MSC and the MSC request through a communication network, a profile for the wireless communications device from a service control point that permanently stores the profile. In the present invention, the MSC does not have wireless communication devices permanently associated. The invention is not intended to be summarized here completely. On the contrary, additional features, aspects and advantages of the invention are set forth in or apparent from the following description and drawings, wherein similar elements in different drawings are indicated by the same reference number. LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 is a block diagram of a conventional wireless communications service configuration, - Figure 2 is a block diagram of a configuration of the wireless communication service where the technique of the present invention can be applied; and Figures 3A-3D are diagrams depicting profiles according to the technique of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED MODALITIES According to the present technique of the invention, wireless communications network resources are assigned to wireless communication devices based on the type of device and type of services required. By tailoring the allocation of resources in this way, resources are used more efficiently and the wireless communications network can more easily support a large number of devices.

As used herein, and in the claims, "network resources" refers to resources other than equipment in the client's facilities, for example voice / data channels, equipment memory of non-customer installations, width of radio frequency band and so on. Figure 2 shows a wireless communications service configuration in which the technique of the present invention can be applied. MSC 200 is similar to MSC 100, except that MSC 200 lacks an HLR, and consequently does not have substantial subscriber profiles permanently associated. Consequently, the storage capacity of MSC 200 does not limit the number of permanently associated devices. Also, MSC 200 does not communicate directly with other MSCs such as MSC 100 of Figure 1. Processor 202 of Figure 2 is generally similar to processor 102 of Figure 1, but is operative in accordance with the present technique of the invention . The network 280 of Figure 2 is generally similar to the network 180 of Figure 1, but has different connections. Figure 2 also shows service control points (SCPs) 290, 490, 590. Each of the SCPs 290, 490, 590 includes physical equipment such as communication interface 292, processor 294 and registration Service Area Location (HLR) 296. Each of the SCPs 290, 490, 590 are separated from MSC 200. As explained further below, each of the SCPs 290, 490, 590 is adapted to permanently store profiles. for different respective types of wireless communication devices. A wireless communications device can be permanently associated with MSC 200 through a profile stored in one of the SCPs 290, 490, 590. In the present embodiment, SCP 290 hosts profiles for wireless voice and data devices. SCP 490 hosts profiles for wireless data-only devices and SCP 590 hosts profiles for wireless messaging-only devices, such as radio locators. It will be appreciated that, while Figure 2 shows SCPs 290, 490, 590, physically separated, in other embodiments, SCPs 290, 490, 590 can be co-localized in a processor, with data for respective types of profiles logically stored together. Figure 2 additionally shows intact wireless service telephone 250 which may have one or more enhanced communication features such as call forwarding and associated call classification, the basic service wireless telephone 252 does not have associated enhanced communication features, i.e. simple old telephone service (POTS = Plain Old Telephone Service) associated, wireless data telephone 254 which can for example be a personal computer or a telemetry device (for example usage meter) and radio locator 256. It is considered that the user The basic service 252 cordless telephone has contracted a basic grade of service, possibly including a communications channel with a voice quality less than the physical line, as would be appropriate for a car phone used only in emergencies. Figure 2 further shows the message center 500 for providing respective mailboxes for wireless communication devices having profiles stored in SCPs 290, 490, 590 and subscribing to a service employing a mailbox. The most common type of mailbox is a voice mailbox, where callers leave voice signals for subsequent playback by the mailbox owner. However, according to TCM and SCM of the device associated with the mailbox, the message center 500 adapts the mailbox to store text and video in addition to or instead of voice. When a device attempts to use a wireless communications service that is provided by MSC 200, MSC 200 prepares a request for the device profile and sends it to the network 280 for transmission. When SCPs 290, 490, 590 are co-located, the request is sent to that location. When SCPs 290, 490, 590 are in separate sites, several scenarios are contemplated. In one scenario, the wireless communications device stores within itself the device type identification being extended to allow the MSC 200 SCPs 290, 490, 590 to send the profile request. When the device attempts to register with MSC 200, the device provides its identification information to MSC 200. In another scenario, there is an SCP record (not shown) coupled with the network 280. The profile request is first sent to the registration SCP, which serves to search the SCP of attention for the wireless communication device of the profile request. The registration SCP then sends the profile request to the service SCP using network 280. The service SCP sends the requested profile to the MSC 200 together with the information identifying it as the service SCP. Since the MSC 200 requests profiles for all devices, it is convenient to reduce the size of a profile to minimize the use of the network 280. Some improved communication features, such as "wireless office" (four-digit dialing from anywhere in the country), protection against fraud (marked in two stages including secured and released communications service) waiting for messages and / or authentication (a communications device that requests service must respond automatically with a predetermined sequence of digits) may require multiple interactions between the MSC 200 and the service SCP, further motivating the reduction in the length of data that must be exchanged between them.

Since each of the SCPs 290, 490, 590 can have millions of permanently associated profiles, it is convenient to reduce the size of a profile to minimize the amount of storage required per user. According to the technique of the present invention, different amounts of network resources are assigned to different wireless communications devices according to the descriptive information in their respective profiles, resulting in more efficient use of communications and storage facilities than if the resources were allocated evenly among the devices. Each profile includes a brand of class of trip (TCM = Traveling Class Mark) that identifies the type of profile and the type of device and a mark of class of service (SCM = Service Class Mark) that identify the types of services associated with the wireless communications device. Figures 3A-3D show profiles 300, 325, 350, 375 for integral 250 service wireless telephone, basic service wireless telephone 252, wireless data telephone 254, and 256 paging radio, respectively. Fields common to the profiles of Figures 3A-3D are a device address field, such as a mobile identification number (MIN) field for storing the ten-digit telephone number associated with a device. wireless communications, an electronic serial number field (ESN = Electronic Serial Number) for storing the unique ESN to the wireless communication device, a location field for storing the present location of the wireless communication device, a TCM field for identifying the type of device (eg voice, data, video), a device characteristics field, an SCM field, and a billing information field. The device address field can be an Internet protocol address (IP = Internet Protocol) field instead of a MIN field. The device characteristics field represents one of a plurality of predetermined sets of capabilities for a device type as specified in the TCM field, such as only receiving (for example radio locator), only transmits (a telemetry device) or transmits / receives (for example, a modem or voice or video telephone), a message of maximum size to have and so on. Messaging devices such as paging radios may employ short message services (SMS = Short Message Service), as defined for example in IS 136. The specification for IS 136 Revision A protocol, approved for publication in February 1996, is available from the Telecommunications Industry Association, 2500 Ilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia 22201. In some embodiments, the device characteristics field is part of the TCM field. The SCM field determines which of several types of services are associated with the wireless communications device. For example, the SCM field can specify whether the communications service is switched to a circuit, and at what data rate; if the service is switched in packets and in what Internet protocol (IP) address; the type of voice quality, such as full speed voice (8 kbps), basic speed voice (4 kbps), or high quality voice speed (16 kbps); the type of quality of service, such as a bit error rate (BER = Bit Error Rate) of 10"3 or 10" 6; or if the type of service is wireless multimedia. Multimedia refers to a message that includes one or more of voice information, data and video. Taking the set, the TCM field and the SCM field determines the profile size. In some modalities, the TCM field and the SCM field are combined in one field. In general, the voice service that requires real-time transmission of its signals is considered, whether the data service is considered capable of tolerating delay of a predetermined amount and transmission of its signals. As seen in Figure 3C, the profile 350 including TCM field 358 specifying "data" also includes the polling frequency field 364 to represent a polling frequency corresponding to the predetermined amount of tolerable delay for communication to and from the wireless data telephone 254. A frequency of Fixed probes allow the device that is not in use otherwise to be in severely reduced energy use or "full rest" mode between probes. In contrast, a device that can be probed at any time can at most be in a somewhat reduced energy use or "sleep" mode since you should always be alert to probe them. In addition, a device that can tolerate longer delays can be probed at longer intervals than a device that requires less delayed service, corresponding to lower energy usage. The profile 300 associated with the integro service wireless telephone 250 is seen to include improved communication feature fields 314, 316 and 318, to represent enhanced communications feature information, such as a selected dispatch telephone number for a subscriber feature. call forwarding, voice messaging, three-way conference activation and so on. The profile 325 associated with the basic service wireless telephone 252 is lacking in improved communication characteristics fields, and thus is shorter than the profile 300, corresponding to the use of communications resources and reduced storage for basic wireless service. In general, the basic wireless service is POTS, and it can be in one of several speeds such as 4, 8 and 16 kbps. The profile 350 associated with the wireless data telephone 254 is seen to include the class of service 362 having a "low" value corresponding to the delay tolerance of wireless data telephones 254. In particular, the "low" class of service "indicates that the communication for the wireless data telephone 254 may be delayed. In contrast, the communication for voice telephones 250, 252 can not be delayed. The profile 350 also includes improved communication feature fields 368, 368, 370, 372 to represent information of enhanced communication characteristics, such as whether a particular service is switched in service or switched packets, the speed and service priority level. and so on.

The profile 375 associated with the paging radio 256 is short. The directional field 390 of the profile 375 indicates whether the communication is one way, i.e. the locator radio 256 is a single-reception, or two-way device. For a one-way device, feature field 392 indicates whether the communication is numeric alone or can be numeric alpha. For a two-way device, the feature field 392 indicates for example whether the message of the locator radio 256 is of fixed or variable length. The communications service for the paging radio 256 is considered to provide a fixed billing rate or billing interval instead of usage-based billing. Accordingly, the billing field 394 of profile 375 is illustrated in accordance with billing information per required call that is not required to be maintained during the billing interval. MSC 200 allocates wireless communications network resources to assigned wireless communications devices based on the type of device and the type of service required, as specified in the device profile, in particular, the class of travel brand. For example, when the device is a paging radio 256, MSC 200 does not assign a voice or voice mail channel to the device. As another example, if a service for a device is switched to a circuit, then MSC 200 assigns a voice channel to the device, whereas if a service for a device is switched to a packet, MSC 200 does not assign a permanent voice channel to the device. . As a further example, if a service for a device is multimedia, then MSC 200 assigns multiple voice channels sufficient to provide a video channel to the device. Other portions of the wireless communications network also allocate resources to a device based on its type and service requirements. For example, message center 500 determines how to store a message and how to communicate with a device that retrieves a stored message based on the profile of the device. In particular, when the message center 500 provides voice mailboxes, the speech quality rate (4, 8 or 16 kbps) not only determines the speed of providing messages to and from storage, but it can also determine the amount of compression applied before to store a voice message. Assigning network resources based on the profile for the device is also an aid to fraud prevention. If a locator radio number is stolen, the amount of network resources that can be used improperly is inherently limited. For example, one-way paging can not direct telephone calls, such that a stolen paging radio number can not be used to direct telephone calls other than to receive pager radio messages. Although an illustrative embodiment of the present invention and various modifications thereof have been described in detail, with reference to the accompanying drawings it will be understood that the invention is not limited to this precise embodiment and the described modifications and that various changes and additional modifications they can be effected by a person skilled in the art, without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention, as defined in the appended claims. It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention, is that which is clear from the present description of the invention.

Claims (21)

1. CLAIMS Having described the invention as above, the content of the following claims is claimed as property: 1. - A method for managing network resources associated with a wireless communication network, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: evaluating, for a device wireless communications, a type of device and a required service; and assign network resources to a wireless communications device according to the type of device and the service required.
2. 2. - The method according to claim 1, characterized in that a profile is associated with the wireless communication device and the profile includes a travel class marking field that identifies the type of wireless communication device.
3. 3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the profile includes a service class marking field that identifies the service required for the wireless communication device.
4. 4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the step of assigning the network resources includes supplying a message stored in a mailbox, at a speed that depends on the service required.
5. 5. - A method for managing associated network resources in a wireless communication network, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: storing a profile for a wireless communication device at a service control point; and providing the profile for the wireless communications device in response to a profile request from a mobile service center.
6. 6. - The method according to claim 5, wherein the wireless communications device is one of a plurality of types of wireless communications devices, and the service control point is configured such that profiles for the same type of the wireless communications device are stored together.
7. 7. - The method according to claim 5, characterized in that the wireless communication device is one of a plurality of types of wireless communication devices, and the profile is one of a plurality of types of profiles, the type of profile corresponds to the type of wireless communications device.
8. 8. - The method according to claim 7, characterized in that the profile includes a class tag of travel that identifies the type of wireless communications device.
9. 9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that the travel class mark indicates whether the wireless communication device is a data device, a voice device or a multimedia device.
10. 10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that it further comprises the step of storing a polling frequency in the profile data record, when the class mark of travel indicates that the wireless communication device is a device of data.
11. 11. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that it also comprises the step of storing billing information in the profile data record, the length of the billing information depends on the value of the travel class mark.
12. 12. - The method according to claim 7, characterized in that the profile includes a class of service mark that identifies the type of service available to the wireless communications device.
13. 13. - A service control point for managing resources in a wireless communication network characterized in that it comprises: a storage for a profile of a wireless communication device at a service control point; and an interface for providing the profile of a wireless communication device in response to a profile request from a mobile service center.
14. 14. - The service control point according to claim 13, characterized in that the wireless communication device is one of a plurality of types of wireless communication devices, and the storage is configured such that profiles for the same type of wireless communication device are stored together.
15. 15. The service control point according to claim 13, characterized in that the wireless communication device is one of a plurality of types of wireless communication devices, and the profile is one of a plurality of types of profiles, the Profile type corresponds to the type of wireless communications device.
16. 16. - The service control point according to claim 15, characterized in that the profile includes a class mark of travel that identifies the type of. wireless communications device.
17. 17. The service control point according to claim 15, characterized in that the profile includes a class of service mark that identifies the type of service available to the wireless communications device.
18. 18. Method for a mobile service center (MSC) to obtain information regarding a wireless communication device and a wireless communication service for the wireless communication device, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: determining that the wireless communications device is in the area served by the MSC and request through a communications network, a profile for the wireless communications device from the service control point that permanently stores the profile, where the MSC lacks profiles for associated wireless communications devices permanently.
19. 19. The method according to claim 18, characterized in that there are a plurality of service control points and further comprises the step of determining from which the service control points should be requested the profile.
20. 20. - A mobile service center (MSC) for use in a wireless communication network, characterized in that it comprises: an interface for requesting a profile for a wireless communications device from a service control point; and a location register for temporarily storing profiles received from the service control point, where the MSC lacks profiles for permanently associated wireless communications devices, and the MSC lacks a storage to permanently host profiles.
21. 21. The MSC of claim 20, characterized in that the wireless communication network includes a plurality of service control points and further comprises a processor to determine from which of the service control points the profile should be requested.