CN1315356C - Method for accessing mobile virtual operator per-to-per network - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to mobile communication and discloses a method for accessing a mobile virtual operation businessman peer-to-peer network, by which a user can access each peer-to-peer PLMN corresponding to a mobile virtual network operation businessman with which the user signs a contract in the same priority rating. In the method for accessing a mobile virtual operation businessman peer-to-peer network, peer-to-peer PLMN information corresponding to a mobile virtual network which relates to the mobile network is collocated on an SGSN of a mobile network in advance; in the process of attachment of the signed user of the relative mobile virtual network, the peer-to-peer PLMN information is transferred to user equipment by attached accepted information and is stored by the user equipment. When the user equipment attaches to the network for the next time, a mobile network is selected to try attaching to in a random sequence according to the stored peer-to-peer PLMN information of the mobile virtual network.

Description

Method for accessing mobile virtual operator peer-to-peer network

technical field

The present invention relates to mobile communications, in particular to peer-to-peer public land mobile networks (GPRS) or Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) communication systems Public Lands Mobile Network, referred to as "PLMN") access technology.

Background technique

The development of the world's telecommunication industry has entered an era where mobile voice services surpass ordinary telephone services, and data services surpass voice services. GPRS technology and even WCDMA technology developed on its basis are representatives of this trend. At present, WCDMA/GPRS has been widely used at home and abroad, and its network architecture mainly includes two parts: wireless network and core network. It also includes terminal equipment (Terminal Equipment, referred to as "TE"), mobile terminal (Mobile Terminal, referred to as "MT"), general packet radio service service support node (Serving GPRS Support Node, referred to as "SGSN"), general packet radio service gateway Support Node (GPRS Gateway Support Node, referred to as "GGSN"), Mobile Switching Center (Mobile Switching Center, referred to as "MSC"), Gateway Mobile Services Switching Center (Gateway Mobileservices Switching Center, referred to as "GMSC"), Home Location Register (Home Location Register) , referred to as "HLR") and other functional entities.

It should be noted that the biggest difference between WCDMA and GPRS in terms of structure is in the base station. WCDMA uses a new Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network, referred to as "UTRAN"), while GPRS uses It is the base station subsystem (Base Station Subsystem, referred to as "BSS").

Judging from the current situation of WCDMA construction in various countries, due to various reasons such as market strategies, regulatory policies, business development, and capital turnover, not every operator has independently established an independent and complete WCDMA network. Such a situation: that is, multiple operators use the same core network, and small operators rely on large operators to develop special services and jointly develop the third generation mobile communication (3rd Generation, referred to as "3G") market.

From a technical point of view, it is feasible for small operators to choose not to build SGSN for the time being, but to share SGSNs of other operators. This requirement is especially important when there are fewer services in the packet domain than in the circuit domain.

Under this trend, a mobile virtual network operator (Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) for short) that is different from a traditional mobile network operator (Mobile Network Operator (MNO) for short) has emerged.

As shown in Figure 1. Users of the MVNO 11 and the MVNO 12 access their respective networks through the wireless access network 100 of the MNO 10 and the GPRS service support node 101 . The networks of the three operators jointly own the resources of the entire wireless access network 100 and part of the resources of the core network, which is mainly reflected in sharing the GPRS service support node 101 . However, the MNO and the MVNO each have their own part of the core network. In Figure 1, the mobile virtual network operator 11 has core network resources such as home location register 110, general packet radio The operator 12 also has core network resources such as a home location register 120 , a GPRS gateway support node 121 , and a service control point 122 .

It should be noted that the core network resources owned by the MNO alone are not shown in Figure 1. In fact, the core network resources owned by the MNO are only much more than those of the MVNO. The HLR/GGSN owned by each allows operators to Patterns design businesses for users.

The coexistence of MNO and MVNO makes the interconnection agreement often signed between various operators in many countries, and the network becomes complicated. In order to ensure that the operators' users can access their respective networks, it is necessary to perform special processing on the MVNO users in the MNO's network. The following will be described in conjunction with FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, the mobile network operator 20 and the mobile network operator 21 belong to the MNO and have their own wireless access network and core network, and the mobile virtual network operator 22 and the mobile virtual network operator 23 1. The mobile virtual network operator 24 belongs to other small operators, and signs agreements with the mobile network operator 20 and the mobile network operator 21 respectively to share their networks and become an MVNO. It is stipulated in the agreement that MVNO 22 shares the networks of MNO 20 and MNO 21, and the access priority of these two networks is the same, that is, users of MVNO 22 can either The network access through the mobile network operator 20 may also be accessed through the network of the mobile network operator 21 . As for MVNO 23 and MVNO 24, they only sign contracts with MNO 21, and their users can only access through the network of MNO 21. According to the agreement, in the networks of the mobile network operator 20 and the mobile network operator 21, users of the mobile virtual network operator 22 need to be specially treated to ensure that the access levels of the users in the two networks are consistent. It should be noted that the role of the access level here is to give priority to which network to access when the two networks overlap. If the user has the same access level in the two networks, the user will randomly Choose one to ensure fair use of the MNO network.

In the prior art solution, when a user is in an overlapping area of multiple networks with the same priority, the signaling process for ensuring peer-to-peer access to these networks is shown in FIG. 3 . It is realized mainly by a series of signaling procedures between the user equipment 30 such as a mobile phone and the GPRS service support node 31 .

First, in step 301, the user equipment 30 initiates an attach request to the GPRS service support node 31. The purpose of attaching is to attach an International Mobile Station Identify ("IMSI") to a specific service , so as to establish a mobile management scenario and perform data transmission.

Next, in step 302, it is the authentication process between the GPRS service support node 31 and the user equipment 30. This step is actually a summary of repeated signaling transfers between the two to realize user verification, Authentication and encryption.

Finally, in step 303, the GPRS service support node 31 returns the final attach acceptance message to the user equipment 30, and this message carries one or more Peer-to-Peer Network identifiers (Equivalent Public Lands Mobile Network, "Equivalent PLMN" for short) ”), indicating that the user holding the user equipment 30 can access the network with the same priority. Then, when users are in multiple network overlapping areas, they can randomly select the network to access. From the perspective of long-term statistics, users have equal opportunities to access all networks with the same priority.

In practical application, the above solution has the following problems: the technology does not explain how MVNO users access the peer-to-peer network with the same priority level, and does not deal with specific situations of different MVNOs.

The main reason for this situation is that in the process of formulating the relevant standards of GPRS/WCDMA, only the access situation of users in different subnet overlapping areas in the large network under the jurisdiction of the same MNO is considered to ensure that peer-to-peer Access these subnets with the same priority. However, there is no corresponding provision for MVNO users to access peer-to-peer when they are in the same priority subnet overlapping area of different MNOs.

Contents of the invention

In view of this, the main purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for accessing a mobile virtual network operator's peer-to-peer network, so that users can access each peer-to-peer network corresponding to their subscribed mobile virtual network operator with the same priority level. PLMN.

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for accessing a mobile virtual operator peer-to-peer network, comprising the following steps:

A configures the peer-to-peer public land mobile network information corresponding to its relevant mobile virtual network on the serving GPRS support node of the mobile network;

B After the user equipment is attached to the mobile network, the serving general packet radio service support node of the mobile network judges whether the user equipment is a user of its related mobile virtual network according to the identification of the user equipment, and if so, then sending the peer-to-peer public land mobile network information corresponding to the mobile virtual network to the user equipment, and storing it by the user equipment;

C. When the user equipment needs to access the mobile virtual network, query the saved information of the peer-to-peer public land mobile network corresponding to the mobile virtual network, and select the mobile network among them to try to attach until the attachment is successful.

Wherein, in the step B, the serving GPRS support node judges whether the user equipment is a user of its related mobile virtual network according to the IMSID of the user equipment.

In the step B, when the serving GPRS support node determines that the user equipment is a user of its associated mobile virtual network, it sends the peer-to-peer public land mobile network information corresponding to the mobile virtual network through an attach accept message sent to the user device.

In the step C, the user equipment queries the stored peer-to-peer public land mobile network information corresponding to the mobile virtual network, and selects the mobile network in the peer-to-peer public land mobile network information in a random sequence to try to attach , until the attachment is successful.

The peer-to-peer public land mobile network information includes the ID of each peer-to-peer public land mobile network, and the ID includes a country code and an operator code.

Said mobile network is a general packet radio service or wideband code division multiple access network.

Through comparison, it can be found that the difference between the technical solution of the present invention and the prior art is that the peer-to-peer PLMN information corresponding to the mobile virtual network related to the mobile network is pre-configured on the SGSN of the mobile network, and During the attaching process of the subscribed user of the network, the peer-to-peer PLMN information is transmitted to the user equipment through an attach accept message, and stored by the user equipment. When the user equipment attaches to the network next time, according to the saved peer-to-peer PLMN information of the subscribed mobile virtual network, a mobile network is selected in a random sequence to try to attach.

This difference in technical solutions brings obvious beneficial effects, that is, users can access each peer-to-peer PLMN corresponding to the MVNO they subscribed to with the same priority level.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a virtual operator network sharing scheme in the prior art;

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of the interconnection between the mobile network operator and the mobile virtual network operator;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an attach request signaling flow when a user equipment needs to access a network in the prior art;

Fig. 4 is a schematic flow diagram of the MVNO user attachment request signaling flow in the method for accessing the MVNO peer-to-peer network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

In order to make the object, technical solution and advantages of the present invention clearer, the present invention will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

In general, the principle of the present invention is that the SGSN of the mobile network configures the corresponding peer-to-peer PLMN information of each mobile virtual network, and sends it to their users for storage. When the user needs to access the mobile network, he queries the stored peer-to-peer PLMN information corresponding to the mobile virtual network, and randomly selects a mobile network among them to try to attach until the attachment succeeds. This ensures that the user of the mobile virtual network can randomly select multiple mobile networks to try to access, so that the user can access the peer-to-peer PLMN of the mobile virtual network with the same priority level.

The specific signaling process and SGSN configuration will be described in detail below in conjunction with FIG. 4 .

In Fig. 4, firstly in step 400, on the GPRS service support node 41, configure the peer-to-peer public land mobile network (Public Lands Mobile Network, referred to as "PLMN") corresponding to each relevant mobile virtual network of the mobile network )information. The specific network information of the peer-to-peer PLMN will be further described in combination with practical examples in the following technical solution embodiment methods.

Subsequently, in step 401, the user of the mobile virtual network operator, that is, the user equipment 40 initiates an attach request to the GPRS service support node 41, requiring the user equipment to log in to the network.

Next, in step 402, similar to the prior art, the GPRS service supports the authentication signaling process of the node 41 and the user equipment 40 .

Then, in step 403, the GPRS service support node 41 inquires whether the user is a user of the mobile virtual network related to the mobile network according to the IMSI identification of the user equipment 40 sent in the attach request, and if so, inquires The peer-to-peer PLMN information corresponding to the MVNO.

Thereafter, in step 404, also the GPRS service support node 41 returns an attach accept message to the user equipment 40, and the attach accept message includes the peer-to-peer PLMN information corresponding to the mobile virtual network.

The user equipment saves the peer-to-peer PLMN information after receiving it. Specifically, the peer-to-peer PLMN information is actually a PLMN list, that is, an identifier (Identifier, "ID" for short) including a country code and an operator code.

It should be noted that the peer-to-peer PLMN information list stored in the user equipment 40 will not disappear when the user equipment is turned off, and the user will have the basis to search for the network when the user turns on the next time or enters the network. Specifically, when attaching to a network next time, the user equipment 41 checks the peer-to-peer PLMN table, and searches for a network of the peer-to-peer PLMN to attach. When in the overlapping area of networks with different MNOs but the same priority, the mobile network in the PLMN information list can be randomly selected to try to attach until the attachment is successful.

It should also be pointed out here that when the user attaches to the network for the first time, there is no PLMN list stored in the user equipment, and the available networks can only be tried one by one until an available network is found, and the ID of the network is saved after finding it. This situation will be further illustrated below with practical examples.

The flow of the method for accessing a mobile virtual operator peer-to-peer network according to an embodiment of the present invention is described above. In order to make the principles of the present invention and the technical effects obtained more obvious, the implementation method of the present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the actual example of the MNO and MVNO networks in FIG. 2 .

As can be seen from Fig. 2, mobile virtual network operator 22 has an agreement with mobile network operator 20 and mobile network operator 21, and its users can use the wireless network resources of the two, when its users are in both networks When overlapping areas, it is necessary to ensure peer-to-peer access to both networks. For this reason, on the SGSN of the mobile network operator 20, it is necessary to pre-configure the peer-to-peer PLMN of the mobile virtual network operator 22 as the mobile network operator 21; on the SGSN of the mobile network operator 21, it is also necessary to configure the mobile virtual network operator 22 The peer-to-peer PLMN is the mobile network operator 20 .

When a user of the mobile virtual network operator 22 attaches to the network for the first time, there is no PLMN list stored in the user equipment, and the available networks are tried one by one, including the mobile network operator 20 and the mobile network operator 21 and other traditional mobile networks. operator's network. In this process, only the SGSN of the mobile network operator 20 or the mobile network operator 21 will respond to the user's attachment request, and they will return the ID of the network to the user equipment of the user through an attach acceptance message and store it thereon. When the user is only within the network coverage of one of the mobile network operators, the subsequent data communication process can be directly performed at this time.

When the user is in the overlapping area of the two networks of the mobile network operator 20 or the mobile network operator 21, the user equipment will perform a new attach request process at this time, and the preceding figure 4 illustrates the signaling process in detail. Taking only the ID of the mobile network operator 20 stored on the user equipment as an example, then the user equipment of the user must first send an attach request to the network of the mobile network operator 20, and at this time the SGSN in the network of the mobile network operator 20 has already The peer-to-peer PLMN of the mobile virtual network operator 22 is preset as the mobile network operator 21, and the last signaling of this attach request, that is, the attach acceptance signaling, will carry the peer-to-peer PLMN corresponding to the mobile virtual network 22 Information, namely the ID of the mobile network operator 21 and stored thereon. After receiving the attach acceptance signaling, the user equipment saves the above-mentioned peer-to-peer PLMN information.

When attaching next time, the user equipment will check the peer-to-peer PLMN table saved by itself, and search the network of the peer-to-peer PLMN in a random sequence to try to attach, thereby making the access to the mobile network operator 20 or the mobile network operator 21 equal. .

From the comparison between the present invention and the prior art, it can be seen that the present invention expands the prior art, so that it can realize peer-to-peer access of MVNO users on different MNO networks, and the equality of this access opportunity can make the same MNOs that sign a cooperation agreement with the same MVNO have the same income, and the network load is balanced. It will not happen that the MVNO will give the two equal rents, but the users under it will not get equivalent network access services. At the same time, it also has a supervisory effect on the cooperation agreement to ensure that the MVNO will not be restricted by a certain MNO. For the final MVNO users, they will not feel the difference between choosing MVNO and MNO in terms of access, which is conducive to the development of MVNO.

Although the present invention has been illustrated and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein, and without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims (6)

1. A method for accessing a mobile virtual operator peer-to-peer network, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: A configures the peer-to-peer public land mobile network information corresponding to its relevant mobile virtual network on the serving GPRS support node of the mobile network; B After the user equipment is attached to the mobile network, the serving general packet radio service support node of the mobile network judges whether the user equipment is a user of its related mobile virtual network according to the identification of the user equipment, and if so, then sending the peer-to-peer public land mobile network information corresponding to the mobile virtual network to the user equipment, and storing it by the user equipment; C. When the user equipment needs to access the mobile virtual network, query the saved information of the peer-to-peer public land mobile network corresponding to the mobile virtual network, and select the mobile network among them to try to attach until the attachment is successful. 2. The method for accessing a mobile virtual operator's peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein in said step B, said serving general packet radio service support node according to the international mobile station identification number of the user equipment Identify and judge whether the user equipment is a user of its related mobile virtual network. 3. The method for accessing a mobile virtual operator's peer-to-peer network according to claim 2, wherein in step B, when the serving GPRS support node determines that the user equipment is its relevant mobile virtual The user of the mobile virtual network sends the peer-to-peer public land mobile network information corresponding to the mobile virtual network to the user equipment through an attach acceptance message. 4. The method for accessing a mobile virtual operator peer-to-peer network according to claim 2, characterized in that, in the step C, the user equipment queries the peer-to-peer public land corresponding to the mobile virtual network stored in it Mobile network information, and select the mobile network in the peer-to-peer public land mobile network information in a random sequence to try to attach until the attachment is successful. 5. The method for accessing a mobile virtual operator peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein the peer-to-peer public land mobile network information includes the identifiers of each peer-to-peer public land mobile network, and the identifier contains Country code and carrier code. 6. The method for accessing a mobile virtual operator peer-to-peer network according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the mobile network is a general packet radio service or a broadband code division multiple access network.

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