WO2008065294A1

WO2008065294A1 - Method of transmitting functional information, corresponding termination equipment, signals and computer programme product

Info

Publication number: WO2008065294A1
Application number: PCT/FR2007/052389
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mickael Allain
Original assignee: France Telecom
Priority date: 2006-11-28
Filing date: 2007-11-23
Publication date: 2008-06-05

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of transmitting to a provider of information services representative of an established communication, via an access network implementing a first communication protocol, between an access provider and termination equipment, said functional information. According to the invention, such a method comprises: a step of obtaining, by an item of termination equipment, functional information, originating from said access network; a step of processing, within said termination equipment, said functional information, delivering processed information compatible with a service network implementing a second communication protocol; a step of transmitting, by said termination equipment, said processed information to said service provider, via said service network.

Description

Method for transmitting functional information, terminating equipment, signals and corresponding computer program product. 1. Field of the invention

The present invention relates to the field of multimedia networks. More particularly, the invention relates to multimedia networks offering multimedia services in a home network or in mobility on wireless communication terminals, sometimes called "HotSpots".

In particular, the invention relates to the transmission of information via networks implementing several distinct or heterogeneous protocols, such as, for example, the IP protocol and the UMA protocol (for "Unlicensed Mobile Access" which is a protocol for adaptation of the GSM layer to the Internet). These networks can be, for example, the network of an access provider and that of a service provider, in the context of a communication via a service terminal point, such as an IP telephone, a mobile telephone, a mobile phone or a mobile phone. fashion, etc. More specifically, the invention relates to the transmission of information available on an IP-type network ("Internet Protocol" in English), such as, for example, user location information, information concerning the state of the Internet. communication network, routing information, profile information, to a network of a service provider. 2. Prior Art

The development of IP multimedia services over broadband access networks, also called fixed networks, has created the need to use information about these access networks for the adaptation of services that use them. However, in most cases, such services can not interact with the access network, and it is then difficult to make available to the service provider information available on the access network.

Currently, several techniques are proposed for the transmission of information from the service provider to the service provider, when the service provider has no way of knowing network information. access (for example, session identification or the address assigned to the service endpoint requesting the service).

One of these techniques is to build a database containing the information related to the access network and to make it accessible, contractually, by a service provider.

A disadvantage of this technique lies in the fact that it implies a prior agreement between the service provider and the service provider, because some information may be sensitive. This solution therefore requires the costly implementation of a secure transfer of information from this database, as well as an important technical implementation. This solution also has the disadvantage of requiring the implementation of a high availability system to ensure proper operation in the context of real-time applications and thus guarantee access to data. Such a solution still has the drawback of complicating the architectures of the information systems both at the level of the access provider and at the level of the service provider by forcing these two entities to communicate (via a new access to the service provider). access provider network) and exchanging information when establishing a session between the customer wishing to access the service and the service provider. A second solution is to insert information related to the access network, called functional information, in the flows for service providers. Such a stream may for example be an HTTP request for access to a service, by means of a WiFi network (of the English "Wireless Fidelity", wireless transmission protocol). A disadvantage of the implementation of this technique lies in the fact that it is necessary that the communication protocol used by the services is understood and interpretable from the access network. Another disadvantage is the need for equipment in the access network capable of inserting information into the streams for service providers. Finally, in the particular case where the protocols are heterogeneous (that is to say that the access network and the service network use protocols different), the implementation of such a technique is expensive. It is indeed necessary to ensure, for the network that inserts the data (access network), the understanding of the protocol used by the services network services. Moreover, this implementation is essentially the responsibility of the service provider. The latter must: interpret the requests made by the client; insert in queries information about the network.

Such an implementation has many disadvantages because: it can cause slowdowns in the transport of flows between the client and the service provider; it always carries a risk of transmitting erroneous information.

3. Presentation of the invention

The invention proposes a new solution which does not have all of these disadvantages of the prior art, in the form of a method of transmission to an information service provider representative of an established communication, via a network. access device implementing a first communication protocol, between an access provider and a termination equipment, called functional information.

According to the invention, such a method comprises: a step of obtaining, by terminating equipment, functional information from said access network; a step of processing, in said termination equipment, said functional information, delivering processed information compatible with a service network implementing a second communication protocol; a step of transmission, by said terminating equipment, said processed information to said service provider, via said service network.

Thus, the method according to the invention makes it possible to transmit functional information from the access network to the provider's network. services through termination equipment.

Such termination equipment may be for example a terminal of a user (a mobile phone, a PDA ...) or a home gateway equipment ("Home Gateway" ...). Functional information is understood to mean information representative of the communication established, via the access network, between the access provider and the termination equipment and useful to the service provider, for example to adapt an existing service or to propose new services. services. However, since the access and service networks do not use the same communication protocols, this functional information provided by the access network can not be interpreted or used by the service network (ie the one through which the access network termination communicates with the service provider). This functional information can not therefore pass directly from the access network to the service network. For example, the access network may implement the IP protocol and the service network may implement the UMA protocol. In this case, we speak of distinct or heterogeneous protocols.

The invention thus differs greatly from the prior art which requires the development of specific applications at the network level to enable such a transfer of functional information.

Indeed, the method according to the invention requires no modification of network equipment and allows the transmission of information by simple network translation performed at the terminal. The functional information is inserted by the access network equipment using the capabilities of the existing protocols and is extracted in the same manner by the terminating equipment.

In particular, the step of obtaining functional information comprises: a step of formulating a request for obtaining functional information, addressed to said access network; a step of providing a response to said request by said network access, said response comprising said functional information. According to one particular aspect of the invention, the functional information comprises at least one piece of information representative of at least one characteristic of use of said termination equipment on said access network.

Thus, the network layer information, for example layer 3 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, related to the communication terminal or to the network used, is transmitted to the terminal via the network. access based on actions related to the terminal. It can be information related to the terminal as such, information related to a user of the terminal or information related to the network used, after for example, an authentication step of this user.

According to a particular characteristic of the invention, the functional information belongs to the group comprising at least: a location information of said termination equipment; information defining a profile of a user of said termination equipment; bandwidth information available within said access network; service quality context information. According to a particular embodiment of the invention, when a gateway connects said terminating equipment to said access network, said step of formulating a request for obtaining is implemented by said gateway which transfers said functional information to said access network. termination equipment. Thus, when the termination equipment is behind a gateway, so is not directly visible by the network, as is the case, for example, in home networks integrating a "Home Gateway" multimedia access terminal or "IP phone", the functional information can still be transmitted to the service provider. In this case, the transmission of the functional information is carried out at the initiative of the gateway and consists in forcing the transmission of this information to the terminating equipment.

The gateway makes it possible, for example, to connect a local network of a user whose equipment communicates using the uPnP protocol to an Internet type network. Such a gateway integrates, for example, means for implementing the DHCP protocol for dynamically assigning IP addresses (for access to the Internet-type network) to the equipment of the local network.

The invention also relates to a terminating equipment comprising means for establishing a communication, via an access network implementing a first communication protocol, for an access provider, characterized in that it comprises: means for obtaining functional information representative of said established communication, from said access network; means for processing said functional information received from said access network, delivering processed information compatible with a service network implementing a second communication protocol; means for transmitting said processed information to a service provider via said service network.

This is for example a terminal type radiotelephone PDA personal assistant etc. Such a terminal therefore has means enabling it to process functional information, such as location information, and then make it available. Such processing may for example be formatting the information received from the access network. The terminal therefore receives the information from the access network, then processes it and sends it to the communication network of the service provider.

The invention also relates to a data signal transmitted by a device of an access network implementing a first protocol of communication to terminating equipment.

In particular, such a signal comprises at least one information field comprising functional information intended to be used in the context of a communication between said termination equipment and a service provider via a service network implementing a second protocol. Communication.

Another aspect of the invention relates to a data signal transmitted by a terminating equipment to a service provider via a service network. More particularly, such a signal comprises at least one information field comprising functional information from an equipment of an access network. The service network and the access network use separate communication protocols, which are not compatible with each other. The invention also relates to a computer program product downloadable from a communication network and / or stored on a computer readable medium and / or executable by a microprocessor, comprising program code instructions for the implementation of the method of transmission described above. 4. List of figures

Other features and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly on reading the following description of a preferred embodiment, given as a simple illustrative and nonlimiting example, and the appended drawings, among which: FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a communication system in which is implemented the transmission method according to the invention; FIG. 2 describes an exemplary processing of the functional information within a terminating equipment according to a particular embodiment of the invention; - Figure 3 shows an example of information transmission functional to the service provider according to a particular embodiment of the invention; FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a part of the system of FIG. 1 implementing the first two steps of the transmission method according to one particular embodiment of the invention; FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a simplified structure of a transmission device implementing a functional information transmission technique according to a particular embodiment of the invention. 5. Description of an embodiment of the invention

The general principle of the invention is based on the transmission of functional information from an access provider to a service provider via terminating equipment (for example a mobile terminal, a personal computer, an assistant). staff, etc.). The functional information is information representative of the communication established, via the access network, between the access provider and the termination equipment, and useful to the service provider. It may especially be data representative of a characteristic of use of the termination equipment on the access network. Moreover, this functional information, being by definition linked to the access network, can not be directly interpreted by the service provider's network, when these two networks use different, or heterogeneous, communication protocols.

Subsequently, there is presented in particular the case of a mobile terminal accessing the network of a mobile operator via the Internet access network. It is clear however that the invention is not limited to this particular application, but can also be implemented in many other fields, and more generally in the context of applications using heterogeneous protocols, for the transmission of information. characteristics of a network using a particular protocol to another network using a different protocol. FIG. 1 shows the implementation of the transmission of functional information relating to the location of a terminal in the access network as a function of a physical connection link. Such an implementation is carried out as part of the establishment of a communication session of a mobile terminal 10 (termination equipment), in the network of a mobile operator 13 via the Internet access network 12, The information on the Internet access network is not accessible from the mobile operator's network, but it may be useful to it, for example to facilitate the routing of an emergency call to the call waiting server. emergency nearest the mobile terminal connected to the Internet access network.

Thus, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the mobile terminal 10 issues a session establishment request with the network of the mobile operator 13 for an emergency call, which is translated, in the first instance, by the formulation of a In response to this request 1, the Internet network 12 provides a response 2 including an address assigned to the mobile terminal 10, so that the latter is "visible" by the Internet, and functional information corresponding to a use of the terminal in the Internet network 12, for example the location of the copper line or the optical connection link to the Internet network 12.

The mobile terminal 10 can then consider that the communication session 3 with the mobile operator 13 is established, and transmit the functional location information according to the protocol used in this communication 3 in the network of the mobile operator. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the mobile terminal 10 must use functional information transmitted according to the DHCP protocol used by the Internet network and make it available to the application 21 of the terminal which will communicate during the communication session with the service application. of the mobile operator. Thus, the service application of the mobile operator, also called remote application, will associate this location information to the mobile terminal 10.

In connection with FIG. 3, the step of transmitting the location information by the mobile terminal and the use of this information by the service provider are presented.

When the mobile terminal 10 transmits the location information to the remote application 31 of the mobile network, the latter associates this information with the mobile terminal and routes the emergency call from the terminal to the emergency call server 32 closest to the line identified from the location information.

In a variant of this embodiment, in connection with FIG. 4, the particular case of a mobile terminal 10 which is not visible directly by the network is presented. Such a situation corresponds for example to the case where the mobile terminal does not have an Internet network address, but can connect to it via a device 46 called gateway, which has a visible network address. Internet. This gateway connects the mobile terminal 10 to the Internet network 12.

When the mobile terminal 10 issues a connection establishment request, this is translated firstly by the formulation of a request.

41 in connection with the gateway 46. In response to this request 41, the gateway

46 provides a first response 42 to the terminal 10, assigning an address.

This address will be used by the handheld to communicate with the gateway. The mobile terminal will communicate with the Internet network 12 via a translation "NAT" ("Network Address Translation" in English, for network address translation) and will be seen from the network 12 by the address of the visible gateway of this network.

The gateway 46 connects to the network 12, using the appropriate protocol

(for example, DHCP, for obtaining an IP address or other protocol allowing an Internet attachment) in a request 43. The network 12 then returns to the gateway, the information necessary for the connection and the functional information representative of the connection of the terminal to the Internet, for example the location of the copper line or the optical connection link to the Internet network 12, in 44. When the gateway receives this response, it transmits it to the terminal 10 in the form of a second response 45.

When the terminal 10 receives an address by the gateway, it can not consider that the communication session with the network of the service provider is established. Indeed, the gateway can transmit its address without being attached to the network 12.

In this case, the user must wait to receive the second response 45 to exploit and transmit the functional information to the service provider.

The functional information may be of different natures depending, for example, on the access network from which they are derived. These include: location information, which is used to determine the location of the termination equipment. Depending on the type of terminating equipment, this information may take the form of a position in a geographical space when the terminating equipment is a mobile phone. Such a position can for example be obtained by the access network following a triangulation procedure.

When the terminating equipment is a landline telephone of a residential line, the location information may take the form of an address. information defining a profile of a user. Thus, it is possible to communicate to a service provider information concerning, for example, habits or uses of a user. Indeed, the communication operator, or the access provider, is often the most likely to know this information. bandwidth information available within the access network.

Thus, the operator is able to inform a service provider about his own routing or reception capabilities. This information may for example be used by the service provider to adapt content that is transferred to the terminating equipment. QoS context information, which can also be used by the service provider to tailor the content or service delivered to the customer.

Finally, in connection with FIG. 5, the simplified structure of a transmission device implementing a functional information transmission technique according to the particular embodiment described above is presented.

Such a transmission device comprises a memory 51 constituted by a buffer memory, a processing unit 52, equipped for example with a microprocessor μP, and driven by the computer program 53, implementing the transmission method of functional information according to the invention.

At initialization, the code instructions of the computer program 53 are for example loaded into a RAM before being executed by the processor of the processing unit 52. The processing unit 52 receives as input at least an information I to transmit. The microprocessor of the processing unit 52 implements the steps of the transmission method described above, according to the instructions of the computer program 53, to deliver a processed information T. For this, the transmission device comprises, in addition to the memory buffer 51, query and response formulation means, and information processing means. These means are controlled by the microprocessor of the processing unit 52.

Claims

A method of transmitting to an information service provider representative of an established communication, via an access network implementing a first communication protocol, between an access provider and a termination equipment, called functional information. characterized in that it comprises: a step of obtaining, by terminating equipment, functional information from said access network; a step of processing, in said termination equipment, said functional information, delivering processed information compatible with a service network implementing a second communication protocol; a step of transmission, by said terminating equipment, said processed information to said service provider, via said service network.

2. Transmission method according to claim 1, characterized in that said step of obtaining functional information comprises: a step of formulating a request for obtaining functional information, addressed to said access network; a step of providing a response to said request by said access network, said response comprising said functional information.

3. Transmission method according to any one of claims 1 and 2, characterized in that said functional information comprises at least one piece of information representative of at least one characteristic of use of said termination equipment on said access network.

4. Transmission method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said functional information belong to the group comprising at least: location information of said termination equipment; - information defining a profile of a user of said equipment termination; bandwidth information available within said access network; service quality context information.

5. Transmission method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that, when a gateway connects said terminating equipment to said access network, said step of formulating a request for obtaining is implemented. implemented by said gateway which transfers said functional information to said terminating equipment.

6. Termination equipment comprising means for establishing a communication, via an access network implementing a first communication protocol, for an access provider, characterized in that it comprises: means for obtaining functional information representative of said communication established from said access network; means for processing said functional information received from said access network, delivering processed information compatible with a service network implementing a second communication protocol; means for transmitting said processed information to a service provider via said service network.

7. Data signal transmitted by an equipment of an access network implementing a first communication protocol intended for terminating equipment, characterized in that it comprises at least one information field comprising information functional lines for use in communication between said terminating equipment and a service provider via a service network implementing a second communication protocol.

8. Data signal sent by a terminating equipment to a service provider via a service network implementing a second communication protocol, characterized in that it comprises at least an information field comprising functional information from an equipment of an access network implementing a first communication protocol.

9. Computer program product downloadable from a communication network and / or stored on a computer-readable medium and / or executable by a microprocessor, characterized in that it comprises program code instructions for the execution of the method transmission device according to at least one of claims 1 to 5 when executed on a computer.