WO2010001001A1

WO2010001001A1 - Management of the selection of a telecommunication network to be used for data transmission

Info

Publication number: WO2010001001A1
Application number: PCT/FR2009/051022
Authority: WO
Inventors: Alain Abinakhoul; Bruno Bouchoir
Original assignee: France Telecom
Priority date: 2008-06-06
Filing date: 2009-05-29
Publication date: 2010-01-07

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for transmitting data from a first device (SRV) to at least one second device (MOB1, MOB2) over a first telecommunication network (NET1). The invention includes a step comprising the activation of the transmission of all or part of the data to at least one second device (MOB1, MOB2) via at least one second network (NET2), the activation step taking place as soon as at least one second network is available to transmit data to said at least one second device (MOB1, MOB2).

Description

Management of the choice of use of a telecommunication network for the transmission of data.

Technical area

The invention relates to the management of the choice of use of a telecommunication network for the transmission of data from a first device to a second device. The invention is particularly applicable to transmission networks that may be saturated, in particular because of the large number of data they carry.

The first device includes any device capable of transmitting data. This first device is for example a server. The second device includes any device able to receive data for example to be processed, the treatment consisting for example of restoring data on loudspeakers, on a screen, etc. This second device is for example a personal computer, a mobile phone, a personal assistant, etc.

The data in question are data of all kinds. The invention is particularly applicable to large data likely to saturate a network. Such voluminous data may be audio and / or video data relating for example to music, television content, etc.

State of the art

Recently, a new service offers the possibility of receiving television content on a mobile phone. Recall that television content corresponds to instantaneous images of fixed or moving objects.

Different solutions exist to route this type of content from a first device to a mobile phone.

A first known solution is to use a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) type network and to transmit the television content in point-to-point mode. For this purpose, the UMTS network includes base stations that transmit the data, in point-to-point mode, in a specific area called "cell". Mobile phones in the cell receive the television content and return that content to a screen.

The problem is that each base station provides a limited number of point-to-point connections with telephones in the same cell; as a result, when the number of phones exceeds the number of possible connections in a cell, the network becomes full. This results in a pixelation of received images and therefore a sharp degradation of the service.

A second solution could be to use a transmission network capable of transmitting content in so-called "broadcast" mode. With this mode, the number of devices accessing the same content at a given location is unlimited. Current networks capable of broadcasting content are, for example, the DVB-H Digital Video Broadcasting-Handled network, or the DVB-SH network, the Terrestrial Digital Mobile Broadcasting (T-DMB) network. However, the problem with transmission networks of this type is that their respective network coverage is limited geographically and is therefore not suitable for mobile phones to move and receive content regardless of their location. where they are.

A known solution to the aforementioned problems has therefore been to combine the use of a transmitting network in point-to-point mode, of the UMTS type, with a network transmitting in broadcast mode such as the DVB-H network. According to this solution, when a saturation of the UMTS network is noted, an available DVB-H network search is performed, and if a DVB-H network is available, a switch takes place from the UMTS network to the DVB-H network.

The invention

The inventors have found that waiting for saturation to decide to switch from a first network to a second network posed performance problems. Indeed, when a saturation is detected, the reception of the television content is degraded or interrupted the time to note the saturation of the network and switch from the UMTS network to a DVB-H network. These Degradations or untimely interruptions are unacceptable for both the user of the device receiving the data and for the service provider wishing to offer an optimal quality of service.

The present invention proposes a solution that does not have the drawbacks of the state of the art.

For this purpose, the invention relates to a method for transmitting data from a first device to at least a second device through a first telecommunication network, characterized in that it comprises a triggering step transmitting all or part of the data to at least one second device via at least one second network, the triggering step occurring as soon as said at least one second network is available to transmit data to said at least one second device.

Thus, thanks to the invention, the transmission of data, in whole or in part, by the second network is decided as soon as the second network is able to transmit the data to the receiving terminal and not when it is found that the first network used is congested or even saturated. The invention thus anticipates a possible congestion or saturation of the first network.

Inopportune interruptions are therefore largely reduced or even non-existent, thereby offering a significantly improved quality of service compared to the state of the art.

It should be noted that the invention applies to any type of network and is not limited to a first network transmitting data in point-to-point mode and to a second network transmitting data in broadcast mode.

According to a first variant of the method, when said at least one second device is mobile, the method comprises a step of locating said at least one second device, and in that the triggering of the data transmission step via said at least one second network to the at least one second device takes place if the coverage of said at least one second network covers the current location of said at least one second device.

This characteristic is advantageous when the second network used is a network associated with a coverage area, and in particular when the network coverage of the said at least one second network is narrower than the first network. Thanks to this characteristic, the content is transmitted via said at least one second network only if the location of said at least one second device is such that the second device can receive the data.

According to a second variant, said at least one second network transmits part of the data and the first network continues transmitting the complementary part.

With this second variant, when said at least one second network is available and at least two devices are concerned with a transmission of data via said at least one second network, the transmission can be maintained via the first network for part of devices and performed via said at least one second network for another party. This characteristic does not exclude the possibility of combining the transmission via the first network to a set of first devices and via the second network to a set of second devices. This second variant reduces the resource consumption of the first network by transmitting part of the data on another network.

The invention also relates to equipment capable of communicating with at least one first network capable of conveying data to at least one device, characterized in that it comprises detection means able to detect the availability of at least one second network for transmitting data to said at least one device, and means for transmitting the state of availability.

The invention also relates to a data transmission device, said first device, able to transmit data via a first transmission network to at least a second device, said network being chosen from among a plurality of transmission networks, characterized in that it comprises

means for receiving information about the availability of at least one second network for transmitting data to at least one second device

means (RQT) for triggering a request for data transmission via at least one second available network as soon as the information on the availability of at least one second network is received.

According to one variant, the device comprises switching means able to switch the transmission of data from the first network to at least one second network.

The invention also relates to the computer program comprising code instructions which, when executed by a processor, performs the steps of the method of the invention described below, namely: a step of detecting the availability of at least one second network capable of transmitting data to said at least one second device, if so, a step of transmitting all or part of the data via said at least one second network destined for at least one second device.

The invention will be better understood on reading the description which follows, given by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The figures:

FIG. 1 is a view of a computer system including two models of data communication telecommunications networks which will serve to illustrate embodiments of the invention with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 represents a flowchart illustrating the various steps of a first and a second embodiment of the method of the invention.

Detailed description of exemplary embodiments illustrating the invention

FIG. 1 represents a SYS system comprising two telecommunication networks RES1 and RES2. In our example, the first network RES1 is a UMTS network and the second network RES2 is a network DVB-H.

The first network RES1 comprises a plurality of base stations (not shown in the figures) corresponding to transceivers having the load of radio data transmission. In our example, the data is TV content.

In FIG. 1, the first network RES1 is modeled by means of a hexagonal mesh, each mesh corresponding to a cell in which a respective base station emits. In this model, the plane is divided into hexagonal mesh and the base stations are at the center of the hexagonal cells.

In our example, the second network RES2 comprises an antenna ANT2 capable of transmitting data in a Zant coverage area. In our example, this coverage area is roughly represented by means of a circle of radius R centered on the antenna ANT.

In FIG. 1, for reasons of simplification of the disclosure of the invention, only five C1-C5 cells are referenced and two of them, cells C3 and C4, are completely covered by the second network RES2 in this respect. meaning that the second network can emit data in the entire cell concerned.

Cells C2 and C5 are partially covered by the second network RES2; the cell C1 is, in turn, not covered by the second network. FIG. 1 also represents the various physical and software resources that participate in the production of an exemplary embodiment of the method of the invention. In our example, these resources are

the first network RES1 and the second network RES2;

- A first device illustrated by an SRV server capable of transmitting television content;

A second device illustrated by a mobile phone MOBl able to move and receive the content.

The telephone MOB1 comprises means for receiving data able to receive a content of both the first network RESl and the second network RES2. In this case, the telephone comprises means for receiving data from the first network RESl and means, for example a tuner, to receive data from the network RES2.

In our example, the SRV server transmits televised content to the telephone MOB1 through the first network RES1. In our example, when the second network RES2 is available to transmit the television content, a switchover is realized

from the first network RES1 to the network RES2 so that the content can be transmitted through the network RES2 instead of the first network RES1

and vice versa, of the second network RES2 to the first network RES1 when the second network is no longer able to transmit the television content.

In our example, the system also includes

detection means MDC of the availability of the network RES2 for the transmission of the content to the telephone MOB1; - MTF notification means able to notify the server transmitting the content, the availability of the second network RES2 to transmit data.

In our exemplary embodiment, the second network RES2 being associated with a Zant coverage area, the system further comprises, in addition to the resources mentioned above,

MLC locating means capable of locating the telephone,

and verification means able to verify that the second network covers the location of the telephone MOB1; in other words, these verification means checks whether the Zant zone includes the location of the telephone.

A first embodiment is now described with reference to Figure 2. This embodiment is based on location means using a base station identifier to locate the phone. Recall that in a UMTS network, at each base station corresponds a base station identifier and when a MOBl phone communicates via the first network, the location of the phone is assimilated to the location of the station. The location of the phone MOBI does not represent the actual location of the phone MOBl.

In this first embodiment, checking whether the second network RES2 completely covers the cell in which the phone is located will be performed after each cell change. For this purpose, in this embodiment, the SYS system comprises cell change detection means capable of detecting a cell change during the movement of the MOB1 telephone. Recall that the skilled person most often refers to a cell change by the term "handover".

It is assumed in the following description that the phone moves on a TRJ trajectory represented by a curve AB passing through the cells C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, successively. Starting point A of the trajectory for example corresponds to the home of the user of the phone and the end point B corresponds for example to the workplace of this user.

It is also assumed in the following that the transmission is performed using the first RESl by default.

A first phase PHl.1 is intended to know the coverage areas of the first network RESl and the second network RES2. In our example, the number of networks used is not limiting, this number can naturally extend to an indeterminate number of networks.

A second phase PHl.2 is intended to manage the switchover from the first network RES1 to the network RES2 and vice versa. This phase comprises several steps that are performed iteratively.

Note that the first phase PHl.1 does not necessarily precede the second phase PHl.2, the first phase can be executed during the execution of the second phase.

This second phase comprises several steps ETl.1 to ET1.4.

In a first step ET1.1, the user is at the point A and moves in the first cell C1. In this first step, the locating means locate the telephone in the first cell C1. is performed by default via the first network, in this first step, the SRV server transmits the televised content to the phone via the first network RESl.

At this stage of the process, the phone MOB1 receives the content and restores it on the phone screen.

The following steps are performed iteratively after each cell change from a first cell Cn to a second cell Cn + 1 (n = 1, ..., 4). In a second step EET1.2, the cell change detection means detect a cell change during the movement of the mobile phone MOB1. The change in question concerns a passage of the telephone from the first cell Cn to the second cell Cn + 1 (n = 1, ..., 4).

In a third step EET1.3, following the detection of a cell change, a check is made to find out whether the second network RES2 completely covers the second cell C2 in which the phone is located.

If yes, the server performs the following step EET1.4

or the server switches the transmission of the contents of the first network to the second RES2 when the current network used is the first network RES1,

or the server continues transmission via the second network RES2 when the current network used is the second network RES2.

If not, the server performs the following step EETl.5

or the server switches from the second network RES2 to the first network RES1 when the current network used is the second network

or the server continues transmission via the first network RESl when the current network used is the first network RESl.

The preceding steps will be illustrated with reference to FIG.

Each iteration will refer to the steps which precede ETl.1 to EETl.5, references to which will be associated the change of cell at the origin of the iteration. The references will therefore be ETl.y (Cn; Cn + 1), y varying from 1 to 5 and n varying from 1 to 4.

Following the first step ETl.1, the MOBl phone receives the content and restores it on the phone screen. In a second step EET1.2 (C1; C2) _; the cell change detecting means detects a cell change during the movement of the mobile phone MOB1. The change in question concerns a passage of the telephone from the first cell C1 to the second cell C2.

During a third step ET1.3 (C1; C2), following the detection of a cell change, a check is made to find out if the network RES2 completely covers the second cell C2 in which the telephone is located.

In our example, since the second network RES2 only partially covers the second cell C2, the server SRV continues to transmit via the first network RES1 during the fourth step ET1.4 (C1; C2).

The phone then moves on and enters the third cell C3.

The loop including steps ET1.2 to ET1.4 is executed again.

In step ET 1.2 (C2; C3), the cell change is detected by the MDEC means.

During step ET1.3 (C2; C3), following the detection of a cell change, a check is made to find out if the second network RES2 completely covers the third cell C3 in which the telephone is located.

In our example, the second network RES2 completely covers the third cell C3.

In our example, the current network is the first network RESl. In step ET1.4, a network switch is made from the first network RES1 to the second network RES2. For this purpose, a notification is sent by the MTF notification means to the SRV server delivering the content to require a switch from the first network RESl to the network RES2. At this stage of the method, the server SRV transmits the content to the telephone via the second network RES2. The user of the phone continues moving and moves from the third cell C3 to the fourth cell C4.

The loop including the steps EET1.2 to E1.1.4 is executed again.

In step ET1.2 (C3; C4), a cell change is detected.

During step ET1.3 (C3; C4), following the detection of a cell change, a check is made to find out whether the network RES2 completely covers the fourth cell C4 in which the phone is located. In our example, the second network RES2 completely covers the fourth cell

C4.

In step ETl.4 (C3; C4), the current network used being the second network RES2, there is no need to perform network switching. The server SRV therefore continues when transmitting the content to the phone via the second network RES2.

The user continues to move towards point B.

The loop including the steps ETl.2 to ETl.4 is executed again.

When moving, the MOBl phone goes from the fourth cell C4 to the fifth cell C5. In step ET1.2 (C4; C5), the cell change is detected.

During step ET1.3 (C4; C5), following the detection of a cell change by the MDEC means, a check is made to find out whether the network RES2 completely covers the fifth cell C5 in which the phone. In our example, the second network RES2 only partially covers the second cell C2.

During step EET1.4 (C4; C5), the current network used being the second network RES2, a switchover is made from the second network RES2 to the first network RES1.

Then, the user arrives at point B and stays there to view the television content.

During the steps ETl.1 to ETl.4 above, the verification of the total coverage is only incidental, partial coverage may be sufficient. The verification of a total coverage ensures an optimal quality of service. Indeed, in our example, the iteration occurring at each cell change, when a cover is partial, it is possible that the first mobile MOBl, when moving, is out of range of the second RES2 in the cell in question. Transmission of the content is then no longer possible via the second network RES2. Hence the interest of ensuring that the second network completely covers a cell before making a switch to this second network RES2.

Thus, according to this mode, during the movement of the telephone, a detection step is performed to detect the availability of at least a second network RES2 capable of transmitting the data to said at least one second device in place of the first RESl network. If yes, at least one second network is used to transmit all or part of the content to the MOBl phone.

According to a variant of the first embodiment, the network initially used is not chosen by default. According to this variant, the choice of the network to be used initially for transmitting the televised content can be carried out in the first step ET1.1. During this first step ET1.1, is checked whether the network

RES2 completely covers the first cell C1 in which the phone is located. If so, a notification is sent to the SRV server for this server to transmit the content via the second network RES2 when the second network covers, preferably totally, the first cell. If not, the server transmits the content via the first network RESl. The method continues in the second step ETl.2 previously described.

A second embodiment is described with reference to FIG. 2. This second mode consists of using more precise locating means than the location based on the base station identifier. A precise location means is for example GPS satellite positioning. This location means avoids detecting cell changes (handover) to decide whether or not to switch from the first network RESl to the network RES2, or vice versa.

It is assumed that, as in the first embodiment, the phone moves on the same TRJ path.

A first phase PH2.1 is the same as for the first embodiment. The knowledge of the network coverage of the second network RES2 will, during the second phase, decide to switch if the location of the mobile is covered by the second network.

A second phase PH2.2 is the same as for the first network except that the second ETl.2 is removed because this second mode can be achieved without detection of cell change.

During this second phase, the MOBl phone is located at a given frequency. The frequency used is in our example high to provide an optimal quality of service.

In this second mode, the iteration, described in the presentation of the first embodiment, is performed each time the location of the telephone MOB1 is obtained.

A problem with this second embodiment is that it is difficult to predict when the terminal will be out of range of the second network RES2 especially when the end point B is not known. This problem results in an inability to transmit content until the server has received no notification that the RES2 network no longer covers the current location of the phone. When the SRV server receives such a notification, a switchover from the second network to the first is performed, and the transmission is performed again via the first network RESl. The problem is that from the moment when the second network RES2 no longer covers the current location until the switchover, the phone does not receive the television content. One solution to this problem is to provide for the passage out of a coverage area. This forecast may for example be derived from the habits of the user. This prediction can also come from knowing the destination point B and the probability of the user to take one street from the TRJ route rather than another. Thus, probability weights are attributed to the points surrounding the current location of the phone based on the data related to habits. Depending on the probability weights, one application infers a high probability that the user will take one street rather than another. The probability can also be based on a context including the current state of the user, his direction, the means of transport that he uses, the corresponding speed, the weather, etc. For example, if the user has declared or is known through learning mechanisms, to appreciate shopping malls, etc.

According to a third embodiment, several telephones can be in the same cell and access the same television content. In this third mode, when two telephones, a first phone MOB1 and a second phone MOB2, are in the same Zant coverage area of the second network and the second network RES2 is available to transmit content to these two phones, the transmission content via the second network RES2 may concern only a part of the telephones, the other telephones always receiving the content via the first network. The transmission is thus maintained via the first network for part of the MOB1 telephone and performed via said at least one second network for other MOB2 phones.

According to a variant of this third embodiment, if several MOB1 and MOB2 telephones receive television content, a selection of the The telephone which will be switched from a first network to a second network, among the telephones concerned, is defined beforehand.

In all the modes described above, the server has

- Reception means (RCP) information of the availability of at least a second network for sending data to at least a second device

means (RQT) for requesting the transmission of data via said at least one second network.

Claims

claims

A method for transmitting data from a first device (SRV) to at least one second device (MOB1, MOB2) through a first telecommunication network (RES1), characterized in that it comprises a step triggering a transmission of all or part of the data to at least one second device (MOB1, MOB2) via at least one second network (RES2), the triggering step occurring as soon as said at least one second network is available for transmitting data to said at least one second device (MOB1, MOB2).

2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that at least a second device is mobile, in that it comprises a step of locating said at least one second device, and in that the triggering of the transmission step data via said at least one second network to said at least one second device occurs if the coverage area (Zant) of said at least one second network (RES2) covers the current location of said at least one second device ( MOB1, MOB2).

3. Method according to claim 2, characterized in that said at least one second network transmits part of the data, and in that the first network transmits the complementary part.

4. Equipment (MDEC) capable of communicating with at least one network (RES1, RES2), a first network being capable of conveying data to at least one device (MOB1, MOB2), characterized in that it comprises detection means capable of detecting the availability of at least one second network (RES1, RES2) for the transmission of data to said at least one device (MOB1, MOB2), and means of transmission of the state of availability .

5. Data transmission device (SRV), said first device, able to transmit data via a first transmission network (RES1, RES2) for at least one second device (MOB1, MOB2), said network being chosen from among a plurality of transmission networks, characterized in that it comprises

means for receiving (RCP) information about the availability of at least one second network for transmitting data to at least one second device;

means (RQT) for triggering a data transmission request via at least one second available network as soon as the information on the availability of at least one second network is received.

6. Device according to claim 5, characterized in that it comprises switching means adapted to switch the transmission of data from the first network to at least one second network.

A computer program comprising code instructions which, when executed by a processor, performs the steps defined in claim 1.