Method for assigning values of service attributes to transmissions, radio access networks and network elements

• US 20020132611A1
• Filed: 03/14/2001
• Published: 09/19/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Mobile Phones UK Limited (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Ala-Laurila, Juha, Immonen, Jukka, Kalliokulju, Juha, Jouppi, Jarkko, Virtanen, Kari O.
• Granted Patent: US 7,010,305 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and to associated radio access networks and network elements for assigning values of service attributes to transmissions between a user equipment and a radio access network. In order to allow for an improved assignment of values of service attributes, it is proposed that, upon request of such a transmission by a user equipment of a subscriber registered with some radio access network the method comprises determining values of service attributes that are to be used for the transmission requested by said user equipment based on at least one value of at least one service attribute defined by a stored subscriber specific service profile, and based on at least one stored common value of at least one service attribute.

Claims

1. A method for assigning values of service attributes to transmissions between a user equipment and a radio access network, comprising upon request of such a transmission by a user equipment of a subscriber registered with some radio access network determining values of service attributes to be used for the transmission requested by said user equipment based on at least one value of at least one service attribute defined by a stored subscriber specific service profile, and based on at least one stored common value of at least one service attribute.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the values of service attributes to be used for the requested transmission are determined further based on values of service attributes requested by the user equipment.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the values of service attributes defined by a subscriber specific service profile stored in the first storing means and the values of service attributes stored in the second storing means define the Quality of Service of a transmission.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the values of service attributes defined by a subscriber specific service profile stored in the first storing means define the best values allowed for the service attributes for at least one kind of transmission as subscribed by the corresponding user equipment.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the values of service attributes defined by a subscriber specific service profile stored in the first storing means comprise the values of service attributes defining the Quality of Service for requested real-time-traffic transmissions.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the values of service attributes defined by a subscriber specific service profile stored in the first storing means comprise the values of at least one service attribute defining at least part of the Quality of Service for requested non-real-time-traffic transmissions.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the common values of service attributes stored in the second storing means comprise at least one default value for at least one service attribute to be used in case a user equipment requests a transmission without requesting a specific value for said at least one service attribute required for the requested transmission.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said first and said second storing means are part of the same radio access network.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said radio access network is a UMTS radio communications network.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said first storing means are part of a first radio access network, wherein said second storing means are part of a second radio access network, said first radio access network being a network for which a user equipment requesting a transmission is registered and said second radio access network being accessed by said user equipment for requesting the transmission.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising transmitting the values of service attributes defined by a subscriber specific service profile stored in the first storing means from said first radio access network to said second radio access network during an authentication of said user equipment accessing said second network.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein values of service attributes to be used for a requested transmission in the second radio access network are determined by mapping values of service attributes determined based on values of service attributes as far as requested by a user equipment for a requested transmission, on subscriber specific values of service attributes and on common values of service attributes, which service attributes are defined in the first radio access network, to values of service attributes defined in the second radio access network.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein said second radio access network is a wireless local area network (WLAN).

15. The radio access network of claim 14 wherein said radio access network is a cellular network, wherein said first storing means are integrated in a home location register or home subscriber server (HLR/HSS) of said cellular network and wherein said second storing means are integrated in a serving gateway support node (SGSN) of said cellular network.

18. The radio access network of claim 17 wherein the processing means are designed for mapping values of service attributes determined based on values of service attributes as far as requested by a user equipment for a requested transmission, on subscriber specific values of service attributes and on common values of service attributes, which service attributes are defined in the other radio access network, to values of service attributes defined in the radio access network of claim 18.

19. The radio access network of claim 17 wherein said radio access network is a wireless local area network (WLAN) and wherein said second storing means and at least part of said processing means are integrated in a public access controller (PAC) of said wireless local area network.

14. A radio access network comprising:

first storing means for storing subscriber specific service profiles defining values of at least one service attribute that can be assigned to at least one kind of transmission;

second storing means for storing at least one common value of at least one service attribute that can be assigned to at least one kind of transmission; and

processing means for determining values of service attributes to be used for a transmission requested by a user equipment of a subscriber registered with said radio access network based on at least one of the values of the service attributes defined by a corresponding subscriber specific service profile stored in the first storing means and on common values of service attributes stored in the second storing means.

16. A network element of a radio access network, comprising:

storing means for storing at least one common value of at least one service attribute that can be assigned to at least one kind of transmission; and

processing means for determining values of service attributes to be used for a transmission requested by a user equipment of a subscriber registered with said radio access network based on said common values of service attributes stored in said storing means and based on values of service attributes defined by a subscriber specific service profile stored in some other storing means.

17. A radio access network in which a user equipment of a subscriber registered with some other radio access network is allowed to request a transmission, comprising:

storing means for storing at least one common value of at least one service attribute that can be assigned to at least one kind of transmission;

processing means for determining values of service attributes to be used for a transmission requested by said user equipment based on values of service attributes defined by a subscriber specific service profile received from the other radio access network and on said common values of service attributes stored in said storing means.

20. A network element of a radio access network in which a user equipment of a subscriber registered with some other radio access network is allowed to request a transmission, comprising:

storing means for storing at least one common value of at least one service attribute that can be assigned to at least one kind of transmission;

processing means for determining values or an indication of such values of service attributes to be used for a transmission requested by said user equipment based on values of service attributes defined by a subscriber specific service profile received from the other radio access network and on the common values of service attributes stored in said storing means.