COMMON ACCESS BETWEEN A MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK AND AN EXTERNAL NETWORK WITH SELECTABLE PACKET-SWITCHED AND CIRCUIT-SWITCHED SERVICES

• US 20030039237A1
• Filed: 07/23/1998
• Published: 02/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jan E. Forslow
• Original Assignee: Jan E. Forslow
• Inventors: FORSLOW, JAN E
• Granted Patent: US 6,608,832 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/029 Firewall traversal, e.g. tunnelling or, creating pinholes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/26 Resource reservation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

Applications running on a mobile station or an external network entity such as an Internet service provider may specify on an individual application flow basis a requested quality of service. From that requested quality of service, an optimal type of bearer to transfer the application flow through the mobile communications network is determined. For example, a circuit-switched bearer may be allocated if the request is for a real-time service, and a packet-switched bearer may be allocated if the request is for a non-real time type of service. Various other decision making criteria may be employed. A mobile station and a mobile network gateway node each include a mapper for mapping an individual application flow to one of a circuit-switched network and a packet-switched network bearer depending on the quality of service requested for the individual application flow. The network layer quality of service parameters corresponding to an individual application flow are mapped to circuit-switched bearer parameters if the application flow is mapped to the circuit-switched network and to packet-switched bearer parameters if the application flow is mapped to the packet-switched network. The gateway node includes a common access server which permits a mobile station initially establishing a communications session with an external network entity to perform only a single, common access procedure for subsequent communications using one of the circuit-switched and packet-switched networks. After that common access procedure is completed, subsequent application flows between the mobile station and the external network entity are established using abbreviated procedures without having to access the external network entity.

Claims

1. In a mobile communications network providing circuit-switched (CS) and packet-switched (PS) services, a method comprising:

a mobile station establishing a communication with the mobile communications network during which plural flows associated with an application are communicated between the mobile station and an external network entity;

for each of the plural application flows, determining whether a circuit-switched bearer or a packet-switched bearer from the mobile station toward the external network entity should be established; and

allocating the determined bearer to each of the plural application flows.

2. The method in claim 1, wherein each application flow is associated with a corresponding quality of service request, the method further comprising:

for each of the plural application flows, determining based on the corresponding requested quality of service whether a circuit-switched bearer or a packet-switched bearer is better suited to bear the application flow.

3. The method in claim 2, further comprising:

for the application flow, reserving resources available in the mobile communications network to support the requested quality of service and a selected one of the circuit-switched and packet-switched bearers.

4. The method in claim 3, further comprising:

including an indicator in each packet of information in the application flow indicating whether a circuit-switched bearer or a packet-switched bearer should be used to carry that packet, and

selecting one of the circuit-switched and packet-switched bearers to carry each packet based on the indicator in each packet.

5. The method in claim 4, wherein the indicator is the same for all packets in an application flow when resources are reserved for the application flow.

6. The method in claim 4, wherein the indicator is a class indicator based on one of plural service classes with all packets of the same service class being carried on the type of bearer determined by the class indicator.

7. The method in claim 1, further comprising:

establishing an accounting record that stores accounting information for both circuit-switched and packet-switched bearer services provided to a mobile station.

8. The method in claim 1, further comprising:

for each of the plural application flows, determining whether the application flow requests a real time type of service or a non-real time service,

allocating a circuit-switched bearer if the request is for a real time type of service and a packet-switched bearer if the request is for a non-real time type of service.

9. The method in claim 8, further comprising:

allocating a packet-switched bearer to carry an application flow containing session control operation information.

10. The method in claim 8, wherein real time services include one or both of audio and video services and non-real time services include one or more of file transfer, e-mail, retrieval of information from the world wide web, and telemetry applications.

11. The method in claim 1, further comprising:

allocating a circuit-switched bearer if the application flow requests low delay or small jitter and a packet-switched bearer if the application flow requests fast channel access or bursty data transfer capability.

12. The method in claim 1, further comprising:

for each of the plural application flows, determining an amount of information to be sent and a setup delay sensitivity;

allocating a circuit-switched bearer if a large amount of information is to be sent or if the application flow is non-sensitive to setup delay; and

otherwise, allocating a packet-switched bearer.

13. The method in claim 1, further comprising:

detecting plural quality of service parameters requested by an individual application flow;

assigning different levels of significance to different ones of the quality of service parameters; and

determining the bearer giving priority to quality of service parameters having a greater level of significance.

14. The method in claim 1, wherein the mobile station is a class B mobile station that can transmit or receive only one type of bearer at a time, the method further comprising:

determining if a circuit-switched bearer to the mobile station exists for an application flow, and

if so, sending packet-switched information over the existing circuit-switched bearer.

15. The method in claim 1, wherein the external network is the Internet, and the external network entity is an Internet Service Provider (ISP), the method further comprising:

providing a link layer service to a network layer in the mobile communication network where circuit-switched and packet-switched bearers are separately allocated to carry different application flows associated with the mobile station.

16. The method in claim 15, wherein the application determines whether a circuit-switched or a packet-switched bearer should be selected for each application flow and requests the selected bearer from the IP link layer service.

17. The method in claim 16, wherein the IP link layer service is provided in the mobile station and at a mobile network gateway node that interfaces with the ISP.

18. The method in claim 1, wherein the mobile station monitors channels for both circuit-switched and packet-switched services.

19. The method in claim 18, wherein the mobile station operates on only one or both of the circuit-switched and packet-switched services at one time.

20. In a mobile communications system including a circuit-switch mobile network and packet-switched mobile network, a method comprising:

the mobile station establishing a communication session with the mobile communications network during which plural flows of an application are communicated between the mobile station and an external network entity, each application flow having a corresponding quality of service request, and

mapping individual ones of the application flows to one of the circuit-switched network and the packet-switched network depending on the quality of service corresponding to each of the individual application flows.

21. The method in claim 20, the mapping step further comprising:

allocating a circuit-switched network link to the application flow if the circuit-switched network is selected, and

allocating a packet-switched network link to the application flow if the packet-switched network is selected.

22. The method in claim 20, further comprising:

mapping quality of service parameters requested for a corresponding individual application flow into circuit-switched parameters if the application flow is mapped to the circuit-switched network and into packet-switched parameters if the application flow is mapped to the packet-switched network.

23. The method in claim 20, wherein the mobile communications system is the GSM system, the circuit-switched network is the GSM circuit-switched network, and the packet-switched network is the GSM GPRS network.

24. In a mobile communications system including a circuit-switched mobile network and packet-switched mobile network, a method comprising:

the mobile station initiating establishment of a communication session with the mobile communications network during which plural flows of an application are communicated between the mobile station and an external network entity, and

performing a common access procedure between the mobile station and the external network entity for both the circuit-switched and packet-switched networks,

wherein after the common access procedure, a subsequent one of the plural application flows is established between the mobile station and the external network entity without performing another access procedure involving the external network entity.

25. The method in claim 24, wherein the common access procedure includes a common authentication procedure for authenticating the identity of the mobile station with the external network entity whereafter the mobile station is authorized for subsequent ones of the plural application flows with the external network entity through both of the circuit-switched and packet-switched networks.

26. The method in claim 25, wherein the common authentication procedure includes confirming an identification and a password of the mobile station to determine whether the mobile station is authorized to communicate with and use services of the external network entity.

27. The method in claim 25, wherein for the subsequent application flows, only an abbreviated authentication procedure is performed in the mobile network.

28. The method in claim 24, wherein the common access procedure includes a common configuration procedure for configuring the mobile station with the external network entity whereafter the mobile station is configured with a common network address for subsequent ones of the plural application flows with the external network entity through both of the circuit-switched and packet-switched networks.

29. The method in claim 28, wherein the common configuration procedure includes:

providing the mobile station with parameters needed to communicate with the external network entity including a network layer address assigned to the mobile station by the external network entity, and

storing the parameters in the mobile communications network,

wherein for subsequent application streams involving the mobile station during the session, the method further comprises;

retrieving the stored parameters to configure the subsequent application stream without involving the external network entity.

30. The method in claim 24, wherein the mobile communications system includes a gateway node for interfacing with the external network entity, the method further comprising:

registering the mobile station with the gateway node, and

the mobile station requesting an end-to-end configuration between the mobile station and the external network entity,

wherein the end-to-end configuration request establishes a network layer bearer between the mobile host and the gateway node permitting relay of data packets between the external network entity and the mobile host even though a network layer address is not assigned to the mobile host.

31. The method in claim 30, wherein the gateway node functions as a dynamic host configuration relay agent serving the mobile station as a client and relays information between the mobile station and the external network entity.

32. The method in claim 31, further comprising:

adding a remote agent identification corresponding to a mobile station identifier to messages intended for the external network entity.

33. The method in claim 32, wherein during configuration, the dynamic host configuration agent captures and stores a unique network layer address for the mobile station for the established session and all application flows activated during the established session.

34. The method in claim 33, further comprising:

establishing a data communications tunnel corresponding to the network layer bearer between the gateway node and the mobile station, and

establishing a relationship in the gateway node between a mobile station'"'"'s identifier, the established tunnel, and the network layer address for the mobile station for the established session.

35. In a mobile communications system including a circuit-switched mobile network and packet-switched mobile network, a method comprising:

the mobile station initiating establishment of a communication session with the mobile communications network during which plural flows of an application are communicated between the mobile station and an external network entity, and

performing a common authentication procedure of the mobile station for both the circuit-switched and packet-switched networks to authenticate the mobile station for access to and use of the mobile communications system and the external network entity,

wherein after the common authentication procedure, a subsequent application flow is established with the external network entity without performing another authentication procedure involving the external network entity.

36. The method in claim 35, further comprising:

storing one or more parameters resulting from the common authentication procedure in a node in the mobile communication system, and

for the subsequent application flow, comparing the stored one or more parameters with an authentication request associated with the subsequent application flow,

wherein if the comparison results in a match, the subsequent application flow is authenticated.

37. In a mobile communications system including a circuit-switched mobile network and packet-switched mobile network, a method comprising:

the mobile station initiating establishment of a communication session with the mobile communications network during which plural flows of an application are communicated between the mobile station and an external network entity, and

performing a common configuration procedure of the mobile station with the external network entity for both the circuit-switched and packet-switched networks to configure the mobile station for communication with the external network entity,

wherein after the common configuration procedure, a subsequent application flow is established with the external network entity without performing another configuration procedure involving the external network entity.

38. The method in claim 37, further comprising:

storing one or more parameters resulting from the common configuration procedure in a node in the mobile communications system, and

for the subsequent application flow, comparing the stored one or more parameters with a configuration request associated with the subsequent application flow,

wherein if the comparison results in a match, the subsequent application flow is configured.

39. The method in claim 38, wherein the one or more parameters include an IP address from the external network entity, a domain name server identifier, a worldwide web server identifier, and a conference gatekeeper.

40. A mobile communications system connected to an external network comprising:

a mobile station having an application with plural flows associated with the application, and

a gateway node through which the mobile station communicates with an entity in the external network, the gateway node including a mapper mapping ones of the plural application flows to one of a circuit-switched bearer and a packet-switched bearer for carrying information between the mobile station and the gateway node depending on a type of service associated with each of the application flows.

41. The mobile communications system in claim 40, wherein the application specifies a quality of service at a network layer level for each of the application flows, and

wherein the mapper maps each application flow to one of the bearers depending on a quality of service associated with the application flow.

42. The mobile communications system in claim 41, wherein if the specified quality of service is a guaranteed quality of service, the mapper maps the associated application flow to the circuit-switched bearer, and if the specified quality of service is a best efforts quality of service, the mapper maps the associated application flow to the packet-switched bearer.

43. The mobile communications system in claim 40, wherein the mobile station also includes a mapper mapping each one of the application flows from the external network entity to the mobile station to one of the circuit-switched bearer and the packet-switched bearer depending on a type of service associated with each of the application flows.

44. The mobile communications system in claim 40, further comprising:

a circuit-switched network including a direct access unit where a circuit-switched link is established between the mobile station and the direct access unit for each application flow that is assigned a circuit-switched bearer, and

a packet-switched network including a serving node where a packet-switched link is established between the mobile station and the serving node for each application flow that is assigned a packet-switched bearer.

45. The mobile communications system in claim 44, wherein a circuit-switched tunnel is established between the direct access unit and the gateway node and a packet-switched tunnel is established between the serving node and the gateway node.

46. The mobile communications system in claim 45, wherein the mobile communications system is the GSM, the direct access unit is provided in a mobile switching center, the packet-switched network is the GPRS network, the serving node is a serving support GPRS node (SSGN), the gateway node is a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN), the circuit-switched link is a radio link protocol connection, the packet-switched link is a link layer connection, the tunnel between the SSGN and the GGSN employs GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP), and the tunnel between the direct access unit and the GGSN is a layer two tunneling protocol (L2TP).

47. The mobile communications system in claim 40, wherein the mobile station is a class B mobile station that supports simultaneous registration with the circuit-switched and packet-switched services networks but does not support simultaneous circuit-switched and packet-switched traffic, and

wherein when a circuit-switched bearer is established for an application flow, packet-switched data are transmitted over the established circuit-switched bearer.

48. The mobile communications system in claim 47, wherein when the circuit-switched bearer is released, packet-switched data are transmitted to the class B mobile station over a packet-switched bearer.

49. The mobile communications system in claim 40, wherein the gateway node includes a common access server that establishes communication between the external network entity and the mobile station for both circuit-switched bearers and packet-switched bearers.

50. The mobile communications system in claim 49, wherein to initially establish a session between the mobile station and with the external network entity, the common access server performs a common access procedure between the mobile station and the external network entity for both the circuit-switched and packet-switched networks.

51. The mobile communications system in claim 50, wherein after the common access procedure, a subsequent application flow is established with the external network without performing another access procedure involving the external network.

52. The mobile communications system in claim 49, wherein the common access server performs a common authentication procedure for authenticating the mobile station with the external network entity such that the mobile station is configured for subsequent ones of the plural application flows with the external network for both circuit-switched and packet-switched services.

53. The mobile communications system in claim 52, wherein the common authentication procedure includes confirming an identity of the mobile station and whether the mobile station is authorized to communicate with external network entity.

54. The mobile communications system in claim 50, wherein the common access server stores a mobile station identifier and a password during a common mobile authentication procedure between the mobile station and the external network entity, the common access server using the stored information to authenticate subsequent ones of application flows.

55. The mobile communications system in claim 54, wherein if the common access server determines that a mobile identifier and password received from the mobile station associated with a subsequent application flow match the stored information, the subsequent application flow is authorized without involving the external network entity.

56. The mobile communications system in claim 50, wherein the common access procedure includes a common configuration procedure for configuring the mobile station with the external network entity such that the mobile station is configured for subsequent application flows with the external network entity for both circuit-switched and packet-switched services.

57. The mobile communications system in claim 56, wherein in the common configuration procedure the common access server provides the mobile station with one or more parameters needed to communicate with the external network entity including a network layer address, stores the one or more parameters, and for subsequent application streams involving the mobile station during the session, retrieves the stored parameters to configure the subsequent application without involving the external network entity.

58. The mobile communications system in claim 57, wherein the common access server functions as a dynamic configuration relay agent between the mobile station and the external network entity.

59. For use in a mobile communications system including a circuit switched network and a packet-switched network connected to an external network entity, a mobile terminal comprising:

an application with plural application flows, each application flow associated with a corresponding quality of service, and

a mapper mapping ones of the application flows to one of a circuit-switched bearer and a packet-switched bearer depending on a type of service associated with each of those application flows.

60. The mobile terminal in claim 59, wherein application specifies a quality of service at a network layer level for each of the application flows, and

wherein the mapper maps each application flow to one of the bearers depending on a quality of service associated with the application flow.

61. The mobile terminal in claim 60, wherein if the specified quality of service is a guaranteed quality of service, the mapper maps the associated application flow to the circuit-switched bearer, and if the specified quality of service is a best efforts quality of service, the mapper maps the associated application flow to the packet-switched bearer.