Provisioning seamless applications in mobile terminals through registering and transferring of application context

• US 20030204599A1
• Filed: 05/03/2002
• Published: 10/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Nokia, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Trossen, Dirk, Chaskar, Hemant M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,908,378 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/167 Adaptation for transition between two IP versions, e.g. between IPv4 and IPv6 translation of Internet protocol [IP] addresses H04L61/2503
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0033 with transfer of context information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/06 Transport layer protocols, e.g. TCP [Transport Control Protocol] over wireless transmission control protocol/Internet protocol [TCP/IP] or user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/12 Application layer protocols, e.g. WAP [Wireless Application Protocol]

Abstract

Service provisioning in mobile terminals is provided through registering and transferring of application context, which permits substantially seamless transfer of application functionality across administrative service domains. An architecture for providing application context transfer may include access routers, transcoder proxy servers, and gateway routers. A mobile terminal served by a current access router creates an application context for a session and registers it with the current access router. Around the time of handoff, the current access router transfers the application context to a new access router associated with a new administrative domain and a new access network. The new access router evaluates the application context and takes steps to provide application functionality for the mobile terminal and current sessions. These steps may include the use of a network entity, such as a transcoder proxy server, to modify data for a session and thereby provide application functionality in the new administrative domain.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal adapted to participate in transferring an application context to enable a substantially seamless network level handoff of an application executing on the mobile terminal across access networks, the terminal comprising:

a communications interface; and

a processor communicating through the communications interface, the processor configured to perform the steps of;

(a) constructing an application context for a session involving the application executing on the mobile terminal; and

(b) registering the application context with a current access router in communication with the mobile terminal.

2. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to perform the further step of (c) sending a handoff trigger to the current access router to transfer the application context to a different access router.

3. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the application context comprises information about a plurality of sessions involving the application.

4. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the application comprises a plurality of applications executing on the mobile terminal and the application context comprises information about a plurality of sessions involving the plurality of applications.

5. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the application context comprises information about the session.

6. The mobile terminal of claim 5, wherein the application context information comprises Session Description Protocol (SDP) information.

7. The mobile terminal of claim 5, wherein the application context information comprises information selected from the group consisting of media coding information, Quality of Service (QoS), and bandwidth information.

8. The mobile terminal of claim 7, wherein the media coding information is selected from the group consisting of MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.

9. The mobile terminal of claim 5, wherein the application context information comprises information extracted from a downloaded Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) web page associated with the session.

10. The mobile terminal of claim 9, wherein the extracted information comprises data within an object in the downloaded web page.

11. The mobile terminal of claim 9, wherein information to construct the application context is included in the downloaded web page using a markup language.

12. The mobile terminal of claim 11, wherein the markup language is selected from the group consisting of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), and Synchronous Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL).

13. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises the step of formatting the application context into a format for transmission to the current access router.

14. The mobile terminal of claim 13, wherein the format for the application context comprises an object.

15. The mobile terminal of claim 14, wherein the object conforms with an object model selected from the group consisting of Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Enterprise Java Beans (EJB), and Type Length Value (TLV) format.

16. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises the step of transmitting the application context to the current access router.

17. The mobile terminal of claim 16, wherein the transmission of application context is performed using a protocol for transferring messages between nodes in an Internet protocol (IP) network.

18. The mobile terminal of claim 17, wherein the protocol is selected from the group consisting of Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP).

19. An access router adapted to participate in transferring an application context of a session involving a mobile terminal to enable a substantially seamless network level handoff of an application executing on the mobile terminal across access networks, the access router comprising:

a first communications interface that communicates with the mobile terminal;

a second interface in communication with another access router; and

a processor in communication with the first and second interfaces, the processor configured to perform the steps of;

(a) receiving an application context from the mobile terminal in communication with the first communications interface; and

(b) transmitting the application context to the another access router via the second interface.

20. The access router of claim 19, wherein step (b) is performed in anticipation of an impending handoff of the mobile terminal.

21. The access router of claim 20, wherein the anticipation of an impending handoff comprises reception of a handoff trigger from the mobile terminal.

22. An access router adapted to participate in transferring an application context of a session involving a mobile terminal to enable a substantially seamless network level handoff of an application executing on the mobile terminal across access networks, the access router comprising:

a first communications interface that communicates with the mobile terminal;

a second interface in communication with an originating access router; and

a processor in communication with both of the interfaces, the processor configured to perform the steps of;

(a) receiving an application context from the another access router via the another interface; and

(b) evaluating the application context to determine whether steps are necessary to ensure a substantially seamless continuation of the session after the handoff.

23. The access router of claim 22, wherein the application context comprises parameters for the session and step (b) comprises the step of (c) comparing the parameters with corresponding capabilities of the access network associated with the access router.

24. The access router of claim 23, wherein the parameters for the session are selected from the group consisting of media coding information, Quality of Service (QoS), and bandwidth information.

25. The access router of claim 24, wherein the media coding information is selected from the group consisting of MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.

26. The access router of claim 22, wherein in response to step (b), the processor performs the further step of (c) establishing a relationship with a network entity for processing data transferred as part of the session.

27. The access router of claim 26, wherein the network entity comprises a proxy server.

28. The access router of claim 27, wherein the proxy server comprises a transcoder.

29. The access router of claim 28, wherein step (c) comprises the step of informing the transcoder about the transcoding parameters for the session.

30. The access router of claim 29, wherein the transcoding parameters comprise bandwidth reduction of the session after handoff.

31. The access router of claim 26, wherein the processor performs the further steps of:

(d) receiving communication packets associated with the session via one of the interfaces; and

(e) sending the communication packets to the network entity.

32. The access router of claim 31, wherein step (e) comprises the steps of:

(f) encapsulating the communication packets; and

(g) transmitting the encapsulated packets to the network entity.

33. The access router of claim 31, wherein the processor performs the further steps of:

(f) receiving encapsulated versions of the communication packets from the network entity; and

(g) de-encapsulating the encapsulated versions.

34. The access router of claim 22, wherein in response to step (b), the processor performs the further step of (c) creating a communication path between a gateway router and the access router via a network entity for the session.

35. The access router of claim 34, wherein step (c) comprises the steps of:

(d) communicating with the network entity server to create an entity-to-access router communication path between the network entity and the access router for the session; and

(e) communicating with the gateway router to create a gateway-to-entity communication path between the gateway router and the network entity for the session.

36. The access router of claim 35, wherein step (e) comprises the further step of instructing the gateway router to filter communication packets received from outside the access network for the session and to route the filtered communication packets to the access router via the network entity.

37. The access router of claim 35, wherein the communication paths of steps (d) and (e) comprise tunnels.

38. The access router of claim 34, wherein the processor performs the further steps of:

(d) receiving communication packets associated with the session from the network entity via the another interface; and

(e) sending the communication packets to the mobile terminal via the mobile terminal communications interface.

39. The access router of claim 38, wherein step (d) comprises the steps of:

(f) receiving encapsulated versions of the communication packets; and

(g) de-encapsulating the encapsulated versions.

40. A network entity adapted to participate in enabling a substantially seamless network level handoff of an application executing on a mobile terminal across access networks for a session, the network entity comprising:

a network communications interface in communication with an access router; and

a processor in communication with the interface, the processor configured to perform the steps of;

(a) receiving instructions from the access router for managing communication packets related to the session in accordance with the application context;

(b) receiving communication packets related to the session; and

(c) managing the communication packets in accordance with the instructions.

41. The network entity of claim 40, wherein step (b) comprises the step of de-encapsulating the received communication packets.

42. The network entity of claim 40, wherein the network entity comprises a proxy server.

43. The proxy server of claim 42, wherein the proxy server comprises a transcoder.

44. The network entity of claim 43, wherein step (c) comprises the steps of:

(1) modifying data contained in the communication packets into a format compatible with the mobile terminal;

(2) putting the formatted data into other communication packets; and

(3) sending the other communication packets to the access router.

45. The network entity of claim 44, wherein step (2) comprises the step of encapsulating the other communication packets for transmission to the access router.

46. A method for transferring an application context for a session involving a mobile terminal to enable a substantially seamless network level handoff of an application executing on the mobile terminal, the method comprising:

(a) constructing an application context for a session involving an application executing on the mobile terminal; and

(b) registering the application context with a current access router in communication with the mobile terminal.

47. A method for transferring an application context for a session involving a mobile terminal to enable a substantially seamless network level handoff of an application executing on the mobile terminal, the method comprising:

(a) receiving the application context at a current access router in communication with the mobile terminal; and

(b) transmitting the application context to another access router.

48. A method for transferring an application context for a session involving a mobile terminal to enable a substantially seamless network level handoff of an application executing on the mobile terminal, the method comprising:

(a) receiving at an access router the application context from another access router; and

(b) evaluating the application context to determine whether steps are necessary to ensure a substantially seamless continuation of the session after handoff.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein, in response to step (b), the method further comprises the step of (c) establishing a relationship with a network entity for processing data transferred as part of the session.

50. The method of claim 49, further comprising the steps of:

(d) receiving communication packets associated with the session; and

(e) sending the communication packets to the network entity.

51. The method of claim 48, wherein in response to step (b), the method further comprises the step of (f) creating a communication path between a gateway router and the access router via a network entity for the session.

52. The method of claim 51, further comprising the steps of:

(g) receiving communication packets associated with the session from the network entity; and

(h) sending the communication packets to the mobile terminal.

53. A method for transferring an application context for a session involving an application executing on a mobile terminal to enable a substantially seamless network level handoff of the mobile terminal, the method comprising:

(a) receiving instructions from an access router for managing communication packets related to the session;

(b) receiving communication packets related to the session; and

(c) managing the communication packets in accordance with the instructions.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein step (c) comprises the steps of:

(d) modifying data contained in the communication packets into a format compatible with the mobile terminal;

(e) putting the formatted data into other communication packets; and

(f) sending the other communication packets to the access router.

55. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for transferring an application context for a session involving an application executing on a mobile terminal to enable a substantially seamless network level handoff of the mobile terminal, comprising instructions that cause the mobile terminal to perform the steps of:

(a) constructing an application context for a session involving the mobile terminal; and

(b) registering the application context with a current access router in communication with the mobile terminal.

56. A mobile terminal adapted to participate in transferring an application context to enable a substantially seamless network level handoff of an application executing on the mobile terminal across access networks, the terminal comprising:

a communications interface; and

a processor communicating through the communications interface, the processor configured to perform the steps of;

(a) constructing an application context for a streaming video session involving the mobile terminal, the streaming video session comprising data having a bandwidth and coding format, the application context comprising information about the session, the information comprising the bandwidth and coding format;

(b) formatting the application context into a format for transmission to the current access router;

(c) transmitting the application context to the current access router; and

(d) sending a handoff trigger to the current access router to transfer the application context to a different access router.

57. An access router adapted to participate in transferring an application context of a streaming video session involving an application executing on a mobile terminal to enable a substantially seamless network level handoff of the application on the mobile terminal across access networks, the streaming video session having a first bandwidth, the access router comprising:

a first communications interface that communicates with the mobile terminal;

a second interface in communication with an originating access router; and

a processor in communication with both of the interfaces, the processor configured to perform the steps of;

(a) receiving an application context from the another access router via the another interface; and

(b) evaluating the application context to determine whether steps are necessary to ensure a substantially seamless continuation of the session after the handoff;

(c) establishing a relationship with a network entity for processing data transferred as part of the session, the processing comprising transcoding the streaming video data from a first bandwidth to a second bandwidth;

(d) receiving communication packets containing data with a first bandwidth associated with the streaming video session via one of the interfaces;

(e) encapsulating the communication packets;

(f) transmitting the encapsulated packets to the network entity;

(g) receiving encapsulated packets containing transcoded data from the network entity;

(h) de-encapsulating the transcoded packets, the transcoded data having a second bandwidth; and

(i) transmitting the packets containing transcoded packets to the network terminal.