Implementation of multiple simultaneous calls in a mobile communication system

• US 20050250505A1
• Filed: 07/14/2005
• Published: 11/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Networks (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Rasanen, Juha A
• Granted Patent: US 7,466,677 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/450
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/15 Setup of multiple wireless link connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/34 Selective release of ongoing connections

Abstract

In an implementation of multiple simultaneous calls for a mobile station in a mobile communication system, a common traffic channel is allocated to several simultaneous calls of the mobile station, so that the calls share capacity of the common channel. Logical links are established for each call inside a common radio link protocol or link access control protocol, established over the common traffic channel between the mobile station and an interworking function. The common traffic channel is allocated when the first call or calls are set up, and the capacity of the traffic channel is adjusted dynamically during the calls. The common traffic channel capacity is increased or the allocated capacity is reallocated when a new call is added to the traffic channel. Correspondingly, the capacity is decreased or reallocated when a call is cleared from the common traffic channel.

Claims

1-30. -30. (canceled)

31. A method of producing two or more simultaneous data calls for one mobile station in a mobile communication system, the method comprising:

assigning only one common traffic channel to two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls of the mobile station, and

sharing the capacity of the common traffic channel between the simultaneous calls,

negotiating between the mobile station and a mobile communication network about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection, and

adjusting dynamically the capacity of the common traffic channel.

34. A method according to claim 31, wherein the type of at least one of the calls is one of the following:

a pure non-transparent call;

a pure transparent call;

a call comprising at least one non-transparent connection and at least one transparent connection; and

a packet-switched call.

39. A method according to claim 31, comprising:

detecting that the mobile communication network is temporarily unable to allocate more transmission capacity or the required transmission capacity to the common traffic channel when a new call or connection is established,

reallocating the available capacity of the common traffic channel to the calls, and

allocating the requested capacity to the common traffic channel later when capacity becomes available in the network.

40. A method according to claim 31, comprising:

monitoring the traffic of at least one call or connection on the traffic channel,

detecting that there is temporarily no traffic in said one call or connection, and

using the temporarily unused resources for the traffic of at least one other call or connection in the common traffic channel.

41. A method according to claim 40, comprising:

detecting that the information flow of the transparent call or connection contains a filler according to the protocol used, such as flags or control frames,

deleting said filler from the transparent information flow at the transmitting end,

transmitting frames or packets of at least one non-transparent or packet-switched connection via the traffic channel in place of said filler, and

returning said filler to the received information flow in the receiver before transmitting it further.

32. A method of producing two or more simultaneous data calls for one mobile station in a mobile communication system, the method comprising:

assigning only one common traffic channel to two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls of the mobile station,

sharing the capacity of the common traffic channel between the simultaneous calls,

negotiating between the mobile station and the network about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection,

adjusting the capacity of said common traffic channel dynamically by one or more of;

changing the number of the allocated subchannels in the traffic channel;

changing channel coding; and

changing the ratio of chip rate to data rate in the code division multiple access system.

33. A method according to claim 32, comprising:

assigning said common traffic channel to the mobile station when the first call or calls are set up,

increasing the capacity of the common traffic channel or reallocating the allocated capacity when a new call, or a new connection of an old call, is added to the traffic channel,

decreasing the capacity of the common traffic channel or reallocating the allocated capacity when a call or a connection of a call is cleared from the traffic channel, and

releasing the common traffic channel after the last call has been cleared.

35. A method of producing two or more simultaneous data calls for one mobile station in a mobile communication system, the method comprising:

assigning only one common traffic channel to two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls of the mobile station,

sharing the capacity of the common traffic channel between the simultaneous calls,

negotiating between the mobile station and the network about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection,

establishing one radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link over the traffic channel between the mobile station and an interworking function,

establishing a logical channel for each call or each connection of each call inside said one radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link, and

transmitting the user data of each call or each connection of each call via the respective logical channel.

36. A method of producing two or more simultaneous data calls for one mobile station in a mobile communication system, the method comprising:

assigning only one common traffic channel to two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls of the mobile station,

sharing the capacity of the common traffic channel between the simultaneous calls,

negotiating between the mobile station and the network about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection,

establishing a dedicated radio link protocol link or a link access control protocol link for each call or each connection over the traffic channel between the mobile station and the interworking function, and

transmitting user data of each call or connection via the logical channel established by the respective radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link.

37. A method of producing two or more simultaneous data calls for one mobile station in a mobile communication system, the method comprising:

assigning only one common traffic channel to two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls of the mobile station,

sharing the capacity of the common traffic channel between the simultaneous calls,

negotiating between the mobile station and the network about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection,

establishing one radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link over the common traffic channel between the mobile station and the interworking function, and

transmitting data packets of a packet-switched call either interleaved with the protocol frames of the radio link protocol link or the link access control protocol link or encapsulated in the protocol frames.

38. A method of producing two or more simultaneous data calls for one mobile station in a mobile communication system, the method comprising:

assigning only one common traffic channel to two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls of the mobile station,

sharing the capacity of the common traffic channel between the simultaneous calls,

negotiating between the mobile station and the network about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection,

establishing a radio link protocol link or a link access control protocol link for each call or each connection over the common traffic channel between the mobile station and the interworking function, and

transmitting the data packets of a packet-switched call either interleaved with the protocol frames of the radio link protocol link or the link access control protocol link or encapsulated in the protocol frames.

42. A mobile station which comprises:

means for producing two or more simultaneous data calls for one mobile station in a mobile communication system, said means comprising;

means for sharing the capacity of one common traffic channel between two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls,

means for negotiating between the mobile station and the network about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection, and

means for adjusting the capacity of said common traffic channel dynamically.

43. A mobile station according to claim 42, comprising means for establishing a separate subchannel for each call or each connection of each call in said common traffic channel.

44. A mobile station comprising:

means for producing two or more simultaneous data calls for one mobile station in a mobile communication system, said means comprising

means for sharing the capacity of one common traffic channel between two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls between,

means for negotiating between the mobile station and the network about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection,

means for establishing one radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link over the common traffic channel between the mobile station and the interworking function,

means for establishing a logical link for each call or each connection of each call inside said one radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link,

means for transmitting user data of each call or each connection of a call via the respective logical link, and

means for adjusting the capacity of said common traffic channel dynamically.

45. A mobile station comprising:

means for sharing the capacity of one common traffic channel between two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls,

means for negotiating with a network about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection,

means for establishing a radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link for each call or each connection over the traffic channel between the mobile station and an interworking function, and

means for transmitting the user data of each call or each connection of each call via the respective logical link established by the radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link.

46. A mobile station, comprising:

means for sharing the capacity of one common traffic channel between two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls,

means for negotiating with a network about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection,

means for establishing one radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link over the common traffic channel between the mobile station and an interworking function,

means for establishing a logical link for each call or each connection of each call inside said one radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link,

means for transmitting user data of each call or each connection of a call via the respective logical link, and

means for transmitting data packets of a packet-switched call either interleaved with the protocol frames of the radio link protocol or link access control protocol or encapsulated in the protocol frames.

47. A mobile communication network which comprises means for producing two or more simultaneous calls for a mobile station, said means comprising:

means for establishing one traffic channel of the mobile communication network for two or more mobile communication network calls,

means for sharing the capacity of said common traffic channel between said simultaneous calls,

means for negotiating between the mobile station and a network about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection, and

means adjusting dynamically the capacity of the common traffic channel.

49. A mobile communication network according to claim 47, comprising means for establishing a separate subchannel for each call or each connection of each call in said traffic channel.

50. A mobile communication network according to claim 49, comprising:

means for establishing one radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link over the traffic channel between the mobile station and the interworking function,

means for establishing a logical link for each call or each connection of each call inside said radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link, and

means for transmitting the user data of each call or each connection of each call via the respective logical link.

51. A mobile communication network according to claim 49, comprising:

means for establishing a radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link for each call or each connection over the traffic channel between the mobile station and the interworking function, and

means for transmitting the user data of each call or each connection of a call via the respective logical link established by the radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link.

52. A mobile communication network according to claim 47, comprising:

means for assigning said common traffic channel to the mobile station when the first call or calls are set up,

means for increasing the capacity of the common traffic channel or reallocating the allocated capacity when a new call, or a new connection of an old call, is added to the common traffic channel,

means for decreasing the capacity of the common traffic channel or redistributing the allocated capacity when a call or a connection of a call is cleared from the common traffic channel, and

means for releasing the common traffic channel after the last call has been cleared.

53. A mobile communication network according to claim 47, wherein the type of at least one of the calls is one of the following:

a pure non-transparent call;

a pure transparent call;

a call comprising two or more connections.

54. A mobile communication network according to claim 47, comprising:

means for detecting that the mobile communication network is temporarily unable to allocate more transmission capacity or the required amount of transmission capacity to the traffic channel when a new call or connection is set up,

means for reallocating the available capacity of the common traffic channel to the calls, and

means for allocating the requested capacity to the traffic channel later when capacity becomes available in the network.

55. A mobile communication network according to claim 47, wherein the mobile communication network is configured to monitor the traffic of at least one call or connection on the traffic channel and to use the temporarily unused resources for the traffic of at least one other call or connection of the same traffic channel when it is detected that there is temporarily no traffic in said at least one call or connection.

56. A mobile communication network according to claim 55, comprising:

means for detecting that the information flow of a transparent call or connection contains a filler according to the protocol used, such as flags or control frames,

means for deleting said filler from the transparent information flow at the transmitting end,

means for transmitting frames or packets of at least one non-transparent or packet-switched connection via the common traffic channel instead of said filler, and

means for returning said filler to the received transparent information flow in the receiver before the transparent information is transmitted further.

48. A mobile communication network comprising:

means for establishing one traffic channel of the mobile communication network for two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls of a mobile station,

means for sharing the capacity of said common traffic channel between said simultaneous calls,

means for negotiating between the mobile station and a network about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection, and

means for adjusting the capacity of said common traffic channel dynamically.

57. A mobile station comprising:

means for producing two or more simultaneous mobile communication network data calls for the mobile station in a mobile communication system,

means for sharing the capacity of one common traffic channel assigned to two or more simultaneous calls between said simultaneous calls,

means for negotiating with network about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection,

means for negotiating with a network about the use or support of the common traffic channel, and

means for adjusting the capacity of said common traffic channel dynamically.

58. A mobile station according to claim 57, wherein at least one of the two or more simultaneous calls being a packet data call.

59. A method of producing two or more simultaneous data calls for one mobile station in a mobile communication system, the method comprising:

assigning only one common traffic channel to two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls of the mobile station,

sharing the capacity of the common traffic channel between the simultaneous calls,

negotiating between the mobile station and a network about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection.

negotiating between the mobile station and a network about the use or support of the common traffic channel, and

adjusting dynamically the capacity of the common traffic channel.

60. A method according to claim 59, wherein at least one of the two or more simultaneous calls being a packet data call.

61. A method of producing two or more simultaneous data calls for one mobile station in a mobile communication system, the method comprising:

assigning only one common traffic channel to two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls of the mobile station,

sharing the capacity of the common traffic channel between the simultaneous calls,

negotiating between the mobile station and a network about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection, and

adjusting dynamically the capacity of the common traffic channel.

62. A network element for a mobile communication network, comprising:

means for establishing one traffic channel of the mobile communication network for two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls of a mobile station,

means for sharing the capacity of said common traffic channel between said simultaneous calls,

means for negotiating with the mobile station about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection, and

means adjusting dynamically the capacity of the common traffic channel.

63. A network element for a mobile communication network, comprising:

means for establishing one traffic channel of the mobile communication network for two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls of a mobile station,

means for sharing the capacity of said common traffic channel between said simultaneous calls,

means for negotiating with the mobile station about the channel capacity needed for each call or connection,

means for negotiating with the mobile network about the use or support of the common traffic channel, and

means adjusting dynamically the capacity of the common traffic channel.

64. A network element for a mobile communication network, comprising:

means for establishing one traffic channel of the mobile communication network for two or more simultaneous mobile communication network calls of a mobile station,

means for sharing the capacity of said common traffic channel between said simultaneous calls,

means for adjusting dynamically the capacity of the common traffic channel according to the required channel capacity defined by means of negotiation between the mobile station and the network for each call or each connection of each call,

means for establishing a separate subchannel for each call or each connection of each call in said traffic channel means for establishing one radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link over the traffic channel between the mobile station and the interworking function,

means for establishing a logical link for each call or each connection of each call inside said radio link protocol link or link access control protocol link, and

means for transmitting the user data of each call or each connection of each call via the respective logical link by transmitting the data packets of a packet-switched call interleaved with the protocol frames of the radio link protocol or link access control protocol or encapsulated in the protocol frames.