ACCESSING AN ACCESS NETWORK TO ENABLE GRADE OF SERVICE IN CALLS OR FLOW REQUESTS FOR TARGET USERS OF ACCESS TERMINALS

• US 20080031219A1
• Filed: 08/01/2006
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Zou, Jialin
• Application Number:
  US11/461,671
• Publication Number:
  US 20080031219A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/348
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/24 Negotiating SLA [Service Level Agreement]; Negotiating QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup

Abstract

A method and an apparatus are provided for accessing an access network to call at least one target access terminal on a wireless network. The method includes associating an indication of priority with a call for a caller at a source access terminal that initiates the call. The method further includes sending the indication of priority to a first portion of the access network for providing an indication of priority grant at the at least one target access terminal for the call. For example, a call flow to a target access terminal may be controlled in an Internet Protocol (IP)-based network of first and second portions of an access network by using a message including a call priority associated with an incoming call at the first portion of the access network coupled to a call initiating access terminal. The second portion of the access network may grant substantially the same call priority of the incoming call. To access the access network for a call initiating user, an access terminal may determine whether a new priority granted to the access terminal is different than an original priority. If so, the access terminal reconfigures based on the new priority granted to perform at least one of a hashing, access, and connection request procedures based on the granted new priority.

Claims

1. A method of accessing an access network to call at least one target access terminal on a wireless network, the method comprising:

associating an indication of priority with a call at a source access terminal that initiates said call; and

sending said indication of priority to a first portion of said access network for providing an indication of priority grant at said at least one target access terminal for said call.

2. A method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein providing an indication of priority grant further comprises:

enabling a desired Grade of Service for at least one user associated with said at least one target access terminal by granting substantially the same said priority of a caller to said call.

3. A method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein providing an indication of priority grant further comprises:

enabling a desired Grade of Service for a group of users associated with said at least one target access terminal by granting substantially the same said priority of a caller to said call.

4. A method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein sending said indication of priority to said access network further comprises:

indicating a priority level for said call to support an end-to-end service based on a desired Grade of Service for at least one user of said at least one target access terminal.

5. A method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein sending said indication of priority to said first portion of said access network further comprises:

indicating a priority level for a flow request to support an end-to-end service based on a desired Grade of Service for at least one user of said at least one target access terminal.

6. A method, as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

issuing at least one of a connection request message and an application flow reservation request message with said indication of priority for said call on an air interface link to said first portion of said access network.

7. A method, as set forth in claim 2, further comprising:

causing said first portion of said access network to bind a request for initiating said call with said indication of priority associated with said call at said source access terminal.

8. A method, as set forth in claim 7, wherein causing said first portion of said access network to bind a request for initiating said call with said indication of priority further comprises:

causing an application server associated with a call network to announce binding of said request for initiating said call with said indication of priority to said second portion of said access network coupled to said at least one target access terminal.

9. A method, as set forth in claim 8, further comprising:

in response to said binding of said request for initiating said call with said indication of priority, causing said second portion of said access network to page said at least one target access terminal with said indication of priority grant; and

granting a call priority to said at least one target access terminal based on said indication of priority grant for completing said call, wherein said call priority being substantially the same as said priority of said indication of priority.

10. A method, as set forth in claim 9, further comprising:

in response to granting of said call priority to said at least one target access terminal, causing said at least one target access terminal to configure based on a granted priority having substantially the same said priority of said call and issue a connection request and an application flow reservation request to said second portion of said access network coupled to said at least one target access terminal.

11. A method, as set forth in claim 10, further comprising:

enabling said second portion of said access network to at least one of admit said call, provide an overload control and allocate a resource based on said granted priority of said at least one target access terminal.

12. A method, as set forth in claim 11, further comprising:

causing said second portion of said access network to accept said call with said indication of priority being substantially the same as said granted priority;

causing said application server to indicate a floor grant with said indication of priority based on said granted priority to said first portion of said access network; and

causing said first portion of said access network to allocate a resource based on said granted priority of said at least one target access terminal to enable flow of one or more messages or traffic being sent from said at least one target access terminal back to said source access terminal.

13. A method, as set forth in claim 5, further comprising:

providing at least one of an access probe power setting, hashing and said indication of priority to support said desired Grade of Service of a different priority class of one or more priority classes associated with said at least one user of said at least one target access terminal.

14. A method, as set forth in claim 8, further comprising:

in response to said binding of said request for initiating said call with said indication of priority, causing said second portion of said access network to page more than one users than said at least one user associated with said at least one target access terminal to multicast said indication of priority grant; and

granting a high priority to said more than one users based on said indication of priority grant for responding to a priority call, wherein said high priority being substantially the same as said priority of said indication of priority.

15. A method, as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

causing said first portion of said access network to control at least one of an admission control parameter, an overload control parameter and a resource allocation parameter based on the priority indication of said source access terminal to meet a desired Grade of Service of said source access terminal.

16. A method of controlling a call flow from a call initiating access terminal to a target access terminal in an Internet Protocol (IP)-based network of first and second portions of an access network, the method comprising:

receiving a message including a call priority associated with an incoming call at said first portion of said access network coupled to said call initiating access terminal; and

enabling said second portion of said access network coupled to said target access terminal to grant a priority indication substantially the same as said call priority of said incoming call.

17. A method, as set forth claim 16, further comprising:

using an application server associated with said IP-based network to pass said priority indication to said second portion of said access network for further paging said grant of said priority indication to said target access terminal.

18. A method, as set forth claim 17, further comprising:

enabling a desired Grade of Service for at least one user associated with said target access terminal by granting substantially the same said priority of a call initiator to said incoming call.

19. A method, as set forth claim 17, further comprising:

receiving a priority level for said incoming call to support an end-to-end service based on a desired Grade of Service with an associated Quality of Service for said at least one user of said target access terminal.

20. A method, as set forth claim 17, further comprising:

receiving said message including at least one of a connection request message and an application flow reservation request message at said first portion of said access network on an air interface with said call priority associated with said incoming call; and

in response to granting of said call priority to said target access terminal, causing said target access terminal to configure based on a granted priority having substantially the same said call priority of said incoming call.

21. A method, as set forth claim 20, further comprising:

causing said first portion of said access network to send a multicast message to indicate an alert mode to a group of users at an associated set of access terminals which are currently in a normal mode that indicates an idle state; and

in response to said multicast message, enabling at least one of waking-up of said associated set of access terminals more often than in a non-alert mode, sending of a message for a route update more often, and boosting a level of pilot power to another level.

22. A method of accessing an access network for a call initiating user at an access terminal in an Internet Protocol (IP)-based network, the method comprising:

in response to determining granting of a new priority to said access terminal different than an original priority associated with said access terminal, reconfiguring said access terminal based on said new priority granted to configure said access terminal to perform at least one of a hashing, access, and connection request functions based on the granted said new priority.

23. A method, as set forth claim 22, further comprising:

defining one or more priority levels based on a type of at least one of call or flow for providing a priority access and call admission to said call in an access network;

defining one or more priority classes for said one or more priority levels to support a desired Grade of Service with a Quality of Service; and

using different power ramps and back-off functions with different initial and ending access probe power level corresponding to a different priority level or class of said one or more priority levels and classes.

24. A method, as set forth claim 23, further comprising:

causing said access terminal to perform hashing based on said different priority level or class of said one or more priority levels and classes.

25. A method, as set forth claim 23, further comprising:

causing said access terminal to use hashing based on said new priority.

26. A method, as set forth claim 25, further comprising:

determining whether a default carrier is busy for a priority class associated with said access terminal being paged and granted said new priority for hashing based on said new priority.