Architecture And Method For Using IEEE 802.11-Like Wireless LAN System To Emulate Private Land Mobile Radio System (PLMRS) Radio Service

• US 20080075055A1
• Filed: 10/30/2007
• Published: 03/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rice, Christopher, Miller, Robert, Murray, John, Chow, Albert
• Granted Patent: US 7,933,225 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4061 Push-to services, e.g. push-to-talk or push-to-video
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/45 for Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-to-Talk over cellular [PoC] services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/00 Wireless network protocols or protocol adaptations to wireless operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/08 Trunked mobile radio systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

An architecture is described for providing IP push-to-talk (IPP2T) service using a wireless local area network (WLAN) serving a plurality of subscriber terminals (STs), having at least one broadband access network terminal (BANT), the BANT coupled to and interacting with at least one of a plurality of Access Points (APs) via a local area network (LAN), the plurality of APs in communication with the plurality of subscriber terminals; a multicast-enabled network, the multicast-enabled network coupled to and interacting with at least one BANT via a broadband access network; an IP network coupled to, and interacting with, the multicast-enabled network via an edge router; and a WLAN mobile radio service (WLMRS) controller (WLMRSC) coupled to and interacting with the IP network via a multicast-enabled router (MR).

Claims

1. :

A system comprising;

at least one broadband access network terminal (BANT) configured to interact with at least one access point;

a multicast-enabled network coupled to, and configured to interact with, the at least one BANT;

an IP network coupled to, and configured to interact with, the multicast-enabled network via an edge router; and

a wireless local area network (WLAN) mobile radio service (WLMRS) controller (WLMRSC) coupled to, and configured to interact with, the IP network via a multicast-enabled router (MR).

2. :

The system of claim 1, wherein said IP network is further coupled to, and configured to interact with, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) via a PSTN gateway.

3. :

The system of claim 1, wherein said IP network is further coupled to, and configured to interact with, an SS7 network via an SS7 gateway.

4. :

The system of claim 1, wherein said IP network is further coupled to, and configured to interact with, a public cellular network via a public cellular network gateway.

5. :

The system of claim 1, wherein said IP network is further coupled to, and configured to interact with, a content service provider via a content service provider gateway.

6. :

The system of claim 1, wherein said IP network is further coupled to, and configured to interact with, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) via a router.

7. :

The system of claim 1, wherein said LAN is Ethernet 10/100 base-T.

8. :

The system claim 1, wherein said WLAN uses a quality-of-service (QoS) protocol capable WLAN.

9. :

The system of claim 1, wherein said WLAN utilizes a small-cell architecture.

10. :

A method comprising;

receiving packetized information and control signaling from at least one access point (AP) at a broadband access network terminal (BANT) via a local area network (LAN);

sending the packetized information and the control signaling from the BANT to a multicast-enabled network via a broadband access network;

routing the packetized information and the control signaling between the multicast-enabled network and an IP network via an edge router; and

directing the packetized information and the control signaling to a wireless local area network (WLAN) mobile radio system (WLMRS) controller (WLMRSC) via a multicast-enabled router (MR).

11. :

The method of claim 10, further comprising sending the packetized information and control signaling over the air from the AP to a ST via the WLAN.

12. :

The method of claim 11, wherein the BANT supports media stream mixing and multicasting of the packetized information associated with IPP2T services.