CONTROLLING THE USE OF ACCESS POINTS IN A TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20100240369A1
• Filed: 10/18/2007
• Published: 09/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vodafone Intellectual Property Licensing Limited
• Original Assignee: Vodafone Intellectual Property Licensing Limited
• Inventors: Edwards, Paul, Law, Alan
• Granted Patent: US 8,224,315 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/436
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/30 by measured or perceived connection quality data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/302 due to low signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/12 between access points and access point controllers

Abstract

A mobile telecommunications network includes a radio access network with base stations and one or more additional access points. An access point is connected to a network core by an IP transport broadband connection. The access point is configured to appear to a mobile terminal as a conventional base station—that is, for example, it communicates with the mobile terminal using GSM or UMTS transport protocols and does not require any modification to a standard GSM or UMTS mobile terminal. Arrangements are disclosed which monitor the quality of the broadband connection between the access point and the network core and which cause the mobile terminal to handover to a neighbouring base station in the event that the quality of the broadband connection becomes too poor for the class of communication between the mobile terminals registered with the access point to be performed satisfactorily.

Claims

1. A method of changing a base station with which a mobile telecommunications device is registered, comprising:

varying quality of the signals transmitted to the mobile telecommunications device by the base station to simulate a reduction in quality of a received signal at the mobile telecommunications device.

2. A method of claim 1, wherein the varied quality is the transmit power of the base station.

3. A method of claim 1, wherein the signal is distorted prior to transmission by the base station.

4. A telecommunications network, comprising:

a radio access network comprising a plurality of base stations for wirelessly transmitting data between a mobile telecommunications device and the base stations (3,20), wherein some of the base stations are connected by cellular telecommunications transport to the network and some of the base stations are connected by IP transport to the network, and wherein the IP transport connected base stations monitor the quality of the IP transport connection to the network and are configured to cause the mobile telecommunications devices to de-register with the IP transport connected base stations when the quality of the IP transport connection is poor.

5. The network according to claim 4, wherein the mobile telecommunications devices that are caused to de-register with the IP transport connected base stations re-register with cellular telecommunications transport connected base stations.

6. The network of claim 4, wherein the IP transport connected base stations cause the mobile telecommunications devices to de-register with the IP transport connected base stations by varying the transmit power of the base station (20).

7. The network of claim 4, wherein the IP transport connected base stations cause the mobile telecommunications devices to de-register by distorting signals prior to transmission of the signals by the base stations to the mobile telecommunications device.

8. The network of claim 4, wherein the IP transport connected base stations cause the mobile telecommunications devices to de-register with the IP transport connected base stations by transmitting a message to the network.

9. The network of claim 4, wherein the IP transport connected base stations cause the mobile telecommunications devices to de-register with the IP transport connected base stations by transmitting a message to the mobile telecommunications device.

10. The network according to claim 4, wherein the IP transport connected base stations monitor the class of communication occurring between a mobile telecommunications device and the network for the purpose of deciding when to cause the mobile telecommunications device to de-register.

11. The network according to claim 7, wherein the IP transport connection to the network comprises a DSL broadband connection.

12. The network according to claim 4, wherein the radio access network is part of a GSM or UMTS mobile telecommunications network.