METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SOLVING LIMITED ADDRESSING SPACE IN MACHINE-TO-MACHINE (M2M) ENVIRONMENTS

• US 20110053619A1
• Filed: 08/27/2010
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shaheen, Kamel M., Kaur, Samian
• Granted Patent: US 8,718,688 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/18 between terminal devices

Abstract

A method and apparatus for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications between a controller and a group of wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs), each WTRU within the group having a same international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI).

Claims

1. A machine-to-machine (M2M) based wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), comprising:

a receiver configured to receive information from a M2M controller; and

a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, wherein the SIM card includes a group international mobile subscriber identity (G-IMSI) wherein the G-IMSI is unique to a group of M2M WTRUs.

2. The M2M based WTRU of claim 1 wherein the G-IMSI is a permanent identification (ID) used for accessing the wireless communication system.

3. The M2M based WTRU of claim 1 wherein the information is received in a short message service (SMS) message, session initiation protocol (SIP) message or initiation protocol (IP) message.

4. The M2M based WTRU of claim 1 wherein the group of M2M WTRUs includes a plurality of WTRUs having the same G-IMSI.

5. The M2M based WTRU of claim 1 wherein the group of M2M WTRUs is based on geographic proximity.

6. The M2M based WTRU of claim 1 wherein the WTRU communicates via internet protocol (IP) with the M2M controller.

7. The M2M based WTRU of claim 1 wherein the WTRU receives a G-IMSI.

8. A machine-to-machine (M2M) controller, comprising:

a transmitter configured to transmit information to a plurality of international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) groups, each IMSI group including a plurality of wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) wherein each WTRU includes a group international mobile subscriber identity (G-IMSI);

a receiver configured to receive information from the plurality of IMSI groups; and

a processor configured to process an internet protocol (IP) address and G-IMSI received from the plurality of IMSI groups.

9. The M2M controller of claim 8 wherein the M2M controller deploys, manages and controls the plurality of IMSI groups.

10. The M2M controller of claim 8 wherein the information received from the plurality of IMSI groups includes an IP address or a short message service (SMS) message.

11. The M2M controller of claim 10 wherein the SMS message includes power and timing instructions.

12. A method of managing communications by a machine-to-machine (M2M) controller, the method comprising:

deploying a plurality of wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) with a group international mobile subscriber identity (G-IMSI) wherein the G-IMSI is unique to a group of WTRUs;

receiving information from the group of WTRUs;

allocating information to the group of WTRUs; and

controlling the level of information sent to the group of WTRUs.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the information includes short message service (SMS) messages, session initiation protocol (SIP) messages, initiation protocol (IP) messages.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the SMS messages include power and timing instructions.

15. A wireless communication system connecting a group of wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) to a machine-to-machine (M2M) controller using a group international mobile subscriber identity (G-IMSI), the M2M controller comprising:

a transmitter configured to transmit information to the group of WTRUs wherein the information includes a G-IMSI, or its derivative, and the G-IMSI is unique to the group of WTRUs;

a receiver configured to receive information from the group of WTRUs including the G-IMSI; and

a processor configured to authorize access based on the G-IMSI.

16. The wireless communication system of claim 15 wherein the processor is configured to register the G-IMSI.

17. The wireless communication system of claim 15 wherein radio resources, temporary identifications, internet protocol (IP) addresses and international mobile subscriber (IMS) registrations are allocated based on the authorized G-IMSI.

18. The wireless communication system of claim 15 wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit information including short message service (SMS) messages, session initiation protocol (SIP) messages or initiation protocol (IP) messages.