METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HANDOVER BETWEEN COMMUNICATION NETWORK AND BROADCAST NETWORK

• US 20110206002A1
• Filed: 01/07/2011
• Published: 08/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Jee, Junghoon, Park, Hyunho, Park, Chang Min, Kim, Eunah, Jeon, Hong Seok
• Granted Patent: US 8,599,796 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/331
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0007 for multicast or broadcast services, e.g. MBMS multicast or broadcast application services H04W4/06; resource management for broadcast services H04W72/30; connection management for selective distribution or broadcast H04W76/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0009 for a plurality of users or terminals, e.g. group communication or moving wireless networks user group management H04W4/08; processing of subscriber group data H04W8/186
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/14 Reselecting a network or an air interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/1443 between licensed networks
• 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

Abstract

An exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a method of commanding, by a handover control apparatus, a group of terminals to perform handover from a broadcasting network to a communication network, the method comprising generating a handover indication message including service information for identifying the group of terminals and transmitting the handover indication message to the group of terminals.

Claims

1. A method of commanding, by a handover control apparatus, a group of terminals to performhandover from a broadcasting network to a communication network, the method comprising:

generating a handover indication message including service information for identifying the group of terminals; and

transmitting the handover indication message to the group of terminals.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the transmitting includes

generating a handover request primitive including service information for identifying the group of terminals at a first layer,

transmitting the handover request primitive to a second layer, and

transmitting the handover indication message to the group of terminals at the second layer.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the first layer is a Media Independent Handover (MIH) user and the second layer is an MIH function.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the handover request primitive further includes at least one of information for identifying a specific group of terminals, link type information on networks to which the specific group of terminals can be connected, information on networks to which the specific group of terminals can be connected, information on link operations required by the handover control apparatus, and information on execution time of the link operations required by the handover control apparatus.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the handover indication message is a unidirectional message that does not require responses from the group of terminals.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the handover indication message further includes at least one of information for identifying the handover control apparatus, information for identifying the specific group of terminals, link type information on networks to which the specific group of terminals can be connected, information on networks to which the specific group of terminals can be connected, information on link operations required by the handover control apparatus, and information on execution time of the link operations required by the handover control apparatus.

7. A handover method of a terminal from a broadcasting network to a communication network, the method comprising:

receiving a handover indication message including service information for identifying a group of terminals belonging to the terminal from a handover control apparatus; and

executing a handover command based on the handover indication message.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the executing includes

generating a handover indication primitive including the service information at a first layer,

transmitting the handover indication primitive to a second layer, and

executing a handover command at the second layer.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the first layer is a MIH function and the second layer is an MIH user.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the handover indication primitive further includes at least one of information for identifying the handover control apparatus, link type information on networks to which a specific group of terminals can be connected, information on networks to which the specific group of terminals can be connected, information on link operations required by the handover control apparatus, and information on execution time of the link operations required by the handover control apparatus.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the handover indication message is a unidirectional message that does not require responses from the group of terminals.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the handover indication message further includes at least one of information for identifying the handover control apparatus, information for identifying the a specific group of terminals, link type information on networks to which the specific group of terminals can be connected, information on networks to which the specific group of terminals can be connected, information on link operations required by the handover control apparatus, and information on execution time of the link operations required by the handover control apparatus.

13. A handover control apparatus commanding a group of terminals to perform handover from a broadcasting network to a communication network, the apparatus comprising:

a first layer generating a handover request primitive including service information for identifying the group of terminals; and

a second layer receiving the handover request primitive from the first layer and transmitting a handover indication message including the service information to the group of terminals.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein:

the handover indication message is a unidirectional message that does not require responses from the group of terminals.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein:

the first layer is a Media Independent Handover (MIH) user and the second layer is an MIH function.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein:

the handover request primitive further includes at least one of information for identifying a specific group of terminals, link type information on networks to which the specific group of terminals can be connected, information on networks to which the specific group of terminals can be connected, information on link operations required by the handover control apparatus, and information on execution time of the link operations required by the handover control apparatus.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein:

the handover indication message further includes at least one of information for identifying the handover control apparatus, information for identifying a specific group of terminals, link type information on networks to which the specific group of terminals can be connected, information on networks to which the specific group of terminals can be connected, information on a link operations required by the handover control apparatus, and information on execution time of the link operations required by the handover control apparatus.