Apparatus, and an associated method, by which to provide operation parameters to a mobile station

• US 6,587,685 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2001
• Issued: 07/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Gustafsson, Patrik, Spadafora, Paul, Mathews, Glen, Mittal, Gaurav
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Nay
• Assistant Examiner(s): PERSINO, RAYMOND B
• Application Number:
  US09/844,179
• Publication Number:
  US 20020160763A1
• Time in Patent Office: 795 Days
• Field of Search: 455/419, 455/418, 455/410, 455/411, 455/412, 709/466, 709/560, 709/561, 709/551, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 709/227, 709/230, 709/246
• US Class Current: 455/419
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/245 from a network towards a terminal

Abstract

Apparatus, and an associated method for downloading operation parameters to a mobile station by way of a radio link. The operating parameters include, for instance, preferred roaming list, number assignment module, enhanced variable rate coder, IP address, access point setup parameters, and the like, to be used during operation of the mobile station. Values of the operational parameter are input by way of the user interface to a server coupled to the network infrastructure of the communication system in which the mobile station is operable. Values of the operational parameters are encoded and routed to the mobile station by way of the network infrastructure of the communication system and a radio link formed with the mobile station. Once detected at the mobile station, the values are stored at a storage element, and later retrieved during subsequent operation of the mobile station.

Claims

1. In a radio communication system having a mobile station operable pursuant to at least a first selected operational parameter, the mobile station capable of communicating with network infrastructure of the radio communication system, an improvement of apparatus for the network infrastructure for generating a download-parameter signal for communication to the mobile station, said apparatus comprising:

a Sync Mark-Up Language (Sync ML) engine coupled to receive indications of a value to be associated with the at least the first selected operational parameter, said Sync Mark-Up Language engine selectably operable to generate the download-parameter signal, the download-parameter signal formatted in Sync ML form and of values representative of the value associated with the at least the first selected operational parameter, the download-parameter signal formatted in the Sync ML form thereby to be encoded to limit detection of the values thereof during communication therefrom to the mobile station.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the download-parameter signal, formatted in the Sync ML form, generated by said download-parameter signal generator, and encoded to limit detection of the values thereof, is binary-encoded.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the Sync ML form into which the download-parameter signal generated by said Sync Mark-Up Language engine is formatted includes the indications of the value associated with the at least the first selected operational parameter represented as Synchronization Mark-up language (Sync ML) text.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 further comprising an input actuator coupled to said Sync Mark-Up Language engine and selectably actuable at least to provide the indications of the value associated with the at least the first selected operation parameter.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the network infrastructure includes a network backbone portion and a radio access network portion and wherein an operator-server is coupled to the network backbone, said Sync ML engine embodied at the operator-server.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said input actuator is embodied at the operator-server.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first selected operational parameter of which the values of the download-parameter signal generated by said Sync Mark-Up Language engine are representative comprises a preferred roaming list parameter.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first selected operational parameter of which the values of the download-parameter signal generated by said Sync Mark-Up Language engine are representative comprises a number assignment module (NAM) parameter.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first selected operational parameter of which the values of the download-parameter signal generated by said Sync mark-Up Language engine are representative comprises an enhanced variable rate coder (EVRC) parameter.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the mobile station is identified by an IP address and wherein the first selected operational parameter of which the values of the download-parameter signal generated by said Sync Mark-Up Language engine are representative comprises an IP address parameter.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first selected operational parameter of which the values of the download-parameter signal generated by said Sync Mark-Up Language engine are representative comprises an access point setup parameter list.

12. In a radio communication system of claim 1, a further improvement of apparatus for the mobile station for storing the values representative of the value associated with the at least the first selected operation parameter, said apparatus comprising:

a download-parameter signal detector coupled to receive indications of the download-parameter signal generated by said Sync Mark-Up Language engine, once communicated to the mobile station, said download-parameter signal detector for detecting the values representative of the first selected operation parameter; and

a storage element coupled to said download-parameters signal detector, said storage element for storing the values detected by said download-parameter signal detector thereat.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein said download-parameter signal detector comprises a Sync ML detector engine for operating upon the download-parameter signal formatted in the Sync ML form.

14. In a method for communicating in a radio communication system having a mobile station operable pursuant to at least a first selected operational parameter, the mobile station capable of communicating with network infrastructure of the radio communication system, an improvement of a method for generating a download-parameter signal for communication to the mobile station, said method comprising:

detecting, at the network infrastructure, indications of a value to be associated with the at least the first selected operational parameter;

generating a download-parameter signal, formatted in Sync ML form, of values representative of the value associated with the at least the first selected operational parameter detected during said operation of detecting, the download-parameter signal formatted in the Sync ML form, thereby to be encoded to limit detection of the values thereof during communication therefrom to the mobile station; and

sending the download-parameter signal, generated during said operation of generating, to the mobile station.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising the operations of:

receiving the download-parameter signal at the mobile station;

extracting the value of the download-parameter signal associated with the at least the first selected operational parameter; and

storing the value, extracted during said operation of extracting, at the mobile station.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising the operation of using the value stored during said operation of storing during subsequent operation of the mobile station.

17. In a radio communication system having a mobile station operable pursuant to at least a first selected operational parameter, the mobile station capable of communicating with network infrastructure of the radio communication system, an improvement of apparatus for the mobile station for maintaining values representative of the first selected operation parameter, said apparatus comprising:

a Sync Mark-Up Language engine coupled to receive indications of a download-parameter signal communicated thereto, the download-parameter signal formatted in Sync Mark-Up Language form and of values representative of the value associated with the at least the first selected operational parameter, the download-parameter signal formatted in the Sync Mark-Up Language form thereby to be encoded to limit detection of the values thereof during communication to the mobile station; and

a storage element coupled to said Sync Mark-Up Language engine, said storage element for storing the values, detected by said Sync Mark-Up Language engine thereat.