Location dependent services

• US 7,142,876 B2
• Filed: 08/12/2003
• Issued: 11/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Trossen, Dirk, Pavel, Dana
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng, George
• Assistant Examiner(s): Doan, Phuoc
• Application Number:
  US10/638,477
• Publication Number:
  US 20040176103A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,204 Days
• Field of Search: 455/461, 455/456.3, 455/414.1, 455/456.1, 342/457, 342/387, 705/64, 709/227, 380/270
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/04 using triggered events
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/08 Mobility data transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

A service provider entity includes a communication interface for communication with user equipment and for receiving location information from a plurality of different communication systems. The service provider entity further includes a processor for processing the received location information for determining the location of user equipment subscribing to the service provider entity and for providing services for the subscribing user equipment based on the determined location of the user equipment. A service can also be provided for the user in accordance with a registration if a check indicates that at least one condition that triggers providing the service and registered at the service providing entity is met.

Claims

1. A method of providing a service for a user of user equipment, said user equipment being adapted for communication via a communication system, the method comprising:

registering in a service provider entity information regarding at least one condition that triggers providing the service for the user by sending a subscription message from the user equipment, said service provider entity being arranged to receive location information regarding user equipment from a plurality of sources;

receiving at the service provider entity information associated with a location of the user equipment;

determining a current location of the user equipment at the service provider entity based on said received information;

verifying at the service provider entity if said at least one condition that triggers providing the service is met by checking if the current location of the user equipment matches the condition sent in the subscription message; and

providing the service for the user in accordance with the subscription message.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein a trigger condition comprises an availability of a certain network resource.

3. The method in accordance with claim 2, wherein the certain network resource comprises one of:

a used access technology;

an available streaming playout buffers;

an available transcoder resources.

4. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein a trigger condition comprises an availability of a certain localized content.

5. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the subscription message contains first information that regards a service condition the user equipment subscribes to, second information that regards a validity of the condition and third information that regards the action that shall be taken if the first and second information match information otherwise available for the service provider entity.

6. The method in accordance with claim 5, wherein the three information elements are matched against information stored in the service provider entity.

7. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the subscription message contains first information that regards a service condition the user equipment subscribes to, second information that regards operator specific location area and third information that regards the action that shall be taken if the first and second information match information otherwise available for the service provider entity.

8. The method in accordance with claim 7, wherein the three information elements are matched against information stored in the service provider entity.

9. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the step of registering comprises sending a Session Initiation Protocol message from the user equipment.

10. The method in accordance with claim 9, wherein said message comprises a Session Initiation Protocol SUBSCRIBE message.

11. The method in accordance with claim 1, comprising sending a Session Initiation Protocol message to the user equipment that a condition is met.

12. The method in accordance with claim 11, wherein said message comprises a Session Initiation Protocol NOTIFY message.

13. A location service entity for providing location dependent services for a user of user equipment, said user equipment being adapted for communication via a communication system, the location service entity comprising:

a database configured to enable the user to register information regarding at least one condition triggering provisioning of the service for the user by sending a subscription message from the user equipment,

interface configured to receive location information regarding the user equipment from a plurality of sources associated with different communication systems, and

a processor configured to determine the current location of the user equipment based on said received location information, for verifying if said at least one condition triggering the service provisioning is met by checking if the current location of the user equipment matches the condition sent in the subscription message, and for providing the service for the user in accordance with the subscription message.

14. The location service entity of claim 13, further comprising a memory for storing information pushed from the plurality of communication systems.

15. The location service entity of claim 13, wherein the interface is adapted to handle messages in accordance with at least one of the following communication protocols:

File Transfer Protocol;

Session Initiation Protocol;

User Datagram Protocol;

Internet Control Message Protocol;

Simple Network Management Protocol.

16. The location service entity of claim 13, wherein the processor is adapted to trigger a predefined action in response to a predefined result of the location determination and a service subscription by the user equipment.

17. The location service entity of claim 16, wherein the predefined result indicates a change in the location of the user equipment.

18. The location service entity of claim 16, wherein the predefined result indicates that the user equipment is within a certain area.

19. The location service entity of claim 16, wherein the subscription defines at least one trigger condition and at least one location area.

20. The location service entity of claim 16, wherein the processor is adapted to initiate an action in response to detection that a trigger condition is met.