Method for managing multicast group in mobile communication system

• US 7,162,241 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2003
• Issued: 01/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Eun-Jung, Park, Jin-Young
• Primary Examiner(s): Milord; Marceau
• Application Number:
  US10/439,317
• Publication Number:
  US 20040029616A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,334 Days
• Field of Search: 455/3.06, 455/412.2, 455/435.2, 455/450, 370/260, 370/390, 370/401, 370/432, 709/204, 709/227, 709/236, 714/751, 714/752
• US Class Current: 455/435.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/24 Negotiating SLA [Service Level Agreement]; Negotiating QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 Processing of subscriber group data

Abstract

A multicast service of a 3GPP Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is disclosed. By allowing an RNC to manage multicast group member information by multicast services on multicast areas, when a user terminal being currently provided with an MBMS service moves, the RNC sends information on the movement of the terminal to a core network. Since the RNC notifies the core network of the terminal'"'"'s movement selectively on the basis of the multicast group member information by multicast services on the multicast area, the network resource can be effectively used, and especially, unnecessary transmission of terminal'"'"'s movement information from the RNC to the multicast group managing entity of the core network can be prevented.

Claims

1. A method for managing a multicast group in a mobile communication system providing a multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) to a multicast group consisting of a plurality of terminals, comprising:

comparing movement information of a terminal and multicast group member information and determining whether to selectively notify a core network of the movement of the terminal based on the comparison, thereby minimizing unnecessary signaling from a network controller (RNC) to a core network,

wherein if the terminal is moved to a multicast area (MA) that the RNC manages and the corresponding MA can provide an MBMS service, the RNC updates the multicast group member information and does not notify the core network of the movement of the terminal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the multicast group member information is information by multicast services on multicast areas managed by one RNC.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein an initial value of the multicast group member information is provided from a multicast group managing entity of the core network.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the multicast group managing entity is one of broadcast multicast-service center (BM-SC), a serving GPRS support node (SGSN) and a gate GRPS (GGSN).

5. The method of claim 1, wherein if a terminal is moved to an MA that the RNC does not manage, the RNC updates the multicast group member information and notifies the core network of the movement of the terminal.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein if the terminal is moved to a multicast area (MA) that the RNC manages and the RNC can not provide the MBMS service, the RNC updates the multicast group member information and notifies the core network of the movement of the terminal.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein if the terminal moves to a multicast area (MA) that the RNC does not manage and the corresponding MA can not support the MBMS service, the RNC resets a new multicast group and updates the multicast group information of the core network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein if the terminal moves to a multicast area (MA) that the RNC does not manage and the corresponding MA supports the MBMS service, the RNC updates the multicast group information of the core network.

9. A method for managing a multicast group in a mobile communication system providing a multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) to a multicast group consisting of a plurality of terminals, comprising

receiving an initial value of multicast group member information from a multicast group managing entity of a core network;

determining movement information of the terminal when the terminal is moved between multicast areas (MAs);

comparing by a network controller (RNC), the movement information of the terminal and the multicast group member information; and

selectively notifying the core network of the movement of the terminal by a network controller (RNC) according to the comparing,

wherein if the terminal is moved to a multicast area (MA) that the RNC manages and the corresponding MA can provide an MBMS service the RNC updates the multicast group member information and does not notify the core network of the movement of the terminal.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the multicast group member information is information by multicast services on a multicast area (MA) that one RNC manages.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the multicast group managing entity is one of a broadcast multicast-service center (BM-SC), a serving GPRS support node (SGSN) and a gateway GPRS (GGSN).

12. The method of claim 9, wherein if a terminal is moved to an MA that the RNC does not manage, the RNC updates the multicast group member information and notifies the core network of the movement of the terminal.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein if the terminal is moved to a multicast area (MA) that the RNC manages and the RNC can not provide the MBMS service, the RNC updates the multicast group member information and notifies the core network of the movement of the terminal.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein if the terminal moves to a multicast area (MA) that the RNC does not manage and the corresponding MA can not support the MBMS service, the RNC resets a new multicast group and updates the multicast group information of the core network.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein if the terminal moves to a multicast area (MA) that the RNC does not manage and the corresponding MA supports the MBMS service, the RNC updates the multicast group information of the core network.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein if a number of users for a certain service exceeds a predetermined number in the multicast area, the RNC notifies the multicast group managing entity of the movement of the terminal.

17. The method claim 9, wherein if a quality of service (QoS) or a content of information is different between the multicast areas, the RNC notifies the multicast group managing entity of the movement of the terminal.

18. A method of managing a multicast group in a mobile communication system providing a multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) to a multicast group consisting of a plurality of terminals, comprising:

detecting a movement of a terminal with respect to multicast areas (MAs);

determining whether the moved terminal belongs to a same multicast area or a different multicast area;

determining whether the moved terminal is handled by a same network controller (RNC) or a different RNC;

determining whether a multicast area of the moved terminal provides a same MBMS service or a different MBMS service;

defining movement information of the terminal based upon all three said determining; and

conditionally notifying a core network of the movement of the terminal according to the defined movement information of the terminal.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein if the moved terminal belongs to the same multicast area which provides the same MBMS service and handled by the same RNC, the RNC does not notify the core network of the movement of the terminal.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein if the moved terminal belongs to the different multicast area which provides the same MBMS service and handled by the same RNC, the RNC does not notify the core network of the movement of the terminal.

21. A method of multicast data in a mobile communication system providing a multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS), the method comprising:

receiving a service announcement and a service notification provided by a network;

registering a multicast group to receive a specific multicast service;

receiving the specific multicast data from a core network via a network controller (RNC) after registering;

moving from one location to other location while receiving the specific multicast data;

wherein, after the moving, the RNC performs;

determining whether the moved terminal belongs to a same multicast area or a different multicast area;

determining whether the moved terminal is handled by a same RNC or a different RNC;

determining whether a multicast area of the moved terminal provides a same MBMS service or a different MBMS service;

defining movement information of the terminal based upon all three said determining;

conditionally notifying a core network of the movement of the terminal according to the defined movement information of the terminal; and

continuously receiving the specific multicast data from a core network without any interruption from a network.