Method for processing and transmitting data on a mobile telephone network and microchip onboard system

• US 7,353,044 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2001
• Issued: 04/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CP8 Technologies (Thales SA)
• Original Assignee: CP8 Technologies (Thales SA)
• Inventors: Nachef, Armand
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng; George
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bhattacharya; Sam
• Application Number:
  US10/069,181
• Publication Number:
  US 20020137545A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,478 Days
• Field of Search: 455/558, 455/418, 455/419, 455/420, 455/426.1, 455/426.2, 455/557, 455/550.1, 455/552.1, 455/556.1
• US Class Current: 455/558
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for processing and transmitting digital data in a mobile telephone network, particularly using the GSM standard, and more particularly for applications using the so-called SIM Toolkit standard stores in a smart card of the so-called SIM Type of a unit of mobile equipment (1). According to the method, so-called master applications (30M) are remoted to a remote server (3) with which the mobile equipment (1) communicates. These applications (30M) communicate with the SIM smart card (2) via the circuits of the mobile equipment (10) and first and second types of so-called “reporter” SIM Toolkit applications, respectively called “reporter” (21) and “slave” (22). The invention also concerns an embedded microchip system, particularly a smart card of the so-called SIM type.

Claims

1. A method for processing digital data in a mobile telephone network comprising a mobile unit operatively connected to a smart card having an embedded chip, said embedded chip having an information processor and a data storage unit, said data storage unit including a reporter-type application program and a slave-type application program, said method comprising:

receiving, by said reporter-type application program in said smart card, an event sent from said mobile unit;

delegating, in response to receiving said event, execution of a smart-card operation to an additional application program stored in a data storage unit of a remote application server, said additional application program being a master-type application program, wherein said delegating comprises sending a message for processing from the reporter-type application to the master-type application of the remote application server via a channel of said mobile telephone network;

receiving, by said slave-type application program, commands from the master-type application program using said mobile telephone network;

executing said commands using said information processor of said embedded chip of the smart card; and

retransmitting results of said executing commands to the master-type application program using said mobile telephone network.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the data storage unit of the smart card stores at least one program which controls said mobile unit by sending commands, and which reacts to events sent from said mobile unit, said program executing instructions associated with said events in order to perform functionalities associated with at least one predetermined application.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the reporter-type application program retransmits to the remote application server a data characteristic of said event received from said mobile unit, and

the additional application program in the remote application server executes, upon reception of said data characteristic, at least one of said instructions associated with said at least one predetermined application and retransmits results of said execution to said embedded chip in the smart card.

4. A method according to claim 2, wherein at least one of the reporter-type application program and the slave-type application program is an autonomous-type application program which directly executes a pre-established part of said at least one predetermined application in said embedded chip of the smart card.

5. A method according to claim 3, wherein said embedded chip is under the control of an operating system, and

said remote application server transmits said execution results, including commands to said operating system of said embedded chip, in order to perform a given operation, and

results of said given operation are retransmitted to the remote application server.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the reporter-type application program and the slave-type application program is an autonomous-type application program which directly executes a pre-established part of at least one predetermined application in said embedded chip of the smart card.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein said mobile telephone network complies with a GSM standard, and

said reporter-type application program complies with a GSM 11.14 standard.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein said telephone network includes at least two distinct transmission channels, one of which being a voice data channel and another of which being a message channel, and

said transmitted digital data includes messages of a short type comprising 140 octets or 160 septets transmitted through said message channel.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the reporter-type application program retransmits to the remote application server a data characteristic of said event received from said mobile unit, and

the second application program in the remote application server executes, upon reception of said data characteristic, at least one of said instructions associated with at least one predetermined application and retransmits results of said execution to said embedded chip in the smart card.

10. A smart card adapted for connection to a mobile unit in a mobile telephone network, comprising:

an embedded chip which includes;

(a) an information processor; and

(b) a data storage unit having a reporter-type application program and a slave-type application program stored therein, said reporter-type application program adapted to generate information delegating execution of a smart-card operation to an additional application program stored in a data storage unit of a remote application server, and said reporter-type application program generating said information in response to an event received from said mobile unit;

wherein the additional application program stored in the remote application server is a master-type application program, wherein said delegating comprises sending a message for processing from the reporter-type application to the master-type application of the remote application server via a channel of said mobile telephone network; and

said slave-type application program receives commands from the master-type application program of the remote application server using said mobile telephone network, and executes said commands using said information processor, and retransmits results of said execution of commands to the master-type application program of the remote application server using said mobile telephone network.

11. A smart card system according to claim 10, wherein the smart card is a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)-type card.

12. A smart card according to claim 10, wherein at least one of the reporter-type application program and slave-type application program is an autonomous-type application program which directly executes a predetermined application.

13. A smart card system according to claim 12, wherein the smart card is a Subscriber Identity Module (STM)-type card.