Regrouping push-to-talk groups

• US 9,955,321 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2015
• Issued: 04/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Suzuki, Takashi, Vutukuri, Eswar, Faurie, Rene
• Primary Examiner(s): DEAN, RAYMOND S
• Application Number:
  US14/681,495
• Publication Number:
  US 20160302048A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,112 Days
• Field of Search: 455518-521
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services

Abstract

A network node communicates data of a first push-to-talk (PTT) group using a first multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) bearer, and data of a second PTT group using a second MBMS bearer. Responsive to a regrouping of the first PTT group and the second PTT group to form a regrouped PTT group, the network node communicates data of the regrouped PTT group using at least one of the first and second MBMS bearers.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

communicating, by a network node, data of a first push-to-talk (PTT) group using a first multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) bearer, and data of a second PTT group using a second MBMS bearer; and

responsive to a regrouping of the first PTT group and the second PTT group to form a regrouped PTT group, communicating, by the network node, data of the regrouped PTT group using at least one of the first and second MBMS bearers, the first PTT group prior to the regrouping including first user equipments (UEs) that perform PTT communications using the first MBMS bearer, and the second PTT group prior to the regrouping including second UEs that perform PTT communications using the second MBMS bearer, and wherein the regrouped PTT group comprises the first UEs and the second UEs.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network node comprises an MBMS gateway, and wherein the communicating of the data comprises sending, by the MBMS gateway, the data to one or more wireless access network nodes.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the network node comprises a wireless access network node, and wherein the communicating of the data comprises receiving, by the wireless access network node from an MBMS gateway, the data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one cell under control of a wireless access network node receives data for at least one of the first and second PTT groups, the method further comprising:

modifying, by the network node, a service area for a given MBMS bearer of the first MBMS bearer or the second MBMS bearer responsive to the regrouping of the PTT groups, wherein the modifying of the service area comprises removing the at least one cell under control of the wireless access network node from the service area for the given MBMS bearer to avoid duplicated delivery of data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the modifying of the service area causes cessation of delivery of data corresponding to the given MBMS bearer to the at least one cell.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the modifying is responsive to a control message sent or received by the network node, and the control message comprises an information element settable to a first value indicating that MBMS session information over a Multicast Control Channel (MCCH) is to remain un-modified.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the control message comprises an MBMS Session Update Request, and the information element is settable to a second value indicating that the MBMS session information over the MCCH is to be modified.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the network node comprises a wireless access network node, the method further comprising:

sending, by the wireless access network node, the data of the regrouped PTT group over a wireless link to UEs using one of a Multimedia Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) transmission or a single cell point-to-multipoint (PTM) transmission.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating an MBMS bearer service or an MBMS session for a given PTT group of the first and second PTT groups to cause the MBMS bearer service or the MBMS session that initially did not deliver data of the other PTT group of the first and second PTT groups to begin delivering the data of the other PTT group, responsive to the regrouping.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, by the network node, a message to configure a single cell point-to-multipoint (PTM) transmission within a cell, the message including a group Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) that is specified for user equipments (UEs) participating in an MBMS session utilizing the single cell PTM transmission for a given MBMS bearer of the first MBMS bearer or the second MBMS bearer.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the data of the regrouped PTT group includes:

first data redirected by a given PTT server of a first PTT server and a second PTT server to the other PTT server of the first and second PTT servers for delivery by the other PTT server to the network node, and

second data directly delivered by the given PTT server to the network node,

wherein the first data and the second data include packets provided with timestamps to allow synchronization of delivery of the packets.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating the data of the regrouped PTT group using the at least one of the first and second MBMS bearers comprises communicating the data of the regrouped PTT group using the at least one of the first and second MBMS bearers that has been modified responsive to a request to modify an MBMS bearer.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first UEs is different from each of the second UEs.

12. A network node comprising:

at least one processor configured to;

communicate data of a first push-to-talk (PTT) group using a first multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) bearer, and data of a second PTT group using a second MBMS bearer; and

responsive to a regrouping of the first PTT group and the second PTT group to form a regrouped PTT group, communicate data of the regrouped PTT group using at least one of the first MBMS bearer and the second MBMS bearer, the first PTT group prior to the regrouping including first user equipments (UEs) that perform PTT communications using the first MBMS bearer, and the second PTT group prior to the regrouping including second UEs that perform PTT communications using the second MBMS bearer, and wherein the regrouped PTT group comprises the first UEs and the second UEs.

17. The network node of claim 12, wherein the communicating of the data of the regrouped PTT group using the at least one of the first and second MBMS bearers comprises communicating the data of the regrouped PTT group using the at least one of the first and second MBMS bearers that has been modified responsive to a request to modify an MBMS bearer.

18. The network node of claim 12, wherein the data of the regrouped PTT group includes:

first data redirected by a first PTT server to a second PTT server for delivery by the second PTT server to the network node, and

second data directly delivered by the first PTT server to the network node.

20. The network node of claim 12, wherein at least one of the first UEs is different from each of the second UEs.

13. A given user equipment (UE) comprising:

a push-to-talk (PTT) application;

at least one processor configured to;

prior to regrouping of PTT groups including a first PTT group and a second PTT group, receive a data communication that is part of the first PTT group, wherein the first PTT group prior to the regrouping comprises first UEs including the given UE that perform PTT communications in the first PTT group, and the second PTT group prior to the regrouping comprises second UEs that perform PTT communications in the second PTT group, wherein the PTT communications performed by the first UEs in the first PTT group prior to the regrouping use a first multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) bearer, and the PTT communications performed by the second UEs in the second PTT group prior to the regrouping use a second, different MBMS bearer;

receive an indication responsive to the regrouping, the indication indicating that the first UEs including the given UE that are part of the first PTT group are to become members of the second PTT group, the second PTT group responsive to the regrouping including as members the first UEs and the second UEs;

send the indication to the PTT application to cause the PTT application to reconfigure PTT group information for the given UE; and

responsive to the regrouping and after the PTT group information for the given UE has been reconfigured by the PTT application, receive a data communication of the second PTT group using the second MBMS bearer.

14. The given UE of claim 13, wherein the indication comprises a message carried over a Multicast Control Channel (MCCH), Multicast Traffic Channel (MTCH), or single cell PTM channel, the message comprising upper layer signaling information for a multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) service or MBMS session identified in the message.

15. The given UE of claim 13, wherein the at least one processor is configured to further:

receive a message to configure a single cell point-to-multipoint (PTM) transmission within a cell, the message including a group Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) that is specified for the UEs participating in a multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) session utilizing the single cell PTM transmission associated with the first PTT group.

21. The given UE of claim 13, wherein at least one of the first UEs is different from each of the second UEs.