Method, system and devices for optimizing use of contexts / APNs

• US 20070121644A1
• Filed: 05/25/2006
• Published: 05/31/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Hurtta, Tuija
• Granted Patent: US 7,817,618 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/395.520
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/677 Multiple interfaces, e.g. multihomed nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5084 Providing for device mobility network addressing or numbering for mobility support in wireless networks H04W8/26; mobile IP H04W80/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/20 Manipulation of established connections

Abstract

The invention provides a method, system and devices for providing a connection of a terminal to at least two networks for providing services to the terminal. The terminal establishes only one logical connection to a support node of a network for communication between the terminal and the network. The logical connection is used for providing services to the terminal from the at least two networks. A network visited by the terminal provides visited services in addition to home services provided to the terminal from a home network of the terminal, the services being provided in parallel.

Claims

1. A method for providing a connection of a terminal to at least two networks for providing services to the terminal, the method comprises the step of:

establishing, by the terminal, only one logical connection to a support node of a network for communication between the terminal and the network, the logical connection being used for providing services to the terminal from the at least two networks.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein one of the networks is a network visited by the terminal and the other network is a home network of the terminal, the method further comprises the steps of:

providing visited services by the visited network; and

providing home services to the terminal by the home network,

wherein the visited services and the home services are provided in parallel.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

establishing, by the support node, a connection to a support node of another of the at least two networks for providing a communication between the terminal and the other network.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the logical connection is a context.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the context is a protocol context.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

initiating, by the terminal or the support node, a context modification or access point name modification when the terminal, after having started with using services of only one of the networks, starts using services provided by the other network.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the terminal has two IP addresses, one for Visited IP address and one for Home IP address, or only one IP address for a visited network or for a home network of the terminal.

8. A method for activating an IP context, the method comprises the step of:

activating one IP context for a user equipment during registration to network.

9. A support node for a network, for providing a logical connection to a terminal, the support node being configured to establish a connection to the terminal and to a support node of another network for providing a communication between the terminal and the other network, the logical connection being used for providing services to the terminal from the two networks.

10. The support node according to claim 9, wherein the support node is configured to send, when receiving a request from the terminal requesting services from both networks, a context creation request to a support node of the other network, and to receive, from the support node of the other network, a context creation response after creating a modified context.

11. A terminal being allocated at least one address, the terminal being configured to establish only one logical connection to a support node for receiving services from at least two networks.

12. The terminal according to claim 11, wherein the terminal is configured to use the logical connection for sending a modify request to another support node of another network for modifying the connection so as to provide services to the terminal from two networks.

13. A system including at least one of a support node and a terminal,

wherein the support node being used for providing a logical connection to a terminal, the support node being configured to establish a connection to the terminal and to a support node of another network for providing a communication between the terminal and the other network, the logical connection being used for providing services to the terminal from the two networks, and

the terminal being allocated at least one address, the terminal being configured to establish only one logical connection to the support node for receiving services from at least two networks.

14. An apparatus for providing a connection of a terminal to at least two networks for providing services to the terminal, the apparatus comprises:

means for establishing, by the terminal, only one logical connection to a support node of a network for communication between the terminal and the network, the logical connection being used for providing services to the terminal from the at least two networks.

15. An apparatus for activating an IP context, the apparatus comprises:

means for activating one IP context for a user equipment during registration to network.