Packet communication network and subscriber-associated-information delivery controller

• US 8,184,575 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2008
• Issued: 05/22/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Miyagi, Morihito, Watanabe, Koji, Nakamura, Hitomi
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwu, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Choudhury, Faisal
• Application Number:
  US12/247,494
• Publication Number:
  US 20090141671A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,322 Days
• Field of Search: 370/328
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/183 Processing at user equipment or user record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/20 Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

In a packet communication network comprising an MNO network, and an MVNO network including an application server for providing an information service to wireless terminals via the MNO network, the MNO network includes a subscriber-associated-information delivery controller for delivering subscriber associated information of each wireless terminal, which is connected to a radio access network, to the MVNO network, and the MVNO network includes a subscriber-associated-information processor for receiving the subscriber associated information delivered from the subscriber-associated-information delivery controller.

Claims

1. A packet communication network comprising a mobile network operator (MNO) network, which includes a radio access network for communicating with wireless terminals, and a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) network including an application server for providing information services to the wireless terminals via the MNO network,

wherein said MNO network includes a gateway apparatus for connecting said access network to a core network, a mobile controller, and a subscriber-associated-information delivery controller for receiving subscriber associated information of each wireless terminal being connected to the radio access network from at least one of said gateway apparatus and said mobile controller, generating an information forwarding message including the subscriber associated information and delivering the subscriber associated information to said MVNO network through said core network by means of said information forwarding message,

wherein said MVNO network includes a subscriber-associated-information processor for receiving the information forwarding message from the subscriber-associated-information delivery controller through said core network and storing the subscriber associated information extracted from the received information forwarding message, thereby collecting subscriber associated information of wireless terminals including wireless terminals that did not access the application server, for use in the MVNO network, and

wherein said subscriber-associated-information delivery controller has a laid-open information management table for indicating the correspondence of the subscriber-associated-information processor of said MVNO network and the kind of the subscriber associated information to be delivered, and generates said information forwarding message to selectively deliver the subscriber associated information of each wireless terminal to said subscriber-associated-information processor according to the laid-open information management table.

2. The packet communication network according to claim 1,

wherein at least one of said gateway apparatus and said mobile controller transmits, in response to a predetermined event occurred in a communication sequence performed with each of said wireless terminals, an event notification message including subscriber associated information of the wireless terminal to said subscriber-associated-information delivery controller, and

wherein said subscriber-associated-information delivery controller selectively delivers the subscriber associated information indicated in the event notification message to the subscriber-associated-information processor of said MVNO network by means of said information forwarding message.

3. The packet communication network according to claim 2,

wherein said MNO network includes a management server for managing statistics information for each user of said wireless terminals, and

wherein said subscriber-associated-information delivery controller obtains, in response to a specific event notification message indicating session close received from one of said gateway apparatus and said mobile controller, statistics information corresponding to a user identifier indicated in the specific event notification message from the management server, and delivers the statistics information to the subscriber-associated-information processor of said MVNO network as the subscriber associated information by means of said information forwarding message.

4. The packet communication network according to claim 1,

wherein said subscriber-associated-information delivery controller has a channel information management table for indicating the correspondence between an identifier of said subscriber-associated-information processor and a session identifier, and delivers said subscriber associated information to said subscriber-associated-information processor through a control channel having the session identifier.

5. The packet communication network according to claim 1,

wherein said application server controls information services for said wireless terminals based on the subscriber associated information received from said subscriber-associated-information processor.

6. A subscriber-associated-information delivery controller that belongs to a mobile network operator (MNO) network including a radio access network for communicating with wireless terminals, a gateway apparatus for connecting said radio access network to a core network, and a mobile controller and delivers subscriber associated information of each wireless terminal to at least one of a plurality of mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) networks each including an application server for providing information services to said wireless terminals through said core network and said MNO network, the subscriber-associated-information delivery controller comprising:

an internal network interface for receiving event notification messages each including subscriber associated information of one of said wireless terminals from at least one of said gateway apparatus and said mobile controller;

an external network interface for connecting with said the core network;

a controller; and

a laid-open information management table for indicating the correspondence between at least one identifier of a subscriber-associated-information processor belonging to each of said MVNO networks and the kind of subscriber associated information to be delivered;

wherein said controller is configured so as to generate an information forwarding message including the subscriber associated information extracted from the event notification message and selectively transmit the information forwarding message to said subscriber-associated-information processor of one of said MVNO network, in accordance with said laid-open information management table, thereby to enable the subscriber-associated-information processor to collect subscriber associated information of wireless terminals including wireless terminals that did not access the application server of the MVNO network.

7. The subscriber-associated-information delivery controller according to claim 6, further comprising:

a channel information management table for indicating the correspondence between an identifier of each of said subscriber-associated-information processors and a session identifier,

wherein said controller transmits said information forwarding message including the subscriber associated information to said subscriber-associated-information processor through a control channel which is formed on said core network and assigned said session identifier.

8. The subscriber-associated-information delivery controller according to claim 6,

wherein said laid-open information management table comprises a plurality of table entries each of which indicates, in association with an user identifier of each of said wireless terminals, the identifier of said subscriber-associated-information processor to be the destination of said information forwarding message and the kind of subscriber associated information to be delivered,

wherein said internal network interface receives an event notification message including an user identifier and subscriber associated information from one of said gateway apparatus and said mobile controller, and

wherein said controller searches said laid-open information management table for a table entry corresponding to the user identifier indicated in the received event notification message, and selectively transmits said information forwarding message including the subscriber associated information extracted from the received event notification message to the subscriber-associated-information processor of one of said MVNO networks according to the searched table entry.

9. The subscriber-associated-information delivery controller according to claim 7,

wherein said laid-open information management table comprises a plurality of table entries each of which indicates, in association with an user identifier of each of said wireless terminals, the identifier of said subscriber-associated-information processor to be the destination of said information forwarding message and the kind of subscriber associated information to be delivered,

wherein said internal network interface receives an event notification message including an user identifier and subscriber associated information from one of said gateway apparatus and said mobile controller, and

wherein said controller searches said laid-open information management table for a table entry corresponding to the user identifier indicated in the received event notification message, and selectively transmits said information forwarding message including the subscriber associated information extracted from the received event notification message to the subscriber-associated-information processor of one of said MVNO networks according to the searched table entry.

10. The subscriber-associated-information delivery controller according to claim 6,

wherein said laid-open information management table includes a plurality of publication flags corresponding to different kinds of subscriber associated information, each of the publication flags indicating whether the corresponding kind of subscriber associated information is allowed to be laid open to the subscriber-associated-information processor specified by the identifier, and

wherein said controller is configured so as to refer to the laid-open information management table and generate said information forwarding message including the subscriber associated information corresponding to the publication flag which allows laid open of the subscriber associated information.