Wireless communication system having mobility-based content delivery

Wireless communication system with content delivery based on mobility

The demand for wireless communication equipment and services in the prior art of the present invention continues to grow at an unprecedented rate throughout the world. In order to provide voice and data communications to an ever-increasing public sector, it is increasingly common to rely on such systems. Although these systems originally relied on analog signal technology, people essentially agreed that future systems would be based on various different types of digital signal coding schemes.

A typical wireless communication system is a point-to-multipoint type system in which a central base station communicates with a large number of remote units located in a local geographic coverage area called a "cell". This system creates conditions for two-way communication so that signals can be transmitted in both the forward direction (from the base station to the remote unit) and the opposite direction (from the moving remote unit back to the base station). In order to support communication between remote units and networks such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or data networks such as the Internet, the wireless system must also provide guarantees for various logical elements and functional entities.

Consider the widely used code division multiple access (CDMA) and time division multiple access (TDMA) digital systems. Each of these systems creates conditions for a certain logical type of wireless communication channel that constitutes the forward link and the reverse link. Specifically, forward link channels often include pilot channels, paging channels, and multiple forward traffic channels. The traffic channel is used to carry payload data between the base station and the mobile unit. In order to allow the remote unit to be kept synchronized with the base station, a pilot channel is also usually required. The paging channel provides a mechanism for the base station to inform remote units of control information such as the allocation of forward traffic channels to specific connections and/or client units.

Likewise, in addition to the reverse traffic channel, an access channel is provided in the reverse direction. The access channel allows the remote unit to exchange control information with the base station, such as sending messages indicating the need to allocate or reallocate connections when needed.

Various environmental conditions can affect the performance of any radio communication system. These elements include atmospheric path loss of signals that can often cause fading and interference. Fading may include changes due to specific topography in the cell and other types of fading, such as multipath fading due to reflections of specific characteristic signals from buildings such as fluctuations in received signal strength. Systems in which remote units may be mobile units (especially those mobile units that may operate at higher speeds such as cellular phones used in automobiles) are particularly susceptible to multipath fading. In such an environment, the signal path continuously changes rapidly.

A similar impact on performance may result from the movement of the client unit relative to the base station. Movement may make it difficult for the base station to accurately determine the location of the client unit. In addition, the signal path continuously changes at a rate that is proportional to the rate of movement. In order to maintain the wireless link, additional power and traffic channels may have to be allocated to mobile clients. This additional allocated wireless resource occupies resources that would otherwise be available to other clients. When trying to maintain a high data rate on the wireless link during fast movements, this negative impact on other customers will be more apparent.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The embodiments of the present invention reduce the impact of sports and similar phenomena on the wireless user community as a whole. The system uses the pricing level that represents the franchise of specific content based on the mobility of each customer. In other words, mobile users can pay additional fees to maintain the same quality of service as stationary users. Therefore, mobile customers will feel the impact of mobility by experiencing reduced bandwidth or through higher subscription fees.

A specific embodiment of the invention includes a method of delivering content to a portable radio device. The wireless communication link is established between the portable device and the base station. The communication link may include a code division multiple access (CDMA) based protocol.

Then, the movement state of the portable device is detected. More specifically, the moving state is selected from at least three moving states, including stationary, walking, and moving states.

Based on the detected movement status, restricted content can be transmitted over the communication link. Each movement status is associated with at least one pricing plan from the many available pricing plans. This can include defining a corresponding set of types of deliverable content based on mobile status for each pricing plan.

In addition, an expression of the type of deliverable content can be displayed to the user of the portable radio transceiver.

Certain aspects of the present invention may be embodied in a computer system used to influence the transmission of content over a wireless communication link. There is a portable radio transceiver that communicates with the wireless communication link. The portable radio transceiver includes the associated service level and mobility status. Computer routines perform operations on the service level and movement status to affect the data transmission rate on the wireless communication link.

The service level can be based on a pricing plan associated with the portable radio transceiver. More specifically, the service level can identify many types of content that are permitted to be transmitted over the wireless communication link. Each permitted content type may be identified by the corresponding service port number, the corresponding protocol identifier, or the corresponding file type.

The movement state can be selected from at least three movement states. In addition, the movement status can be calculated based on the metric associated with the wireless communication link or based on the movement data in the portable radio transceiver.

Computer routines can determine which transmissions are forbidden. Then, the computer routine can block the forbidden transmission from transmitting on the wireless communication link.

More special communication systems include base station radio transceivers and portable radio transceivers that communicate over wireless links. The computer can be coupled with a portable radio transceiver. Portable radio transceivers can have associated pricing plans. Data can be transmitted between radio transceivers on a wireless link.

In addition, the mobility processing program in the base station can store the mobile status of the portable radio transceiver. The mobile state can be calculated by the processor in the base station. Specifically, the movement status can be calculated based on data deduced from the performance of the wireless communication link or data provided by a portable radio transceiver.

In order to block data transmission on the wireless link based on pricing plans and mobile status, content filters can also be included. The content filter may further block the data based on the content type associated with the data. The content type can be expressed by service port number, communication protocol or file type.

The gateway can also be deployed between the base station and the wide area network. The gateway can include content filters.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above-mentioned and other objects, features and advantages of the wireless communication system with mobility-based content delivery are illustrated in the following drawings where the same reference characters throughout the different views refer to the same parts A more detailed description of the illustrated embodiment of the invention will become apparent. The drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, but instead focus on illustrating the principles of the invention.

Figure 1 is a block diagram of a particular communication system suitable for practicing embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram of a specific forward wireless link 240.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram of a specific reverse wireless link 260. As shown in FIG.

Fig. 3 illustrates an exemplary chart of the call rights of Fig. 1.

Figure 4 is a block diagram of the Internet protocol in the OSI structure model.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of the mobility database of Fig. 1.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart of a specific movement state processing program.

Figure 7 is a flowchart of a specific packet processing program.

Detailed description of the invention Figure 1 is a block diagram of a particular communication system suitable for practicing embodiments of the invention. As shown in the figure, one or more web servers 2 communicate with a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet 5. Each web server 2 generally includes a data storage 3 for storing information content 4. The web server 2 communicates with remote clients on the network 5 and exchanges information. To this end, the web server 2 may include a web server for providing contents based on the World Wide Web to end users.

The communication system 1 interfaces with the WAN 5 through one or more gateway processors 10. Each gateway 10 generally includes a firewall 11 used to protect the communication system 1 from unauthorized data packets, and a router or switch used to direct messages to and from one or more base stations 20. The gateway 10 can also be a local network server 2'to and from a content database 3'with stored content 4'and a data server 18 with a database, or a call rights database 100 (discussed in detail below) and a mobility database 190 ( This will be discussed in detail below) and so on to determine the routing of messages in the data warehouse 19 storing data.

Each base station 20 includes a base station processor 21 that controls a radio transceiver 23 that communicates with a number of customer access units (SAU) 30 on a wireless communication link. For illustration purposes, only one client access unit 30 with a wireless communication link 25 is shown. The wireless communication link 25 includes a forward link 24 from the base station 20 to the customer access unit 30 and a reverse link 26 from the customer access unit 30 to the base station 20.

The client access unit 30 is portable and includes a client processor 31 for controlling the radio transceiver 33 used for communication on the wireless link 25. The client access unit 30 can communicate with a computer device 40 (e.g., a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a personal digital assistant, an Internet device, or another suitable device). Those familiar with this technology should recognize that the client access unit 30 and the computer device 40 can be integrated into a single package, for example, an Internet phone. One should also recognize that the client access units 30 need not be identical.

The communication system 1 is a point-to-multipoint wireless communication system with on-demand access. In other words, the computer 40 can transmit data to and receive data from the network servers 2, 2'and receive data from the network servers 2, 2'through the two-way wireless connection realized on the forward link 24 and the reverse link 26. It should be understood that in the single point-to-multipoint multiple access wireless communication system 1 shown in the figure, a given base station 20 usually supports access to many different client units in a manner similar to a cellular telephone communication network. 30 communications.

In addition, as noted earlier, the gateway 10 can communicate with many base stations 20. Those familiar with this technology should admit that each base station 20 can access the wide area network 5 through the corresponding gateway 10. In that case, many gateways 10 can use tunneling protocols to exchange client data when the client access unit 30 transitions from one base station to another.

According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the wireless communication link 25 complies with a wireless digital communication protocol based on standards such as the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) protocol. The techniques described here can also be applied to other wireless communication protocols, including time division multiple access (TDMA) based protocols. Those familiar with this technology should recognize that other standard protocols or patent protocols can also be used in practicing the present invention.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram of a specific forward wireless link 240. As shown in FIG. According to the CDMA technology, the forward link includes a pilot channel 242, a paging channel 244, and many forward traffic channels 246-1,...,246-N. The base station 20 allocates the forward traffic channel 246 to the client access unit 30 based on the quality of service parameters. Specifically, the client access unit 30 may need to gradually increase the number of forward traffic channels 246 in order to maintain the expected bit rate.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram of a specific reverse wireless link 260. As shown in FIG. According to the CDMA technology, the reverse link includes an access channel 262 and numerous reverse traffic channels 266-1,...,266-M. As with forward traffic channels 246, the number of reverse traffic channels 266 may depend on the expected bit rate.

In the CDMA structure, allocating more channels to a specific client access unit 30 will reduce the resources available for other client access units. This may reduce the quality of service provided to other users. One occasion where the client access unit may request additional service channels is in a mobile environment. When the client access unit 30 moves, it becomes more difficult for the stationary base station 20 to provide data to the client access unit 30. To compensate, the base station may have to increase power and allocate additional traffic channels to the wireless communication link 25. In contrast, a stationary client access unit 30 may achieve the same data rate while consuming lower power and fewer traffic channels. In order to serve one or more mobile units, it is satisfactory for the base station 20 not to disadvantage stable or relatively stationary clients. However, it should be noted that even stationary clients may appear to be mobile to the base station due to various electromagnetic interferences (the electromagnetic interferences may be local to the stationary client access unit 30 or in the path of the wireless link 25).

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the customer's service quality may depend on the pricing plan or level. In other words, mobile users may have to pay additional fees in order to maintain the same quality of service as stationary users. According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, three levels of movement are defined: stationary, walking and moving. The technical difference between these definitions and the three mobility levels is based on the detailed engineering choices of the main radio communication system. Similarly, the details about the pricing plan are largely based on engineering and marketing choices based on the technical parameters of the communication system and the demographics of the user base.

Figure 3 illustrates an exemplary call rights form. As shown in Table 100, there are three columns representing three defined movement states 110: stationary, walking, and moving. The row represents the available pricing plan 120. The data fields of the form are equivalent to the customer's call rights. In a specific implementation, the data field is a bitmap of the call right.

In this simplified example, customers can get three levels of service in walking and moving states: full service, partial service, or no service. For example, in Plan II, customers receive full service when stationary, limited service when operating at a walking level, and no service when fully mobile. So the question becomes how to distinguish the content of these three mobile states.

In a specific embodiment of the present invention, the content is provided to the client access unit in accordance with a protocol that complies with the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model. More specifically, the communication system 1 complies with the TCP/IP standard. The way to select content is therefore chosen to follow TCP/IP standards and Internet conventions.

Figure 4 is a block diagram of the Internet protocol in the OSI structure model. As shown in the figure, the OSI structure 50 includes seven protocol layers: a physical layer 51, a data layer 52, a network layer 53, a transport layer 54, a session layer 55, a presentation layer 56 and an application layer 57. Each layer can include numerous protocols. Generally speaking, content is exchanged between applications at the application layer 57. In order to be transmitted to the receiving application, the content is formatted according to a specific application protocol and encapsulated with a lower-level protocol. When received at the destination, the lower-level agreement is removed, exposing the content. In order to reduce the size of information transferred between network computers, content is divided into small units and delivered as data packets. Across the Internet 5, the data packet complies with the Internet Protocol (IP). In practice, the gateway 10 can also communicate with the local network server 2', the data server 18, and the base station using the TCP/IP standard.

Because when wireless resources (for example, power and channel configuration) are occupied by customers requesting high data rates for a relatively long period of time, the impact on other customers is the most serious, so the service provided can be selected or rejected according to the requested bandwidth . In this case, the wireless system metric can be selected as the product of power, channel, and user saturation in a specific cell. In fact, the customer's mobility can be used to influence the power and channel configuration for that customer based on the call rights table 100.

However, this approach means knowing the contents of the payload in each data packet. In addition, the gateway 10 may need to estimate the impact of delivering the data packet on other customers. These operations are complicated by the fact that packets may arrive out of order. In order to determine whether all data packets have been received and the final size of the content payload it usually reaches the destination host (ie, computer 40). Analyzing this data upstream of the destination host adds additional and possibly redundant processing to the gateway 10.

Another approach is to make delivery choices based on the broader nature of the content person (for example, file type). People admit that certain file types may require more knowledge of bandwidth and other file types. For example, a script usually has very little content, and it commands the software already on the computer 40 to perform a predefined function. Text content may also be less demanding for increased bandwidth, regardless of whether the text is provided as part of a hypertext link markup language (HTML) document, as an email message, or as a short message. Conversely, streaming audio and video content can be assumed to be the most demanding bandwidth.

Files transferred by means of the file transfer protocol (FTP) add additional complexity. First, these files may have uncertain sizes. Second, these files may be compressed by the application, so that the underlying file type may not be discernable based on the packaged information. However, providing this content quickly is less important to the user. In other words, the downloaded data file may use a limited or slow data rate to flow to the customer.

Because lower-level protocols encapsulate higher-level protocols, each protocol can be identified within the data packet. For example, HTML files should comply with Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) at the application layer 170. Similarly, streaming data should comply with the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) at the application layer 170. By opening the received IP data packet, the communication system 1 can identify potential application protocols.

Opening each data packet, although effective, introduces additional processing in the gateway 10 and base station 20 nodes of the communication system 1. Fortunately, another broad measure of the payload content of a data packet is provided by the service port number, which is usually checked by an intermediate computer (especially the gateway 10). For example, port 80 usually indicates HTTP or browser activity.

According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, the gateway 10 recognizes content as part of its routing or firewall processing. Then, the gateway 10 is responsible for determining whether to deliver the data packet to the corresponding base station 20 of the client. In order to make this processing easy, the mobility table 190 is maintained by the gateway 10 and the base station 20. The database table 190 is stored in the data warehouse 19 of the data server 18 as a related database table.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the mobility database 190. Three fields are shown: customer identification field 192, pricing plan identification field 194, and movement level identification field 196. For each customer, the pricing plan is prepared by the system administrator, so that the pricing data identification field 194 indicates the pricing plan selected by the customer reflected in the call rights benefit table 100. Conversely, the level of movement is dynamic. The base station currently in charge of a specific client periodically updates the mobility level identification field 196 in the mobility database 190 based on the current mobility status of the client access unit 30.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart of a specific movement state processing program. The detection of the user's mobile state can be completed by the base station processor 20. The program 210 periodically calculates the movement status of each client access unit. Each repetition is started in step 211 by a timer interrupt.

Any appropriate technique can be used to determine the mobility status, including mobility detection at the client access unit 30 (for example, from a mercury switch) and data calculated from the reverse access channel 262 or the reverse traffic channel 266. In step 213, the procedure 210 measures mobility metrics specific to the applicable method used in the system and the client access unit 30.

According to the mobility metric, the program calculates the mobility status in step 215. In addition, the calculated state may reflect the actual movement of the client access unit or performance degradation due to interference. In step 217, the calculated mobility status is stored in the customer mobility field of the mobility table 190.

Because customers may not be moving, the program step 219 to 210 can transmit information to the client access unit 30 indicating when the moving state and service level before. This information can be displayed to the customer by the computer 40. Specifically, an icon 45 (FIG. 1) representing the current state of movement is presented on the client's computer monitor 42. The customer can select the icon to show the details of the current service level.

Figure 7 is a flowchart of a specific packet processing program. Each data packet can be processed by the gateway 10 (Figure 1) during its processing of the firewall. The data packet processing program 120 starts at step 121, in which the mobile state of the destination client access unit 30 is determined. This is accomplished by using the customer identifier as a key to access the mobility table 190, and then extracting the mobility status 196 and pricing plan 194 from the record.

In step 123, the program 120 queries the call right table 100 to obtain the permitted service based on the extracted pricing plan and the value of the mobile state. The result is a bitmap of permitted services.

Once the approved service is identified, the associated bitmap can be used to filter the content. In step 125, the permitted service bitmap and the content type from the data packet are logically ANDed. If the client access unit 30 is permitted to receive this content (the result of "AND" is 1), then in step 127 the data packet is transmitted to the client access unit on the forward traffic channel. However, if the data packet cannot be sent to the client access unit 30 (the result of "AND" is 0), the gateway 10 completes further processing in step 129 as a response to the forbidden data packet.

As a response to the forbidden data packet, the gateway 10 can queue the data packet in the data warehouse 19 for delivery to the client access unit 30 which may be relatively late. This will include additional housekeeping operations for storing and managing queued data packets. Another approach that is more consistent with Internet practices is to return Internet control information to the source host of the content, suggesting that the source stop further content delivery. This can be done in the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) using (for example) messages that cannot reach the destination. As an alternative, ICMP suppressed messages can be sent to the source server 2, 2 to reduce the throughput of data packets and make the wireless bandwidth allocated to the client access unit 30 more strictly match.

Although the packet processing program 120 has been described as being processed by the gateway 10, the program may be processed in whole or in part by the base station processor 20 associated with the client access unit 30. In practice, there is an engineering choice between overloading the gateway 10 and overloading the data path between the gateway 10 and the base station processor 20. It is hoped that the additional processing in the gateway 10 will not add significant latency to the throughput of the content. This is especially true when each base station 20 communicates with a dedicated gateway 10.

The foregoing description of the embodiment focused on the content delivered to the client access unit 30. One understands that the system is also suitable for determining the address of the request from the client access unit 30. In other words, the base station 20 can abandon the request for content that is inconsistent with the current service level of the customer determined according to the call right table 100. For example, according to the exemplary call rights table 100, customers of mobile level I cannot receive or request any content. Therefore, any HTTP request from the client can be blocked by the base station, without waiting for the request to be served by the server 2, 2', and then blocking the content. Because the client's mobile status may change after the request is sent, the content should still be blocked, regardless of the mobile status when the request is sent.

Therefore, a specific implementation verifies reverse data packets (away from SAU30) and forward data packets (toward SAU30). More specifically, prohibited service port activities are blocked regardless of the source of the information. This processing can be enhanced in the nodes of the gateway 10 and the base station 20.

Restricting forward traffic may be sufficient to maintain an acceptable quality of service for all users. This may be especially true when the customer is doing online browsing that only needs to transmit a short URL string on the reverse traffic channel. However, there are situations when customers try to transmit large data files on the reverse traffic channel. The example will be the transfer of FTP files.

In order to protect the reverse traffic channel, at least a part of the data packet processing program 120 of FIG. 7 can be copied to the client access unit 30. Since the call rights are calculated at the base station 20 and transmitted to the client access unit 30 for display to the user, that processing should not be required on the client access unit 30.

Referring again to FIG. 7, processing can start at step 125 at the client access unit 30. The permitted service bitmap is logically ANDed with the content type from the data packet. If the client access unit is permitted to transmit this content (the result of the "AND" is 1), then in step 127 the data packet is transmitted to the base station on the reverse traffic channel. However, if the data packet cannot be transmitted (the result of the "AND" is 0), the client access unit does not transmit the prohibited data packet in step 129.

Those of ordinary skill in the art should recognize that the method for implementing a wireless communication system with mobility-based content delivery may be embodied in a computer program product including a computer-usable medium. For example, such a computer-usable medium may include a readable storage device, such as a solid-state storage device, a hard disk device, a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, or a computer disk on which computer-readable program code segments are stored. The computer-readable medium may also include a communication or transmission medium with a program code segment carried on it as a digital or analog data signal, such as an optical, wired or wireless bus or communication link.

Although the system has been specifically shown and described with reference to its specific embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that various changes in form and details can be made without departing from the invention encompassed by the claims. Completed in the case of scope. For example, the method of the present invention can be applied to various environments and is not limited to the environment described herein. Specifically, the communication system 1 is described such that the shared channel resources are wireless, that is, radio channels. However, one should understand that the techniques described herein may be applicable to permit sharing of access to other types of media (for example, telephone connections, computer network connections, cable connections, and other physical media that are permitted to be accessed on a demand-driven basis).