Methods, devices and software programs for processing and/or evaluating Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages

ES 2 364 019 T3

DESCRIPTION

Currently, in mobile networks like GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication; global system for mobile communication), SMS (Short Message Service; short message service) are used to send and receive short messages between mobile terminals. A new messaging service is currently being standardized, called MMS (multimedia messaging service), see 3GPP TS 23.140 V4.2.0 (Release 4), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Functional description, stage 2. Unlike SMS, MMS messages can contain multimedia elements such as text, image, audio or video.

MMS is a peer-to-peer messaging service between two MMS user agents in which they both connect to an MMS relay / server. The user agent resides either on a mobile phone, for example a UMTSUE (universal mobile telecommunication service - user equipment) or a GSM-MS (Mobile Station; mobile station) or on an external device, for example a notebook electronic / laptop, connected to a mobile phone, or even a PC. The user agent is an application layer function that provides the user with the ability to view, compose and handle multimedia messages, eg send, receive, deliver MMs. The MMS relay / server is a network entity responsible for the storage and handling of incoming and outgoing messages and for the transfer of the message between different messaging systems.

Mobile communication services such as 2^to generation, for example GSM, and those of 3^togeneration, for example UMTS, also use well-defined smart cards for mobile phones. Inserted into a mobile phone, these smart cards allow a user to use the mobile communication service to which they have subscribed. Furthermore, user preferences and settings as well as personal information of the user may be stored on such smart cards.

In GSM these cards are called SIM (Subscriber Identity Module). In UMTS, a distinction is made between the physical card called UICC (universal IC card; IC: integrated circuit) and its logical functionality, the USIM (UMTS subscriber identity module).

The SAT / USAT (SIM Application Tool / USIM Application Tool) is a tool that provides operators with an API (Application Programming Interface) to put their own operator-specific applications on a SIM card or a UICC taking into account the particularities of mobile phones regardless of the particular operator, the smart card manufacturer and the mobile phone manufacturer. For this purpose the SAT / USAT provides a standardized execution environment for applications stored in the SIM / USIM card and the ability to use certain functions of the support mobile equipment (ME), that is, the mobile phone. The SAT / USAT provides mechanisms that allow applications, which exist in the SIM / USIM, to interact and work with any ME that supports the specified mechanism (s), thus guaranteeing interoperability between a SIM / USIM card. and an ME, regardless of the respective manufacturers and operators. The SIM / UICC card is the physical basis for this tool since the SIM / UICC card is held by the operator and therefore can be adapted in the simplest way to the operator's needs. For a more detailed explanation of USAT, see 3GPP TS 31.111 V4.2.1 (Release 4), USIM Application Toolkit.

US Patent Specification 6,104,924 describes a virtual terminal protocol that includes using SMS text messages to transmit a selected plurality of program instructions (scripts) from a fixed station to a mobile station.

It is an object of the current invention to find new and simple ways of handling and processing and / or evaluating MMS related messages, especially with regard to the needs of operators having the above-mentioned smart cards.

This objective is solved by the features of independent claims 1, 5, 7 and 8.

The invention proposes new SAT or USAT mechanisms that allow an operator to write operator-specific mobile phone applications that control and / or make use of the MMS functionality that resides in a mobile phone. The procedures described in this document allow the mobile equipment (ME) of the mobile station or the user equipment to support SAT or USAT mechanisms for mMs. (A mobile equipment plus a SIM card and / or an inserted UICC is called a mobile station (MS) in GSM and user equipment (UE) in UMTS.) The invention also covers the storage medium, for example SIM card or UICC, wherein the SAT / USAT application (s) according to this invention reside.

The invention relates especially, on the side of the telecommunication device or set of device, to the method of controlling the functionality of MMS residing in said device or set of device and to use the functionality of MMS as a bearer service in the direction of loading and / or unloading. The invention also relates to the respective device or device assembly, as well as the respective storage medium and software program. According to the invention, the SAT / USAT application residing on the SIM / UICC card of a device or set of device is adapted to initiate the sending of a delivery confirmation from said device or set of device.

In a first embodiment the at least one SAT / USAT application on the SIM / UICC card is configured to control the MMS functionality. According to the invention, the SAT or USAT mechanisms, often used below the abbreviation (U) SAT, are extended for MMS, allowing carrier-specific USAT applications to perform verification, modification, submission, download, display, etc. of an MM, parts of an MM, MMS notification,

ES 2 364 019 T3 MMS delivery confirmation and MMS read confirmation. The use of such (U) SAT mechanism (s) has the advantage that operators can define their own (U) SAT functionalities for MMS (in addition to the features in 3GPP TS 31.111 V4.2.1) and can also still have some control over the service used in the terminal.

Accordingly, this first embodiment suggests that by means of the procedures described above an operator can put his own application on a SIM / UICC card that can use the MMS functionality of the terminal through these SAT or USAT mechanisms. Passing multimedia messages, MMS notifications, delivery confirmations and read confirmations, preferably both for the case of sending and receiving, first to (U) SAT, the (U) SAT can verify, modify, allow / reject them (or their headers).

In a second embodiment the multimedia messaging service is used as a carrier, that is, as a means of transport for SAT or USAT applications. In this case, the MMS is used as a transport mechanism for data exchange over the air of a remote entity, especially as an application server in the operator's network, and a mobile equipment. The advantage of this is that it allows the operator to exchange any type of data of any size with a remote entity.

Preferably, a new piece of information is introduced with the exemplary name "MMS carrier". By checking this information element the (U) SAT can determine whether the MMS is used as a bearer service or as a normal messaging service. Both described preferred embodiments have the advantage that the use of the (U) SAT mechanisms is independent of the particular mobile equipment (ie the mobile phone) that the user uses at a given time. The functionality of (U) sAt is processed on the SIM or USIM card in the UICC, which can be inserted into a mobile device or a device connected to a terminal.

Furthermore, the above (U) SAT mechanisms are independent of the particular SIM / UICC card operator or manufacturer. This means that third-party application developers can create applications based on these (U) SAT mechanisms that are platform independent and can sell these applications to any operator and / or any SIM / UICC card manufacturer.

The invention will be discussed further with respect to the drawings. The drawings show:

FIG. 1 a control of sending a multimedia message by the (U) SAT;

figure 2 a control of reception of a multimedia message by the (U) SAT;

Fig. 3 an MMS as a bearer service for USAT in case of a terminal terminated MM, and Fig. 4 a transaction flow to use an MMS as a bearer service for USAT in case of a terminal terminated MM.

Two examples for the use of MMS and (U) SAT are discussed below. The first example refers to a (U) SAT that controls a terminal mMs functionality, the second example refers to the MMS as a bearer service for (U) SAT. In both cases it is assumed that the UICC (or SIM card) consists of a (U) SAT application and that this (U) SAT application is activated. Furthermore it is assumed that the terminal, in which the SIM / UICC card is inserted, has an MMS user agent, ie the MMS functionality resides in the terminal.

1. (U) SAT that controls an MMS functionality of the terminal:

The MMS User Agent (UA) is an application layer functionality on a device that provides users with the ability to view, compose and manage MMs, eg send, receive, delete MMs. In addition to this the MMS user agent can receive MMS notifications and present these notifications to the user in order to inform the user about the MMs that are available for reception from the network. Through the MMS user agent an MMS subscriber can also request, allow / reject and view delivery receipts and read receipts.

The invention proposes (U) SAT mechanisms to control and deal with handling the above-described features of the MMS user agent. When a multimedia message, MM headers, any other part of an MM or read receipt are first passed to the (U) SAT before sending the multimedia message, a (U) SAT application can verify and modify the multimedia message and / or the header of the multimedia message and / or any other part of the MM and take care of allowing / rejecting the sending of multimedia messages, delivery confirmations and read confirmations from the MMS user agent.

When a multimedia message, headers of an MM, any other part of an MM, notifications, delivery confirmations or read confirmations are passed to the (U) SAT immediately after they are received by the terminal (that is, before they are presented to the user or further processed and / or evaluated by the MMS user agent) the (U) SAT can verify and modify them and can take care of receiving, downloading and viewing them.

In this example two different cases are described in more detail. The first case refers to the control of the sending of an MM by USAT. The second case refers to the reception control of an MM by USAT.

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1.a) Control of sending a MM by USAT:

A user has composed a multimedia message (MM) on his device, for example the mobile phone. Before the ME (mobile equipment) sends the multimedia message (or part of it) to the MMS relay / server, the ME passes the multimedia message first to the USAT as shown in figure 1. The header of the multimedia message and the content of the multimedia message can be verified and, if necessary, modified (or even the delivery can be rejected) using the carrier-specific USAT application. After this, the multimedia message is passed back to the ME, which sends the modified or unmodified multimedia message to the MMS relay / server. This gives operators a means to control the sending of multimedia messages by placing an appropriate operator-specific USAT application on the UICC.

1. b) Control of receipt of an MM by USAT:

When the ME has received an MMS notification from the MMS relay / server, this notification is first passed to the USAT. Depending on the operator definitions for MMS, the operator-specific USAT application can verify, modify or even delete the MMS notification. After this the operator specific USAT application can control the action to be taken based on the notification from mMs, for example it can trigger the MMS user agent to immediately retrieve the notified MM from the relay / server. The notification can also be passed to the terminal for viewing by the user or it can be passed to the UICC for storage of the notification in the USIM. The last two cases are shown schematically in the figure

2. The mechanisms described above give operators a means to control the reception of multimedia messages by placing an appropriate operator-specific USAT application on the UICC.

2. MMS as a carrier service for USAT:

As shown in figure 3 for the case of a terminal terminated MM, the MMS can be used as a transport mechanism for data exchange between a remote entity, for example a USAT application server in the operator's network, and an operator-specific USAT application at the UICC through the MMS user agent residing in the terminal.

The use of MMS as a bearer service for USAT (SAT) allows the operator to create their own USAT (SAT) applications that reside in the UICC (SIM) that are used by the mMs user agent in the terminal in order to exchange data over the air with remote entities. The user will not realize that MMS is used for these carrier-specific applications; everything happens in the background.

However, the MMS user agent on the device as well as the MMS relay / server on the network have to know that an MMS notification, a multimedia message (or parts thereof), a delivery confirmation and / or a Read receipts or other messages have to be passed to a USAT (SAT) application. This can be done by putting an information element called for example "MMS Carrier" in the header of the MMS notification, the multimedia message, the delivery receipt or the read receipt. This information element can be for example an indicator, which can be activated ("1") or not activated ("0").

2.a) MM terminated in terminal:

The information element can be used for example to download data from a USAT application server in the network to the USAT application in the UICC, as shown in Figure 3. The operator's USAT application server in the network sends an MM with the aforementioned data as the content of the Mm to the MMS relay / server. As shown in the transaction flow diagram in Figure 4, the MMS server / relay (MMS_RS) sends an MM1_NQ (MM1_notification.REQ) notification to the MMS user agent (MMS_UA) to inform the MMS user agent that a new multimedia message has arrived. The mobile station passes the notification to the USAT first, before doing anything with it. The USAT checks whether the information element "MMS Carrier" is activated or not. In this example this flag has been set because the MMS is used as a bearer service for USAT. The MMS user agent responds with an MM1_NR (MM1_notification.RES). After receiving the notification, the MMS user agent can retrieve the MM, either immediately or later, or manually or automatically, as it is possibly determined by the operator's user profile and settings.

In a preferred embodiment the message is retrieved immediately. The MMS user agent will send an MM1_RR request for immediate retrieval of the multimedia message (MM1_retrieve.REQ) to the MMS server / relay. Finally, the MMS relay / server sends the multimedia message MM1_RR (MM1_retrieve.RES) to the MMS user agent which will immediately pass it on to the USAT and the operator's USAT application. In this case the MM is handled additionally, for example the above-mentioned data is interpreted.

The MMS user agent has to know that the MMS notification MM1_NQ (MM1_notification.REQ) and the multimedia message MM1_RR (MM1_retrieve.RES) are both used by the USAT as a bearer service and therefore have to be passed to the USAT. Because of this the information element "MMS Carrier" has to be transmitted in the MM1_NQ message (MM1_notification.RES) and in the MM1_RR message (MM1_retrieve.RES), see figure 4.

2.b) MM originated in the terminal:

In a similar way information element "MMS Carrier" can be used for example to upload data from a USAT application in the UICC, which is inserted in a mobile phone, to a USAT application server.

ES 2 364 019 T3 on the network. The operator's USAT application at the UICC passes an MM with the aforementioned data as the content of the MM to the MMS user agent residing on the mobile phone or passes the aforementioned data to the MMS user agent along with an order that causes the MMS user agent to compose an MM with this data as the content of the MM (in the latter case the MMS related message according to this invention is said command plus said data). Based on this the MM is sent from the MMS user agent to the MMS relay / server, which carries the "MMS Carrier" information element. After sending the MM, the USAT application at the UICC can also request status information on the delivery and / or handling of the MM, that is, it can request an MMS delivery confirmation and / or an MMS read confirmation. Such an acknowledgment would then be retrieved from either the MMS relay / server or the MM receiver which is the USAT application server on the network. These confirmations would also carry the information element "MMS Carrier" in order to allow it to be routed back to the USAT application at the UICC.

In addition to the procedures described, the present embodiment also refers to the respective devices or sets of devices, such as mobile stations (MS), user equipment (UE), and / or devices connected to such devices (laptops, organizer, PC, etc.), which are adapted to perform the steps of the inventive process. Especially, the user agent residing in these devices and apparatuses has to adapt to handle MMS related messages, especially to evaluate said piece of information. Other devices covered by the present embodiment are the storage medium to be inserted into an ME, especially SIM and UICC cards, which must be adapted to contain the respective SAT and / or USAT mechanisms according to this invention. The embodiment also comprises network elements such as (U) SAT application servers and MMS relays / servers. Also covered by the realization are the respective software programs for said processing and / or evaluation of said MMS-related messages as well as for the communication between the MMS relay server and the MMS user agent and / or the mobile equipment, as well as between the MMS user agent and the (U) SAT.

List of acronyms used in the claims:

MMS Multimedia Messaging Service; multimedia messaging service

SAT SIMApplication Toolkit; SIM application tool

SIM Subscriber Identify Module; subscriber identification module

UICC Universal Integrated Circuit Card; universal integrated circuit card

UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication Service; universal mobile telecommunication service

USAT USIMApplication Toolkit; USIM application tool

USIM UMTS SIM; UMTS subscriber identification module