Method for sending general information message to mobile station in mobile radio network e.g. mobile radio telephony, involves determining whether general information message shall be sent to mobile station

SWEDEN (12) PATENT WRITING (η) C2 (11) 520 003

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(19) SE ₍₅₁₎

International class ⁷

H04Q 7/22

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PATENT AND REGISTRATION (45) (41) (22) (24) (62) (86) (86)

Patent filed Application widely available The patent application was submitted on expiration date

Tribal application number

2003-05-06

2000-09-06

1999-03-05

1999-03-05 (21) Patent Application Number ggoO795-7

Application received as:

(83)

International filing day

Filing date for European patent application Deposit of microorganism Swedish patent application completed international patent application with number □ converted European patent application with number (30) Priority information (73) (72) (74) (54) (56) (57)

Assignee

INVENTOR

AGENT

NAME

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, 126 25 Stockholm SE Markus Stocker, Nottwil CH, Carmine Russo, Friborg CH, Martin Dätwyler, Bremgarten CH

Albihns Stockholm AB

Method and apparatus for providing general information to users in a mobile radio network

CALLED PUBLICATIONS:

WO A2 9808350 (H04Q 7/22)

SUMMARY:

The invention relates generally to the field of mobile radio telephony, and in particular to a method and apparatus for transmitting general information messages to users in a mobile radio network on a geographically selective basis. A mobile station in the mobile radio network is capable of sending location update messages to the mobile radio network, where these location update messages include information about the location of the mobile station. The general information message to be sent is registered in the network together with an identification of a served geographical area to which the general information message is relevant. When a location update message has been received from a mobile station located within this served geographic area, the general information message is sent to this mobile station.

The numbers in brackets indicate international identification code, INID code. Letters in clamps indicate international document code.

520 003

Summary

The invention relates generally to the field of mobile radio telephony, and in particular to a method and apparatus for transmitting general information messages to users in a mobile radio network on a geographically selective basis. A mobile station in the mobile radio network is capable of sending location update messages to the mobile radio network, where these location update messages include information about the location of the mobile station. The general information message to be transmitted is recorded in the network together with an identification of a served geographical io area to which the general information message is relevant. When a location update message has been received from a mobile station located within this served geographic area, the general information message is sent to this mobile station.

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Technical field of the invention

The present invention relates generally to the technical field of mobile radio telephony, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for transmitting general information messages to users in a mobile radio network.

Background

The use of mobile radio telephony has increased enormously in many parts of the world over the last decade, and mobile phones have become public property. As a consequence, the coverage of mobile radio networks has increased, and in many countries most residential areas have undergone mobile radio coverage. This provides an excellent opportunity to provide general information to many people at the same time on a geographically selected basis, ie to people who are within a certain geographical area. Since many of the standards for mobile radio telephony, which are used around the world, provide data services as well as voice services, information can be provided to the mobile radio subscribers in writing.

Such information transfer opportunities can be very useful for a number of different information distributors, such as roadside information regarding the local state of the road, police information regarding any event, operators of mobile telephone networks, which inform about temporary call reductions, business owners, who inform about realization, etc. situations where this type of information distribution service could be useful are almost endless.

The Global Systems for Mobile Communication (GSM) standard defines a service, called Cell Short Message Service (SMS), which provides an information distributor with the ability to send a message to the GSM users within a certain geographical area, see GSM Technical Specification (TS) 03.02. The geographical area in which an SMS Cell Broadcast message is broadcast, definition 520 003 pr; u jnn,: 'i 7 :::' ·· '·.' ··:

are distributed on a per message basis and may include one or more cells, or even a fully public land mobile network (PLMN = Public Land Mobile Network). An SMS Cell Broadcast message is transmitted cyclically by base transceiver stations (BTS =)

Base Transceiver Stations) in the defined geographical area with a frequency and duration specified by the information distributor.

However, in order to receive an SMS Cell Broadcast message, a mobile subscriber must, in an initial step, put his mobile station in the mode to receive SMS Cell Broadcast. In some GSM networks, the subscriber must choose in the mobile station which information categories he is interested in receiving, since the transmission of the messages is divided into different categories. This is a rather uncomfortable operation, and few subscribers to GSM services know about the SMS Cell Broadcast service. Thus, the information distributors reach only those mobile subscribers who have actively chosen to receive SMS Cell Broadcast messages, and those subscribers who have not put their mobile stations into the mode to receive such messages will miss the information broadcast.

Summation

An object of the invention is to provide, in a mobile radio network, a service by which distributors of general information can distribute general information to the mobile radio network users within a certain geographical area without the users having to put their mobile stations in the mode to receive such information.

According to the invention, this has been solved with a method and a device for transmitting a general information message to a mobile station in a mobile radio network. A mobile station in the network is capable of transmitting location update messages to the mobile radio network, where these location update messages include mobile station location information and an identity of the subscriber using the mobile station.

The method of the invention comprises the steps of recording the general information message in a general information message register in the mobile radio network,

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including registration of a service area identification; receiving a location update message from the mobile station; comparing the service area identification with information on the location of the mobile station included in the location update message; determining whether the general information message could be sent to the mobile station based on the result of the comparison step; and transmitting the general information message to the mobile station if, during the determination step, it is determined that the general information message should be sent.

The device according to the invention comprises registering means for general information messages for recording the general information message, in which means at least one identification of the served area can be registered; receiving means for receiving a location update message from the mobile station; comparison means for comparing the identification of the service area with the location information of the mobile station included in the location update message; determining means for determining whether the general information message should be sent to the mobile station; and transmitting means for transmitting a general information message to the mobile station.

By means of the device and method according to the invention, distributors of general information can reach users of mobile telephony in a certain geographical area without having to rely on the users having put their mobile stations in the mode to receive such information. It is further achieved that a user of mobile telephony will not miss any general information relevant to the geographical area in which he is currently located, due to the fact that he has not put his mobile station in the mode to receive such information.

According to one aspect of the invention, wherein the mobile radio network comprises at least one mobile services switching center (MSC), the location of the public information message registration body is in an MSC. Occasionally, the signaling in the system is minimized when the location update message is sent to the MSC.

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In another aspect of the invention, wherein the mobile radio network comprises at least one Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN = Serving GPRS Support Node), the location of the general information message registration means is in an SGSN. In this way it is achieved that the signaling in the system is minimized when the placement update message is sent to SGSN.

According to one aspect of the method of the invention, the step of recording general information messages further comprises the step of recording at least one type of location update to be used to trigger transmission of the general information message; and the comparison step further comprises the step of comparing the at least one type of location update recorded in the registration stage with the type of the location update message received in the receiving stage. According to one aspect of the device of the invention, the general information message recording means further comprises recording means for recording at least one type of location update to be used to trigger transmission of the general information message; and the comparison means further includes means for comparing the at least one type of location with the type of a location update message received by the receiving means.

In this way, it is achieved that the operator of the mobile network, or the distributor of general information, can decide which type or types of location update, which will trigger transmission of the general information message.

In another aspect of the invention, the general information message is a message about unstructured extra service data (US SD - Unstructured Supplementary Services Data) and correspondingly, in one aspect of the invention, the location of the transmitting means is in an MSC / VLR. This achieves that a mobile station capable of receiving network-initiated USSD messages is capable of receiving the general information message.

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In yet another aspect of the invention, the general information message is a short message service message (SMS = Short Message Services), and correspondingly in one aspect of the device according to the invention, the location of the transmitting means is in an SMS service center. Hereby it is achieved that a mobile station capable of receiving SMS messages is capable of receiving the general information message.

In yet another aspect of the invention, wherein the mobile radio network comprises at least one location register, the method of the invention further comprises the step of indicating, in a location register, whether the subscriber of the mobile station is a subscriber of general information messages, and checking in the location register whether the subscriber is a subscriber of such messages. . Furthermore, the step of determination is also based on the result of the control step. An aspect of the device of the invention further includes indicating means for indicating in a location register whether the subscriber using the mobile station is a subscriber for general information messages and control means for checking in the location register whether the subscriber is a subscriber for such messages. This enables the subscriber in a mobile radio network to choose whether or not he wants to receive general information messages. Furthermore, it is achieved that the operator of the mobile radio network can give different subscriptions to subscribers who would like to receive general information messages and subscribers who would not like to receive such messages.

Brief description of the figure

The invention will now be discussed in more detail with reference to preferred embodiments of the invention, given by way of example only, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 schematically shows an exemplary mobile radio network comprising mobile stations, base transceiver stations, base station controllers, switching centers for mobile services, visitor location register, a home location register and an operation and maintenance center.

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Fig. 2 shows an overview sequence diagram illustrating the message flow between different devices in the system during the operation of the method in one embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 3 illustrates an exemplary register of general information messages used in one embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 4 schematically illustrates a flowchart of an exemplary method used to send general information messages to users in the mobile radio network of Fig. 1.

Detailed description

The general architecture of a mobile radio network 100 is schematically illustrated in Figure 1. The mobile radio network 100 comprises radio communication to users of mobile stations (MS), one of which, for example, given MS 110 is shown in the figure. In Fig. 1 MS 110 is shown communicating with the mobile radio network 100 via a base transceiver station 120 (BTS) using a radio link 130. The geographical area within which a BTS 120 takes traffic is referred to as a cell 135, and each cell 135 is assigned a unique identity known as the cell's global identity (CGI =

Cell Global Identity). Several BTS belonging to the mobile radio network can be connected together via a base station controller (BSC = Base Station Controller) 140. Several BSC 140 can in turn be connected to a mobile service switching center 150, which is responsible for managing the calls to and from the multiple MS 110. Furthermore, an MSC 150 forms the interface between the mobile radio network 100 and other networks, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN = Public Switched Telephony Networks), digital services for integrated services (ISDN = Integrated Services Digital Network), other public land mobile networks (PLMN = Public Land Mobile Networks ), Internet, etc. The geographical area served by a single MSC is referred to as an MSC area 155.

Within a limited geographical area, known as the coverage area of ​​the mobile radio network 100, an MS 110 can roam freely and still experience radio communication services

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provided by the mobile radio network 100. Since the MS 110 is not stationary, in order to establish a connection to the MS 110 the mobile radio network 100 needs to know where the MS 110 is located. Two different types of location registers are used for this purpose: the Visitor Location Register (VLR - Visitor Location Register) 160 and the Home Location Register (HLR = Home Location Register) 170. CPR 170 is the location register to which a mobile subscriber when permanently assigned for the purpose of storing information, such as subscriber information. Some location information can also be stored in HLR 170, which allows debiting and routing of calls to MSC 150, where MS 110 is currently located. However, more detailed information regarding the location of an MS 110 is stored in VLR 160 responsible for the geographical area in which MS 110 is currently located. In the exemplary car radio network 100, MSC 150 and VLR 160 are located in the same physical node, referred to below as MSC / VLR 150/160.

In order to be able to operate and maintain the mobile radio network 100 in a suitable manner, the nodes of the mobile radio network 100 are connected to a work and maintenance center (OMC = Operation and Maintenance Center) 180.

The mobile radio network 100 is divided into several location areas (LA = Location Areas) 190. An LA 190 forms the area within which an MS 110 can move freely without updating VLR 160 of the location of MS 110. Each LA 190 is assigned a unique location area identity (LAI = Location Area Identity), and each BTS 120 in the network is assigned an LA to which it belongs. One or more BTS 120 may belong to the same LA 190.

In a GSM network there are several procedures regarding the registration of the location of an MS 110, which procedures are used to keep the location records updated, see the specification GSM Technical Specification (TS) 03.12. These include, for example, normal placement update, periodic placement update, international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), IMSI removal and placement cancellation. The Normal Placement Update (NLU), Periodic Placement Update (PLU), and IMSI Adhesion (IA) are

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procedures for informing the network of the currently existing locations of an MS 110, and below, the general term LU (LU = Location Updating) will be used to refer to such procedures. Other types of LU can also be used. For example, in a GSM network that provides GPRS (GPRS = General Radio Packet Service) to its subscribers, routing area update or cell update could also be used. An LU message is a message sent from an MS 110 to MSC 150, serving the area within which the MS 110 is currently located, or to any other node with corresponding functionality, for example, to the SGSN (SGSN = Serving GPRS Support Node ) in a GSM network, which provides GPRS services. Among other things, the LU message includes information regarding the CGI of the cell in which MS 110 is currently located and an identity of the subscriber currently using MS 110. An MSC 150, which has received an LU message from an MS 110, transports the LU message to VLR 160, which belongs to MSC 150. In turn, VLR 160 can send some of the information in the LU message to HLR 170.

The different types of LU can be used at different times. The IMSI adhesion procedure is the measure taken by the MS 110 when put into effect to indicate to the mobile radio network 100 that the MS 110 has re-entered into an active state. The normal location update procedure is used by an MS 110 when it enters a new LA 190. A BTS 120 constantly transmits on its transmit control channel (BCCH = Broadcast Control CHanel), to which a free MS 110 in the corresponding cell 135 listens, including transmitting LAI of LA 190, to which BTS 120 belongs. When an MS 110 detects that it is listening to a BTS 120 transmitting a different LAI than the LAI of the BTS to which it previously listened, MS 110 performs a normal location update procedure to inform the mobile radio network 100 that the MS 110 has entered the a new LA 190. The periodic location update procedure can be used by the mobile radio network 100 to force the MS 110 present there to perform LU regularly. An MS 110 that has moved out of the coverage area of ​​the mobile radio network 100 or has switched off the power without the IMSI disconnection message being tagged by the mobile radio network 100 will be marked as disconnected in VLR 160 when an expected

520 003 ηΊη / ::: ·. · ·,. · · .. · periodic location update message has not been received from MS 110 by the mobile radio network 100.

As can be seen from the above, the location of an MS 110 is known by the MSC / VLR 150/160, which has just received an LU message. This fact can be used in mobile radio network 100 for a general information feed service according to the invention. The receipt of an LU message from the mobile radio network 100 can be used as a trigger signal to send a general information message to a subscriber who has executed a LU in a geographical area selected as the geographical area in which the particular general information message will transmitted. Thus, a general information feed service which transmits general information messages on a subscriber basis can be implemented in the mobile radio network 100.

A geographical area selected as the geographical area within which a particular general information message will be transmitted will be referred to below as the served area 195 of the general information message. Fig. 1 shows a serviced area 195 for a special message, corresponding to LA 190. The served area 195 is preferably expressed in terms of already defined areas of the mobile radio network 100.1 in a GSM network, these areas could, for example, be a cell 135 (identified by CGI (CGI = Cell Global Identity)), a location area 190 (identified by LAI). or an MSC area 155.1 an LU message contains information as to which cell 135 MS 110 listens to and in which LA 190 this cell 135 is located.

In Figure 2, an exemplary message flow within the mobile radio network 100 is shown schematically. An MS 110 sends an LU message 220 to an MSC / VLR 150/160. The MSC / VLR 150/160 then analyzes the LU message 220 and determines whether there is a general information message 240 that should be sent to the MS 110. If so, a call 230 is sent to send the general information message to a message style mode 210. Included in the call 230 for sending general information messages is the message text string to be sent to MS 110

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and as an identification of MS 110. Upon receiving the call 230 to send message, a message style 210 sends a general information message

240 to MS 110.

The general information message 240 sent to MS 110 in Figure 2 could be any message type available in the mobile radio network 100.1 on a GSM network, the message may be, for example, an unstructured supplementary service data message or a short message service message (SMS = Short Message) Service). The message style 210 would then be a node capable of transmitting a network-initiated USSD message (e.g., an MSC 150, a VLR 160 or a HLR 170) and an SMS service center, respectively. For example, in a GSM network that supports GPRS, the message style mode may be a network switching center, or SGSN. In such a network, the node receiving the LU message in Figure 2 may be either MSC / VLR or SGSN.

Figure 3 shows an example of a General Information Message Register (GIMR) 300 used for recording various general information messages 240 to be sent to subscribers who have performed a LU. Such a GIMR 300 may preferably be implemented in the node receiving the LU message from MS 110, eg MSC / VLR 150/160 in a GSM network, but may also be implemented elsewhere.

In the exemplary GIMR 300, schematically illustrated in Figure 3, the input 310 is shown storing the text string of the general information message. Two exemplary text strings are shown in the figure, and corresponding inputs 320, 330 and 340 have been filled in correspondingly. The input 320 is used to indicate for what type of received LU the message stored in 310 will be sent: upon receipt of a normal location update, an IMSI attachment or a periodic location update, or any other location update procedure used by the network. Of course, the input 320 can be set to transmit the message stored in the input 310 upon receiving any type of LU or some other types but not all. If an operator of a mobile network 100 does not wish to have possible no, sr, ·;

If you want to select which type of LU to trigger the general information message transmission stored in 310, then this information need not be included in GIMR 300, but the choice made by the operator can instead be hard-coded.

In the input 330 of the exemplary GIMR 300, the service area 195 is inserted by a general information text string.

Since some subscribers to mobile telephony services would not appreciate receiving general information messages 240, a possibility of not accepting the receipt of such messages can be implemented. For example, an operator may have different types of subscriptions: a subscription in which the subscriber accepts to receive general information messages 240, and a subscription in which the subscriber does not accept to receive general information messages 240. This can be implemented by assigning a subscriber category to a subscriber in HLR 170. This subscriber category would then be transmitted to a VLR 150 along with subscription information, when an MS 110 registers with VLR 150.

The input 340 of GIMR 300 in Fig. 3 can be used when the operator of a mobile radio network 100 chooses to give the subscribers of the mobile radio network 100 the option of accepting or not receiving general information messages 240. The input 340 is marked as to whether or not a general information message 240 is to be sent. to all subscribers regardless of acceptance. This can be useful, for example, if the police or a roadside would like to reach as many people as possible with an important message. However, if the operator does not let the subscribers choose whether or not to accept the receipt of general information messages 240, or if he does not wish to have the option of sending general information messages 240 also to subscribers who have not accepted the receipt of such messages, then the input 340 may be removed. from GIMR 300.

Fig. 4 shows an exemplary embodiment of the method according to the invention in the form of a flow chart. In step 410, a LU message 220 is received

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an MSC 150 from an MS 110. This triggers a number of operations in MSC 150 and VLR 160, which are not shown in the flowchart, as they are part of what is previously known. One of these activities is that checks are made whether MS 110 is already registered in VLR 160. If not relevant information will be sent to HLR 170. HLR 170 will return sent relevant subscriber data to VLR 160. Some of this subscriber data may be information about whether the subscriber of MS 110 has accepted to receive general information messages 240.

In step 415, it is checked whether any general information message 240 is registered in GIMR 300. If one or more general information messages 240 is defined in GIMR 300, a transition is made to step 420. If no general information message 240 is defined, no further activity is undertaken until another LU message 220 has been received. In step 420, it is checked whether the type of LU corresponds to the type of LU that the transmitter would like to use as a trigger signal to transmit the general information message 240 (input 320 of GIMR 300). If there is no equivalent, then a transition is made to step 445, where control is made as to whether there are any additional general information messages 240 registered in GIMR 300. If so, a transition is made to step 450, where the next message in GIMR 300 is considered . If no more general information messages 240 are registered in GIMR 300, then no further activities are undertaken until another LU message 220 is received.

However, if there is a correspondence between the type of the received LU and the type specified for triggering, a transition to step 425 is performed. Step 425 is checked whether the cell 135 serving the mobile station 110 is part of the served area 195 which is defined for the special general information message 240 (input 330 of GIMR 300). If this is not the case, a transition to step 445 is made. However, if the cell serving the mobile station 110 is part of the served area 195, a transition to step 430 is made. Step 430 checks whether the special general information message 240 should be sent to all subscribers regardless of acceptance of reception (input 340 in GIMR). If the answer is yes, a transition is made to step 440, and the general information med520 003 ΟΗΎπΪ. . : ·. · ·. ··. ·:

division 240 (input 310 of GIMR 300), is sent to MS 110. If the answer is no, a transition is made to step 435, where checking is made whether the subscription for MS 110 includes receiving general information messages 240. If not, a transition is made to step 445. However, if the subscription includes such reception, a transition is made to step 440, and the special general information message 240 (input 310 of GIMR 300) is sent to MS 110. When the special general information message 240 has been sent to MS 110, a transition to step 445 is made.

There are many alternative embodiments of the method of the invention, one embodiment of which is shown in the flowchart of Fig. 4. The steps of Fig. 4 need not be performed in the exact order presented in the figure, and some of the specified steps may be omitted. For example, step 420 does not need to be performed if the type of LU that triggers the transmission has been hard-coded, and if all types of LU should always be used as trigger signals for transmission. Another example is that step 430 is an option step, and the operator of a mobile radio network 100 could choose to provide a subscriber with the option to send general information messages 240, even if the subscriber has not accepted to receive such messages. If the operator of the mobile radio network 100 does not let the subscriber choose whether to receive general information messages 240 or not, then steps 430 and 435 become redundant. Further steps could be included. For example, a step of checking whether MS 110 is capable of receiving the message type to be sent is included, such as a check whether MS is capable of receiving network-initiated USSD messages when the message to be sent is a USSD message. message. In another embodiment, the type of message to be transmitted may be selected on a per message basis, and a corresponding input would then be included in GIMR 300. Before sending a special message, the step would be to check which message type should be used when executing. If the normal location update procedure is used as a trigger signal to send a message, it should be checked that the served area 195 selected for the message is not less than the LA 190 (or LA 190) in which the served area 195 is located. If the serviced area 195 would be smaller than LA 190, then it is possible that MS 110 enters LA 190 via

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a cell that is not part of the served area 195. Since the normal location update message is sent by MS 110 only upon entry into a new LA 190, MS 110 would not receive the special general information message 240, even if MS 110 finally enters in the served area 195. However, LA 190 may be defined to correspond to any selected served area 195, since an LA 190 may consist of any number of cells 195 within an MSC area 195.

To enter information into the GIMR 300, MML commands (MML = Man Machine Language) or parameter sets may be specified for this purpose. Since OMC 180 is connected to most nodes in a mobile radio network 100 and, in particular, to all MSC 150, OMC 180 can be used as a centralized node to input information into GIMR 300 into a mobile radio network 100.

Although the above description has been mainly expressed in terms of a GSM network, the invention can be used with any other standard for mobile radio telephony which allows transmission of data messages and where MS 110 is capable of transmitting an LU message 240 such as the Broadband Code Division Multiple Access ( w-CDMA = Wide-band Code Division Multipe Access) standard universal mobile telephone system or D-AMPS (also referred to as TDMA (TDMA = Time Division Multiple Access)). One can also think of a general propagation service, where the transmitted type of message is an ordinary telephone call made with a recorded voice. Such a service can also be implemented in mobile radio networks 100 using a standard which does not provide any data service.

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