QUALITY OF SERVICE BASED ON MOBILE POSITION
Technical field
The present invention relates to a procedure and a system for managing of quality of service on an established connection in a network.
Prior art
In mobile telephone systems of type packet data there is a need to have possibility to differentiate the allocated quality on an established connection in a network. Traditionally all packets which have been transmitted via Internet have been treated equally with regard to quality. In UMTS the concept "quality of service" (QoS) is used. This has its origin in that different types of services often make different demands upon the resources which are allocated to the different services in a network. Qualities which can constitute these resources include for instance data speed/rate, delay and bit error ratio. The quality of service is in UMTS divided into four classes, namely "Conversional", "Streaming", "Interactive" and "Background" .
Conversional is used generally for traffic which is sensitive to delay, and Background is usually utilized for traffic which is not sensitive to delay. Real time services, such as video telephony or customary telephony, are such types of services which should be in Conversational. Low delay and a maintaining of time relations between different information units in transmitted/ transferred data characterize the class. Moving pictures or sound in real time, which are placed in the class Streaming, do not require low delay in the transmission. On the other hand, in Streaming is required that time relations between different information units in transmitted data are maintained. To the class Interactive
can, for instance, customary "surfing" on Internet be counted, where the user shall have answer to a request within a specified period of time. The delay in the forward and the back direction consequently is an important parameter in this class. Besides it is desirable to have a low bit error ratio. Background processes, such as delivery of e-mail or sms, do not require that the user shall have answer within a specified period of time and consequently are comparatively insensitive to delay. These are placed in the class Background, which just as Interactive has a low bit error ratio.
Which QoS that is allocated to a user is determined by among other things which QoS that has been requested by the user, whether sufficient system resources exist to meet the demands on QoS, to which QoS the user is entitled, etc. QoS in adjacent networks are negotiated by so called "service level agreements". These agreements can be regarded as "business agreements" for data traffic.
One problem with QoS is that a user in some situations needs a connection with more resources than normal . Then it is desirable to, by negotiation, get a higher QoS than what the user normally is allowed to use. This negotiation might be based on the user's geographical position. It is at present not possible to associate QoS with a user' s geographical position.
Summary of the invention
One aim of the present invention therefore is to allocate to the for the mobile station established connection a given quality of service based on the geographical position of the mobile station. Another aim is to, on basis of this allocation of a given quality of service based on the geographical position of the mobile station, offer the user of the mobile station a higher quality of service than what the user normally is allowed to use.
These aims are achieved by a procedure for managing of quality of service on an established connection in a network according to patent claim 1, and a system for managing of quality of service on the established connection in a network according to patent claim 5.
The invention is based on the following idea. A mobile station transmits a request for wanted quality of service on one for the mobile station established connection in a network to a quality of service controlling unit. The quality of service controlling unit determines which quality of service the connection shall be allocated based on the geographical position of the mobile station. The answer, which indicates which given quality of service the established connection is given, then is transmitted from the quality of service controlling unit to the mobile station .
By utilizing this idea, a number of advantages are achieved. For instance can specific subscriptions be created, which subscriptions are based on the geographical position of the mobile station. For instance can a subscription be used which applies debiting according to a specific rate for a specific quality of service, say the class Streaming, provided that the customer is in an urban area. In another case a subscription can be utilized where debiting according to another specific rate is applied to the same class outside the urban area. It also can be conceived that service providers can utilize this idea. A customer who is surfing on the mobile-station-adapted home page of a company, and who at the same time is in the vicinity of the departmental store of the company is allocated a higher priority in the network. Another example can be information about different attractions at, for instance, a fairground, which information has the format of video sequences. The customers who at the time are at the fairground are allocated a higher priority in the network with the aim to guarantee a prompt and faultless service.
The service of course also can be accessible to others, but with lower priority than to those who have paid entrance- fee to the fair-ground.
Brief description of the drawings
Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the enclosed drawings, in which:
Figure 1 shows a schematic and simplified drawing in a system in which the present invention with advantage can be applied; and
Figure 2 describes an example of how signaling is made when a mobile station transmits a request for wanted quality of service on a connection according to the invention.
Description of preferred embodiments of the invention
Figure 1 shows a schematic and simplified drawing in a system in which the present invention with advantage can be applied. A mobile station communicates via an access network with a core network. The access network and the core network together constitute a UMTS-domain. Figure 1 shows the core network in the so called packet switched domain. For the so called circuit switched domain the core network looks different. The node SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node) is the node which serves the mobile station MS. SGSN supports routing of traffic, security, debiting, mobility management etc. SGSN communicates with the register HLR (Home Location Register) which holds among other things subscriber data and SGSN-number for each user. The node GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node) is the node which is adjacent to the destination network, which can be Internet, LAN, applications etc. The node GGSN establishes communication with external packet data networks, authenticates users for external networks, generates debiting data etc.
The system includes one or more processors or other equivalent devices, for instance programmable hardware with calculation possibilities to execute the steps which are included in the procedure according to the invention. As a consequence of that, the devices which are included in the system are realized according to the invention by these processors or their equivalents, which, in the case they consist of programmable hardware, are arranged to execute the function for said devices when it executes appropriate software.
Figure 2 describes an example of how signaling is made when a mobile station transmits a request for wanted quality of service on a connection according to the invention. A mobile station MS transmits a request 1 for wanted quality of service on an established connection between the mobile station MS and a destination DST to a quality of service controlling unit PCF ("Policy Control Function") in form of, for instance, a SIP-server. This PCF can, for instance, be a part of an SGSN ("Serving GPRS Support Node") . Said PCF asks 2 for the position of the mobile station at a server LCS ("Location Services") for indication of position. This determines 3 the position of the mobile station and transmits 4 the position to the quality of service controlling unit PCF. Said PCF negotiates 5 with the "Bearer Service Manager", BSM, about the quality of service on the for the mobile station MS established connection with the destination DST. According to the invention, the quality of service is based at least on the position of the mobile station, but also other parameters can be taken into consideration, such as maximal bit rate, transmission delay, traffic management priority, etc. Said BSM is responsible for the establishing of services in the system and can be a part of, for instance, a GGSN. Said BSM and PCF can possibly exist in the same node, which is indicated by the dashed square round the boxes with the designations BSM and PCF. When the quality
of service has been determined, an answer is transmitted 6 which includes the allocated quality of service from said quality of service controlling unit PCF to the mobile station MS. Data then can be transmitted/transferred 7 between the mobile station MS and the destination DST on a connection of the quality which was a result of the negotiation in the step 5, based on the geographical position of the mobile station MS.
As has earlier been mentioned, a customer who is surfing on the mobile-station-adapted home page of a company and who at the same time is in the vicinity of the departmental store of the company is allocated a higher priority in the network. If a user by means of his/her mobile station opens the home page of the company, this higher priority can, by considering the geographical position of the mobile station, be allocated to the connection between the mobile station and the home page of the company. A possibly increased cost for higher quality of service is best paid for by the company in question. With reference to Figure 1 it will, in one embodiment of the invention in said HLR which holds subscriber data for each user, be possible to create subscriptions which are based on the current geographical position of the user's mobile station. Different subscriptions can debit different rates depending on the geographical position of the mobile station.
Even if the invention has been described with reference to specific exemplified embodiments of it, experts in the field will realize that a number of different changes, modifications and the like are possible, The described embodiments therefore are not intended to limit the scope of the invention, as it is defined by the enclosed patent claims.