A METHOD OF DOWNLOADING SUBSCRIPTION DATA SERVICES

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method and a device for downloading subscription data.

BACKGROUND

Today, users of mobile telephony services start to use different kind of subscription services. This means that the user subscribe to different kinds of data from a network/service provider. The data is then downloaded whenever updated, or regularly at a specific time or similar.

One example is a news subscription, which could be a news update in form of a small 5 minute video clip. The news update is to be uploaded to the user automatically as soon as there is a new version of the clip available on a media content server provided to make subscribed content available to users.

As more users start to use this kind of service, more data must automatically be loaded onto mobile stations such as handsets. The media server that is responsible to load this data onto the handsets does not have any information about the whereabouts of the user. As soon as possible after the subscribed data content has been updated with new material on the server, the data is transferred to the subscriber. When there is high load of speech and data in a network, this kind of subscriptions could lead to congestion and reduced capacity and performance in the system. Also, even if the download of some subscription data is not time critical in it self, the subscriber when notified about a data transfer of subscription data typically expects a fast down load of the content.

Hence, there exist a need for a method and a system that avoid traffic overload but at the same time accommodates for download of subscription data.

SUMMARY

It is an object of the present invention to overcome or at least reduce some of the problems associated with the download of subscription data.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and a device that is capable of taking advantage of unused capacity in a radio system network.

At least one of the above objects is obtained by the method, device, and system as set out in the appended claims. In transmission of subscription data to a mobile station in a cellular radio system, the system is adapted to receive a request to transmit subscriber data. In response to such a request the system determines if there are resources available for allowing for transmission of subscriber data. If the result is that there are resources available transmission of subscriber data is allowed. Otherwise transmission of subscriber data is not allowed.

Thus, by introducing a logic unit in a Base Station Controller/ Radio Network Controller (BSC/RNC) of a radio system network that controls the data uploading for Quality of Service (QoS) Background application in general and for subscription services, such as pod services, in particular a control mechanism whereby traffic overload is prevented is obtained.

The logic unit can in accordance with one embodiment be adapted to allow for background data uploading only when there is enough capacity available in the cell where the subscriber is currently located. This can be controlled since the BSC/RNC has knowledge about the current load in a particular cell and can easily check the location of a particular Mobile Station (MS).

Subscription services are not extremely sensitive to delays, which makes them very suitable for this approach, together with any background application. For this reason the control mechanism will enable access to subscription services without having an adverse impact on time sensitive services such as speech. The capacity in existing systems can therefore be better utilized and the need for investment in new network capacity can be reduced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will now be described in more detail by way of non-limiting examples and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

- Fig. 1 is a view of a radio network system adapted for download of subscription content - Fig. 2 is a view of a procedure for handling download of subscription content.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In Fig.l a general view of a cellular radio system 100 is shown. The system 100 comprises a base station 101. The base station 101 serves a number of mobile stations (MS) 103, located within the area covered by the base station 101. The base station 101 is also connected to a controller unit, such as a radio network controller node (RNC) or Base Station Controller (BSC), 105. The controller unit 105 further comprises a Logical Unit (LU) 104 adapted to control data download. The RNC/BSC is further adapted to receive content data from a content server 107 via one or many the Serving GPRS Support Nodes SGSN 106.

In Fig. 2 a flowchart illustrating some steps performed when downloading subscription data in the system in Fig.l is shown. First in a step 201, the media server has new or updated subscription data to transfer to a subscribing mobile station. In response to such an event, a request to send data to the mobile station is sent to the Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) being responsible for the delivery of data packets from and to the mobile stations within its geographical service areaof the network in a step 203.

In response to the request in step 203, the SGSN transmits a reply message acknowledging to the media server that there is data waiting for the particular mobile station to the server in a step 205. Next SGSN forwards the request to the serving RNC/BSC that there is data waiting for the mobile station in a step 207.

In response to the request in step 207, the RNC/BSC initiates a procedure aiming at finding an appropriate time to send this data to the mobile station in a step 209. The procedure to find a time for data transmission to the mobile station can for example be performed by first paging the mobile station to determine in what cell the mobile station currently is located in step 209a. When the RNC/BSC knows the whereabouts of the mobile station, it checks the data and speech load in the corresponding cell to determine if it is appropriate to start the

- A - data transfer at this time, step 209b. The determination in step 209b can for example be performed by checking if the cell in which the mobile station is located is not fully loaded or has a load below a predetermined threshold level. If any such criteria is fulfilled the RNC/BSC allows for the download of subscription data in a step 209c.

However if the cell is not suitable for downloading subscription data at the moment, the LU 104 of the RNC/BSC temporarily prevents download of subscriber data and queues the download until it is appropriate to allow for download in a step 211. The RNC/BSC then continuously monitors the load in the cell where the mobile station is located to find a suitable time when to transmit the queued subscriber data to the mobile station.

If the mobile station is in connected to the cellular radio system using a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) connection, the RNC can in accordance with one embodiment be adapted to continuously check what cell currently serves the mobile station and continuously monitor the load in the serving cell.

If the mobile station is connected to the cellular radio system using a GSM connection, the BSC can be adapted to bring the mobile station to which subscription data is waiting to be transmitted up to GPRS active mode. In GPRS Active mode the mobile station must report a cell change to the BSC. As a result the BSC will know in which cell the mobile station to which subscription data is waiting to be transmitted is located. Thereafter, the BSC is set to continuously checking the traffic load in the cell that is serving the mobile station to which subscription data is waiting to be transmitted. If the condition for start transmission of subscription data is fulfilled, such as if traffic load is low, a message is sent from the BSC to the SGSN to initiate subscription data download.

When the RNC/BSC is informed that the load in a cell serving the mobile station is below the threshold to allow for the subscription data to be transferred, the RNC/BSC informs the SGSN to start the transfer of subscription data step 213. In response the SGSN instructs the media server to start the transfer of subscription data in a step 215. In response to the message sent in step215 the transfer of the subscription data from the media server to mobile station is started in a step 217.

Furthermore if the load in a cell where a transfer of subscription data is ongoing rises to a level where more time critical data transfer is negatively affected, the transfer of

subscription data can be paused. Also when the load is reduced the transfer of subscription data can be resumed. The load can also be reduced as a result of the mobile station moving to an adjacent cell with lower load.

Using method and device having the control mechanism as described herein will enable access to subscription services without having an adverse impact on time sensitive services such as speech. The capacity in existing systems can therefore be better utilized and the need for investment in new network capacity can be reduced.