KR102362560B1 - Method for providing mobile telecommunication service, and apparatus therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method for providing a mobile communication service and an apparatus therefor. The method for providing a mobile communication service according to the present invention includes the steps of: receiving, by a subscriber information management device, a location registration request for a user device from a mobility management device; updating point name (APN) information for a specific mobile communication service, and transmitting, by the subscriber information management apparatus, subscriber profile information including the updated access point name information to the mobility management apparatus.

Description

Method for providing mobile telecommunication service, and apparatus therefor

The present invention relates to a method for providing a mobile communication service and an apparatus therefor, and more particularly, to an APN (Access Point Name) for each different mobile communication service in a mobile communication system supporting two or more mobile communication services according to different mobile communication standards. ) and creating a session, to a method for providing a mobile communication service that can selectively provide a specific mobile communication service to a user device requesting a specific mobile communication service, and an apparatus for the same.

Mobile communication is a communication system in which mobility is given so that users can communicate voice, video, and data regardless of location through the terminal. Continuous technology development has been made to meet the diverse and evolved demands of are being tried

As a representative 4G mobile communication standard, there is LTE advanced, which is an improvement of Long Term Evolution (LTE), and in some cases, LTE or HSPA+ are included as 4G mobile communication standards in addition to LTE advanced.

Here, LTE is based on Release 8, a wireless high-speed data packet access standard confirmed in December 2008 by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), and a fourth-generation wireless technology (4G) designed to increase the capacity and speed of mobile phone networks. ) is the previous step toward LTE is an all-IP-based network that provides differentiated QoS for real-time and non-real-time services to provide network resource efficiency, and also introduces smart antenna technology (MIMO) to provide bandwidth for wireless communication. , supports more than 12 times faster speed than HSDPA.

In addition, LTE-A is defined as providing a maximum transmission rate of 1 Gbps downlink and 500 Mbps upstream when stopped by improving the above-described LTE. LTE-A provides higher data throughput than LTE through Carrier Aggregation (CA) and Coordinate Muti-Point (CoMP) technologies that are not supported by LTE. Here, Carrier Aggregation (CA) is a technology that expands the frequency bandwidth by bundling and simultaneously using different frequency bands, and Coordinate Muti-Point (CoMP) increases cell boundary throughput through interference control through cooperation between neighboring base stations. it is technology

Accordingly, in the current mobile communication system, two or more mobile communication services according to different standards such as LTE and LTE-Advanced are mixed and supported.

However, since the existing LTE modem and LTE-Advanced are not compatible, the LTE-Advanced service cannot be provided to a user device that does not support the technology according to the LTE Advanced standard.

Therefore, in the case of a mobile communication system that provides different mobile communication services such as LTE and LTE-Advanced together, it is determined whether the user device is subscribed to the LTE-Advanced service and whether the user device can support the LTE-Advanced function. First, it is necessary to selectively provide LTE-Advanced technology to user devices supporting LTE-Advanced service among user devices that have entered the coverage area of wireless access devices supporting LTE-Advanced service by checking first.

Korean Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-0031928, published on March 29, 2013 (Title: Packet Data Network (PDN) Connection Management)

The present invention has been proposed to solve a problem in a mobile communication system in which different mobile communication services are supported together. An object of the present invention is to provide a mobile communication service providing method and apparatus for selectively providing a specific mobile communication service to a user device requesting a specific mobile communication service by classifying and allocating APNs for each.

In order to achieve the above object, a method for providing a mobile communication service by a subscriber information management device according to the present invention comprises the steps of: receiving, by the subscriber information management device, a location registration request for a user equipment from the mobility management device; updating access point name (APN) information registered for the user device for a specific mobile communication service by using the subscriber profile information of the user device, and the subscriber information management device including the updated access point name information and transmitting the profile information to the mobility management device.

The method further includes, between the receiving and updating, the subscriber information management device confirming whether to subscribe to a specific mobile communication service for the user device by using the subscriber profile information of the user device, The updating may include updating the access point name information by reflecting the confirmed subscription to the specific mobile communication service.

Also, between the receiving and updating, the method further comprising the step of checking, by the subscriber information management device, whether or not a specific mobile communication service is supported for the user device by using the terminal capability information of the user device; The updating may include updating the access point name information by reflecting the confirmed specific mobile communication service support.

In addition, the updating step is characterized in that the operator ID (OI) part of the access point name is changed for a specific mobile communication service.

A method of providing a mobile communication service by a mobility management device according to the present invention comprises: receiving, by the mobility management device, subscriber profile information including updated access point name (APN) information from the subscriber information management device when registering the initial location of the user device; , confirming, by the mobility management device, whether the user device has subscribed to a specific mobile communication service by using the access point name information among the received subscriber profile information, and if the user device is subscribed to the specific mobile communication service, the mobility and performing, by the management device, a session creation procedure through a PDN gateway preset for a specific mobile communication service.

The method may further include, after the performing step, the mobility management device transmitting an initial context setup request including the specific mobile communication service subscription information to the wireless access device selected by the user device.

The subscriber information management apparatus according to the present invention includes a communication interface unit for communicating with the mobility management apparatus, and upon receiving a location registration request for a user apparatus from the mobility management apparatus, the user apparatus using subscriber profile information of the user apparatus and a controller configured to update access point name (APN) information registered for a mobile communication service for a specific mobile communication service, and control to transmit subscriber profile information including the updated access point name information to the mobility management device.

The mobility management device according to the present invention includes a first communication interface unit for communicating with a wireless access device, a second communication interface unit for communicating with a subscriber information management device managing user authentication information and profile, and an initial location registration of the user device. , when subscriber profile information including updated access point name (APN) information is received from the subscriber information management device, whether or not the user device subscribes to a specific mobile communication service using access point name information among the received subscriber profile information and a control unit that checks and performs a session creation procedure through a PDN gateway preset for a specific mobile communication service when the user device subscribes to a specific mobile communication service.

In addition, the control unit is characterized in that it controls so that an initial context setup request including the specific mobile communication service subscription information is transmitted to the wireless access device selected by the user device.

In addition, if the operator ID information of the access point name is information set for a characteristic mobile communication service, the controller determines that the user has subscribed to a specific mobile communication service.

In addition, when the controller makes an initial context setup request for the user equipment to the wireless access device, the maximum bandwidth information for the user equipment is set to an assigned value for a specific mobile communication service and then transmitted. .

According to the above-described solution, the present invention provides an access point name defined to distinguish an existing packet data network or a service (eg, IMS) provided by the packet data network, differently for each mobile communication service provided in a specific mobile communication network. By setting, the mobility management device can determine whether to subscribe to a specific mobile communication service for the user device that has requested access through the access point name information provided from the subscriber information management device in response to the location registration request, and By providing the wireless access device whether or not to subscribe to a specific mobile communication service according to It has the effect of making it possible to provide a service function.

In particular, according to the present invention, in a mobile communication system supporting two or more mobile communication services according to different mobile communication standards, when a subscriber information management device receives a location registration (update) request for a user device from the mobility management device, the By extracting the subscriber profile information of the user device, it is checked whether the user device is subscribed to a specific mobile communication service and whether the user device is a terminal capable of supporting the specific mobile communication service. If both are satisfied, the registered information for the user device Whether the mobility management device subscribes to a specific mobile communication service for each user device without significantly changing the existing access procedure by updating the access point name to the access point name preset for the specific mobile communication service and providing it to the mobility management device has the effect of being able to manage

In addition, according to the present invention, the mobility management device can divide and create sessions for two or more mobile communication services according to different mobile communication standards by using the access point name provided from the subscriber information management device, and through this, each mobile communication service can be created. There is an excellent effect of being able to manage sessions and QoS separately.

In addition, the present invention confirms the specific mobile communication service subscription information of the user device to be connected using the information provided from the mobility management device in the wireless access device to which the specific mobile communication service is actually provided, and a terminal provided by the user device By comparing with the performance information, it is possible to selectively provide a specific mobile communication service to a user device that is subscribed to a specific mobile communication service and can support a specific mobile communication service among a plurality of user devices that have entered the coverage area. It has an excellent effect to make it happen.

1 is a diagram schematically showing the structure of a mobile communication system to which the present invention is applied.
2 is a schematic diagram for explaining an access point name and a session creation process using the access point name in the mobile communication system according to the present invention.
3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an apparatus for managing subscriber information according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of providing a mobile communication service executed by an apparatus for managing subscriber information according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a mobility management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a flowchart illustrating a method of providing a mobile communication service executed by a mobility management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
7 is a flowchart illustrating an initial access procedure of a mobile communication system to which a method for providing a mobile communication service according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, detailed descriptions of well-known functions or configurations that may obscure the gist of the present invention in the following description and accompanying drawings will be omitted. Also, it should be noted that, throughout the drawings, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals as much as possible.

Before describing a method for providing a mobile communication service and an apparatus therefor according to the present invention, terms related to the present invention used in the following embodiments are defined as follows.

In the following description, a 'mobile communication service' is a service provided to communicate voice, video, and data through a user device regardless of location, specifically, it can be provided based on various mobile communication standards and mobile communication technologies. In particular, in the present invention, the mobile communication service can be classified according to the applied mobile communication standard.For example, the WCDMA mobile communication service and the CDMA2000 mobile communication service according to the 3G mobile communication standard, and the 3.9G mobile communication standard It may include HSDPA mobile communication service and LTE mobile communication service, and LTE-A mobile communication service according to the 4th generation mobile communication standard, etc. Such a mobile communication service is a mobile communication technology applied according to the mobile communication standard. In particular, in the case of LTE-A mobile communication service, carrier aggregation technology or CoMP technology may be applied.

In addition, an access point name (APN) is information for identifying a packet data network (PDN) to be accessed in a mobile communication network, and is also called a PDN ID. The APN is stored in a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) as registration information when registering a subscriber, and is provided from the subscriber information management device to the mobility management device when the user device initially accesses, and is used to create a session. In general, the APN is used to identify a packet data network. In the present invention, by setting the APN differently for each of two or more mobile communication services provided according to different mobile communication standards, the mobility management device determines the specific mobile communication service from APN information. Lets you check if you have signed up.

In addition, a mobile communication system to which the present invention is applied is a mobile communication system that supports to provide two or more mobile communication services according to different mobile communication standards together. For example, the mobile communication system to which the present invention is applied may provide both the LTE mobile communication service, which is the 3.9th generation mobile communication standard, and the LTE-A mobile communication service, which is the 4th generation mobile communication standard.

In the following description, for convenience of understanding, a case in which an LTE mobile communication service and an LTE-A mobile communication service are provided together will be described as an example. However, the present invention is not necessarily limited thereto, and any mobile communication system that provides two or more mobile communication services according to different mobile communication standards may be applied.

1 is a diagram schematically showing the structure of a mobile communication system to which the present invention is applied. With reference to this, the structure of a mobile communication system to which the present invention is applied will first be described.

First, the user device 10 receiving the mobile communication service according to the present invention is a wireless communication device having a mobile communication function, and may be, for example, a smart phone, a tablet PC, or the like. . In the present invention, the user device 10 may include a mobile communication service function according to a corresponding mobile communication standard so as to be provided with a mobile communication service provided through a mobile communication system. In this case, the mobile communication service function may include a communication module, for example, one of an LTE modem and an LTE-A modem. At this time, the user device 10 having an LTE-A modem can support LTE mobile communication services such as Carrier Aggregation or CoMP defined in the 4th generation mobile communication standard, while the user device 10 having an LTE modem cannot support LTE mobile communication services such as Carrier Aggregation or CoMP.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 1, the mobile communication system for providing a mobile communication service to the user device 10 includes management of subscriber information including a subscriber number and location, and a connection to and access network with an external network; It is divided into a core network in charge of connection with the user device 10 and an access network that is directly connected to the user device 10 through a radio resource and is responsible for service connection and data transmission and reception. In the above, the external network may include at least one of a mobile communication network of another operator, an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network, or an Internet network. Here, the IMS network and the Internet network are IP-based packet data networks.

The access network includes a plurality of radio access devices (100). Here, the wireless access device 100 connects a wireless channel with the user device 10 and then serves as a base station or access point that performs a function of transmitting and receiving wireless data through the connected channel, for example, a BS. (Base Station), a base transceiver station (BTS), a Node B, a base station such as an eNode B, and may include a wireless access pointer of the Wi-Fi network.

That is, the radio access device 100 may be implemented as a BTS (Base Station Transmission System) within a synchronous (CDMA) network, and a base station controller (BSC), which is a base station controller for controlling the base station, is provided in the access network 100 . may be included in In addition, in an asynchronous (WCDMA) network, it may be implemented as a NodeB and a Radio Network Controller (RNC), and in an LTE (Long Term Evolution) network, it may be implemented as an eNodeB, which is an evolved base station type. In addition, in the case of the eNodeB, only the 3.9G mobile communication standard can be supported, or even the 4G mobile communication standard, LTE-A, can be supported.

These wireless access devices 100 are distributed in different locations, have a communication coverage of a predetermined range, and connect a wireless communication channel for using a communication service with the user device 10 that has entered the communication coverage. Specifically, the wireless access device 100 transmits an access request from the user device 10 that has entered communication coverage to the mobility management device 200, and according to the control of the mobility management device 200, the user device ( 10) and connect the wireless communication channel.

To this end, the wireless access device 100 generates and broadcasts the necessary control information within the communication coverage as system information so that the user device 10 can discover itself. In this case, the system information includes operator information (Public Land Mobile Network Identifier; PLMN ID) supported by the wireless access device 100, base station cell information (eNB Cell Global ID; ECGI), and area information to which each cell belongs (Tracking Area ID). ; TAI), etc.

In addition, the wireless access device 100 may collect and analyze channel measurement result information of cells adjacent to the current cell from the user device 10 , determine handover, and instruct handover. To this end, the radio access device 100 may support a control protocol such as a radio resource control protocol related to radio resource management.

In particular, in the present invention, the wireless access device 100 is a device supporting a specific mobile communication service (eg, LTE-A mobile communication service) among two or more different mobile communication services provided by the mobile communication system. and non-supported devices. For example, a plurality of wireless access devices 100 provided in a mobile communication system to which the present invention is applied provides an LTE service, and at least one of the plurality of wireless access devices 100 provides an LTE-A mobile communication service, specifically As a result, Carrier Aggregation or CoMP can be selectively provided for a specific user device 10 . And, the wireless access device 100 according to the present invention allocates a radio resource to the user device 10 according to the control from the mobility management device 200, and performs connection establishment through the allocated radio resource, In this case, the specific mobile communication service subscription information is received from the mobility management device 200, the specific mobile communication service subscription information is compared with the terminal performance information of the user device 10, and the specific mobile communication service (Carrier Aggregation or CoMP) function is selectively activated. As the specific mobile communication service (Carrier Aggregation or CoMP) function is activated, the wireless access device 100 allocates radio resources based on carrier aggregation or CoMP and establishes a connection.

Next, the core network is a network system that performs major functions for mobile communication services such as call processing, mobility control and switching between access networks, and may be implemented with various functional elements. Specifically, referring to FIG. 1 , the core network includes a mobility management device 200 , a serving gateway 300 , a packet data network (hereinafter referred to as PDN) gateway 400 , a subscriber information management device 500 , The subscriber policy management device 600 may be included. Here, the mobility management device 200 , the serving gateway 300 , and the PDN gateway 400 may be allocated for each adjacent wireless access device 100 and connected thereto. In addition, the above-described devices may be implemented as one server device or may be implemented as different devices.

Among the components of the core network, the mobility management device 200 is a functional element for managing the movement of the user device 10 and includes, for example, a Mobility Management Entity (MME) defined in the 3GPP standard. Specifically, the mobility management device 200 enters into the communication coverage of any wireless access device 100 and performs a location registration procedure for the user device 10 requesting access. In addition, the mobility management device 200 may manage the user device 10 in an idle mode and select the serving gateway 300 and the PDN gateway 400 to manage the user device 10 . . Also, the mobility management device 200 may perform roaming and authentication related functions for the user device 10 . Also, the mobility management device 200 may process a bearer signal generated by the user device 10 . Here, a message transmitted for connection processing between the mobility management device 200 and the user device 10 in a non-connection state is referred to as a NAS (Non Access Stratum) message. The NAS is an end-to-end protocol between the user device 10 and the core network, particularly the mobility management device 200, and is used for network connection management, authentication, call processing for bearer establishment, session management, mobility management, and the like.

In this case, the mobility management device 200 supports a plurality of tracking area identities (TAIs), and is connected to a plurality of wireless access devices 100 that individually support the TAIs. Through this, a plurality of wireless access devices 100 supporting the same TAI have a connection with the same mobility management device 200, and wireless access devices 100 supporting different TAIs connect with other mobility management devices. it is possible to have

In particular, in the present invention, when the user device 10 is initially connected, the mobility management device 200 performs location registration in conjunction with the subscriber information management device 500 and acquires subscriber profile information. It is checked whether the user device 10 is subscribed to a specific mobile communication service based on the access point name information included in the subscriber profile information, and the specific mobile communication service subscription information of the user device 10 is transferred to the user device 10 . ) and provided to the wireless access device 100 to be connected. In this case, the specific mobile communication service subscription information may be transmitted through a specific field in the SPID of the initial context setup request or maximum bandwidth information (UE-AMBR). For example, the specific mobile communication service subscription information may be displayed as a value indicating whether to subscribe to a specific field in the SPID of the initial context setup request. In another case, the specific mobile communication service subscription information may be expressed as maximum bandwidth information having a preset value for a specific mobile communication service.

Next, the serving gateway 300 may serve as a mobility anchor during handover between wireless access devices 100 of the user device 10 or when moving between networks. In particular, taking the LTE network as an example, the serving gateway 300 may serve as a mobility anchor during handover of the user device 10 and as a mobility anchor during movement of the 3GPP wireless network.

The PDN gateway 400 allocates an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the user device 10 . In addition, the PDN gateway 400 serves as a mobility anchor when moving between different types of networks (eg, a 3GPP wireless network and a non-3GPP wireless network). In addition, the PDN gateway 400 determines a bearer band to be provided to the user equipment 10 . In addition, the PDN gateway 400 is responsible for forwarding (Forwarding) and routing (Routing) functions for the packet data.

In addition, the PDN gateway 400 performs different QoS policies for each user device 10 in cooperation with the subscriber policy management device 600 , controls traffic, etc., and performs billing processing.

In particular, the serving gateway 300 and the PDN gateway 400 create a session for the user device 10 .

In this case, the PDN gateway 400 includes a packet data network and a plurality of PDN gateways each divided for each service provided through the packet data network. In particular, in the present invention, a PDN allocated for a specific mobile communication service. Includes gateway. That is, the PDN gateway 400 is divided and allocated for each access point name.

Accordingly, when the mobility management device 200 according to the present invention allocates the PDN gateway 400 to the user device 10, based on the access point name information provided from the subscriber information management device 500, the user device ( When 10) is subscribed to a specific mobile communication service, a PDN gateway divided for the specific mobile communication service is allocated.

Next, the subscriber information management apparatus 500 manages subscriber information and mobility information. In particular, the subscriber information management device 500 stores service subscription information for each user device 10 and provides it to the mobility management device 200 . The service subscription information includes not only additional service subscription information, but also subscription information for any mobile communication service among mobile communication services based on different mobile communication standards provided by the mobile communication system. In addition, the subscriber information management device 500 registers and updates the mobility information of the user device 10 according to the location registration/update request from the mobility management device 200 .

In particular, in the present invention, the subscriber information management device 500 confirms the subscriber profile information for the user device 10, is subscribed to a specific mobile communication service, and the user device 10 provides the specific mobile communication service. In the case of a terminal device supporting the function, the access point name of the user device 10 is updated with access point name information preset for a specific mobile communication service. Then, subscriber profile information including updated access point name information is provided to the mobility management apparatus 200 .

In general, the access point name is composed of a network ID (APN-NI) and an operator ID (APN-OI). In this case, the network ID cannot be changed because it is an identifier for packet network data such as the Internet or IMS network. Accordingly, in the present invention, the update of the access point name may be performed in the form of changing the operator ID to a value set in response to a specific mobile communication service.

Finally, the subscriber policy management device 600 is to perform QoS adjustment between the core network and the external network (packet data network), manages policies and charging rules for each subscriber, and provides them to the PDN gateway 400 . The subscriber policy management device 600 may be a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) defined in 3GPP.

In the above configuration, the user device 10 uses a data transmission path through the wireless access device 100 , the serving gateway 300 , and the PDN gateway 400 to an external packet data network such as an IMS network or the Internet network ( PDN). To this end, when the user device 10 becomes in a state of being able to communicate with the specific wireless access device 100 selected through the discovery procedure in synchronization with the wireless link, NAS to the mobility management device 200 through the wireless access device 100 Sends a request (NAS Request) message. At this time, the NAS request message may be, for example, an Attach Request message, a Tracking Area Update Request message, or a Service Request message.

In response to this request, subscriber identification, authentication and security procedure for the user device 10, location registration procedure, and session creation procedure are sequentially performed through the mobility management device 200 in response to the request, and the wireless access device in the user device 10 (100), the serving gateway 300, a data transmission path via the PDN gateway 400 is formed, and thereafter, a call service or a data service is made through this.

However, during the above process, when the user device 10 has a function capable of supporting a specific mobile communication service (eg, LTE-A) and is subscribed to the corresponding mobile communication service, the mobile communication The system must be able to provide the LTE-A mobile communication service when the corresponding user device 10 enters the communication coverage of the wireless access device 100 providing the LTE-A mobile communication service by checking this.

To this end, the mobility management device 200 according to the present invention provides a specific mobile communication service for the user device from the access point name information received from the subscriber information management device 500 when the user device 10 is initially registered. Check the subscription information and store it as the user context.

Next, a session between the serving gateway 300 and the PDN gateway 400 for the user device 10 is created, which will be described with reference to FIG. 2 .

2 is a schematic diagram for explaining a session creation process in a mobile communication system to which the present invention is applied.

Referring to FIG. 2 , in the mobile communication system according to the present invention, at least one packet data network 21 and 22 to be connected to the user device 10 may exist. Here, it is assumed that the first packet data network 21 is an Internet network and the second packet data network 22 is an IMS network.

At this time, APNs 1 to 3 exist for each of the first and second packet data networks 21 and 22. In the present invention, an APN (eg, LTE-A) for a specific mobile communication service (eg, LTE-A) exists. APN1) exists further. In addition, PDN gateways 401 to 403 that can be accessed for each APN 1 to 3 are separately set.

In this state, when the subscriber information management device 500 provides subscriber profile information, the APN information provisioned for the user device 10 is provided to the mobility management device 200 . In this case, when the user device 10 subscribes to a specific mobile communication service, the provided APN information is updated for the specific mobile communication service.

Then, the mobility management device 200 allocates a PDN gateway to provide the PDN connection to the user device 10 by using the APN information. In this case, when the APN information is updated for a specific mobile communication service, the mobility The management device 200 allocates the PDN gateway 401 mapped with APN1 and set for a specific mobile communication service with reference to domain information. Accordingly, the user equipment 10 is connected to the first packet data network 21 through the PDN gateway 401 . On the other hand, if the APN information is not updated for a specific mobile communication service, it is not subscribed to a specific mobile communication service. A gateway 402 is assigned, whereby the user equipment 10 is connected to the first packet data network 21 through the PDN gateway 402 . Meanwhile, the second packet data network 22 corresponding to the IMS network may be connected through the PDN gateway 403 without distinction of a specific mobile communication service.

Through this process, after creating a session for PDN connection to the user device 10 , the mobility management device 200 moves to the wireless access device 100 in the communication coverage area into which the user device 10 entered. The specific mobile communication service subscription information is provided.

Accordingly, when the wireless access device 100 supports the specific mobile communication service, the terminal performance information collected from the user device 10 and the specific mobile communication service provided from the mobility management device 200 are provided. By comparing subscription information, a function corresponding to the specific mobile communication service is selectively activated. More specifically, the wireless access device 100 checks whether the user device 10 supports a specific mobile communication service function from the terminal performance information collected from the user device 10 , and the user device 10 performs a specific mobile communication service function. While supporting a communication service, when information indicating that the user device 10 has subscribed to a specific mobile communication service is transmitted from the mobility management device 200, the specific mobile communication service function, for example, a carrier aggregation function, is activated. A radio resource of the user device 10 may be allocated.

Hereinafter, in the above-described mobile communication system, the configuration and operation of an apparatus for providing a mobile communication service according to the present invention will be described in more detail.

3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a subscriber information management apparatus 500 for providing a mobile communication service according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the subscriber information management apparatus 500 .

Referring to FIG. 3 , the subscriber information management apparatus 500 according to the present invention may include a communication interface unit 510 , a storage unit 520 , and a control unit 530 .

The communication interface unit 510 is a component that communicates with other network nodes within the core network, and in particular, in the present invention, communicates with one or more mobility management devices 200 . For example, according to the proposal of 3GPP, the communication interface unit 501 transmits and receives a control message for user authentication, security, location registration/update, and roaming function provision with the mobility management device 200 through the S6a interface. .

The storage unit 520 is a component for storing data necessary for operation of the subscriber information management apparatus 500, and in particular, the storage unit 520 includes subscriber profile information including service subscription information for a plurality of subscribers. . In addition, the subscriber profile information is stored corresponding to identification information (eg, IMSI) of the user device 10 , and may include APN information preset for the user device 10 .

The control unit 530 is configured to perform main functions of the subscriber information management apparatus 500, for example, subscriber authentication and location registration. In particular, a control process of the controller 530 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 4 .

Referring to FIG. 4 , when a location registration request for a specific user device 10 is received from the mobility management device 200 through the communication interface unit 510 ( S110 ), the controller 530 receives the received user device ( The location registration of the user device 10 is performed by mapping the identification information of 10) and the identification information (eg, MMEI) of the mobility management device 200 . In addition, a location registration procedure for extracting corresponding subscriber profile information based on the identification information of the user device 10 and providing it to the mobility management device 200 is performed.

At this time, the control unit 530 of the apparatus 500 for managing subscriber information according to the present invention checks whether the user apparatus 10 is subscribed to a specific mobile communication service with reference to the subscriber profile information, and, in addition, the terminal performance It is checked whether the specific mobile communication service function is supported (S120).

As a result of the check, if the user device 10 is subscribed to a specific mobile communication service and the terminal capability supports the specific mobile communication service (S130 and S140), the controller 530 controls the user device 10 for The set APN information is updated for a specific mobile communication service (S150). Here, the update of the APN information may be performed by changing the OI (operator ID) part of the APN information for a specific mobile communication service.

Then, after location registration, the controller 530 provides subscriber profile information including the updated APN information to the mobility management apparatus 200 (S160).

On the other hand, as a result of the check, when the user device 10 is not subscribed to a specific mobile communication service or the terminal performance does not support the specific mobile communication service in steps S130 and S140, the controller 530 controls the APN The information is transmitted to the mobility management device 200 as it is without updating it for a specific mobile communication service (S170). That is, at this time, the transmitted APN does not include setting information corresponding to a specific mobile communication service.

Accordingly, the mobility management device 200 can check whether the user device 10 is subscribed to a specific mobile communication service by checking the APN information provided from the subscriber information management device 500 .

5 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the mobility management apparatus 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation process of the mobility management apparatus 200 .

Referring to FIG. 5 , the mobility management apparatus 200 may include a first communication interface unit 210 , a second communication interface unit 220 , a storage unit 230 , and a control unit 240 . .

The first communication interface unit 210, as a means for communicating with the wireless access device 100, according to the proposal of 3GPP, can transmit a control message with the wireless access device 100 through the S1-AP interface, , and also processes NAS signaling with the user device 10 through the wireless access device 100 .

The second communication interface unit 220 is a means for communicating with the subscriber information management apparatus 500 that manages user authentication information and profiles, for example, according to the proposal of 3GPP, through the S6a interface, the subscriber information management apparatus ( 500) and control messages for user authentication, location registration/renewal, and provision of roaming functions.

The storage unit 230 is a means for storing data required for operation of the mobility management device 200 , and in particular, users of the user devices 10 connected to the wireless access device 100 connected to the mobility management device 200 . Stores the context (UE Context). The user context is state information related to network access of the user equipment 10 , and may include security context, roaming restriction information, user equipment performance information, S1 signaling connection ID, bearer configuration information, and the like. In particular, in the present invention, the user context stored in the storage unit 230 may include subscription information of a specific mobile communication service of the user device 10 .

The control unit 240 is a means for performing and controlling the overall operation of the mobility management apparatus 200 by interworking with the first and second communication interface units 210 and 220 and the storage unit 230 .

Specifically, the controller 240 includes functions of the mobility management device 200 described above, location registration/update for the user device 10, management of the user device 10 in idle mode, and the user device (10) Selection of the serving gateway 300 and the PDN gateway 400 to be managed, a session creation request, and controls related to roaming and authentication for the user device 10 are performed.

In particular, in the present invention, the controller 240 manages a user context for supporting a specific mobile communication service. Specifically, when registering the initial location of the user device 10 , the control unit 240 uses the APN information among the subscriber profile information received from the subscriber information management device 500 through the second communication interface unit 220 . The specific mobile communication service subscription information for the user device 10 may be checked, and it may be included in the specific user context and stored in the storage unit 230 . Then, the controller 240 selects the serving gateway 300 and the PDN gateway 400 based on the APN information, and performs a session creation procedure through the selected serving gateway 300 and the PDN gateway 400 . In addition, the controller 240 controls to transmit the specific mobile communication service subscription information to the wireless access device 100 in the communication coverage area into which the user device 10 has entered.

With reference to FIG. 6 , a process of providing a mobile communication service by the mobility management apparatus 200 having the above configuration will be described in more detail.

Referring to FIG. 6 , the mobility management device 200 may receive an access request from the user device 10 ( S210 ). The access request may be transmitted as an Attach request among NAS messages.

In this way, the mobility management device 200 receiving the access request from the user device 10 transmits the identification information of the user device 10 and its own identification information to the subscriber information management device 500 to request location registration, , in response thereto, the subscriber profile information for the user device 10 may be received from the subscriber information management device 500 . Here, the subscriber profile information is information necessary for connection with the user equipment 10, and includes APN information to which the user equipment 10 is subscribed, QoS profiles (QCI, ARP, APN-AMBR, UE-AMBR, etc.) may include

As described above, the mobility management device 200 that has received the subscriber profile information for the user device 10 uses APN information among the subscriber profile information so that the user device 10 is subscribed to a specific mobile communication service. It is determined whether or not (S230). More specifically, when the OI portion of the APN information is checked and it is a preset value for a specific mobile communication service, it is determined that the user device 10 is subscribed to the specific mobile communication service. The determined specific mobile communication service subscription information may be included in the user context for the user device 10 and stored in the storage unit 230 .

The user context is information related to network access of the user device 10 for maintaining the connection state of the user device 10, and includes a security context, roaming restriction information, performance information of the user device 10, S1 signaling connection ID, It may include bearer configuration information and the like.

In addition, the mobility management device 200 selects the PDN gateway 400 to be used by the user device 10 with reference to the subscriber profile information. In this case, when the APN information is updated for a specific mobile communication service , the mobility management device 200 selects the PDN gateway 400 preset for a specific mobile communication service (eg, the PDN gateway 401 of FIG. 2 ), and selects the selected PDN gateway 400 ) through the session creation procedure (S240). Here, the session creation procedure may be the same as the session creation procedure proposed in 3GPP, for example.

Then, the mobility management device 200 requests an initial context setup from the wireless access device 100 of the communication coverage into which the user device 10 has entered (S250). In this case, the initial context setup request may include specific mobile communication service subscription information. For example, the specific mobile communication service subscription information is transmitted using a specific field of a subscription profile ID for RAT/Frequency Selection (SPID), or the maximum bandwidth information (UE-AMBR) is preset for a specific mobile communication service. It may be provided in the form of setting a value.

Accordingly, the wireless access device 100 may determine whether the user device 10 subscribes to a specific mobile communication service and whether the terminal is supported based on the information included in the initial context setup request, and according to the determination result, the specific mobile communication Radio resource allocation and connection may be performed by selectively activating a service function.

7 is a flowchart illustrating an initial access procedure of a mobile communication system to which a method for providing a mobile communication service according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. In particular, FIG. 7 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an access procedure according to a mobile communication standard according to a proposal of 3GPP.

Referring to FIG. 7 , when the user device 10 wants to access the mobile communication system by power on, etc., the user device 10 manages mobility connected to the wireless access device 100 through a specific wireless access device 100 selected through a discovery procedure. It transmits an access request to the device 200 (S305). The access request is transmitted through an Attach request message among NAS messages, and identification information of the user device 10, for example, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), Globally Unique Temporary Identifier (GUTI), International Mobile Equipment (IMEI) Identity) can be included.

In this case, when the user device 10 transmits an access request including a GUTI based on access information of a previous network, the mobility management device 200 determines that the user device 10 previously accesses based on the GUTI. An identification procedure for the user device 10 may be performed by receiving information on the user device 10 from a mobility management device of a network.

Next, the mobility management device 200 receiving the access request from the user device 10 performs subscriber authentication and security processing for the user device 10 (S310). In this case, the mobility management device 200 requests and receives authentication information from the subscriber information management device 500 based on the identification information (IMSI) of the user device 10 , and uses the received authentication information to receive the user device ( 10) may be accomplished by performing a mutual authentication procedure between each other, and generating and setting a security key between the user device 10 and the user device 10 after authentication. Thereafter, the control message is encrypted and transmitted based on the generated security key.

After completing the authentication and security procedures, the mobility management device 200 registers the location of the user device 10 and sends the user to the subscriber information management device 500 to check which services the user can use. It transmits a location registration request (Update Location request) to the device 10 (S315).

Upon receiving this, the subscriber information management device 500 registers the identification information of the mobility management device 200 as the location information of the user device 10, and the user device 10 subscribes to a specific mobile communication service. It is checked whether there is and whether the terminal capability can support a specific mobile communication service (S320).

And, as a result of the check, if the user device 10 is subscribed to a specific mobile communication service and if the terminal capability can support the specific mobile communication service, the previously registered APN information is updated for the specific mobile communication service. (S325).

Then, the subscriber information management apparatus 500 transmits the subscriber profile information including the updated APN information to the mobility management apparatus 200 through an Update Location ACK message (S330). Here, the subscriber profile information includes APN information for a service subscribed by the user, identification information of the PDN gateway 400 for accessing the APN, and subscribed QoS profile information (UE-AMBR, QCI, ARP, APN-AMBR). etc.), and may include subscription information for a specific mobile communication service (eg, LTE-A), and the APN information and identification information of the PDN gateway may be updated values for a specific mobile communication service. .

The mobility management device 200 stores the subscriber profile information received from the subscriber information management device 500, in particular, determines whether to subscribe to a specific mobile communication service from the APN information, and determines specific mobile communication service subscription information according to the result. can be stored together (S335).

And, the mobility management device 200 selects the serving gateway 300 and the PDN gateway 400 using the APN information, and the user device 10 between the selected serving gateway 300 and the PDN gateway 400 . Creates a session for (S340). Here, when the APN information is updated for a specific mobile communication service, the mobility management device 200 refers to domain information, selects a preset PDN gateway for a specific mobile communication service, and connects to the PDN through the corresponding PDN gateway. carry out

When the authentication and security, location registration, and session creation procedures are normally processed in this way, the mobility management device 200 responds to the access request to the user device 10 through the wireless access device 100 with an Attach Accept message (Attach Accept). ) is transmitted (S345). After the connection acceptance message is transmitted to the wireless access device 100 through an Initial Context Setup Request message to be described later in the S1 signaling connection, in the RRC connection, the user device from the wireless access device 100 through the RRC Connection Reconfiguration message (10) can be transmitted.

In addition, in order to control the mobility management device 200 and the wireless access device 100 to perform a procedure for allocating radio resources to the user device 10 , the user device 10 initially uses the selected wireless access device 100 . A context setup request (Initial Context Setup Request) is transmitted (S350). In this case, the mobility management device 200 provides the subscription information of the specific mobile communication service together with the security related information, the performance information of the user device 10 and the bearer setup information to the wireless access device 100 . In particular, the mobile communication service subscription information may be recorded in a preset specific field of a Subscription Profile ID for RAT/Frequency Selection (SPID) included in the initial context setup request, or transmitted through maximum bandwidth information (UE-AMBR). have.

Accordingly, the wireless access device 100 refers to a specific field of the SPID or UE-AMBR included in the initial context setup request, and checks whether the user device 10 is subscribed to a specific mobile communication service (S355), In addition, it is checked whether a specific mobile communication service function is supported with reference to the terminal performance information of the user device 10 (360).

Then, according to the confirmation result, a specific mobile communication service function is activated (S365), and radio resource allocation and connection with the user device 10 are performed (S370).

For example, when the user device 10 is subscribed to a specific mobile communication service and the terminal capability can support the specific mobile communication service function, the wireless access device 100 may By activating a function, for example, a carrier aggregation function, radio resources are allocated and a connection is performed through it. On the other hand, when the user device 10 does not support a specific mobile communication service or is not subscribed to a specific mobile communication service, the wireless access device 100 does not apply carrier aggregation, as defined in the LTE standard. A connection may be performed by allocating a radio resource.

Then, in response to the initial context setup request, the wireless access device 100 transmits an Initial Context Setup Response message to the mobility management device 200 to notify that the connection is complete (S375).

In addition, the user device 10 for which the radio resource setting has been completed also notifies that the access is complete in response to the access acceptance to the mobility management device 200 through the wireless access device 100 ( S380 ). The connection completion may be delivered through an Attach Complete message among NAS messages, and the Attach Complete message is transmitted to the wireless access device 100 through a UL Information Transfer message, and then through an Uplink NAS Transport message to the mobility management device 200 ) can be transmitted.

As described above, the mobility management device 200 confirming that the wireless connection between the user device 10 and the wireless access device 100 has been completed transmits the downlink SI TEID received from the wireless access device 100 to the serving gateway 300 . ) to perform a session update procedure so as to be connected from the wireless access device 100 to the serving gateway 300 .

Through the above-described process, a data transmission path is established through the wireless access device 100 , the serving gateway 300 , and the PDN gateway 400 , and through this, the user device 10 can receive a data communication service.

The mobile communication service providing method according to the present invention may be implemented in the form of software readable through various computer means and recorded in a computer readable recording medium. Here, the recording medium may include a program command, a data file, a data structure, etc. alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded on the recording medium may be specially designed and configured for the present invention, or may be known and available to those skilled in the art of computer software. For example, the recording medium includes a magnetic medium such as a hard disk, a floppy disk, and a magnetic tape, an optical recording medium such as a compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM), a digital video disk (DVD), and a floppy disk. magneto-optical media, such as disks, and hardware devices specially configured to store and carry out program instructions, such as ROM, random access memory (RAM), flash memory, etc. do. Examples of program instructions may include high-level language codes that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like as well as machine language codes such as those generated by a compiler. Such hardware devices may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the present invention, and vice versa.

In addition, although preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed in the present specification and drawings, it is common in the technical field to which the present invention pertains that other modifications based on the technical spirit of the present invention can be implemented even with the exceptions disclosed herein. It is self-evident to those with knowledge. In addition, although specific terms have been used in the present specification and drawings, these are only used in a general sense to easily explain the technical contents of the present invention and help the understanding of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.

Although this specification and drawings describe exemplary device configurations, implementations of the functional operations and subject matter described herein may be implemented in other types of digital electronic circuits, or may represent structures disclosed herein and structural equivalents thereof. It may be implemented as computer software, firmware, or hardware including, or a combination of one or more of these. Implementations of the subject matter described herein relate to one or more computer program products, ie computer program instructions encoded on a tangible program storage medium for execution by or for controlling the operation of an apparatus according to the invention. It can be implemented as the above modules. The computer readable medium may be a machine readable storage device, a machine readable storage substrate, a memory device, a composition of matter that affects a machine readable radio wave signal, or a combination of one or more thereof.

A computer program (also known as a program, software, software application, script or code) mounted on the device according to the invention and executing the method according to the invention is a programming language comprising compiled or interpreted language or a priori or procedural language. It can be written in any form of language, and can be deployed in any form, including standalone programs, modules, components, subroutines, or other units suitable for use in a computer environment. A computer program does not necessarily correspond to a file in a file system. A program may be in a single file provided to the requested program, or in multiple interacting files (eg, files that store one or more modules, subprograms, or portions of code), or portions of files that hold other programs or data. (eg, one or more scripts stored within a markup language document). The computer program may be deployed to be executed on a single computer or multiple computers located at one site or distributed over a plurality of sites and interconnected by a communication network.

The present invention provides an access point name defined to distinguish an existing packet data network or a service (eg, IMS) provided by the packet data network, by differently setting for each mobile communication service provided in a specific mobile communication network, so that the mobility management device Through the access point name information provided from the subscriber information management device in response to the location registration request, it is possible to determine whether or not to subscribe to a specific mobile communication service for the user device that has requested access, and to subscribe to the specific mobile communication service according to the determination by providing the wireless access device whether the wireless access device is subscribed to a specific mobile communication service and selectively providing the specific mobile communication service function to a user device capable of supporting the specific mobile communication service function has the effect of

In addition, according to the present invention, the mobility management device can divide and create sessions for two or more mobile communication services according to different mobile communication standards by using the access point name provided from the subscriber information management device, and through this, each mobile communication service can be created. There is an excellent effect of being able to manage sessions and QoS separately.

In addition, the present invention confirms the specific mobile communication service subscription information of the user device to be connected using the information provided from the mobility management device in the wireless access device to which the specific mobile communication service is actually provided, and a terminal provided by the user device By comparing with the performance information, it is possible to selectively provide a specific mobile communication service to a user device that is subscribed to a specific mobile communication service and can support a specific mobile communication service among a plurality of user devices that have entered the coverage area. It has an excellent effect to make it happen.

10: user device 100: wireless access device
200: mobility management device 300: serving gateway
400: PDN gateway 500: subscriber information management device
600: subscriber policy management device

Claims (11)

receiving, by the subscriber information management device, a location registration request for the user device from the mobility management device;
The subscriber information management device transfers access point name (APN) information registered for the user device using the subscriber profile information of the user device to a specific mobile communication service based on different mobile communication standards provided by the mobile communication system. updating to correspond to a communication service; and
transmitting, by the subscriber information management device, subscriber profile information including the updated access point name information to the mobility management device;
A method of providing a mobile communication service comprising a. The method of claim 1,
between the receiving step and the updating step,
further comprising; confirming, by the subscriber information management device, whether to subscribe to a specific mobile communication service for the user device by using the subscriber profile information of the user device;
The updating step is
and updating the access point name information by reflecting the confirmed subscription to the specific mobile communication service. The method of claim 1,
between the receiving step and the updating step,
The method further comprising: confirming, by the subscriber information management device, whether a specific mobile communication service is supported for the user device by using the terminal capability information of the user device;
The updating step is
and updating the access point name information by reflecting the confirmed support for the specific mobile communication service. The method of claim 1,
The updating step is
A method of providing a mobile communication service, characterized in that the operator ID (OI) part of the access point name is changed for a specific mobile communication service. receiving, by the mobility management device, subscriber profile information including updated access point name (APN) information from the subscriber information management device when the user device initially registers a location;
checking, by the mobility management device, whether the user device has subscribed to a specific mobile communication service by using access point name information among the received subscriber profile information; and
When the user device subscribes to a specific mobile communication service among mobile communication services based on different mobile communication standards provided by the mobile communication system, the mobility management device creates a session through a preset PDN gateway to correspond to the specific mobile communication service performing the procedure;
A method of providing a mobile communication service comprising a. 6. The method of claim 5,
After performing the above steps,
transmitting, by the mobility management device, an initial context setup request including the specific mobile communication service subscription information to a wireless access device selected by the user device;
Mobile communication service providing method, characterized in that it further comprises. a communication interface unit for communicating with the mobility management device;
When receiving a location registration request for a user device from the mobility management device, access point name (APN) information registered for the user device using the subscriber profile information of the user device is transferred to different mobile communication systems provided by the mobile communication system. a control unit that updates to correspond to a specific mobile communication service among communication standard-based mobile communication services, and controls to transmit subscriber profile information including the updated access point name information to the mobility management device;
Subscriber information management device comprising a. a first communication interface unit for communicating with a wireless access device;
a second communication interface unit for communicating with a subscriber information management device that manages user authentication information and a profile;
Upon initial location registration of the user device, when subscriber profile information including updated access point name (APN) information is received from the subscriber information management device, access point name information among the received subscriber profile information is used to determine the location of the user device. A PDN gateway preset to check whether to subscribe to a specific mobile communication service and correspond to a specific mobile communication service when the user device subscribes to a specific mobile communication service among mobile communication services based on different mobile communication standards provided by the mobile communication system a control unit for performing a session creation procedure through;
Mobility management device comprising a. 9. The method of claim 8,
The control unit is
and controlling transmission of an initial context setup request including the specific mobile communication service subscription information to the wireless access device selected by the user device. 9. The method of claim 8,
The control unit is
If the operator ID information of the access point name is information set for a characteristic mobile communication service, it is determined that the user has subscribed to a specific mobile communication service. 9. The method of claim 8,
The control unit is
and transmitting the maximum bandwidth information for the user equipment as an assigned value for a specific mobile communication service when the wireless access device makes an initial context setup request for the user equipment.

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