WO2015131368A1

WO2015131368A1 - Method and apparatus for multi-sim multi-standby communications

Info

Publication number: WO2015131368A1
Application number: PCT/CN2014/072986
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hongkun Liang; Liyuan Liu; Guowei MA; Yingbao JIA; Hongguang WANG
Original assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy; Nokia (China) Investment Co. Ltd
Priority date: 2014-03-06
Filing date: 2014-03-06
Publication date: 2015-09-11

Abstract

An approach is provided for multi-SIM multi-standby (MSMS) communications. The method comprises accepting a request for grouping a plurality of wireless devices into a group; receiving a call request to a first wireless device in the group; determining that the first wireless device is in modified paging mode, in which a paging interval for the first wireless device is modified; determining that a second wireless device in the group is in an active mode with a normal paging interval; and sending to the second wireless device, a message indicative of the call request.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MULTI-SIM MULTI-STANDBY

COMMUNICATIONS

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention generally relates to wireless communication system. More specifically, the invention relates to multi- Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) multi-standby (MSMS) communications.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Nowadays, some users or families may have two or more mobile phones in hand. For example, one mobile phone may be a smart phone for primary usages, and another mobile phone may be a feature phone backup for the smart phone, for example, for avoiding missing calls in a case that a battery of the smart phone is depleted. Each of these mobile phones may include a SIM card associated with a different subscriber, which may be identified with a different wireless telephone number. Since all of the SIM cards of these mobile phones may be on standby for communications essentially for one user, this kind of communication may be called as a multi-Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) multi-standby (MSMS) communication.

[0003] Normally, each of these mobile phones works separately as an individual subscriber in wireless communication networks. In this regard, each phone may be configured to register to a wireless communication network corresponding to its subscriber separately, and performs wireless communications (such as pages receipt and call establishment) separately. The battery life of each phone will be shortened as a normal phone under a same condition. There is no proposal to manage the MSMS communications as a whole.

[0004] Then, it would be advancement in the art to provide methods and apparatus for managing MSMS communications of multiple mobile phones, so as to improve performances of mobile phones and wireless communication networks. SOME EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

[0005] To overcome the problem described above, and to overcome the limitations that will be apparent upon reading and understanding the prior arts, the disclosure provides an approach for MSMS communications, so as to improve performances of mobile phones and wireless communication networks, for example to save power consumptions of MSMS terminals.

[0006] According to one embodiment, a method comprises accepting a request for grouping a plurality of wireless devices into a group; receiving a call request to a first wireless device in the group; determining that the first wireless device is in modified paging mode, in which a paging interval for the first wireless device is modified; determining that a second wireless device in the group is in an active mode with a normal paging interval; and sending to the second wireless device, a message indicative of the call request.

[0007] In an exemplary embodiment, the method may further comprise in response to the message, receiving from the second wireless device an indication indicating that the call request is to be accepted, and triggering an establishment of communication connection for the requested call.

[0008] In an exemplary embodiment, the method may further comprise issuing to the second wireless device, to switch into modified paging mode, in which a paging interval for the second wireless device is modified.

[0009] In an exemplary embodiment, the method may further comprise in response to the message, receiving from the second wireless device an indication indicating that the call request is to be rejected; and causing to reject the requested call.

[0010] In an exemplary embodiment, the method may further comprise issuing to the first wireless device, a command to modify a paging interval of the first wireless device. Information of a modified paging interval of the first wireless device may be received from the first wireless device. The request for grouping may be received through a free unstructured supplementary service data channel. In an exemplary embodiment, a paging interval of a wireless device in modified paging mode may be extended or shortened. [0011] In an exemplary embodiment, the method may further comprise determining an interval between the time at which the call request is received from a next paging time of the first wireless device; and if the determined interval is larger than a predetermined threshold, sending the message indicative of the call request to the second wireless device.

[0012] According to another embodiment, an apparatus comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause, at least in part, the apparatus to accept a request for grouping a plurality of wireless devices into a group; receive a call request to a first wireless device in the group; determine that the first wireless device is in modified paging mode, in which a paging interval for the first wireless device is modified; determine that a second wireless device in the group is in an active mode with a normal paging interval; and send to the second wireless device, a message indicative of the call request. In an exemplary embodiment, a paging interval of a wireless device in modified paging mode may be extended or shortened.

[0013] According to another embodiment, a computer-readable storage medium carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause, at least in part, an apparatus to perform one of the methods discussed above.

[0014] According to another embodiment, an apparatus comprises means for performing one of the methods discussed above.

[0015] A computer program product including one or more sequences of one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause an apparatus to at least perform one of the methods discussed above.

[0016] Still other aspects, features, and advantages of the invention are readily apparent from the following detailed description, simply by illustrating a number of particular embodiments and implementations, including the best mode contemplated for carrying out the invention. The invention is also capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details may be modified in various obvious respects, all without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] The embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings:

[0018] FIGs. 1A, IB and 1C illustrate exemplary architectures of suitable systems in which one or more illustrative embodiments of the invention may be implemented;

[0019] FIG. 2 illustrates an example timing diagram illustrating a procedure for MSMS communications according to some embodiments of the present invention;

[0020] FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process for MSMS communications according to some embodiments of the present invention; and

[0021] FIG. 4 illustrates a simplified block diagram of various electronic devices that are suitable for use in practicing the exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0022] Examples of a method, apparatus, system and computer program for MSMS communications are disclosed. In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the invention. It is apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the embodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specific details or with an equivalent arrangement. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the embodiments of the invention. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.

[0023] According to various exemplary embodiments, an additional function unit (which may referred to as MSMS unit, hereinafter) may be added in a network side for managing MSMS communications of multiple wireless devices. In this regard, a plurality of wireless devices are grouped into a group (which may be referred to as a MSMS group) for conducting MSMS communications. Wireless devices in such a MSMS group especially serve one same user. As such, communications of these wireless devices may be coordinated, so that part of wireless devices in the MSMS group may be used as secondary wireless devices for the user, and another part of wireless devices in the MSMS group may be used as primary devices. The secondary wireless devices may be configured to operate in modified paging mode, in which a paging interval of a secondary wireless device is modified to be different from its normal paging interval. In some embodiments, the paging interval may be extended to be longer than a normal paging interval. For example, the paging interval in extended paging mode may be twice or triple as large as a normal paging interval. Accordingly, its power consumption for monitoring pages may be decreased. In some embodiments, a wireless device in modified paging mode would even suspend any receipt of pages. It means that the wireless device would not need to camp to its network. This may also be called offline mode, in addition to being called extended paging mode. In other embodiments, a paging interval of a wireless device in modified paging mode may be shortened, for example for coordinating the MSMS communications. Meanwhile, The MSMS unit can handle incoming calls on a wireless device in modified paging mode, so as to avoid missing any calls due to modified paging intervals, especially extended paging intervals and suspended receipt of pages.

[0024] FIGs. 1A, IB and 1C illustrate exemplary architectures of suitable systems 100A, 100B, lOOC, respectively, in which one or more illustrative embodiments of the invention may be implemented. Below, embodiments of the invention will be described using the 2G, 3G, and 4G wireless communication systems as examples of the wireless communications system. The invention may, however, be applied to any wireless communications system that supports MSMS communications. The structures and functions of such a wireless communications systems and those of the associated network elements are only described when relevant to the invention.

[0025] As shown, the system 100A may be a GSM system utilizing the 2G wireless communication techniques. The system 100B may be a UMTS system utilizing the 3G wireless communication techniques. The system lOOC may be a LTE system utilizing the 4G wireless communication techniques. These systems may be divided into a core network, a radio access network (such as BSS, UTRAN, E-UTRAN), and user terminal (UE), such as mobile phone 104, 106. The core network and the radio access network compose a network infrastructure of the wireless communications system, and are generally called as a network side of a wireless communications system.

[0026] As discussed above, a management function unit (e.g. referred to as MSMS unit) for managing MSMS communications may be placed in the network side. For example, a MSMS unit 102 may be added in a core network, such as in a MSC (Mobile Switch Center), a SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node), or a MME (Mobile Management Entity). This may facilitate monitoring and managing MSMS communications, especially incoming calls on mobile phones in modified paging mode.

[0027] Mobile phones 104 and 106 support MSMS communications with SIM modules 112 and 114, respectively. Each SIM module is associated with a different subscriber registered in the system, and comprises subscriber-related information and information related to information security in particular, for instance, an encryption algorithm. In some embodiments, the mobile phones 104 and 106 may register on two different networks corresponding to each SIM module, respectively. Once registered, the mobile phones 104 and 106 may listen to pages of the two networks while in an idle mode. These mobile phones 104 and 106 may be carried by one user, and the user is able to use any of the two phones for communication. For example, the user may choose one mobile phone, such as phone 104 as a primary phone for usage, and take another mobile phone as a backup phone for the primary phone. Although only two mobile phones 104 and 106 are shown for MSMS communications, MSMS communications may involve more than two phones with more than two SIM modules. In the following, for the sake of clarity, communications of two mobile phones, each of which is configured with a SIM module associated with a different subscriber, will be used as an example of MSMS communications, but communications with other numbers (more than two) of wireless devices are also possible.

[0028] Normally, the mobile phone 104 and 106 may register its associated subscribers on networks corresponding to each SIM module. Once registered, the mobile phones 104 and 106 may listen to pages (such as DRX pages) of respective subscribers separately, in order to be connected to a corresponding network. In some embodiments, for supporting MSMS communications, the mobile phone 104 and 106 may be grouped into a MSMS group, through which communications of mobile phone 104 and 106 may be managed by MSMS unit 102 as a whole. In this regard, a secondary wireless device (e.g. mobile phone 104) may be configured to work in modified paging mode by extending its paging interval, while a primary wireless device (such as mobile phone 106) is configured to work in a normal mode with a normal paging interval. Incoming calls on the secondary wireless device may be monitored by the MSMS unit 102, and then noticed to the user of the primary wireless device, which is essentially the same of the secondary wireless device.

[0029] FIG. 2 illustrates an example timing diagram of a procedure for MSMS communications according to some embodiments of the present invention. As shown at 201, a mobile phone (e.g. 106, denoted as P0) sends to a MSMS unit a request for forming a MSMS group, which may include a plurality of subscribers associated with a plurality of mobile phones, such as P0, PI, P2, and Pn (e.g. 104). In some embodiments, the request may include subscriber numbers associated with SIM modules in the mobile phones of the MSMS group. P0 may further indicate to the MSMS unit of status of these phones. In this regard, it may indicate that which mobile phone would be designed as a primary phone, and which mobile phone would be designed as a secondary primary phone. By way of example, P0 may be designed as a primary phone, while PI, P2 and Pn may be all designed as secondary phones. The request may be transmitted to the MSMS unit through a free USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) channel and means.

[0030] To create a MSMS group, a certain user certification may be verified for security. If the request is accepted by the MSMS unit, the MSMS unit may start to manage communications of this MSMS group. As shown at 203a, the MSMS unit may command each secondary phone (e.g. PI, P2, Pn) to modify their paging intervals. In response to the commands, each secondary phone may define its own modified paging interval based on its requirement. In some embodiments, the MSMS unit may command PI to extend its paging interval directly, and then PI set its paging interval to be an extended paging interval and send its extended paging interval back to the MSMS unit, for example at 205a, 205b, 205c. The extended paging intervals may be transmitted to the MSMS unit through a USSD channel. In some embodiments, the MSMS unit may further inform the primary mobile phone to operate with a normal paging interval, as shown as 203b. Status of these phones and their paging intervals, especially the extended paging intervals, may be stored and maintained in the MSMS unit. The MSMS unit may manage all of the paging intervals of mobile phones in the MSMS group. For example, if one mobile phone in a MSMS group is paging with a normal DRX (Discontinuous reception), other mobile phones in the MSMS group may be directed by the MSMS unit to set paging intervals as a maximum paging interval. This allows saving the battery life of the secondary mobile phones and a power consumption of the whole system of the communication network.

[0031] The MSMS unit may monitor call requests to a subscriber of a mobile phone in modified paging mode. The call may be a PS call, such as interviewing a social network service (e.g. micro blog) or downloading contents from an internet site, or the like, or may be a circuit service call, such as a telephone call. If it is monitored that modified paging mobile phone (such as PI) is being called by an external devices, as shown at 207, the MSMS unit may notify this external call to a user of the mobile phone in modified paging mode via an appropriate mobile phone in the MSMS group. In some embodiments, the MSMS unit may check (at 209) a next paging time of the called mobile phone according to its modified paging interval. In an example, if the current time is far from the next paging time of PI (case 0), the MSMS unit may send a notification of the incoming call to a phone (such as P0) in the MSMS group, which works with a normal paging interval. In this regard, a threshold may be predetermined to be compared against an interval between the current time and the next paging time. For example, if the interval is larger than the threshold, it can be determined that there will be too much delay for waiting for the next paging time of PI, and thus it is better to send the notification to P0. Then, at 211, the MSMS unit sends to P0 a notification of the incoming call on PI. In some embodiments, if it is determined that P0 stop or suspend to receive any pages, the MSMS unit may directly decide to send to P0 the notification of the incoming call on PI. [0032] The user of the MSMS group can decide to accept this call or not. If it is determined to accept the call at 213b, a call acknowledge may be sent back to the MSMS unit at 215. Then, the MSMS unit may trigger a register procedure (not shown) of PI, for example through a USSD channel associated with PI, so as to activate PI to a normal mode. Then, a communication connection for the incoming call may be established by PI as a normal call procedure, and the user is able to answer the incoming call with the mobile phone PI in time. Although the register from the modified paging mode to a normal mode would cause a delay for establishing the communication connection, the MSMS unit may be configured to manage a comfortable delay on this register. If the call is denied as shown at 213a, no more actions for PI are followed up, and PI may continue to stay in modified paging mode. The MSMS unit may reject the incoming call on behalf of PI.

[0033] If it is determined at 209 that the current time is close to a next paging time of PI (case 1), the MSMS unit may directly notify PI of the incoming call at the next paging time, as shown at 217. Furthermore, PI may be instructed to recover its paging interval to a normal paging interval.

[0034] In some embodiments, in an instance in which PI is recovered from its modified paging mode, P0 may be configured to switch into modified paging mode. For example, P0 may inform the MSMS unit of its extended paging interval at 221. Usually, it is sufficient for monitoring incoming calls by virtue of one mobile phone in the MSMS group working with a normal paging interval. Through such a switch of normal paging phone, the power consumption of the MSMS group can be further decreased.

[0035] Referring to FIG. 3, a flowchart of a process for MSMS communications according to some embodiments will now be described. In such an embodiment, the process 300 is performed by a MSMS unit (such as the MSMS unit 102), and is implemented in, for instance, a chip set including a processor and a memory as shown in FIG. 3. As such, the MSMS unit may provide means for accomplishing various parts of the process 300 as well as means for accomplishing other processes in conjunction with other components.

[0036] At 301, a MSMS unit accepts a request for grouping a plurality of wireless devices into a MSMS group. The request may be received from one wireless device (e.g. P0) in the plurality of wireless devices. At 303, the MSMS unit receives a call request to a first wireless device (e.g. PI) in the group. At 305, the MSMS unit determines that the first wireless device is in modified paging mode, in which a paging interval for the first wireless device is modified. For example, the paging interval for the first wireless device may be extended or shortened. Then at 307, the MSMS unit further determines that a second wireless device (e.g. PO) in the group, and send to the second wireless device a message indicative of the call request.

[0037] According to the message, a user of the MSMS group may determine whether or accept the call request. This decision may be made automatically too. If it is determined to accept the call request, the MSMS unit may trigger an establishment of communication connection for the requested call. If it is determined to reject the call request, the MSMS unit may reject the requested call without interrupting the first wireless device. Then, power consumptions of the MSMS group can be decreased without missing or decreasing any function.

[0038] Now reference is made to FIG. 4 illustrating a simplified block diagram of various electronic devices that are suitable for use in practicing the exemplary embodiments of the present invention. In FIG. 4, a wireless communication network 400 may be adapted for communication with wireless devices 420 and 440 (such as the MSMS mobile phone 104, 106) via base stations (such as an eNB, not shown). The network 400 may further include a network device 460 for managing MSMS communications of the devices 420 and 460, such as the MSMS unit 102. The network device 460 may include one or more of any type of network component, such as a core network node, including a MSC, a SGSN, a MME, etc., that can enable wireless devices 420, 440 to communicate and/or that can establish and maintain communication links 430, 450. The wireless devices may perform communications under the control of the network device 460, according to the exemplary embodiments as discussed above.

[0039] The wireless device 420 may include a data processor (DP) 420A, a memory (MEM) 420B that stores a program (PROG) 420C, and a suitable radio frequency (RF) transceiver 420D for wireless communications with the wireless device 440, the network device 460, and other devices (not shown) via one or more antennas. The wireless device 440 may include similar configurations as the wireless device 420. In addition, the wireless devices 420 and 440 may include different SIM modules 420E, 440E respectively associated with different subscriber identifies of the wireless communication network 400.

[0040] The network device 460 includes a DP 460A, a MEM 460B that stores a PROG 460C, and a suitable communication interface 460D. The communication interface 460D may be able to communicate with the wireless devices 420 and 440. The communication interface 460D may be further able to communicate with any other network devices, such as eNBs, MSC, AAA server, HSS (Home Subscriber Server), and the like.

[0041] At least one of the PROGs 420C, 440C, 460C is assumed to include program instructions that, when executed by the associated DP, enable the electronic device to operate in accordance with the exemplary embodiments of this invention, as discussed above. That is, the exemplary embodiments of this invention may be implemented at least in part by computer software executable by the DP 420A of the wireless device 420, and by the DP 440A of the wireless device 440, by the DP 460A of the network device 460, or by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware. The basic structure and operation of the wireless devices 420, 440, and the network device 440 (e.g. a MSC) are known to one skilled in the art.

[0042] In general, the various embodiments of the MSMS wireless device 420, 440 may include, but are not limited to, a cellular telephone, a smart phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a laptop, a notebook, a netbook, a smartbook, a personal digital assistant (PDA) having wireless communication capabilities, portable computers having cellular wireless communication capabilities, an image capture device such as a digital camera having wireless communication capabilities, a gaming device having wireless communication capabilities, a music storage and playback appliance having wireless communication capabilities, an Internet appliance permitting wireless Internet access and browsing, as well as portable units or terminals that incorporate combinations of such functions. [0043] The MEMs 420B, 440B, 460B may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as semiconductor based memory devices, flash memory, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory. The DPs 420A, 440A, 460A may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multi-core processor architectures, as non-limiting examples.

[0044] In general, the various exemplary embodiments may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. For example, some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device, although the invention is not limited thereto. While various aspects of the exemplary embodiments of this invention may be illustrated and described as block diagrams, flow charts, or using some other pictorial representation, it is well understood that these blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

[0045] It should be appreciated that at least some aspects of the exemplary embodiments of the inventions may be embodied in computer-executable instructions, such as in one or more program modules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types when executed by a processor in a computer or other device. The computer executable instructions may be stored on a computer readable medium such as a hard disk, optical disk, removable storage media, solid state memory, RAM, etc. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the function of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments. In addition, the function may be embodied in whole or in part in firmware or hardware equivalents such as integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and the like.

[0046] The present invention includes any novel feature or combination of features disclosed herein either explicitly or any generalization thereof. Various modifications and adaptations to the foregoing exemplary embodiments of this invention may become apparent to those skilled in the relevant arts in view of the foregoing description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, any and all modifications will still fall within the scope of the non-limiting and exemplary embodiments of this invention.

Claims

CLAIMS WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A method, comprising:

accepting a request for grouping a plurality of wireless devices into a group;

receiving a call request to a first wireless device in the group;

determining that the first wireless device is in modified paging mode, in which a paging interval for the first wireless device is modified;

determining that a second wireless device in the group is in an active mode with a normal paging interval; and

sending to the second wireless device, a message indicative of the call request.

2. A method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the message, receiving from the second wireless device an indication indicating that the call request is to be accepted; and

triggering an establishment of communication connection for the requested call.

3. A method of claim 2, further comprising:

issuing to the second wireless device, to switch into modified paging mode, in which a paging interval for the second wireless device is modified.

4. A method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the message, receiving from the second wireless device an indication indicating that the call request is to be rejected; and

causing to reject the requested call.

5. A method of claim 1, further comprising:

issuing to the first wireless device, a command to modify a paging interval of the first wireless device.

6. A method of claim 1 or 4, further comprising:

receiving from the first wireless device, information of a modified paging interval of the first wireless device.

7. A method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an interval between the time at which the call request is received from a next paging time of the first wireless device; and

if the determined interval is larger than a predetermined threshold, sending the message indicative of the call request to the second wireless device.

8. A method of any one of claims 1-7, wherein the request for grouping is received through a free unstructured supplementary service data channel.

9. A method of any one of claims 1-7, wherein a paging interval of a wireless device in modified paging mode is extended or shortened.

10. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code,

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:

accept a request for grouping a plurality of wireless devices into a group;

receive a call request to a first wireless device in the group; determine that the first wireless device is in modified paging mode, in which a paging interval for the first wireless device is modified;

determine that a second wireless device in the group is in an active mode with a normal paging interval; and

send to the second wireless device, a message indicative of the call request.

11. An apparatus of claim 10, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:

in response to the message, receive from the second wireless device an indication indicating that the call request is to be accepted; and

trigger an establishment of communication connection for the requested call.

12. An apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:

issue to the second wireless device, to switch into modified paging mode, in which a paging interval for the second wireless device is modified.

13. An apparatus of claim 10, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:

in response to the message, receive from the second wireless device an indication indicating that the call request is to be rejected; and

cause to reject the requested call.

14. An apparatus of claim 10, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:

issue to the first wireless device, a command to modify a paging interval of the first wireless device.

15. An apparatus of claim 10, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:

receive from the first wireless device, information of a modified paging interval of the first wireless device.

16. An apparatus of claim 10, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:

determine an interval between the time at which the call request is received from a next paging time of the first wireless device; and

if the determined interval is larger than a predetermined threshold, send the message indicative of the call request to the second wireless device.

17. An apparatus of any one of claims 10-16, wherein the request for grouping is received through a free unstructured supplementary service data channel.

18. A method of any one of claims 10-17, wherein a paging interval of a wireless device in modified paging mode is extended or shortened.

19. A computer-readable storage medium carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causing an apparatus to at least perform a method of any one of claims 1-9.

20. An apparatus comprising means for performing a method according to any of claims 1-8.

21. A computer program product including one or more sequences of one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause an apparatus to at least perform the steps of a method of any one of claims 1-9.