Background
Currently, a Machine Type Communication (MTC) architecture is introduced into a Third Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP) network architecture, wherein a new node, namely an MTC interconnection Function (MTC-IWF), is added between a Service Capability Server (SCS) and a 3GPP core network, and the MTC-IWF mainly serves to shield the MTC Server (Server) from a topology of the 3GPP network and provide an interface with the 3GPP network.
The MTC system is configured as shown in fig. 1, the SCS has connection only with the MTC-IWF of the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN), i.e. the MTCsp interface is only the interface between the SCS and the MTC-IWF of the HPLMN. Roaming interfaces T5a, T5b, and T5c may exist between the MTC-IWF of the HPLMN and a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) of a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN), a Mobility Management Entity (MME), and a Mobile services switching Center (MSC). In fig. 1, UE is a terminal (User Equipment), RAN is a Radio Access Network (Radio Access Network), S-GW is a Serving GateWay (Serving GateWay), IP-SM-GW is an IP Short Message GateWay (IP-Short Message GateWay), SMC-SC/GMSC/IWMSC is a Short Message service center/GateWay media switching center/interworking media switching center, SME is a Short Message Entity (Short Message Entity), CDF is a Charging Data Function (Charging Data Function), CGF is a Charging GateWay Function (Charging GateWay Function), HSS is a Home subscriber server (Home subscriber server), GGSN is a GateWay GPRS Support Node (GateWay GPRS Support Node), P-GW is a Packet Data GateWay (Packet Data Network), and AS is an application server (application server).
The following conclusion is formed for a trigger terminal procedure implemented based on a T4 interface in a roaming scenario in the 3GPP TS23.682 specification, as shown in fig. 2, which is specifically described as follows:
step 1, when the SCS needs to trigger the terminal to enable the terminal to establish communication connection with a network side, if the SCS does not have detailed contact information of the MTC-IWF, an external identifier of the terminal is used for inquiring an IP address and a port number of the MTC-IWF from a Domain Name Server (DNS).
And step 2, sending a terminal triggering request message to the MTC-IWF by the SCS, wherein the terminal triggering request message comprises information such as an external identifier, a lifetime, a priority, an SCS ID and the like of the terminal.
Step 3, the MTC-IWF checks whether the SCS is authorized to send the trigger message and whether the SCS exceeds the quota or rate for submitting the trigger request. If the MTC-IWF check fails, an error report is returned and the flow is aborted.
And step 4, the MTC-IWF sends a user information request (Subscriber information request) message to the HSS so as to check whether the SCS is authorized to send a trigger message to the corresponding terminal, and obtain the IMSI of the terminal and the identification of the current service node (serving node) of the terminal.
And step 5, the HSS sends a Subscriber Information Response (Subscriber Information Response) message to the SCS. And if the cause (cause) value in the user information response message indicates that the SCS does not allow to send the trigger message to the corresponding terminal or does not have effective subscription information, the MTC-IWF sends a failure message to the SCS and stops the process.
And 6a, selecting a transmission mode of the trigger message by the MTC-IWF, and if the transmission mode of the T5 terminal trigger message is selected, executing a T5 terminal trigger message transmission process by the MTC-IWF.
And 6b, if the T5 terminal trigger message transmission process fails or the T4 terminal trigger message transmission mode is selected, the MTC-IWF executes the T4 terminal trigger message transmission process.
And step 7, the MTC-IWF sends a terminal trigger report to the SCS, and a cause value in the terminal trigger report indicates that the trigger request is accepted, transmitted or failed to be transmitted.
And 8, when receiving a terminal Trigger (Device Trigger) message, the terminal executes some operations according to the content of a Trigger load (Trigger load) domain in the message, including initiating a communication process with an SCS or an Application Server (AS) immediately or later.
It can be seen that, in the prior art, when the UE is in a roaming state, if the AS needs to trigger the UE, the AS sends a terminal trigger request message to the MTC-IWF of the HPLMN through the SCS, and when the terminal trigger request message reaches the MTC-IWF, the MTC-IWF obtains a current service node of the terminal by querying the HSS, and then sends the terminal trigger message through the service node, and at this time, a connection of T5a/T5b/T5c interfaces needs to be established between the MTC-IWF of the HPLMN and the SGSN/MME/MSC of the VPLMN, which may cause the following two problems:
first, the MTC-IWF of the HPLMN needs to establish and maintain too many SGSN/MME/MSC connections with the VPLMN, resulting in a large overhead of signaling and resources for the MTC-IWF of the HPLMN.
Secondly, after the MTC-IWF of the HPLMN triggers the UE failure through a certain service node of the VPLMN, the service node of the VPLMN needs to transmit a failure message back to the MTC-IWF of the HPLMN, and then the MTC-IWF can retry triggering of the terminal through other serving nodes of the VPLMN, so that frequent signaling interaction among different PLMNs is caused, and signaling resources are wasted.
Detailed Description
In order to reduce signaling interaction between different PLMNs and save signaling resources, an embodiment of the present invention provides an MTC communication system. In the system, a proxy MTC-IWF is additionally arranged in the VPLMN, and the MTC-IWF in the HPLMN, namely the original MTC-IWF, performs data transmission with core network control equipment in the VPLMN through the proxy MTC-IWF.
Referring to fig. 3, an MTC communication system provided in an embodiment of the present invention includes: SCS30 and original MTC-IWF31 arranged on HPLMN, and proxy MTC-IWF31 and core network control equipment 33 arranged on VPLMN; wherein, the original MTC-IWF31 is connected to SCS30 and proxy MTC-IWF32, and the proxy MTC-IWF32 is further connected to the core network control device 33 and the short message service center (e.g., SMC-SC/GMSC/IWMSC); herein, the HPLMN is a PLMN registered by the terminal, and the VPLMN is a PLMN where the terminal is currently located. Specifically, the method comprises the following steps:
the original MTC-IWF31 is used for sending the received downlink message which is from the SCS30 and needs to be sent to the terminal to the proxy MTC-IWF 32; sending the received uplink message from the proxy MTC-IWF to SCS;
the proxy MTC-IWF32 is used for sending the received downlink message from the original MTC-IWF31 to the core network control equipment 33; sending the received uplink message from the core network control device 33 to the original MTC-IWF 31;
the core network control device 33 is configured to send out a downlink message received from the proxy MTC-IWF 32; and sending the received uplink message sent by the terminal to the proxy MTC-IWF 32. Here, the core network control device package may include one or more of an MSC, an MME, and an SGSN.
Further, the system also comprises a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 34 connected with the original MTC-IWF 31;
accordingly, the original MTC-IWF31 is also used to: before sending the received downlink message which is from SCS30 and needs to be sent to the terminal to proxy MTC-IWF32, the information of the service node of the terminal is obtained from HSS34, whether the terminal is in a roaming state is judged according to the obtained information of the service node, if yes, the downlink message is sent to proxy MTC-IWF32, and if no, the downlink message is sent according to the existing flow. It should be noted that the service node of the terminal is one or more core network control devices in the PLMN where the terminal is currently located; the method for judging whether the terminal is in the roaming state according to the obtained information of the service node comprises the following steps: if the service node of the terminal is the core network control equipment of the HPLMN, the terminal is not in the roaming state, otherwise, the terminal is in the roaming state.
Further, the original MTC-IWF31 is also used to: before sending the downlink message to the proxy MTC-IWF32, according to the obtained information of the service node, searching the information (such as address information) of the proxy MTC-IWF serving the service node in the VPLMN, and sending the downlink message to the proxy MTC-IWF32 according to the searched information. Here, according to the obtained information of the service node, information of a proxy MTC-IWF serving the service node in the VPLMN is searched, specifically, the information of the proxy MTC-IWF serving the service node in the VPLMN is searched from a DNS, and at this time, information of the proxy MTC-IWF serving each core network control device in the VPLMN needs to be configured in the DNS in advance; or, the information of the proxy MTC-IWF serving the service node in the VPLMN may be searched from the local configuration information, and at this time, the information of the proxy MTC-IWF serving each core network control device in the VPLMN needs to be locally configured in advance.
Further, the original MTC-IWF31 is also used to: before sending the downlink message to the proxy MTC-IWF32, carrying information (e.g., address information) of the core network control device as a serving node of the terminal in the downlink message;
accordingly, proxy MTC-IWF32 is also configured to: before sending the received downlink message from the original MTC-IWF31 to the core network control device 33, the information (e.g., address information) of the core network control device is obtained by parsing the downlink message, and the downlink message is sent to the core network control device 33 according to the information obtained by parsing.
Further, the core network control device 33 is further configured to: before sending the received uplink message sent by the terminal to the proxy MTC-IWF32, judging whether the terminal is in a roaming state according to the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of the terminal carried in the uplink message, if so, sending the uplink message to the proxy MTC-IWF32, and if not, sending the uplink message according to the existing flow.
Further, the core network control device 33 is further configured to: before sending the uplink message to the proxy MTC-IWF32, information (e.g., address information) of the proxy MTC-IWF serving the core network control device is searched from local configuration information, and the uplink message is sent to the proxy MTC-IWF32 according to the searched information.
Further, the proxy MTC-IWF32 is also configured to: before sending the received uplink message from the core network control device 33 to the original MTC-IWF31, according to the relevant information carried in the uplink message, searching for the information of the original MTC-IWF set in the HPLMN of the terminal, and sending the uplink message to the original MTC-IWF31 according to the searched information; here, the information of the original MTC-IWF set in the HPLMN of the terminal is searched according to the related information carried in the uplink message, which may specifically be to search the information of the original MTC-IWF set in the HPLMN of the terminal from the DNS according to the external identifier or other information (such as a Full Quality Domain Name (FQDN) of the MTC-IWF) carried in the uplink message, or search the information of the original MTC-IWF set in the HPLMN of the terminal from the local configuration information.
Proxy MTC-IWF32 is used for: sending the received uplink message from the core network control device 33 to the original MTC-IWF31 through an established interface (e.g., Tpm interface) between the proxy MTC-IWF32 and the original MTC-IWF 31; the interface is the interface established when the original MTC-IWF31 sends a downlink message to the proxy MTC-IWF 32.
The downlink message in the invention can be a terminal trigger message and the like; the uplink message may be a terminal trigger report for the terminal trigger message, or the like.
After the proxy MTC-IWF32 receives the terminal trigger report, if the transmission of the terminal trigger message is judged to fail according to the terminal trigger report, the terminal trigger report is not sent to the original MTC-IWF31 in the HPLMN, other core network control equipment is reselected, and the terminal trigger message is sent out through the reselected core network control equipment, so that the terminal trigger report with the transmission failure is prevented from being sent to the original MTC-IWF31 in the HPLMN, the signaling transmission among different PLMNs is further reduced, and the signaling resource is saved. And if the transmission of the terminal trigger message is judged to be successful according to the terminal trigger report, sending the terminal trigger report to the original MTC-IWF31 in the HPLMN.
Referring to fig. 4, an embodiment of the present invention provides an original MTC-IWF, where the original MTC-IWF includes:
a downlink transmission unit 40, configured to send the received downlink message, which is from the SCS and needs to be sent to the terminal, to the proxy MTC-IWF; the original MTC-IWF is the MTC-IWF set in the HPLMN of the terminal, and the proxy MTC-IWF is the MTC-IWF set in the VPLMN where the terminal is located currently;
and an uplink transmission unit 41, configured to send the received uplink message from the proxy MTC-IWF to the SCS.
Further, the original MTC-IWF further comprises:
a roaming judging unit 42, which obtains the information of the service node of the terminal from the HSS before the downlink transmission unit sends the downlink message to the proxy MTC-IWF, and judges whether the terminal is in a roaming state according to the obtained information of the service node;
the downlink transmission unit 40 is configured to: when the judgment of the roaming judgment unit is yes, sending the downlink message to the proxy MTC-IWF; and if not, sending the downlink message according to the existing flow. It should be noted that the service node of the terminal is one or more core network control devices in the PLMN where the terminal is currently located; the method for judging whether the terminal is in the roaming state according to the obtained information of the service node comprises the following steps: if the service node of the terminal is the core network control equipment of the HPLMN, the terminal is not in the roaming state, otherwise, the terminal is in the roaming state.
Further, the original MTC-IWF further comprises:
the information searching unit 43 is configured to search, before the downlink transmission unit sends the downlink message to the proxy MTC-IWF, information of the proxy MTC-IWF serving the service node in the VPLMN according to the information of the service node obtained by the roaming determining unit; here, according to the obtained information of the service node, the information of the proxy MTC-IWF serving the service node in the VPLMN is searched, specifically, the information of the proxy MTC-IWF serving the service node in the VPLMN is searched from the DNS; or, the information of the proxy MTC-IWF serving the service node in the VPLMN may be looked up from the local configuration information.
Correspondingly, the downlink transmission unit 40 is configured to: and sending the downlink message to the proxy MTC-IWF according to the information searched by the information searching unit.
Further, the downlink transmission unit 40 is further configured to:
before sending the downlink message to the proxy MTC-IWF, carrying information of core network control equipment serving as a service node of the terminal in the downlink message for subsequent downlink message transmission.
Referring to fig. 5, an embodiment of the present invention provides a proxy MTC-IWF, which includes:
a downlink transmission unit 50, configured to send a received downlink message from the original MTC-IWF to the core network control device; the original MTC-IWF is the MTC-IWF set in the HPLMN of the terminal, and the proxy MTC-IWF is the MTC-IWF set in the VPLMN where the terminal is located currently;
and an uplink transmission unit 51, configured to send the received uplink message from the core network control device to the original MTC-IWF.
Further, the proxy MTC-IWF further comprises:
a message analyzing unit 52, configured to obtain information of the core network control device by analyzing the downlink message before the downlink transmission unit sends the received downlink message from the original MTC-IWF to the core network control device;
correspondingly, the downlink transmission unit 50 is configured to: and sending the downlink message to the core network control equipment according to the information obtained by the analysis of the message analysis unit.
Further, the proxy MTC-IWF further comprises:
the information searching unit 53 is configured to search, before the uplink transmission unit sends the received uplink message from the core network control device to the original MTC-IWF, information of the original MTC-IWF set in the HPLMN of the terminal according to related information carried in the uplink message; here, the information of the original MTC-IWF set in the HPLMN of the terminal is searched according to the related information carried in the uplink message, which may specifically be to search the information of the original MTC-IWF set in the HPLMN of the terminal from the DNS according to the external identifier or other information (such as FQDN of MTC-IWF) of the terminal carried in the uplink message, or search the information of the original MTC-IWF set in the HPLMN of the terminal from the local configuration information. Correspondingly, the uplink transmission unit 51 is configured to send the uplink message to the original MTC-IWF according to the information found by the information search unit. Or,
the uplink transmission unit 51 is configured to: sending the received uplink message from the core network control equipment to the original MTC-IWF through an established interface between the proxy MTC-IWF and the original MTC-IWF; the interface is established when the original MTC-IWF sends a downlink message to the proxy MTC-IWF.
When the uplink message received by the uplink transmission unit 51 of the proxy MTC-IWF is the terminal trigger report, if it is determined that the transmission of the terminal trigger message fails according to the terminal trigger report, the terminal trigger report is not sent to the original MTC-IWF in the HPLMN, but other core network control devices are reselected, and the terminal trigger message is sent out through the reselected core network control devices, so that the terminal trigger report with the transmission failure is prevented from being sent to the original MTC-IWF in the HPLMN, signaling transmission between different PLMNs is further reduced, and signaling resources are saved. And if the transmission of the terminal trigger message is judged to be successful according to the terminal trigger report, sending the terminal trigger report to the original MTC-IWF in the HPLMN.
Referring to fig. 6, an embodiment of the present invention provides a core network control device, where the core network control device includes:
a downlink transmission unit 60, configured to send out a received downlink message from the proxy MTC-IWF according to an existing method; the proxy MTC-IWF is the MTC-IWF set in the VPLMN where the terminal is currently located;
and the uplink transmission unit 61 is configured to send the received uplink message sent by the terminal to the proxy MTC-IWF.
Further, the core network control device further includes:
a roaming judging unit 62, configured to judge whether the terminal is in a roaming state according to the IMSI of the terminal carried in the uplink message before sending the received uplink message sent by the terminal to the proxy MTC-IWF;
the uplink transmission unit 61 is configured to: and when the judgment of the roaming judgment unit is yes, sending the uplink message to the proxy MTC-IWF, and when the judgment is no, sending the uplink message according to the existing flow.
Further, the core network control device further includes:
an information searching unit 63, configured to search, before the uplink transmission unit sends the uplink message to the proxy MTC-IWF, information of the proxy MTC-IWF serving the core network control device from local configuration information;
accordingly, the uplink transmission unit 61 is configured to: and sending the uplink message to the proxy MTC-IWF according to the information searched by the information searching unit.
Referring to fig. 7, an embodiment of the present invention provides a data transmission method in a roaming scenario for an original MTC-IWF, including the following steps:
step 70: the original MTC-IWF arranged in the HPLMN sends the received downlink message from the SCS to the proxy MTC-IWF; the proxy MTC-IWF is the MTC-IWF set in the VPLMN where the terminal is currently located;
step 71: and the original MTC-IWF sends the received uplink message from the proxy MTC-IWF to the SCS.
It should be noted that there is no strict time sequence between step 70 and step 71, that is, step 71 may be executed after step 70, before step 70, or simultaneously with step 70.
Preferably, in step 70, before the original MTC-IWF in the HPLMN of the terminal sends the received downlink message from the SCS to the proxy MTC-IWF, the original MTC-IWF obtains information of the service node of the terminal from the HSS, and determines whether the terminal is in the roaming state according to the obtained information of the service node; and when the terminal is judged to be in the roaming state, sending the downlink message to the proxy MTC-IWF.
Specifically, the downlink message is sent to the proxy MTC-IWF in step 70, which is specifically implemented as follows: according to the obtained information of the service node, searching the information of the proxy MTC-IWF serving the service node in the VPLMN; and sending the downlink message to the proxy MTC-IWF according to the searched information.
Preferably, before sending the downlink message to the proxy MTC-IWF, information of the core network control device serving as the service node of the terminal is carried in the downlink message.
Referring to fig. 8, an embodiment of the present invention provides a data transmission method for a proxy MTC-IWF in a roaming scenario, including the following steps:
step 80: the proxy MTC-IWF arranged in the VPLMN sends the received downlink message from the original MTC-IWF to the core network control equipment; the original MTC-IWF is the MTC-IWF set in the HPLMN of the terminal;
step 81: and the proxy MTC-IWF sends the received uplink message from the core network control equipment to the original MTC-IWF.
It should be noted that there is no strict time sequence between step 80 and step 81, that is, step 81 may be executed after step 80, before step 80, or simultaneously with step 80.
Specifically, in step 80, before the proxy MTC-IWF sends the received downlink message from the original MTC-IWF to the core network control device, the information of the core network control device is obtained by analyzing the downlink message; and sending the downlink message to the core network control equipment according to the information obtained by analysis.
Specifically, in step 81, the proxy MTC-IWF sends the received uplink message from the core network control device to the original MTC-IWF, which is specifically implemented as follows: the proxy MTC-IWF searches the information of the original MTC-IWF set in the HPLMN of the terminal according to the relevant information carried in the uplink message; sending the uplink message to the original MTC-IWF according to the searched information; or,
the proxy MTC-IWF sends the received uplink message from the core network control equipment to the original MTC-IWF through an established interface between the proxy MTC-IWF and the original MTC-IWF; the interface is established when the original MTC-IWF sends downlink messages to the proxy MTC-IWF.
When the uplink message received by the proxy MTC-IWF is a terminal trigger report, if the transmission failure of the terminal trigger message is judged according to the terminal trigger report, the terminal trigger report is not sent to the original MTC-IWF in the HPLMN, other core network control equipment is reselected, and the terminal trigger message is sent out through the reselected core network control equipment, so that the terminal trigger report with the transmission failure is prevented from being sent to the original MTC-IWF in the HPLMN, the signaling transmission among different PLMNs is further reduced, and the signaling resource is saved. And if the transmission of the terminal trigger message is judged to be successful according to the terminal trigger report, sending the terminal trigger report to the original MTC-IWF in the HPLMN.
Referring to fig. 9, an embodiment of the present invention provides a data transmission method for a core network control device in a roaming scenario, where the method includes the following steps:
step 90: the core network control equipment sends out the received downlink message from the proxy MTC-IWF; the proxy MTC-IWF is the MTC-IWF set in the VPLMN where the terminal is currently located;
step 91: and the core network control equipment sends the received uplink message sent by the terminal to the proxy MTC-IWF.
Preferably, before the core network control device sends the received uplink message sent by the terminal to the proxy MTC-IWF in step 91, it determines whether the terminal is in a roaming state according to the IMSI of the terminal carried in the uplink message; and when the terminal is judged to be in the roaming state, sending the uplink message to the proxy MTC-IWF.
Specifically, in step 91, the core network control device sends the received uplink message sent by the terminal to the proxy MTC-IWF, which is specifically implemented as follows: searching the information of the proxy MTC-IWF serving the core network control equipment from the local configuration information; and sending the uplink message to the proxy MTC-IWF according to the searched information.
When the downlink message is a terminal trigger message and the uplink message is a terminal trigger report for the terminal trigger message, the specific protocol flow is as follows:
step one, an original MTC-IWF of an HPLMN receives a terminal trigger message from a Tsp interface, searches information of a service node of the current UE in an HSS according to the prior art, and determines whether the UE is in a roaming state according to the searched information;
step two, when the original MTC-IWF determines that the UE is in a roaming state, searching information of an agent MTC-IWF serving a service node in the VPLMN according to the ID of the service node;
step three, the original MTC-IWF transmits a terminal trigger message to the proxy MTC-IWF;
step four, the proxy MTC-IWF sends a terminal triggering message according to the existing method for triggering UE by the MTC-IWF;
and step five, the proxy MTC-IWF sends the terminal trigger report received from the SGSN/MME/MSC to the MTC-IWF of the HPLMN.
The first embodiment is as follows:
the method comprises the following specific steps:
step one, configuring information of proxy MTC-IWF for core network control equipment in the PLMN, namely SGSN/MME/MSC on a DNS;
step two, the original MTC-IWF of the HPLMN receives a terminal trigger message from a Tsp interface, searches the information of the service node of the current UE in the HSS according to the prior art, and determines whether the UE is in a roaming state according to the searched information;
step three, when the original MTC-IWF determines that the UE is in a roaming state, searching information of an agent MTC-IWF serving the service node in the VPLMN according to the ID of the service node;
step four, the original MTC-IWF transmits terminal trigger information carrying information of the service node to the proxy MTC-IWF through a Tpm interface;
step five, the proxy MTC-IWF sends a terminal triggering message according to the existing method for triggering UE by the MTC-IWF;
step six, the proxy MTC-IWF transmits the terminal trigger report received from the SGSN/MME/MSC to the original MTC-IWF of the HPLMN which previously received the terminal trigger message through the established Tpm interface.
Example two:
step one, the same as step one-step five of the first embodiment;
and step two, the proxy MTC-IWF searches the original MTC-IWF of the HPLMN of the terminal according to the external identifier or other information (such as FQDN of the MTC-IWF) of the terminal in the terminal trigger report received from the SGSN/MME/MSC, and transmits the terminal trigger report to the original MTC-IWF.
In conclusion, the beneficial effects of the invention include:
in the scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention, the proxy MTC-IWF is additionally arranged in the VPLMN, the original MTC-IWF in the HPLMN sends the downlink message to the core network control equipment in the VPLMN through the proxy MTC-IWF, the core network control equipment in the VPLMN sends the uplink message to the original MTC-IWF through the proxy MTC-IWF, namely the original MTC-IWF in the HPLMN carries out data transmission with the core network control equipment in the VPLMN through the proxy MTC-IWF, and the original MTC-IWF in the HPLMN does not need to establish and maintain connection with each core network control equipment in the VPLMN, so that the signaling interaction among different PLMNs is reduced, and the signaling resource is saved.
The present invention is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.
These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.
These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.
While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, additional variations and modifications in those embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basic inventive concepts. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as including preferred embodiments and all such alterations and modifications as fall within the scope of the invention.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to include such modifications and variations.