EP2494801A1

EP2494801A1 - Method for establishing an application session, device and corresponding notification

Info

Publication number: EP2494801A1
Application number: EP10776968A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Djelal Raouf; Michael Boutboul
Original assignee: Sagemcom Energy and Telecom SAS
Current assignee: Sagemcom Energy and Telecom SAS
Priority date: 2009-10-27
Filing date: 2010-10-26
Publication date: 2012-09-05
Also published as: FR2951898A1; CN102598735B; FR2951898B1; BR112012009221A2; US20140177575A1; CN102598735A; WO2011051268A1; US20120201204A1

Abstract

In the field of mobile telephony and more particularly the field of machine-to-machine communication modules, the invention is aimed at defining a notification format for establishing an application session integrating the operator connection parameters. In the specific case of GPRS, this entails the name of the gateway and connection identifiers.

Description

Method for establishing an application session, device and notification

corresponding

The present invention relates to the field of mobile telephony and more particularly the field of so-called machine-to-machine communication modules. However, it can be applied to any wireless telephone communication device.

Originally, wireless telephone communication devices consisted of simple handsets for transmitting voice over a cellular radio network. Very quickly, the simple transport of the voice has proved to be insufficient, and the terminals have been equipped with data communication means according to packet communication protocols such as the IP protocol {Internet Protocol in English defined by RFC 791). These developments have resulted in different generations of communication standards such as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GPRS Evolution), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System in English), HSUPA {High Speed Uplink Packet Access or high speed packet access in English). From a very schematic point of view, the connection diagram to the data communication network of a mobile telephone device according to FIG. 1. In a first step 1.1, the device connects to an APN (Access Point Name), the name of the gateway interconnection between the mobile packet network (GPRS or UMTS) and external IP networks. It must therefore have this name or APN gateway. Then, it identifies itself to this gateway using a login name (login in English) and a password during an authentication step 1.2. It then receives, during a step 1 .3, a context generally called PDP context, a set of parameters for the establishment of the IP session. This session is then established in step 1.4.

This session establishment process is intended to be initiated by the mobile terminal. There is no simple way for a server connected to an IP network to initiate a data session to communicate according to the data communication protocol with a remote device. In addition, the network quickly disconnects the session from a terminal that no longer transmits data.

To overcome this problem and allow a server to communicate with a mobile phone device, several solutions have been described. A first solution makes it possible to keep a connection already established alive by a so-called keep-alive system consisting of the periodic sending of data for the sole purpose of avoiding disconnections. We can also implement a rendezvous mechanism. According to this mechanism, the terminal periodically connects to a server to enable it to transmit any data to it. According to another mechanism, the server sends a voice call from a well-known number to the terminal. The user receives the call, recognizes the number, does not pick up, but establishes a session in response to the call. Finally, one last solution, probably the easiest to implement, is to send an SMS (Short Message Service) to the device to ask him to establish a connection or session.

A document standardizes the latter solution according to the alliance OMA (Open Mobile Alliance in English) is the document "OMA-TS-DM_Notification-Vl_2_l- 20080617-A" entitled "OMA Device Management Notification Initiated Session." According to this document, it is described to transmit a notification in the form of an SMS to the terminal. Upon receipt of this SMS, the terminal initiates a connection to the server at the origin of the notification. This connection will, in our case, use the GPRS connection established using its memorized connection parameters such as the name of the gateway and the associated login credentials. Unfortunately, in the case of a machine-to-machine connection, this information is generally not stored by the terminal. Indeed, these terminals are typically configured before the choice of the operator is made. The choice of this operator may be called into question during the course of the operation.

On the other hand, it might be useful to allow a connection to a given service by using a chosen operator for the service instead of the default operator configured in the device.

The aim of the invention is to solve the above problems by defining a notification format for establishing an application session integrating the operator connection parameters. In this case, in the case of GPRS, this is the name of the gateway and the login credentials.

The invention relates to a method for establishing an application session by an information processing device called a client having means for communicating with a data communication network via a mobile telephone network, characterized in that it comprises a step of receiving a notification according to a first asynchronous communication mode; a step of extracting said notification, on the one hand the information for the establishment of an application session and, on the other hand, the connection information relating to the operator managing an interconnection gateway between the mobile telephone network and the data communication network; a step of initiating a synchronous connection to said gateway using the operator-related connection information retrieved and a step of initiating an application session using the extracted application session information .

The invention also relates to an information processing device comprising means for communicating with a data communication network through a mobile telephone network; means for receiving notifications according to a first asynchronous communication mode; means for establishing a connection according to a second synchronous communication mode with an interconnection gateway between the mobile telephone network and the data communication network, said gateway being managed by an operator; means for establishing with an server an application session through the communication network and means for extracting from said notification, on the one hand connection information relating to the operator used to enable the establishment a connection to the data communication network, and secondly the information relating to the establishment of an application session.

The invention also relates to a notification for the establishment of an application session by an information processing device called a client having means for communicating with a data communication network through a mobile telephone network which comprises the information for establishing an application session and the connection information relating to the operator managing an interconnection gateway between the mobile telephone network and the data communication network.

According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the notification takes the form of a short message.

According to a particular embodiment of the invention, said connection information relating to the operator comprises the name of the gateway, a connection identifier and a password.

The characteristics of the invention mentioned above, as well as others, will appear more clearly on reading the following description of an exemplary embodiment, said description being given in relation to the attached drawings, among which:

Fig. 1 illustrates the method of connecting a mobile telephone module to a data communication network,

Fig. 2 illustrates the structure of a notification in the AMO system,

Fig. 3 illustrates the structure of an SMS according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 4 illustrates the operation of an exemplary embodiment of the invention. The invention is placed in the context where at least two communication modes, or transport layers, allow communication between a client and a server. A client here means an information processing device having means for communicating with a data communication network through a mobile telephone network. The server is an information processing device having means for communicating with a communication network and offering a service to customers through this communication network. A first mode is asynchronous and can allow the sending of messages between the client and the server. A second mode is synchronous, it makes it possible to establish a connection between the client and the communication network. This connection is established between the customer and a interconnection gateway between the mobile telephone network and the data communication network. This connection in synchronous mode allows the client to establish communication sessions with the server at the application level. We place ourselves in the case where the server is not able to establish such a communication session with the client. In the exemplary embodiment, the system is the OMA system. Asynchronous communication mode is the transport layer used for sending asynchronous messages, called WAP-push, typically using the SMS short messaging infrastructure. The synchronous communication mode is typically a TCP / IP connection established according to the GPRS standard. Application sessions are typically management session (OMA) sessions. In such a system, a server wishing to enter into communication at the application level with a client and not being able to establish an application session itself sends an asynchronous notification to the client containing the information enabling this client to establish the application session with the client. the server using the synchronous communication mode. However, the invention, although described in the context of an OMA system can be implemented in any system obeying the same constraints. In particular, it can be applied to any type of session at the application level, as well as to various transport layers.

Fig. Figure 2 illustrates the structure of a notification in the OMA system. This notification consists of a first field "digest" 2.1 which contains a key MD5 to ensure the integrity of the message and authenticate its issuer. Then comes a 2.2 header called "trigger-hdr" which contains a set of data allowing the recipient of the notification to establish a Management Session (English Management Session) with the sending server. Such a management session is a session as defined by the OMA standard, it is not here a TCP / IP session. This management session is at the application layer above the TCP / IP protocol and assumes that the client and server are configured appropriately to allow communication. After the header field comes a 2.3 payload field called "trigger-body" which contains vendor-specific data, that is, the system operator.

The header field itself decomposes into a first version 2.4 field that specifies the version of the OMA specification to which the notification conforms. Follows a field 2.5 indicating if the notification must be signaled to the user or processed by the system, then a field 2.6 "initiator" which indicates what is the origin of the notification, if it is a request from the user or the server. A space 2.7 is reserved for future use. Then there is a session identifier 2.8 which must be used by the client when initiating the session to the server. Thus, the connection between the initiation of the session by the client and the notification that provokes it is established. Then, there is a field 2.9 which gives the length of the identifier of the server issuing the notification and the field 2.10 which contains this identifier.

It can be seen that the information available in the notification structure as formalized in the AMO system is all related to the establishment of an AMO management session. These sessions are application-level sessions. No information is related to the underlying transport protocol layers. It is assumed in the system that the client and the server are connected and able to communicate.

However, in the case where the customer uses a mobile data communication network such as GPRS, for example, the connection to this network is not necessarily established. When the client has the connection parameters, it can use them to establish this communication in response to the receipt of the notification. It should be noted here that this notification is submitted by WAP push, that is to say in the form of a short message sent asynchronously does not require the use of the communication network. In some cases, this information is not stored in the client. This may be the case, for example, in a machine-to-machine application such as a payment machine where the SIM card used is configured and inserted into the device before the operator agreement managing the access is negotiated. In some applications, it may also be useful to send a notification for access to a server linked to an operator different from the default operator used by the client.

To enable the connection in these cases, it is necessary to communicate the connection information relating to the operator used to enable the establishment of a connection to the data communication network. Typically, this information includes the name of the access gateway (APN in English) managed by the operator, a login (login in English) and a password. This is, for example, the case when accessing using a GPRS connection.

According to the invention, this connection information relating to the operator is transmitted in the short message used to transport the notification. In this way, the connection information relating to the operator and the information relating to the establishment of an application session are conveyed in the same message. Advantageously, they are integrated in the notification itself. The exemplary embodiment of the invention inserts a data structure at the beginning of the body of the notification. This embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 3. The fields 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 represent the structure of the notification as described above, respectively the digest field, the trigger-hdr field and the trigger-body field. The trigger-body 3.3 field is reserved for the data specific to the notification, it is the body of the notification. This field is then divided into two parts. A first part 3.4 hosts the data structure containing the connection information relating to the operator according to the invention. The second part 3.5 is available for any additional data and is equivalent to the trigger-body field of the prior art.

According to the exemplary embodiment, the data structure 3.4 may be as follows: a first field 3.6 contains the length of the name of the gateway, followed by a field 3.7 containing this name. The 3.8 field contains the length of the connection identifier followed by the field 3.9 containing this identifier. Field 3.10 contains the length of the password followed by the field 3.1 1 containing this password. It is obvious to those skilled in the art that this structure is only an exemplary embodiment and can be adapted. In particular, it is adapted to a connection to a GPRS network and will have to be adapted to any other type of data communication network used according to the connection information then required. This notification is then transported within an SMS in the same manner as the notification according to the prior art. It can alternatively be transmitted by any appropriate means other than the SMS and adapt to any transport layer that can be used to transmit notifications in asynchronous mode.

Alternatively, this connection information can be inserted directly into the short message or SMS used to carry the notification without being included in it. For example, it is possible to define a new piece of information in the user data header {User Data Header in English) of the SMS dedicated to the transport of this data structure. It is then necessary to define an identifier of information element (IEI for Information Element Identifier in English) corresponding.

Another alternative is to insert this information into the data portion of the short message.

Fig. 4 illustrates the operation of an exemplary embodiment of the invention. It describes a method of establishing an application session by the client. then in a first step 4.1, the server wishing to communicate with the client sends a notification according to the invention in asynchronous mode. During a step 4.2, the client analyzes this notification and extracts on the one hand the information for the establishment of an application session and secondly the connection information relating to the operator. We integrate here the entire message received under the name notification. In particular, if the information relating to the operator is inserted in the short message carrying the actual notification and not in the latter, the entire short message is considered as a notification. Advantageously, it then tests whether it is already connected to the data network via the operator whose connection information is communicated to it. If it is not, it initiates this synchronous connection using the extracted operator-related connection information, this is step 4.3. In step 4.4 this connection is established, the client is now connected to the data network that allows him to communicate with the server. It then uses the information relating to the application session that it received in the notification to initiate the application session in step 4.5. In step 4.6, the application session between the client and the server is established. The server can then communicate with the client using this application session.

Claims

1 / A method for establishing an application session by an information processing device called a client having means for communicating with a data communication network through a mobile telephone network, characterized in that includes the following steps:

a step (4.1) of receiving a notification according to a first asynchronous communication mode;

a step (4.2) of extracting said notification, on the one hand information for the establishment of an application session and, on the other hand, connection information relating to the operator managing an interconnection gateway between the mobile phone network and data communication network;

and in that, in response to receiving said notification, it comprises the following steps:

a step (4.3) of initiating a synchronous connection to said gateway using the extracted operator-related connection information;

a step (4.5) of initiating an application session using the information relating to the extracted application session. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that said notification is received in the form of a short message.

3 / A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the step of extracting (4.2) said notification, on the one hand the information for the establishment of an application session and secondly the relative connection information to the operator managing an interconnection gateway between the mobile telephone network and the data communication network, includes a step of extracting the name of the gateway, a connection identifier and a password. 4 / an information processing device comprising:

means for communicating with a data communication network via a mobile telephone network;

means for receiving a notification according to a first asynchronous communication mode; means for establishing a connection according to a second synchronous communication mode with an interconnection gateway between the mobile telephone network and the data communication network, said gateway being managed by an operator;

means for establishing with an server an application session through the communication network;

characterized in that it further comprises:

means for extracting from said notification, on the one hand, connection information relating to the operator used to enable the establishment of a connection to the data communication network, and, on the other hand, information relating to the establishment of an application session,

and in that means for establishing a connection with the gateway and means for establishing an application session with the server are activated in response to receiving said notification.

5 / Notification for the establishment of an application session by an information processing device called a client having means for communicating with a data communication network through a mobile telephone network, characterized in that she understands :

- the information for the establishment of an application session; and

the connection information relating to the operator managing an interconnection gateway between the mobile telephone network and the data communication network. 6 / Notification according to claim 5, characterized in that it takes the form of a short message.

Notification according to claim 5, characterized in that said operator-related connection information comprises the name of the gateway, a connection identifier and a password.