FI113999B - Carrying of MMS services - Google Patents

Description

113999 Carrying of MMS services

Background of the Invention

The invention relates to the transport of services, particularly in an MMS or Multimedia Messaging Specification environment. MMS is a specification set for 3GPP (Third Gen-5 eration Partnership Project, see www.3gpp.org) for third generation mobile services.

Figure 1 shows a reference architecture defined by 3GPP. One key element is the MMSC (Multimedia Service Center) MMSC. According to the reference architecture, the multimedia service center MMSC comprises a relay unit MMR (MMS Relay) and a plurality of servers. According to the established naming convention, server 0 is a storage server, and other servers 1 through N provide other services such as email, fax services, etc. The switching unit MMR has two databases, the subscriber registers, namely the MMS user database MDB and the HLR (Home Location Register-15 ter). The first terminal (mobile station) MS-A, whose subscriber information is stored in the subscriber registers of that MMSC, connects to the MMSC via the access network AN-A and the first user agent UA-A. The mobile station MS-B in the foreign network connects to the MMSC via respective elements AN-B, UA-B and MMR 'in the foreign network.

20 According to current understanding, the primary bearer for MMS-specific services is GPRS (General Packet Radio Service). The problem is that if the network and / or the terminal does not support GPRS, then no MMS-specific services are available. Some terminals know how to use circuit-switched data (CSD) instead of GPRS *: ·. · 25 or in addition. The problem is, the circuit-switched data connection is everything else, ···. than an ideal transmission because it is expensive to use, the connection is slow, and not all networks support at least high-speed circuit switching. for high-speed circuit-switched data (HSCSD), the transmission rate remains * ;;; a minimum.

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Brief Description of the Invention

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a technique for solving the above problem. The object of the invention is achieved by a method and system characterized by what is stated in the independent claims. Preferred embodiments of the invention are the subject of the dependent claims.

113999 2

The invention is based on the idea that, before transporting a message, the size of the message is determined and an optimal transmission path is selected.

The optimal way to establish a connection between the terminal and the MMSC (interface MM1) is to utilize WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), i.e., 5 MMS messages are transported over WAP traffic from the terminal to the WAP gateway in the same way as any '' normal 'WAP site search. WAP is specified to be network and transport independent, meaning that it passes over GPRS, CSD and even SMS. Therefore, MMS traffic can also be carried using the standard SMS-10 service in the signaling channel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be further described in connection with preferred embodiments, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows a reference architecture defined by 3GPP; Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating the invention; and

Figures 3 and 4 are signaling diagrams illustrating the transmission and reception of a message.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the invention, in which the elements of the accessing network AN are described in more detail than in FIG. 1. The terminal MS communicates over the access network AN with the multimedia service center MMSC using GPRS or short message as the situation. GPRS Connection. t: passes SGSN and / or GGSN (Serving GPRS Support) packet radio network

., ..: Node, Gateway GPRS Support Node), and WAP GW of the WAP gateway

··., Through 25. Similarly, your short message passes through the Short Message Service Center (SMSC) and the WAP gateway.

The terminal MS sets a short message as the bearer if the sending or · ;;; the size of the message to be received is small enough, that is, below the predefined threshold of '·· *'. In practice, this means small messages, usually just plain text: · · 30 and up to a few kilobytes in size. The terminal does: * “; automatically or by asking the user.

When transmitting, the terminal itself is able to detect the size of the message being transmitted. Upon receiving the message, the size of the message is reported to the terminal in a notification message sent by the network, based on which the terminal is able to retrieve the 35 messages in the MMSC.

113999 3

For example, sending a message in the system of Figures 1 and 2 works as follows. The user writes an MMS message to the memory of his terminal. When sending a message, the terminal detects that it is a message less than a kilobyte in size. In accordance with its settings, the terminal itself converts the short message into a bearer for MMS transmission. The MMS message is transmitted, and after the access network AN, the message is transmitted through the SMSC to the WAP gateway WAP-GW and then to the MMSC (lower path). A larger message would have gone the higher route using GPRS over SGSN / GGSN to the WAP gateway and MMSC.

Figure 3 is a signaling diagram illustrating the transmission of a message. In step 1, the terminal determines, based on the size of the message to be transmitted, which bearer is used. In step 2a, the message is large and the terminal transmits the MM1_submit.REQ message using the GPRS network elements. The MMSC responds in the same context with an MM1_submit.RES message indicating the receipt of the message and possible errors. In step 2b, a small message is transmitted. The terminal sends an MM1_submit.REQ message using the SMS network elements. The MMSC responds in the same context with an MM1_submit.RES message indicating the receipt / possible errors of the message.

Figure 4 is a signaling scheme illustrating receipt of a message. In step 1, the MMSC receives a new MMS message and sends it to the user (terminal MS) via MM1_notification.REQ. The terminal responds to it with an MM1_notification.RES message indicating the status. In step 2, the terminal MS starts to retrieve the MMS message from the MMSC using the message size included in the MM 1 notification.REQ message to select the bearer. In step 3a, the message is large and the terminal MS transmits a ·: ··: MM1_retrieve.REQ message using the GPRS network elements. The MMSC responds in the same context with the MM1 _retrieve.RES message indicating the receipt of the message / possible errors. In step 3b, the message is small, whereby the terminal MS transmits the MM1 jretrieve.REQ message using the SMS network elements 30. The MMSC replies in the same context with MM1_retrieve.RES message il- '!' complaining about the receipt of a message / possible errors.

It will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but that the basic idea of the invention can be implemented in many different ways. ! ·. way. For example, instead of a short message, other similar 35 offline connections, such as USSD (Unstructured Supplementary 4 113959), may be used.

Service Data). The invention and its embodiments are thus not limited to the examples described above, but may vary within the scope of the claims.

Claims (7)

Method for transporting a message between a mobile station (MS) and a multimedia service center (MMSC), characterized in that the following steps are performed automatically: the size of the message is determined; if the message size exceeds a predetermined threshold, the message is transported by using a connection with connection and, otherwise, by using a connection without connection. 10 Method according to claim 1, characterized in that in connection with a message emanating from the mobile station, the mobile station transmits the message using a connection it has chosen. Method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that in connection with a message arriving at the mobile station, the multimedia service center transmits to the mobile station information about the existence and size of the message, after which the mobile station retrieves the message using a connection which it has chosen. 4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the connection with connection is GPRS. :, 5. Process according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized in that the connection with connection is a circuit-connected connection. 6. A method according to any of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the connection without connection is a short message. 25 7. A method according to any of claims 1-5, characterized in that the connection without connection is the USSD.