WO2014069982A1

WO2014069982A1 - System and method for dynamically regrouping call groups

Info

Publication number: WO2014069982A1
Application number: PCT/MY2013/000175
Authority: WO
Inventors: Azmi Yaacob; Hoey Yew OOI; Ahmad Zaki ABU BAKAR; Putri Shahnim Khalid
Original assignee: Mimos Berhad
Priority date: 2012-11-02
Filing date: 2013-09-30
Publication date: 2014-05-08
Also published as: MY185809A

Abstract

Described herein are a system (100) and a method (200) that permit dynamic regrouping of call groups (107) (108) on an IP-based wireless communication network (114), wherein each of the call groups consists of a plurality of members having mobile stations (109) (110) (111) (112). In other words, the dynamic regrouping of the present invention permits the members of different call groups (107) (108) to communicate with each other during the occurrence of an event, e.g. an emergency event, without prior knowledge of each other identity. In general, the call groups (107) (108) are clustered together by a dynamic regrouping server (DRS) (102) to form a virtual group (113), which allows direct transmission of data from a base station (105) (106) to the members having mobile stations (109) (110) (111) (112) within the selected call groups (107) (108) via the said virtual group (113).

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMICALLY REGROUPING CALL GROUPS

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a system and a method for dynamic regrouping call groups, and in particular, to a system and a method for dynamic regrouping call groups on an IP-based wireless communication network.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Dynamic regrouping is essentially a term to describe the grouping of different call groups or individuals from different call groups to enable communication between them on a common channel during an occurrence of an event such as emergency event. For instance, during a fire breakout scenario, a fire department group may want to communicate closely with a medical group and a police group via a shared channel to coordinate activities of putting out the fire, securing the fire scene, and providing medical attentions to injured people. Dynamic regrouping often involves a variety of wireless communication devices, such as mobile phones and/or radios.

One of the well-known communication systems that allow communication between call groups is trunked mobile communication system, such as Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) system. In general, PMR provides point to multi point communication and is typically utilized by professional and government entities, for examples police, military forces, etc, who all share spectrum allocated to a particular area. A person skilled in the art may already know that the most notable feature of PMR is the "push-to-talk, release-to-listen" feature, where an initiator who is interested to convey a message to other users in a same group can do so by pressing on a switch on his equipment to initiate a connection between his equipment and the other users' equipments via a network. Once the connection is established, the initiator may start to talk while the other users can listen to the message on a common channel. The connection is immediately terminated once the message is delivered to the intended users by releasing the switch on the initiator's equipment. Hence, there is a substantial saving on the network's resources as the resources are only used to sustain the connection for a duration that lasts as long as the duration of the message or the duration of the switch is being pressed on.

Apart from the above, many types of systems and methods have been devised to create call groups with dynamic membership. For one example, EP 2 221 980 A1 provides a method for implementing a radiophone based conference call and dynamic grouping, which generally includes selecting a dynamic grouping function and members of an intended group through a man-machine interface of a radiophone, generating a control packet in a coding format and an extensible interface, the coding format and the extensible interface being inherent to a preset protocol stack module, and then transmitting the control frame in a control frame to a corresponding receiving end, and the receiving end upon reception of the control frame decodes the control frame and initiates a frequency modification module to modify frequency modification information by adding the group ID of the intended group. The radiophone can perform a scheduling function, and time can be saved in an emergency for rapid and convenient dealing with an incident.

Even so, most of the conventional and devised systems and methods, including the above-mentioned prior art, involve dynamic regrouping features and/or techniques that are highly dependent on infrastructure. In view of this, it therefore has become the aim of the present invention to overcome this particular technical issue.

In recent years, IP-based network technology has remarkable growth, and is becoming the backbone of the next generation data network. At the same time, mobile wireless communication technology, which has evolved from first generation network carrying only voice to GPRS, EDGE, and 3G networks, has gone through exponential growth in terms of the number of mobile telecommunication service subscribers and wireless LAN users. With the convergence of mobile wireless communication and IP-based network technologies, new platform with near limitless possibilities is created for new technologies to be based on. Hence, the present invention has come up with a novel system and method for dynamically regrouping call groups via the IP- based wireless communication network, which are infrastructure independent.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention comprises two aspects. The first and second aspects relate to a system and a method, respectively, for dynamically regrouping at least two call groups on an IP-based wireless communication network, wherein each call group consists of a plurality of mobile stations. These particular system and method allow the members of different call groups to communicate with each other through their mobile stations during the occurrence of an event without prior knowledge of each other identity.

In accordance with the first aspect of the present invention, the system comprises a console that provides an interface for a selection of call groups that is to be dynamically regrouped; a dynamic regrouping server (DRS) that stores information of all the available call groups, and sends dynamic regrouping request to the selected call groups in order to cluster the selected call groups to form a virtual group; a core network gateway that establishes a connection with each of the selected call groups, initiates a multicast connection with at least one base station that support network connection by sending a multicast connection request to the base station, and directing a router to join the formed virtual group; wherein the base station creates and sends a multicast connection identity to each of the selected call groups upon receiving the multicast connection request from the core network gateway, proceed to complete the establishment of the multicast connection with the core network gateway after receiving responses in relation to the multicast connection identity from the selected call groups, and transmits data to the formed virtual group for further transmission to the plurality of mobile stations within the virtually and dynamically regrouped call groups. The console may be operated by an operator that initiates the dynamic regrouping upon receiving an event by making the appropriate selection of call groups based on the nature of the event. In the case of emergency event, the call groups may include but not limited to police group, fire department group, medical group, ambulance group, hospital group, military group, and the like. Further, the operator is also able to cease the dynamic regrouping when communication between the members of different call groups is not required anymore. According to the second aspect of the present invention, the method comprises the steps of receiving an event such as emergency event; selecting call groups based on the nature of the event; clustering the selected call groups to form a virtual group; establishing a connection between the selected call groups and a core network gateway; establishing a multicast connection between the core network gateway and at least one base station; establishing a connection between the virtual group and a router; transmitting data from the base station to the virtual group; transmitting the data from the virtual group to the plurality of mobile stations within the virtually and dynamically regrouped call groups; and terminating the dynamic regrouping when communication between the members of different call groups is not required anymore.

The establishment of the multicast connection between the core network gateway and the base station is initiated by the core network gateway, which does so by sending a multicast connection request to the base station. Upon receiving the multicast connection request, the base station proceeds to create and send a multicast connection identity to each of the selected call groups. The multicast connection is successfully established once the base station receives a response from each of the selected call groups in relation to the multicast connection identity.

In the case of emergency event, the call groups that are involved may be but not limited to police group, fire department group, medical group, ambulance group, hospital group, military group, and the like. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating the system of the present invention for dynamically regrouping call groups on an IP-based wireless communication network;

Figure 2A is a sequence diagram illustrating the method of the present invention ' for dynamically regrouping call groups on an IP-based wireless communication network; and

Figure 2B is a sequence diagram illustrating the method of the present invention for dynamically regrouping call groups on an IP-based wireless communication network, which is a continuation of Figure 2A.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The above mentioned and other features and objects of this invention will become more apparent and better understood by reference to the following detailed description. It should be understood that the detailed description made known below is not intended to be exhaustive or limit the invention to the precise form disclosed as the invention may assume various alternative forms. As a matter of fact, the detailed description should be treated as exemplary of the present invention. Hence, the detailed description covers all the relevant modifications and alterations made to the present invention, unless the claims expressly state otherwise.

Two aspects are introduced herein. The first aspect being a system (100) for dynamically regrouping at least two call groups (107) (108) on an IP-based wireless communication system (114), whereas the second aspect being a method (200) for carrying out the same functions and/or tasks of the aforesaid system (100). Within each call group (107) (108), there is a plurality of mobile stations (109) (110) (111) (112). Both the system (100) and method (200) allow the mobile stations (109) (110) (111) (112) from different call groups (107) (108) to communicate with each other during the occurrence of an event, including emergency event, without having the need to know each other identity beforehand.

In the instance of an emergency event for example, a police officer who was injured by a robber during a heist would like to communicate with the other police officers, who are members of a police call group, to request for immediate back up, and also would like to communicate with the medical personnel, who are members of a hospital call group, to request and seek immediate medical attention. The system (100) and method (200) permit the police call group and the hospital call group to be dynamically regrouped to form a virtual group (113), wherein the police officers of the police call group and the medical personnel of the hospital call group would be able to talk and exchange information via their mobile phones in order to coordinate the activities of apprehending the robber and rescuing the injured police officer. The dynamic regrouping of the police call group and the hospital call group is accomplished without needing both the call groups to be acquainted with each other identity beforehand. To fully comprehend the system (100) according to the present invention, we now refer to Figure 1. The system (100) of the present invention comprises a few essential elements, namely a console (101); a dynamic regrouping server (DRS) (102); a core network gateway (103) that may comprises an access service network gateway (ASN-GW), a connectivity service network (CSN), and the like; a router (104); at least one base station (105) (106) that supports network connection which may be but not limited to virtual private network (VPN), multicast broadcast solution, end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS), common operation and management platform, and the like; and at least two call groups, (e.g. call group 1 (107) and call group 2 (108), which are collectively referred to as call groups hereinafter), wherein each call group (107) (108) consists of a plurality of mobile stations (e.g. mobile station 1A (109) and mobile station 1B (110) belonging to call group 1 (107), and mobile station 2A (111) and mobile station 2B (112) belonging to call group 2 (108), which are collectively referred to as mobile stations hereinafter).

The console (101) provides an interface for a selection of call groups (107) (108) that are to be dynamically regrouped, wherein the call groups (107) (108) include but not limited to police group, fire department group, medical group, ambulance group, hospital group, military group, and the like. The selection is mainly carried out premised upon the nature of an event, such as emergency events of robbery, road accident, fire breakout, etc. For examples, a fire breakout would mainly involve the call groups of fire department and hospital groups, whereas a robbery would normally involve the call groups of police and hospital groups. The console (101) may be operated by an operator that initiates the dynamic regrouping upon receiving the event by making the selection of call groups (107) (108). When the communication between the members of the call groups is not needed anymore, the operator can cease the operation of dynamic regrouping.

The console (101) is linked to and operates closely with the element called DRS (102), which has two main roles in the system (100). The first role being a means to store information of all the available call groups (107) (108), which may include information like the location/area covered by the call groups (107) (108), the total number of members within the call groups (107) (108), the supervisor or person in charge of the call groups (107) (108) to be in liaise with in case of emergency, the nature of emergency that the call groups (107) (108) is able to handle, etc. This information would be extracted and displayed on the console (101), allowing the operator to make the selection of call groups (107) (108).

Apart from storing information, the DRS (102) is designed to cluster the selected call groups (107) (108) to form a virtual group ( 13) by sending a dynamic grouping request to each of the selected call groups (107) (108). The virtual group (113) is successfully created once each of the selected call groups (107) ( 08) responds to the dynamic grouping request by sending a positive reply back to the DRS (102). Soon after the DRS (102) receives the response from each of the selected call groups (107) (108), the core network gateway (103) proceeds to establish a connection with each of the selected call groups (107) (108). Subsequently, the core network gateway (103) commences to initiate a multicast connection with at least one base station ( 05) (106) by sending a multicast connection request to the base station (105) (106). Upon receiving the multicast connection request from the core network gateway (103), the base station (105) (106) creates and sends a multicast connection identity to each of the selected call groups (107) (108). In response to the multicast connection identity, each of the selected call groups (107) (108) would send a positive reply back to the base station (105) (106), thus completing the establishment of the multicast connection between the core network gateway (103) and the base station (105) (106).

Lastly, the core network gateway (103) initiates a request for the router (104) to join the virtual group (113).

With all the connections and multicast connections established accordingly between the aforesaid elements, the system (100) is now completely set up and ready to transmit data. The base station (105) (106) now directly transmits the data to the virtual group (113). Subsequently, the data is further transmitted from the virtual group (113) to the plurality of mobile stations (109) (110) (111) (112) within the virtually and dynamically regrouped call groups (107) (108).

In relation to the method (200) of the present invention, we now refer to Figure 2A and Figure 2B, wherein Figure 2B is a continuation of Figure 2A. In both figures, DRS (102) refers to dynamic regrouping server, CNG (103) refers to core network gateway, BS (105) (106) refers to base station, CG1 (107) refers to first call group and represents all the mobile stations within the first call group, CG2 (108) refers to second call group and represents all the mobile stations within the second call group, and VG (113) refers to virtual group.

The operation of dynamic regrouping is triggered with the start of an event such as emergency event. In the case of emergency event, the call groups may include police group, fire department group, medical group, ambulance group, hospital group, military group, and the like.

Upon receiving the event, appropriate call groups, which are to be dynamically regrouped, are selected premised upon the nature of the event (201). In this case, the call groups would be CG1 and CG2 (collectively referred to as call groups). The next step would be to cluster the selected call groups to form a virtual group (204). This clustering step (204) comprises of two steps; the first one (202) being sending a dynamic grouping request from the DRS to each of the selected call groups, and the second one (203) being responding to the dynamic grouping request by each of the selected call groups.

After the virtual group is formed (204), the subsequent step would be to establish a connection between each of the selected call groups and the core network gateway (205). When the connection is established (205), the core network gateway proceeds to initiate a multicast connection with at least one base station by sending a multicast connection request to the base station (206). The base station, upon receiving the multicast connection request, creates and sends a multicast connection identity to each of the selected call groups (207). In response to the multicast connection identity, each of the selected call groups sends a positive reply back to the base station (208), thus causing the base station to complete the establishment of the multicast connection between the core network gateway and the base station (209). With the establishment of the multicast connection (209), the core network gate proceeds to request the router to join the virtual group (210), which results in the establishment of a connection between the virtual group and the router (211).

The next step would be the base station transmitting data to the virtual group (212), which is then further transmitted from the virtual group to the plurality of mobile stations within the virtually and dynamically regrouped call groups (213). When the operation of dynamic regrouping or communication between the members of different call groups is not required anymore, a command is being sent from the console to the DRS to cease the operation (214). Thereafter, the base station proceeds to terminate the multicast connection with the core network gateway (215).

Claims

1) A system (100) for dynamically regrouping at least two call groups (107) (108) existing on an IP-based wireless communication network (114), wherein each call group (107) (108) consists of a plurality of mobile stations (109) (110) (111) (112), the system (100) comprises:

a) a console (101) that provides an interface for a selection of call groups (107) (108) that are to be dynamically regrouped;

b) a dynamic regrouping server (DRS) (102) that stores information of all the call groups (107) (108), sends a dynamic regrouping request to each of the selected call groups (107) (108), receives a response from each of the selected call groups (107) (108) that receives the dynamic regrouping request, and clusters the selected call groups (107) (108) to form a virtual group (113);

c) a core network gateway (103) that establishes a connection with each of the selected call groups (107) (108) after the DRS (102) received the response relating to the dynamic regrouping request from each of the selected call groups (107) (108), initiates a multicast connection with at least one base station (105) (106) by sending a multicast connection request to the base station (105) (106) upon establishment of the connection between the core network gateway (103) and the selected call groups (107) (108), and initiates a request for a router (104) to join the virtual group (113) upon establishment of the multicast connection between the core network gateway (103) and the base station (105) (106); and d) at least one base station (105) (106) that supports network connection, creates and sends a multicast connection identity to each of the selected call groups (107) (108) upon receiving the multicast connection request from the core network gateway (103), establishes the multicast connection with the core network gateway (103) upon receiving a response relating to the multicast connection identity from each of the selected call groups (107) (108), and transmits data to the virtual group (113) for further transmission to the plurality of mobile stations (109) (110) (111)

(112) within the virtually and dynamically regrouped call groups (107) (108) soon after the router (104) joined the virtual group

(113) ;

wherein the mobile stations (109) (110) (111) (112) are able to communicate with each other without prior knowledge of each other identity.

2) A system (100) in accordance to claim 1 , wherein the console (101) is operated by an operator that initiates the dynamic regrouping upon receiving an event by selecting the call groups (107) (108) based on the nature of the event, and terminates the dynamic regrouping when communication between the mobile stations of different call groups is not required anymore.

3) A system (100) in accordance with claim 2, wherein the event is an emergency event. ^

4) A system (100) in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the call groups (107) (108) include police group, fire department group, medical group, ambulance group, hospital group, military group, and the like.

5) A system (100) in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the core network * gateway (103) comprises an access service network gateway (ASN-GW), a connectivity service network (CSN), and the like.

6) A system (100) in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the network connection supported by the base station (105) (106) is virtual private network (VPN), multicast broadcast solution, end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS), common operation and management platform, and the like.

7) A method (200) for dynamically regrouping at least two call groups existing on an IP-based wireless communication network, wherein each call group consists of a plurality of mobile stations, the method comprises the steps of:

a) receiving an event;

b) selecting call groups based on the nature of the event (201);

c) clustering the selected call groups to form a virtual group (204); d) establishing a connection between each of the selected call groups and a core network gateway (205);

e) establishing a multicast connection between the core network gateway and at least one base station (209);

f) establishing a connection between the virtual group and a router (211);

g) transmitting data from the base station to the virtual group (212); h) transmitting the data from the virtual group to the plurality of mobile stations within the virtually and dynamically regrouped call groups

(213) ; and

i) terminating the dynamic regrouping when communication between the mobile stations of different call groups is not required anymore

(214) (215);

wherein the mobile stations are able to communicate with each other without prior knowledge of each other identity.

A method in accordance with claim 7, wherein the step of establishing the multicast connection between the core network gateway and the base station (209) further comprises the steps of:

a) the core network gateway sends a multicast connection request to the base station (206);

b) the base station creates and sends a multicast connection identity to each of the selected call groups (207); and

c) the selected call groups send a response to the base station in relation to the multicast connection identity (208).

A method (200) in accordance with claim 7, wherein the event is an emergency event. A method (200) in accordance with claims 7 and 8, wherein the call groups include police group, fire department group, medical group, ambulance group, hospital group, military group, and the like.