CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is the U.S. National Stage of International Application No. PCT/EP2019/072831, filed Aug. 27, 2019, which was published in English under PCT Article 21(2), which in turn claims the benefit of Great Britain Application No. 1814189.5, filed Aug. 31, 2018.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to radio communication apparatus and methods for carrying out data communications over cellular telecommunications data networks—particularly, although not exclusively, for communicating audio or video data over Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks.

Throughout the course of the past few decades, the extent and technical capabilities of cellular-based radio communication systems have expanded dramatically. A number of different cellular-based networks have been developed over the years, including the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), General Packet Radio Services (GPRS), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), where GSM, GPRS, and EDGE are often referred to as second generation (or “2G”) networks and UMTS is referred to as a third generation (or “3G”) network.

More recently, the Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, a fourth generation (or “4G”) network standard specified by the 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP), has gained popularity due to its relatively high uplink and downlink speeds and larger network capacity compared to earlier 2G and 3G networks. LTE is the access part of the Evolved Packet System (EPS), a purely Internet Protocol (IP) based communication technology in which both real-time services (e.g. voice) and data services are carried by the IP protocol.

In many cases, user equipment (UE), such as a mobile telephone, that supports “4G” LTE data communications uses the packet-switched LTE network for data communication but ‘falls back’ to a legacy circuit-switched network (e.g., “3G”) for voice communication. However, LTE does support voice communication via the ‘Voice over LTE’ (VoLTE) standard, which is based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network and provides for a voice service using LTE data bearers. LTE also supports ‘Video over LTE’ (ViLTE), for communicating video data. The number of cellular telecommunications networks that support VoLTE and ViLTE is growing rapidly.

Meanwhile, developments to the LTE communication standard, such as NB-IoT and LTE Cat-M1, are being made in order to facilitate the so-called “Internet of Things” (IoT). This is a common name for the inter-networking of physical devices, sometimes called “smart devices”, to provide physical objects, which may not have been connected to any network, or only to a local network, in the past, with the ability to communicate with remote physical and/or virtual objects such as a remote server.

Such smart devices include: vehicles; buildings; household appliances, lighting, heating (e.g. for home automation), and medical devices. These smart devices are typically real-world objects with embedded electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity, thus allowing them to collect, share, and act upon data. These devices may, in practice, be very small and may rely on battery power, where the capacity of the battery is physically limited by the size of the device. While power consumption is typically a design consideration for most electronic devices, it is of particular importance to IoT devices, where frequent battery changes or recharging is typically undesirable. The processing power of such devices may also be limited by physical and/or cost constraints, in addition to a desire to minimise power usage.

The Applicant has recognised that there may be situations where it desirable for an electronic device (which could be a smart device) to be able to communicate data, such as audio or video data, encoding audio signals, over a modern cellular telecommunications data network, without causing a high power drain on the device. Such data could be a traditional two-way voice telephone call, but could instead be a one-way communication, such as a voice command that is sent from the device to a server, or music that is streamed from a server to the device, or a surveillance camera video stream, or it could be a one-way or two-way video stream, or any other data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

When viewed from a first aspect, the present invention provides a method of communication over a cellular telecommunications network using an electronic device, wherein the method comprises:communicating a session control signal between the electronic device and the cellular telecommunications network on a first radio channel provided by the cellular telecommunications network, the session control signal comprising identification data identifying a remote party for an IP-based communication session with the remote party;the cellular telecommunications network using the identification data to establish an IP-based communication session with the remote party; andcommunicating content data, for the IP-based communication session, between the electronic device and the cellular telecommunications network on a second radio channel provided by the cellular telecommunications network.

This first aspect of the invention extends to a radio communication system comprising:an electronic device; anda cellular telecommunications network,
wherein:the electronic device is configured to send a session control signal to the cellular telecommunications network, or is configured to receive a session control signal from the cellular telecommunications network, on a first radio channel provided by the cellular telecommunications network, the session control signal comprising identification data identifying a remote party for an IP-based communication session with the remote party;the cellular telecommunications network is configured to use the identification data to establish an IP-based communication session with the remote party; andthe electronic device and the cellular telecommunications network are configured to communicate content data, for the IP-based communication session, between the electronic device and the cellular telecommunications network on a second radio channel provided by the cellular telecommunications network.

This first aspect of the invention further extends to an electronic device configured for communication over a cellular telecommunications network, wherein:the electronic device is configured to send a session control signal to the cellular telecommunications network, or is configured to receive a session control signal from the cellular telecommunications network, on a first radio channel provided by the cellular telecommunications network, the session control signal comprising identification data identifying a remote party for an IP-based communication session with the remote party; andthe electronic device is configured to send content data, for an IP-based communication session established with the remote party by the cellular telecommunications network, to the cellular telecommunications network, or is configured to receive content data, for an IP-based communication session established with the remote party by the cellular telecommunications network, from the cellular telecommunications network, on a second radio channel provided by the cellular telecommunications network.

Thus it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that, in embodiments of the present invention, an IP-based communication session with a remote party is established by the cellular telecommunications network itself, rather than being established directly by the electronic device, as is known in many conventional arrangements such as conventional VoLTE or ViLTE. This reduces the processing burden on the electronic device by off-loading at least some of the work of establishing the session to the cellular network. This processing load can be significant, especially in systems where session establishment messages are encrypted, e.g., using IPsec (Internet Protocol Security).

The cellular telecommunications network may comprise a packet-switched cellular telecommunications data network. While it will be appreciated that there are a number of radio communication technologies to which the principles of the present invention may readily be applied, in a preferred set of embodiments the cellular telecommunications network comprises an LTE telecommunications network. It may be a cellular network supporting LTE communications.

In conventional communication arrangements in which an electronic device carries out voice communication over a cellular telecommunications network, particularly a packet-switched telecommunications data network, the electronic device carries out session initiation procedures itself. For example, in conventional VoLTE communications, the electronic device makes use of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to establish an audio communication session with a remote party. ViLTE also uses SIP similarly. SIP is a standard protocol, known in the art per se, for establishing real-time sessions, such as voice over IP (VoIP) sessions. In embodiments of the present invention, the cellular telecommunications network may use SIP to establish the IP-based communication session with the remote party. However, it will be appreciated that the principles of the present invention may, at least in some alternative embodiments, be applied to communication systems that employ other protocols for establishing communication sessions.

Having the session initiation procedure carried out on the network-side, rather than by the electronic device, may provide substantial benefits, e.g. in terms of power consumption of the electronic device(s) participating in the communication session and/or in simplifying the design or manufacturing of the electronic device. For IoT devices, which may be very small and have considerable battery constraints, reducing the power consumption of the device by removing the need for the device to carry out session initiation itself may be particularly advantageous.

Embodiments of the invention may also be used advantageously in interoperability testing. Multiple devices (UEs) having their own, different IMS and SIP implementations can be replaced with one implementation running on the network side. Thus, in some embodiments, the present methods may be applied to a system comprising a plurality of electronic devices, each configured to perform any of the method steps disclosed herein.

The content data for the IP-based communication session may be any type of data. It may comprise a data stream. In a preferred set of embodiments it comprises audio data and/or video data.

The cellular telecommunications network may comprise a session control module. In some embodiments, the session control module may comprise a server at a single location, or it may be distributed over multiple physical servers and/or locations. In some embodiments, the session control module may be configured to receive the session control signal from the electronic device (or from a plurality of such electronic devices). It may be configured, in response to receiving the session control signal, to send one or more IP-based session control signals out of the cellular telecommunications network—e.g., through a gateway to another network such as the Internet. In some embodiments, the session control module may be configured to send the session control signal to the electronic device. It may be configured to send the session control signal to the electronic device in response to receiving an IP-based session control signal from outside the cellular telecommunications network—e.g., via a gateway, from another network such as the Internet. The IP-based session control signal may be encoded differently and/or may use a different communication protocol from the session control signal received from the electronic device. The session control module may recode or reformat the respective signals. In some embodiments, the IP-based session control signal is a SIP message.

The cellular telecommunications network may be configured to be able to provide one or more IP radio channels to the electronic device and/or to provide one or more non-IP radio channels to the electronic device.

In some preferred embodiments, the second radio channel is a non-IP radio channel. In LTE-based communication systems, this non-IP radio channel may, at least in some embodiments, comprise a non-IP LTE radio bearer. The cellular telecommunications network (e.g., the session control module, or another module, such as a codec module as described below) may be configured to convert the content data between a non-IP format for the non-IP radio channel and an IP-based format—e.g., for sending or receiving over the Internet. This may comprise formatting or packing the content data differently; it may comprise recoding the content data. The cellular telecommunications network may be connected to the Internet by a gateway, through which the content data may pass.

Communicating the content data on a non-IP radio channel can provide still further reductions in processing effort for the electronic device, by off-loading the processing of the IP stack to the cellular telecommunications network. Removing the IP protocol overhead for the content data, e.g., an audio stream, from the electronic device may lead to a significant power consumption on the electronic device, allowing the device to be manufacturer with fewer processing resources and/or increasing battery life.

While the first radio channel, used for the session control signal, could be an IP radio channel, in some preferred embodiments the first radio channel is a non-IP radio channel. In LTE-based communication systems, this non-IP radio channel may, at least in some embodiments, comprise a non-IP LTE radio bearer. This can lead to a reduction in processing load on the electronic device, by shifting the IP protocol processing to the cellular telecommunications network.

The first and second radio channels (or bearers in the case of LTE systems) could be the same radio channel, but in some embodiments they are two different radio channels (or bearers as appropriate).

The Applicant has appreciated that carrying out the entire session initiation procedure within the cellular telecommunications network can be advantageous both when the electronic device is initiating the communication session over the cellular telecommunications network and/or when the electronic device is invited to join a communication session over the cellular telecommunications network (e.g., invited by the remote party). Thus, in some embodiments, the electronic device transmits the session control signal comprising the identification data identifying a remote party. In another set of embodiments, the electronic device receives the session control signal comprising the identification data identifying a remote party. Thus the electronic device may, in some embodiments, be configured or configurable to transmit and/or receive the session control signal comprising the identification data identifying a remote party. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that where the electronic device transmits this control signal, the identification data will typically correspond to the remote party that is to be called or that is to receive the data. Conversely, where the electronic device receives the call control signal, the identification data will typically correspond to the remote party that is calling or that is sending the data.

The remote party may be an electronic device or it may be any other entity, such as a human. The identification data may identify an electronic device or it may identify a human user. The identification data may comprise a MAC address, an IP address, a PSTN telephone number, a domain name, a SIP address containing an IP address, a SIP address containing a fully-qualified domain name, a user name, or any other appropriate identification data. The cellular telecommunications network may be configured to access an address mapping database or service to determine a physical device address from the identification data (e.g., by a DNS lookup).

Communication between the electronic device and the cellular telecommunications network may be one-way such that, at least in some embodiments, the electronic device transmits the content data to the cellular telecommunications network but does not, in the same session, receive content data from the cellular telecommunications network, while in other embodiments, the electronic device receives the content data from the cellular telecommunications network but does not, the same session, transmit content data to the cellular telecommunications network. In other embodiments, the communication session may be two-way (which may be duplex or half-duplex). The electronic device may transmit and receive respective content data from the cellular telecommunications network over one or more radio channels in a single communication session. It will be appreciated that, in embodiments in which content data can be both transmitted and received by the electronic device, simultaneously or at different times, the radio channel or channels used for transmission of content data may or may not be the same as the radio channel or channels used for the reception of content data.

The content data preferably comprises digitised audio data. The audio data may encode a voice signal, music, a dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signal, or any other audio content. The audio data may be encoded using 3GPP Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) encoding, or with any other appropriate encoding. The content may alternatively or additional comprise image data, such as video data. The video data may be encoded using the H.264 codec or any other appropriate encoding. The cellular telecommunications network may be configured to convert the content data between a first encoding, used when the content data is communicated over the second radio channel, and a second encoding, different from the first encoding, with which the content data is encoded when it is received by the cellular telecommunications network from the remote party, or when it is sent by the cellular telecommunications network towards the remote party. The first and second encodings may use different codecs and/or different bitrates. The conversion may be performed by a codec module in the cellular telecommunications network, which may be implemented on a single server or may be distributed across multiple servers and/or locations.

In some embodiments, the electronic device is configured, or is configurable, to transmit (or receive) one or more further session control signals to (or from) the cellular telecommunications network. These further control signals may comprise session control commands or status messages. Each control signal may correspond to a set of one or more incoming and/or outgoing SIP messages. In some embodiments, at least one further control signal comprises an incoming-call alert, a call-connected message, a call hold command, a call retrieve command, an end call command indicating the end of the communication session, a message command containing textual message data (e.g., a message entered by a human user, or to be received by a human user), or an acknowledgement message.

In some embodiments, a message signal may be communicated between the electronic device and the cellular telecommunications network on the first radio channel, wherein the message signal encodes message data. The cellular telecommunications network may send the message data to the remote party within the IP-based communication session, or receive the message data from the remote party within the IP-based communication session.

While the principles of the present invention provide for communicating content such as an audio or video stream, in some embodiments the electronic device may be configured to transmit at least one signal to the cellular telecommunications network over a non-IP radio channel without necessarily separately transmitting any related content data. In particular, this may occur when the signal itself comprises message data—e.g., message data, such as text data, created by a human user, or to be received by a human user.

Thus, when viewed from a second aspect, the present invention provides a method of communicating message data over a cellular telecommunications network using an electronic device, wherein the method comprises:communicating a message signal between the electronic device and the cellular telecommunications network on a non-IP radio channel provided by the cellular telecommunications network, the message signal encoding message data; andthe cellular telecommunications network sending the message data to a remote party over an IP-based communication channel, or receiving the message data from a remote party over an IP-based communication channel.

This first aspect of the invention extends to a radio communication system comprising:an electronic device; anda cellular telecommunications network,
wherein:the electronic device is configured to send a message signal to the cellular telecommunications network, or is configured to receive a message signal from the cellular telecommunications network, on a non-IP radio channel provided by the cellular telecommunications network, the message signal encoding message data; andthe cellular telecommunications network is configured to send the message data to a remote party over an IP-based communication channel, or is configured to receive the message data from a remote party over an IP-based communication channel.

Any features of the first aspect, or embodiments thereof, may be features of embodiments of this second aspect, and vice versa.

By placing the IP protocol overhead on the cellular telecommunications network, the processing load on the electronic device can be reduced compared with the device itself sending or receiving the text message over an IP radio channel itself—e.g., as one or more SIP MESSAGE commands (defined in RFC 3428) communicated using conventional messaging.

The use of an IP-based communication channel with the remote party can be more flexible and/or lower cost than using a non-IP-based channel such as when sending or receiving a GSM SMS (short message service) message between mobile devices.

The cellular telecommunications network may be configured to encapsulate the text message in one or more IP packets, or to extract the text message from one or more IP packets. The cellular telecommunications network may be configured to communicate the text message with the remote party in one or more SIP commands, such as one or more SIP MESSAGE commands. In a preferred set of embodiments, the non-IP radio channel between the electronic device and the cellular telecommunications network uses a message communication protocol, which is preferably not SIP, while the cellular telecommunications network exchanges the message data with the remote party using SIP, or an IP-based SMS format, or by any other appropriate mechanism. This allows the non-IP radio channel to use a much simpler protocol than SIP, thereby allowing the user equipment (electronic device) to use less power.

The non-IP radio channel may be used to communicate identification data identifying the remote party, in addition to communicating the message data.

The message data may comprise text-message data. It may additionally or alternatively comprise non-textual message data, such as photographic data, image data, emoji data, etc.

The message signal may encode the message data in any appropriate way. The message signal may also comprise sender identification data and/or recipient identification data.

