Granted Patent B2

US 8,638,764 · App. 12/290,870 · Granted Jan 28, 2014

Abstract

Claims (53)

1. A method for providing mobile telecommunications, comprising:

receiving, by a gateway that aggregates a plurality of radio network controllers over a shared radio network controller connection to a mobile switching center (MSC) server, via a first communication interface associated with the shared radio network controller connection to the MSC server, uplink messages from respective ones of a plurality of small scale base stations, the uplink messages comprising data from different sources;

aggregating, by the gateway, the uplink messages;

transmitting, by the gateway, all of the aggregated uplink messages as a single stream to the MSC server via the shared radio network controller connection;

receiving, by the gateway, a downlink mobile telecommunications signaling message; and

mapping, by the gateway, the downlink mobile telecommunications signaling message to one of the plurality of small scale base stations, the small scale base stations being configured to perform functions of the plurality of radio network controllers.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

routing the downlink mobile telecommunications signaling message to the one of the plurality of small scale base stations over Internet,

wherein the mapping, by the gateway, comprises associating a snooped signaling connection control part (SCCP) identifier with a stream control transmission protocol (SCTP) stream that is associated with the one of the plurality of small scale base stations.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein routing the downlink mobile telecommunications signaling message to the one of the plurality of small scale base stations comprises associating the downlink mobile telecommunications signaling message via a communication protocol stream associated with the one of the plurality of small scale base stations.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the one of the plurality of small scale base stations comprises a femtocell;

the plurality of radio network controllers comprise universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) radio network controllers; and

the first communication interface comprises a network interface.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the shared radio network controller connection comprises one or more of the following:

an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) connection;

an SCTP over internet protocol (IP); or

another IP or other network connection.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the small scale base stations is configured to establish communication with the MSC server via one or more signaling protocols associated with a RNC or other radio network controller.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing a mapping between an identifier associated with the one of the plurality of small scale base stations and a downlink communication protocol stream associated with the one of the plurality of small scale base stations.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the establishing the mapping comprises storing in a mapping data structure the identifier and data associating the downlink communication protocol stream with the identifier.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein mapping the downlink mobile telecommunications signaling message to the one of the plurality of small scale base stations comprises reading from the downlink mobile telecommunications signaling message an identifier associated with the one of the plurality of small scale base stations.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising using the identifier to read from a stored data structure corresponding data identifying a downlink communication interface associated with the one of the plurality of small scale base stations.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the shared radio network controller connection comprises one or more connections corresponding to fewer than a total of the plurality of small scale base stations and a total number of radio network controller connections supported by the MSC server.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the shared radio network controller connection comprises a single shared radio network controller connection.

13. A mobile telecommunication femto gateway system, comprising:

a first communication interface associated with a single shared radio network controller connection to a mobile switching center (MSC) server, wherein the gateway aggregates a plurality of radio network controllers over the single shared network controller connection to the MSC server; and

a processor coupled to the first communication interface and configured to:

receive from respective ones of a plurality of small scale base stations uplink messages, the uplink messages comprising data from different sources;

aggregate all of the uplink messages;

transmit all of the aggregated uplink messages as a single stream to the MSC server via the single shared radio network controller connection;

receive via the first communication interface a downlink mobile telecommunications signaling message; and

map the downlink mobile telecommunications signaling message to one of the plurality of small scale base stations, the small scale base stations being configured to perform functions of the plurality of radio network controllers.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the processor is further configured to route the downlink mobile telecommunications signaling message to the one of the plurality of small scale base stations over the Internet, wherein the mapping, by the gateway, includes associating a snooped signaling connection control part (SCCP) identifier with a stream control transmission protocol (SCTP) stream that is associated with one of the plurality of small scale base stations.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the processor is further configured to establish a mapping between an identifier associated with the one of the plurality of small scale base stations and a downlink communication protocol stream associated with the one of the plurality of small scale base stations.

16. The system of claim 13 wherein the processor is further configured to map the downlink mobile telecommunications signaling message to the one of the plurality of small scale base stations at least in part by reading from the downlink mobile telecommunications signaling message an identifier associated with the one of the plurality of small scale base stations.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the processor is further configured to use the identifier to read from a stored data structure corresponding data identifying a downlink communication interface associated with the one of the plurality of small scale base stations.

18. A computer program product for providing mobile telecommunications, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving, by a gateway that aggregates a plurality of radio network controllers over a shared radio network controller connection to a mobile switching center (MSC) server, via a first communication interface associated with the shared radio network controller connection to the MSC server, uplink messages from respective ones of a plurality of small scale base stations, the uplink messages comprising data from different sources;

aggregating, by the gateway, the uplink messages;

transmitting, by the gateway, all of the aggregated uplink messages as a single stream to the MSC server via the shared radio network controller connection;

receiving, by the gateway, a downlink mobile telecommunications signaling message;

mapping, by the gateway, the downlink mobile telecommunications signaling message to one of the plurality of small scale base stations, the small scale base stations being configured to perform functions of the plurality of radio network controllers; and

routing the downlink mobile telecommunications signaling message to the one of the plurality of small scale base stations over the Internet, wherein the mapping, by the gateway, comprises associating a snooped signaling connection control part (SCCP) identifier with a stream control transmission protocol (SCTP) stream that is associated with one of the plurality of small scale base stations.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 , wherein the shared radio network controller connection comprises one or more connections corresponding to fewer than a total of the plurality of small scale base stations and a total number of radio network controller connections supported by the MSC server.

20. A small scale mobile telecommunications base station, comprising:

a communication interface; and

a processor coupled to the communication interface and configured to:

establish with a femto gateway via the communication interface a first communication session under a first mobile telecommunications signaling protocol,

wherein the femto gateway establishes a mapping that associates a snooped signaling connection control part (SCCP) identifier with a stream control transmission protocol (SCTP) stream associated with the small scale mobile telecommunications base station, wherein the small scale mobile telecommunications base station is configured to perform functions of a corresponding radio network controller (RNC);

establish with a mobile switching center (MSC) server, through communications sent to the MSC server via the femto gateway using the first communication session, a second communication session under a second mobile telecommunications signaling protocol associated with functionality,

wherein the femto gateway is configured to aggregate uplink messages from a plurality of small scale mobile telecommunications base stations over a single shared RNC connection to the MSC server, the uplink messages comprising data from different sources; and

send to the MSC server, via the femto gateway using the first communication session, all of the aggregated uplink messages associated with the second communication session as a single stream.

Assignments (8)