Title of Invention

METHOD TO GENERATE LIST OF PUBLIC LAND MOBILE NUMBER(PLMNS) ID BY UNIVERSAL MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM(UMTS)MOBILE

Abstract The present invention relates to a method to generate list of PLMN (Public Land Mobile Number) 10 of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) mobile and the purpose of this invention is to avoid the signaling overhead on the system when trying to build a list of PLMNs. It proposes to carry out the system information decoding and extracting the PLMN at the UPHY layer itself and save time and processing overhead for the access stratum.
Full Text

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY
The present invention relates to the PLMN ID search process in the UMTS mobile as per the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) standards. More particularly this invention relates to an improved method to generate list of Public Land Mobile Number (PLMNs) ID of Universal Mobile Telecommunication Systems (UMTS) Mobile.
PRESENT STATE OF ART
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration agreement that was established in December 1998. The collaboration agreement brings together a number of telecommunications standards bodies which are known as "Organizational Partners". The current Organizational Partners are ARIB, CCSA, ETSI, ATIS, TTA, and TTC.
The establishment of 3GPP was formalized in December 1998 by the signing of the "The 3rd Generation Partnership Project Agreement".
The original scope of 3GPP was to produce globally applicable Technical Specifications and Technical Reports for a 3rd Generation Mobile System based on evolved GSM core networks and the radio access technologies that they support (i.e., Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) both Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) modes). The scope was subsequently amended to include the maintenance and development of the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) Technical Specifications and Technical Reports including evolved radio access technologies (e.g. General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE)).
In the existing system, when the UMTS mobile is switched-on, non-Access stratum of mobile station will demand for the list of PLMNs available in the vicinity of the mobile station, from the URRC of MS. URRC will then command

the physical layer to read the system information of the cells (obtained in cell search) on each frequency (received in the RF search). This system information is however decoded and interpreted by URRC only, to obtain the PLMN Identity of the cells. Figure 1 shows the message sequence chart for obtaining the PLMN list in conventional method.
Steps of Related Art
As per the Message sequence chart shown in Figure 1:
1) URRC sends UPHY_RF_SEARCH_REQ to the UPHY;
2) UPHY scans Band and search for frequencies, and reports frequencies f1, f2, f3...etc with UPHY_RF_SEARCH_INDto URRC;
3) URRC then sends UPHY_CELL_SEARCH_REQ with f1 (strongest frequency);
4) UPHY searches all the valid cells in given frequency and reports with UPHY_CELL_SEARCHJND (C1, C2, C3...etc);
5) URRC sends PCCPCH_SETUP__REQ with strongest cell of frequency f 1;
6) Then UPHY sends back PCCPCH_SETUP_CNF and starts reading BCH data;
7) BCH data from UPHY transfers to URRC via UMAC and URLC as shown in the MSC;
8) URRC decodes the MIB and stores the PLMN ID in PLMN list;
9) These steps are repeated for all the reported frequencies in the

RF_SEARCHJND and the PLMN list is generated by URRC;
10) Finally when all the frequencies received in RF_SEARCH_IND are over URRC sends PLMNJJST_CNF to MM.
LIMITATIONS
As seen in the message sequence above, signaling involved in the process of
making a PLMN list becomes an overhead for the access stratum (URRC,
UMAC, URLC and UPHY). The system information has to flow from physical
layer to URRC just to identify the PLMN identity and to add it to the list. For each
cell, PCCPCH setup request has to come from URRC to UPHY and then the
master information block has to flow from UPHY to URRC via UMAC and URLC
which leads to 6 extra signals per frequency (UPHY_DATA_IND,
BCCH_DATAJND, URLCJTMJDATAJND, PCCPCH_SETUP_REQ,
PCCPCH_RELEASE_REQ, and PCCPCH_RELEASE_CNF). This leads to totally N signals where N= {6* Number of frequencies* Number of Cells in each frequency}. Layer to layer signaling will take a significant amount of time and will be an overhead on the system.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
The primary object of the invention is to invent a unique method of reducing the overhead in signaling systems of UMTS.
It is another object of the invention to reduce the total number of signals required during the signaling process.
It is another object of the invention to reduce the layer signaling time and thus reducing the overhead on the signaling system.

It is another object of the invention to invent a method by which the present difficulty of PLMN list becoming an overhead for the access stratum is overcome.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The purpose of this invention is to avoid the signaling overhead on the system when trying to build a list of PLMNs. It proposes to carry out the system information decoding and extracting the PLMN at the UPHY layer itself instead of at URRC and thus save time and processing overhead for the access stratum.
Accordingly the present invention relates to a method to generate list of PLMN (Public Land Mobile Number) ID of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) mobile wherein a large amount of signaling is reduced in that the PLMNs are extracted from the Master Information Blocks at the UPHY in place of extracting at URRC and the steps of system information decoding and extracting of the PLMN ID are carried out at the UPHY layer itself.
The other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and the detailed description as follows.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
Figure 1 shows the message sequencing between the various layers of the UMTS network to obtain the PLMN list in the conventional method.
Figure 2 illustrates the message sequencing between the various layers of UMTS network to obtain the PLMN list for Blind Search as per the present invention.
Figure 3 illustrates the message sequencing between various layers of UMTS network to obtain the PLMN list for the given list of frequencies as per the

present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood however that the disclosed embodiment is merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. The following description and drawings are not to be construed as limiting the invention and numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention, as the basis for the claims and as a basis for teaching one skilled in the art how to make and/or use the invention. However in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention in detail.
Given below is the message sequence chart and the details of processing happening at the physical layer of URRC:
Steps involved in the present invention are enumerated below:
Blind Search:
As detailed out in Figure 2, the message sequencing between the various layers of UMTS network to obtain the PLMN list for Blind Search involves the following steps:
1) URRC sends RF_SEARCH_REQ;
2) UPHY searches the frequencies if it is Blind search;
3) After getting f1, f2, f3 frequency UPHY searches for the Cells (C1, C2, C3 etc. in the frequency f1);

4) UPHY starts decoding Master Information Block of Cell C1. The master information block shall be decoded by manual technique and therefore there is no need to wait for both the segments of MIB for starting the decoding. This helps us in saving, again, a time of 20ms because each segment of the MIB is received in 20 ms;
5) UPHY stores the PLMN ID in the PLMN list;
6) Now UPHY listens to the MIB for different Cell C2 (assuming if one frequency has more than one PLMN IDs);
7) This gets repeated for all the cells C2, C3, C4 etc and then for all scanned frequencies f1, f2, f3 etc.;
8) And after that UPHY sends RF_SEARCHJND with cell information and PLMN list.
List of Frequencies:
The message sequencing between various layers of UMTS networks to obtain the PLMN list for the given list of frequencies as per the Figure 3, comprises following steps:
1) URRC sends RF_SEARCH_REQ;
2) After getting f1, f2, f3 etc. frequencies from URRC, UPHY searches for the Cells (C1, C2, C3 etc) in frequency f 1;
3) UPHY starts decoding MIB of Cell CI The master information block shall be decoded by manual technique and therefore one does not have to wait for both the segments of MIB for starting the decoding.

This helps in saving again a time of 20ms. Because each segment of the MIB is received in 20 ms;
4) UPHY stores the PLMN ID in PLMN list;
5) Now UPHY listens to the MIB for different Cell C2 (if one frequency has more then one PLMN ID);
6) This gets repeated for all scanned frequency f1, f2, f3;
7) And then UPHY sends RF_SEARCH_IND with cell information and PLMN list.
Now as shown in the figure 2 and 3 the system information is decoded and interpreted in the physical layer itself instead of URRC, the master information block need not flow from UPHY to URRC via UMAC and URLC. Hence for each cell the signals such as UPHY_DATA_IND, BCCH_DATA_IND, URLC_TM_DATA_IND, PCCPCH_SETUP_REQ, PCCPCH_REALEASE_REQ and PCCPCH_REALEASE_CNF need not be sent for each frequency.
This amounts to saving of totally N signals where N= 6 * Total no. of frequencies* Total no. of cells in each frequency. Hence the total number of signals sent are reduced and also the time taken to send these signals is reduced. Thus the overhead of the previous system will be reduced.
It will also be obvious to those skilled in the art that other control methods and apparatuses can be derived from the combinations of the various methods and apparatuses of the present invention as taught by the description and the accompanying drawings and these shall also be considered within the scope of the present invention. Further, description of such combinations and variations is therefore omitted above. It should also be noted that the host for storing the

applications include but not limited to a computer, mobile communication device, mobile base station or a multi function device.
Although the present invention has been fully described in connection with the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications are possible and are apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as included within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims unless they depart therefrom.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND THEIR DEFINITIONS
3GPP : Third Generation Partnership Project
BCH : Broadcast Channel (Transport Channel)
PCCPCH: Primary Common Control Physical Channel
PLMN; PUBLIC LAND MOBILE NUMBER
UMAC: Medium Access Control Layer
UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (Third generation mobile
telephone standard in Europe, standardized by ETSI)
UPHY: Physical layer
URRC: Radio Resource Control
URLC: Radio Link Control Layer


WE CLAIM
1.A method to generate list of PLMN (Public Land Mobile Number) ID of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) mobile wherein a large amount of signaling is reduced in that the PLMNs are extracted from the Master Information Blocks at the UPHY in place of extracting at URRC and the steps of system information decoding and extracting of the PLMN ID are carried out at the UPHY layer itself.
2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system information is decoded and
interpreted in the physical layer itself instead of URRC and the master information
block need not flow from UPHY to URRC via UMAC and URLC.
3. A method as claimed in any of the preceding claims wherein for each cell the
signals such as UPHYJDATAJND, BCCHJDATAJND, URLCJMJDATAJND,
PCCPCH_SETUP_REQ, PCCPCHJREALEASE_REQ and
PCCPCH_REALEASE_CNF need not be sent for each frequency whereby the
total saving in signals is the six times the product total no. of frequencies and the
total no. of cells in each frequency and therefore the total number of signals sent
and time taken for the same are reduced.
4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein UPHY scans the frequency f1, f2 etc,
starts CELL search with first frequency f1; receives MIB for cell, decodes the MIB
and gets the PLMN ID and after decoding all MIB of each frequency, UPHY sends
indication to RRC with PLMN list and cell information.
5. An improved method to generate list of PLMN (Public Land Mobile Number) ID of
UMTS (Universal Mobile Tele - Communications System) Mobile substantially as
herein described particularly with reference to the accompanying drawings.


Documents:

1073-che-2003-abstract.pdf

1073-che-2003-claims duplicate.pdf

1073-che-2003-claims original.pdf

1073-che-2003-correspondnece-others.pdf

1073-che-2003-correspondnece-po.pdf

1073-che-2003-description(complete) duplicate.pdf

1073-che-2003-description(complete) original.pdf

1073-che-2003-drawings.pdf

1073-che-2003-form 1.pdf

1073-che-2003-form 19.pdf

1073-che-2003-form 26.pdf


Patent Number 207241
Indian Patent Application Number 1073/CHE/2003
PG Journal Number 26/2007
Publication Date 29-Jun-2007
Grant Date 01-Jun-2007
Date of Filing 31-Dec-2003
Name of Patentee M/S. SAMSUNG INDIA SOFTWARE OPERATIONS PRIVATE LIMITED
Applicant Address BLOCK "B",NO,66/1 BAGMANE TECH PARK C V RAMAN NAGAR BANGALORE-560 093
Inventors:
# Inventor's Name Inventor's Address
1 MANISH SONI BLOCK "B",NO,66/1 BAGMANE TECH PARK C V RAMAN NAGAR BANGALORE-560 093
PCT International Classification Number H 04 B 007/00
PCT International Application Number N/A
PCT International Filing date
PCT Conventions:
# PCT Application Number Date of Convention Priority Country
1 NA