Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a special method for operating a cellular mobile radio network in order to ensure the safety of zones where radio interference is hazardous. The invention also relates to a correspondingly configured cellular mobile radio network. The invention further relates to a method of setting up xe2x80x9czones free of mobile radio operationxe2x80x9d for other reasons, for example in theaters, at the opera and in restaurants.
The continuing explosive development of mobile radio technology has led to hundreds of millions of mobile telephones being produced and sold, and being in daily use, in developed industrial countries. In these countries, there is virtually no place left in which there is no mobile radio traffic. The mobile radio traffic is, of course, particularly busy at traffic nodes and other focal points of daily life. Some of these zones are highly susceptible to dangers from radio interference due to the company-internal or operation-internal wireless information traffic taking place there, that is to say external radio traffic can lead to serious interference with the internal information processes there.
The danger to airborne traffic and, especially, to airport operation from mobile radio traffic is known in this context. In the past, aircraft accidents have already occurred which were virtually undoubtedly caused by interference from mobile telephones used in an aircraft. Thus, for some time, airline passengers have normally been requested to switch off their mobile telephones before entering an aircraft. However, due to carelessness or when an urgent call is expected, some airline passengers ignore this request, so that it is impossible to reliably ensure the safety of air traffic against interference from mobile radios by making such requests to airline passengers.
Risks similar to those in air traffic exist in clinics, particularly in intensive care zones, in which a large number of wireless information links, particularly between implanted medical-electronic equipment and external programming devices, or emergency paging systems for doctors, are operated. Here also, people having mobile telephones are occasionally requested to switch off their mobile telephones in certain zones. However, such requests cannot be reliably effective in this situation either.
In addition, it has already been tried to use technical devices, in particular jamming transmitters installed in relatively small zones, in order to make it impossible to make mobile telephone calls in safety-relevant zones. However, this has in fact resulted in a disadvantageous effect since mobile telephones react to such jamming by maximizing the transmitted power to search for the network, and thus increase the effect of the interference originating from them, unless the person having the mobile telephone actually switches it off.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a method for operation a cellular mobile radio network and a control configuration for a cellular mobile radio network which overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages of the heretofore-known methods and devices of this general type and which reliably prevent interference caused by a mobile radio operation, irrespective of the subjective behavior or actions of network subscribers, in zones where radio interference is hazardous or a radio operation is undesired.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a method for operating a cellular mobile radio network, which includes the steps of:
allocating, to selected mobile stations, specific authorizations for a radio operation in zones to be kept substantially free of mobile radio traffic;
storing the specific authorizations in a local access authority register or database of a mobile radio network;
verifying a presence of one of the specific authorizations for a mobile station registering with a base station assigned to one of the zones to be kept substantially free of mobile radio traffic; and
selectively allowing and blocking an operation of the mobile station registering with the base station, depending on a result of the verifying step.
The invention includes the fundamental idea of forcibly preventing, from the network end, the operation of mobile telephones in zones where radio interference is hazardous or a radio operation is undesired, for example in aircraft and in areas of hospitals. The invention is also based on the realization that there should be specific approved exceptions to this forcible prevention of mobile radio traffic in the corresponding zones, in order to preclude undesirable disadvantageous effects. Such disadvantageous effects could occur if mobile radio traffic, which is desirable or even necessary for the work being carried out in the zones where radio interference is hazardous or a radio operation is undesired, were also to be prevented indiscriminately.
The invention thus provides for the network operator to allocate a specific authorization for mobile radio traffic in radio cells which have zones where radio interference is hazardous or a radio operation is undesired, and for a check for the presence of the appropriate authorization to be carried out for each mobile station registering there, before the mobile station is allowed to carry out mobile radio operations. If there is no specific authorization, specific technical processesxe2x80x94graduated in accordance with preferred embodiments of the inventionxe2x80x94are initiated which on the one hand reliably prevent mobile radio traffic from the unauthorized mobile station, and on the other hand are used to limit as far as possible the disadvantages for the user of such a mobile station.
A preferred embodiment of the method according to the invention includes the transmission of the call number of a mobile telephone registering in a zone where radio interference is hazardous or radio traffic is undesired, by the corresponding mobile station to the operation and maintenance center or OMC, which has a special associated local access authority register. The data stored there are used to carry out an immediate check as to whether the mobile station is or is not authorized to carry out mobile radio traffic in this zone, and the registration process is carried out if the result is positive while, if the result is negative, the corresponding call number is inhibited in a limited area and/or for a limited time. This is done via the responsible mobile switching center or MSC.
In accordance with another mode of the invention, the mobile switching center activates an information storage device, such as a mail box, or an information diversion device, such as a call diversion device, if no match is found in the authorization check.
Another preferred embodiment of the method according to the invention provides that, in the latter casexe2x80x94that is to say when there is no relevant access authorizationxe2x80x94the mailbox of the mobile station attempting to register is at the same time activated automatically via the mobile switching center. This prevents important messages from being entirely lost for the time when this mobile station is prevented from actively making mobile radio calls.
A further preferred embodiment in this case also provides for a xe2x80x9csyntheticxe2x80x9d call or service message (SMS) to be delivered to the registering mobile station, in order to inform the user about the existence of the inhibition or blocking, via the mobile switching station. In this case, depending on the specific system architecture, it is either possible to produce a text message on the display or to produce voice information which is output via the earpiece. In principle, of course, the relevant user can also be informed by an actual call from the operation and maintenance center; however, due to the complexity and required expense, this should be regarded as a transitional solution in order to increase user acceptance during introduction of the proposed method.
In accordance with yet another mode of the invention, if no match is found in the comparing step, an initial, time-limited registration for the mobile station is carried out for registering with the base station, and information is generated for notifying, via the mobile switching center, the mobile station of a limited blocking.
In accordance with a further mode of the invention, information is transmitted to the mobile station via the operation and maintenance center or via a memory/output control unit associated with the mobile switching center.
With the objects of the invention in view there is also provided, in a cellular mobile radio network including mobile stations, base stations with respectively assigned radio cells, and a mobile switching center connected to the base stations, a control configuration, including:
a local access authority register for storing specific authorizations relating to an operation of the mobile stations in selected ones of the radio cells, the selected ones of the radio cells containing zones to be kept substantially free of mobile radio traffic;
verification devices provided at given ones of the base stations associated with the selected ones of the radio cells for providing a verification of an authorization of the mobile stations registering with the given ones of the base stations, by interaction with the local access authority register; and
a blocking device associated with the mobile switching center for selectively inhibiting a given one of the mobile stations for at least one of a limited time and a limited area.
The partly functional description of features of the invention makes it clear that the device features of the proposed system largely correspond to the method features, especially since the essential features for implementation are databases and access and transmission protocols, which should be regarded both as method elements and apparatus elements.
In a preferred embodiment of the network architecture, the local access authority register mentioned above is in the form of an intelligent network (IN) which, in particular, is associated with the operation and maintenance center of the mobile radio network, where it can expediently be accessed via a special server. The inquiry and answer control, originating from the base station responsible for the relevant radio cell and ending with the mobile switching center which implements any inhibition or blocking, includes provisions which essentially correspond to the provisions used or method steps implemented for equipment authentication by access to the equipment identity register EIR. These include provisions or processes with which a mobile telephone which has been lost is inhibitedxe2x80x94with the difference that, for the proposed solution, the inhibition is not fundamentally unlimited throughout the network, but is implemented such that it is limited to the corresponding radio cell where radio interference is hazardous or radio traffic is undesired, or is limited to a predetermined time period.
At present, it is considered that limiting the area covered by the inhibition is particularly worthwhile for the purposes of the proposed solution but, in principle, at least a combination with a time limit is also feasible in order, for example, to allow the inhibition to be maintained for the time period of a flight without incurring considerable data transmission and processing effort in the network just to maintain the inhibition for the mobile station, which is moving quickly while in flight.
The proposed solution can be implemented in an advantageous manner particularly in conjunction with a detailed and exact planning of the radio field, wherein picocells and very small cells are being established. Specifically, the more precisely it is possible to define a zone where radio interference is hazardous or radio traffic is undesired, this zone also being referred to as a xe2x80x9cservice free zonexe2x80x9d, the less significant are the limitations necessarily associated with the proposed action, and the higher the level of user acceptance will be. In this context, a differentiated definition of different safety levels is also possible for zones which are to varying degrees prone to experience radio interference or which are endangered by the consequences of mobile radio traffic to different extents. Differentiation is also possible in terms of the authorization profiles of the end users; for example it would be feasible to allocate local authorizations to the ground personnel at airports and to allocate global authorizations to flying personnel, or else to selected employees of the legal authorities or the like. Such details can be controlled on a specialist basis in the course of system planning.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, an information storage device, such as a mail box, is assigned to a mobile station. An activation device for activating an information storage in the information storage device depending on an authorization verification is provided.
In accordance with yet another feature of the invention, an information diversion device, such as a call diversion device, associated with the mobile switching center is provided. An activation device activates the information diversion device depending on an authorization verification.
In accordance with a further feature of the invention, a dispatch device transmits, via the mobile switching center, a call, a service message or any other information suited for notifying a mobile station about a limited blocking.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a cellular mobile radio network and a method for operating such a network, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.