Method for transmitting data sets to mobile terminals

Abstract

Data sets are transmitted to mobile terminals, which are connected by a radio network to a data server connected to a data network, wherein the data server is configured to transmit the data sets via the radio network to terminals located in a radio cell of the radio network as a broadcast signal or optionally as an individual signal directed specifically to one or more terminals, wherein a total signal emitted into the radio cell contains a corresponding broadcast signal part and a corresponding individual signal part. In one embodiment, a user profile is associated with each of the terminals identified in the radio cell and the content of the data sets transmitted in the broadcast signal part in accordance with a determined broadcast signal part factor is compiled in accordance with the information stored in the user profiles.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting data sets to mobile terminals which are connected via a radio network to a data server connected to a data network, wherein the data server is configured to transmit the data sets via the radio network to terminals located in a radio cell of the radio network as a broadcast signal or optionally as an individual signal specifically directed to one or more terminals, wherein a total signal sent out to the radio cell contains a corresponding broadcast signal part and a corresponding individual signal part, wherein the method comprises the acts of: transmitting, via a recognition system independent of the radio network, an item of recognition information by each of a plurality of terminals; and receiving, by the data server, one or more of the respectively transmitted items of recognition information via the independent recognition system; identifying, by the data server, one or more of the plurality of terminals as being located within the radio cell by virtue of receiving respective items of recognition information from such one or more terminals via the independent recognition system; determining a preferred broadcast signal part factor for the total signal by the data server on the basis of a data requirement requested by the one or more terminals identified within the radio cell; and transmitting a first component of the data sets in the broadcast signal part of the total signal and a second component of the data sets in the individual signal part of the total signal from the data server to the one or more terminals, wherein the broadcast signal part of the total signal transmitted to the one or more terminals is determined based on the determined broadcast signal part factor preferred, and wherein the one or more terminals identified as being in the radio cell are, in each case, allocated a user profile and the content of the data sets transmitted in the broadcast signal part is assembled based on the information deposited in the user profiles.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user profiles are obtained by the data server via the data network.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user profiles are generated by the data server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the preferred broadcast signal part factor corresponds to those time intervals of the total signal which are available for a broadcast transmission by virtue of not being required for transmission of signals that have to be sent out mandatorily as individual signals.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 shows an illustration of an embodiment of the method according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(2) FIG. 1 shows an illustration of an embodiment of the method according to the invention. In FIG. 1, a data server 1 can be seen which is constructed of a broadcast multicast service center (BM-SC) 11 and a content server 12. In this arrangement, the content server 12 is connected to a data network 2 via which it is connected to a third-party provider 21. In FIG. 1, it is also shown that the BM-SC 11 sends out a total signal consisting of a broadcast signal part 412 and an individual signal part 413 via a base station 411 of a radio cell 41 to the radio cell 41 which has been generated by using an EMBMS (evolved multimedia broadcast multicast service) protocol. The broadcast signal part 412 of the total signal is here transmitted to the terminals 414, 415, the individual signal part 413 to terminal 416. In the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the individual signal part 413 is a unicast signal part. In FIG. 1 it is also shown that a recognition system 5 recognizes the terminals 414, 415, 416 via GPS signals 51, 52, 52 within the radio cell 41 of the LTE radio network 4 and transmits an item of recognition information to the content server 12. The content server 12 identifies the terminals 414, 415 and 416 by means of the recognition information and recognizes that these are located in the radio cell 41. The content server 12 obtains the user profiles allocated to the terminals 414, 415 and 416 from the third-party provider 21. On the basis of the information deposited in the user profiles, the content server determines in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1 that the users allocated to the terminals 414 and 415 have a similar taste in music and determines in agreement with the BM-SC 11, to which it is known via the base station 441 that the terminal 416 has requested an E-mail data set which can only be transmitted in the unicast signal part 413 of the total signal, a preferred broadcast signal part factor. In the exemplary embodiment represented in FIG. 1, the content server 12 and the BM-SC 11 determine as broadcast signal part factor the time intervals of the total signal which, apart from the time intervals mandatorily required for the transmission of the E-mail data set, are still available for a broadcast transmission. The content server 12 thereupon assembles music data sets, the content of which corresponds to the taste in music of the users of terminals 414 and 415 and which can be transmitted in the determined time intervals still available to the terminals 414 and 415. The content server 12 transmits the assembled data sets to the BM-SC 11 which transmits these in the broadcast signal part 412 of the total signal, which is determined by the time intervals still available for the broadcast transmission, to the terminals 414 and 415. At the same time, the BM-SC 11 transmits in the individual signal part 413 of the total signal the E-mail data set likewise previously transmitted from the content server 12, to the terminal 416.

(3) Naturally, the embodiments discussed in the special description and shown in the figures only represent illustrative exemplary embodiments of the present invention. In the light of the present disclosure, the expert is provided with a wide spectrum of possible variations. For example, the individual signal part of the total signal does not mandatorily have to be a unicast signal part. Instead, each individual signal directed specifically to one or more terminals can be used for this purpose. The individual signal part can thus, in particular, also be a multicast signal part by means of which a specific group of terminals can be addressed via their IP addresses and supplied at the same time with a single, common content. The method according to the invention can be initiated by different events. E.g., an actual increase in the radio traffic (traffic load) can be detected by means of the incoming requests. However, an anticipation of a high traffic load on the basis of a high density of mobile devices is also possible which is actually detected or derived from contextual information of third-party providers, e.g. from congestion messages. Such a density of mobile devices can also be anticipated, in turn, from historical data.

LIST OF REFERENCE DESIGNATIONS

(4) 1 Data server 2 Data network 4 Radio network 5 Recognition system 11 BM-SC 12 Content server 21 Third-party provider 41 Radio cell 51, 52, 53 GPS signals 411 Base station 412 Broadcast signal part 413 Individual signal part 414, 415, 416 Terminals

(5) The foregoing disclosure has been set forth merely to illustrate the invention and is not intended to be limiting. Since modifications of the disclosed embodiments incorporating the spirit and substance of the invention may occur to persons skilled in the art, the invention should be construed to include everything within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereof.