Communication device and method for receiving information

Abstract

Communication device (405) comprising: a transmitter / receiver (201) configured to: establish a communication channel (406) via a first radio cell (401), wherein the first radio cell (401) is connected to a gateway (407) which is connected to a first server computer (408) and a second server computer (409), and wherein the first radio cell (401) is a radio cell of a first radio communication network; establish a first communication link (410) with the first server computer (408) via the gateway (407); establish a second communication link (411) with the second server computer (409) via the gateway (407); request sleep mode information of a second radio cell (402) from the second server computer (409) via the second communication link (411), wherein the second radio cell (402) is a radio cell of a second radio communication network;and receive the sleep mode information of the second radio cell (402) from the second server computer (409) via the communication channel (406) (302); wherein the communication device (405) comprises a first subscriber identification module that identifies the communication device (405) as a subscriber of the first radio communication network and a second subscriber identification module that identifies the communication device as a subscriber of the second radio communication network.;

Description

Technical field The present disclosure relates to communication devices and methods for receiving information. background When a communication device is in operation, a situation may arise where the reception of two sets of information, both of which the mobile communication device should be receiving, conflicts, for example, due to a timing conflict in the transmission of the two sets of information. A communication device containing, for example, two SIMs (subscriber identification modules) operating in parallel, may need to receive paging or system information from a base station for one of the SIMs, while a dedicated connection to another base station exists for the other SIM. Efficient reception of both sets of information is desirable. DE 10 2004 038 358 A1 describes a signaling procedure for the availability of broadcasting services that determines user positions and uses a cellular mobile phone channel to send information about available access to content broadcasting networks and related broadcasting services to multiple users. US 2009 / 0213809A1 describes a method for performing a handover for a dual-transfer mode in a wireless communication system. DE 60 2005 000 434 T2 describes ad-hoc extensions of a cellular air interface. EP 2 466 976 A1 describes IP-based paging for DSDS. US 2008 / 0 207 230 A1 describes a multi-mode communication system. CN 1 02 547 922 A describes a method and a device for transmitting cross-system neighbor information from multimode dual standby terminal equipment. US 2010 / 0 027 466 A1 describes signaling in mobile telecommunications. US 2012 / 0135715A1 describes a dual-SIM mobile terminal. The dual-SIM mobile terminal can comprise a controller (a single chipset), a dual SIM module, and two radio frequency (RF) units, thereby achieving the effect of providing service at the same level as for a single dual-SIM device, even with a single mobile device, using two mobile terminals. Furthermore, dual-SIM switching is performed according to network conditions, pricing, and user settings, thus delivering the user's desired service. US 2007 / 0171881A1 describes, among other things, a new approach for the real-time collection, detection, and sharing of network and user information. Mobile users and devices can act autonomously to collect information and make it available to others. Summary The invention is defined by the features of the independent claims. Preferred advantageous embodiments thereof are described by the sub-features of the dependent claims. A communication device is provided which includes a transmitter / receiver configured to establish a communication channel via a first radio cell and to receive sleep mode information from a second radio cell via the communication channel. Furthermore, a method for receiving information in accordance with the communication device described above is provided. Brief description of the drawings In the drawings, the same reference numerals generally refer to the same parts throughout the various views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, with the emphasis generally placed on illustrating the principles of the invention. Various aspects are described in the following description with reference to the following drawings, which show: Fig. 1 a communication arrangement; Fig. 2 a communication device; Fig. 3 a flowchart; and Fig. 4 a communication arrangement illustrating an example in which a communication device downloads sleep-mode information from a server. Description The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate specific details and aspects in which the invention can be practiced. These aspects are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the field to practice the invention. Other aspects may be used, with structural, logical, and electrical modifications, without altering the scope of protection of the invention. The various aspects are not necessarily mutually exclusive, as some aspects may be combined with one or more other aspects to form new aspects. Fig. 1 shows a communication arrangement 100. The communication arrangement 100 includes a first radio cell 101 and a second radio cell 102. The first radio cell 101 is operated by a first base station 103, while the second radio cell 102 is operated by a second base station 104. The first base station 103 is, for example, part of a radio access network of a first mobile communications network, while the second base station 104 is, for example, part of a radio access network of a second mobile communications network. It is assumed that the first mobile communications network and the second mobile communications network are different mobile communications networks, i.e., operated by different operators and / or requiring separate subscriptions. However, it should be noted that the following can also be applied to the first mobile communications network and the second mobile communications network being the same mobile communications network. The first mobile communication network and the second mobile communication network can each be, for example, a GSM communication system (Global System for Mobile Communications communication system), a UMTS (Universal System for Mobile Telecommunications), a CDMA2000 (CDMA: Code Multiple Access), an LTE communication system (Long-Term Development communication system), or a FOMA communication system (Freedom of Mobile Access communication system). It is assumed that the first radio cell 101 and the second radio cell 102 overlap, so that a mobile device 105 located in the overlap area of ​​the first radio cell 101 and the second radio cell 102 can receive signals from both the first base station 103 and the second base station 104 and can use both the first communication network and the second communication network for communication. In order for the Mobile Device 105 to be able to use both the first and second communication systems, it can contain two (or more) subscriber identity modules, such as SIMs or USIMs (Universal Subscriber Identity Modules). In other words, the Mobile Device 105 can be a multi-SIM device that supports communication over two (or more) different mobile communication networks. The mobile device 105 can only receive data from either the first base station 103 or the second base station 104 at a time. For example, the mobile device 105 can only tune to a communication channel of either the first base station 103 or the second base station 104 at a time, and / or can only tune to either the frequency range used by the first base station 103 to operate in the first cell 101, or the frequency range used by the second base station 104 to operate in the second cell 102. The mobile device 105 can, for example, contain a first SIM card for use on the first communication network and a second SIM card for use on the second communication network. The mobile device 105 can still monitor for incoming calls on the second communication network while a call or data transmission is taking place on the first network. To do this, the mobile devices can include gaps in the call and / or data connection and switch their RF receiver to the second cell 105 to monitor for incoming calls. The Mobile Device 105 can, for example, create a transmission gap only for some or for all idle mode procedures to be performed for the secondary communication network (such as paging). The Mobile Device 105 can, for example, create transmission gaps only to listen for paging messages, or it can also create gaps for receiving system information, monitoring neighboring cells, performing re-dialing, etc. For calls or data transmission, it would typically be desirable to reduce the number of transmission gaps. Simply listening for radio paging messages from the second communication network during network setup, in the worst-case scenario, can reduce the maximum data transmission rate of a data connection (e.g., a TCP data connection) over the first communication network by as much as 32%. This doesn't even take into account that the TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) connection itself could further worsen this figure, for example, due to the additional overhead. Therefore, attempting to maintain a complete idle mode (e.g., including all idle mode procedures such as paging and cell re-selection) in the second communications network while the mobile device 105 has an active data connection over the first communications network is a compromise between how well and how long this idle mode can be maintained and the maximum data rate of the data connection. It should also be noted that some sleep mode procedures require longer transmission gaps than others. One example is synchronization with a neighboring cell, which requires listening for up to 11 TDMA frames in GSM per neighboring cell. Generating such long transmission gaps in a data transmission over a data connection can have a highly detrimental effect on the data connection's throughput. Synchronization with GSM neighboring cells can generate a transmission gap of 60 ms for each neighboring cell. Accordingly, generating many transmission gaps in a data transmission or call to maintain service on the second SIM may be undesirable because the impact on the connection quality for the first SIM can simply be too great. The following describes a communication device that, by reading, for example, system information, frequency information (e.g., frequency offset information), or synchronization information over a data channel (e.g., a data channel present in a multi-SIM scenario, or a channel used for a data burst for an application running on the terminal, e.g., in the case where a large number of applications are running on a single-SIM terminal (e.g., an open platform)), e.g., from the internet, can, for example, reduce the impact on data transmission over a data connection in a case where the communication device is a multi-SIM terminal, or reduce power consumption in a single-SIM terminal. The frequency information or synchronization information for a radio cell is, for example,read from the Internet before a frequency burst (FB) or a synchronization burst (SB) (whatever is needed for synchronization) of this radio cell is decoded. Fig. 2 shows a communication device 200. The communication device 200 contains a transmitter / receiver 201 which is configured to establish a communication channel via a first radio cell and to receive sleep mode information from a second radio cell via the communication channel. In other words, a communication device receives information that is sent to the end devices in idle mode within a cell via a communication channel (e.g., a dedicated communication channel, for example, for data transmission) of another cell. The communication channel is used, for example, for data transmission to the communication device within the context of the first radio cell and can therefore be considered a data connection. The idle mode information of a radio cell can be understood as the information that is received by a mobile communication terminal in the radio cell and / or sent to one or more mobile communication terminals in the radio cell when the mobile communication terminal is in idle mode. It should be noted that the communication device 200 may have one or more additional transmitters / receivers, e.g. to support dual-channel data. The sleep mode (e.g., the RRC sleep mode (radio equipment control sleep mode)) can be understood as a mode of the communication device in which it has no Layer 3 communication link (e.g., no RRC communication link) (e.g., no Layer 3 channel) to the radio communication network. The linked mode (e.g., the RRC linked mode) can be understood as a mode of the communication device in which it has a Layer 3 communication link (e.g., an RRC communication link) (e.g., a Layer 3 channel) to a radio communication network. Alternatively, the idle mode can be understood as a mode of the communication device in which it does not have a point-to-point connection to another communication device, while the connected mode can be understood as a mode of the communication device in which it has a point-to-point connection to another communication device. It should be noted that the term "layer" can be understood to refer to the corresponding communication layer (i.e., the layer with the same number) of the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) reference model. It should also be noted that in the case where the communication device has more than one SIM, e.g. two SIMs, it may be in sleep mode for one of the SIMs (i.e., it does not have a dedicated Layer 3 connection to the radio communication network assigned to that SIM), while it may be in connected mode for the other SIM (i.e., it has a dedicated Layer 3 connection to the radio communication network assigned to that SIM). The components of the communication device (such as the transmitter / receiver) can be implemented by one or more circuits. A "circuit" can be understood as any type of logic implementation entity, which may be a specialized circuit arrangement or a processor that executes software stored in memory, firmware, or any combination thereof. Consequently, a "circuit" can be a hard-wired logic circuit or a programmable logic circuit, such as a programmable processor, e.g., a microprocessor (e.g., a processor in a complex instruction set computer (CISC) or a processor in a reduced instruction set computer (RISC)). A "circuit" can also be a processor that executes software, e.g., any type of computer program, e.g., a computer program that uses virtual machine code, such as Java.Any other type of implementation of the respective functions, which are described in more detail below, can also be understood as a "circuit". The communication channel is, for example, a physical channel (i.e., layer 1). The communication channel is, for example, a dedicated channel for the communication device. The sender / receiver is configured, for example, to establish a (e.g., first) communication connection via the communication channel and to receive useful data via the communication connection. The transmitter / receiver is configured, for example, to establish a communication channel with a base station that operates the first radio cell. The transmitter / receiver can be configured to establish a (e.g., second) communication link via the communication channel and to receive the sleep mode information via the communication link. The communication links can be transport layer links. The (second) communication link is, for example, a communication link to a server computer, where the sender / receiver is configured, for example, to receive the sleep mode information from the server computer. The transmitter / receiver can also be configured to request the sleep mode information via the communication channel, e.g., via the second communication link, e.g., from the server. The communication device is, for example, a mobile communication terminal (e.g., a cell phone). The communication device is, for example, a subscriber terminal device. The first radio cell is, for example, a radio cell of a first radio communication network, while the second radio cell is a radio cell of a second radio communication network. The communication device is, for example, a subscriber terminal of the first radio communication network and a subscriber terminal of the second radio communication network. The communication device includes, for example, a first subscriber identification module that identifies the communication device as a subscriber of the first radio communication network, and a second subscriber identification module that identifies the communication device as a subscriber of the second radio communication network. The first radio cell and the second radio cell can also be radio cells of the same radio communication network. The communication device is, for example, a subscriber terminal device of the radio communication network. The sleep mode information for the second radio cell includes, for example, control information. The sleep mode information contains, for example, (only) information up to layer 3. The idle mode information includes, for example, radio call information from the second radio cell, system information from the second radio cell, synchronization information from the second radio cell, or radio cell broadcast information from the second radio cell. The communication device 200, for example, performs a procedure as illustrated in Fig. 3. Fig. 3 shows a flow chart 300. Flowchart 300 illustrates a procedure for receiving information. In 301, a communication device establishes a first communication channel via a first radio cell. In 302, a communication device receives the idle mode information of a second radio cell via the communication channel. It should be noted that the aspects described in the context of the communication device 200 are analogously valid for the procedure illustrated in Fig. 3 and vice versa. The following section describes an example in more detail. Fig. 4 shows a communication arrangement 400. The communication arrangement 400 comprises a first radio cell 401, operated by a first base station 403, and a second radio cell 402, operated by a second base station 404. The first radio cell 401 and the second radio cell 402 correspond, for example, to radio cells 101 and 102. A communication device 405, e.g., a mobile communication terminal, is located in an area of ​​overlap between the first radio cell 401 and the second radio cell 402. The communication device 405 has a dedicated physical radio communication channel 406 to the first base station 403. The first base station 403 is connected to a gateway 407 (e.g., a service gateway and / or a packet data network gateway), through which the first base station 403 can establish a connection with a first server 408 and a second server 409 (which are implemented, e.g., by one or more server computers). Gateway 407, for example, is part of the core network of the mobile communications network, which includes the first base station 403. Each server 408, 409 can also be part of the core network or part of another network, such as the internet. The communication device 405 has a first communication connection 410 to the first server 408 and a second communication connection 411 to the second server 409 via the communication channel 406 and the gateway 407. The first communication link 410 and the second communication link 411 are, for example, Layer 4 connections (e.g., TCP connections). The first communication link 410 is, for example, a communication link for downloading data (i.e., for data transmission) from the first server 408. The first communication link 410 can therefore be viewed as a data connection (of Layer 4). Alternatively, the first communication link 410 could be a call and could, for example, be a communication link to another communication device located in a different cell. The second communication link 411 provides the communication device 405 with the sleep mode information for the second radio cell 402 from the second server 409. The system information of the second radio cell 402 is provided, for example, to the communication device 405 via the second communication link 411. The system information may include any system information such as that contained in the System Information Blocks (SIBs) in accordance with 3GPP, e.g., a list of neighboring cells, jump tables, channel configuration information, etc. Reading the system information transmitted in the second radio cell 402 is a low-volume activity that can be performed from anywhere within the second radio cell 402. By making the system information of the second radio cell 402 available via the second communication link 410 and communication channel 406, it is no longer necessary to create transmission gaps in the data transmission over communication channel 406, such as in the data transmission over the first communication link 408, in order to read all the system information. Communication channel 406 can be used much more efficiently because there is no loss of data throughput caused by the transmission gaps. Reading the system information involves reading approximately 16 radio blocks of 21 bytes in GSM and similarly in UMTS, etc. As an example, assume that the communication device 405 is a multi-SIM terminal, with a first SIM assigned to the first radio cell 401 and a second SIM assigned to the second radio cell 402, and that it has only one RF receiver and one baseband receiver. Assume that communication channel 406 provides a 7.2 Mbit / s downlink data channel, compatible with UMTS (which can be used, for example, for the first communication link 410), for the first SIM. Furthermore, assume, for example, that data would be transmitted over communication channel 406 for the entire duration of the system information read in the GSM of the second radio cell 402. The communication device 405 is, for example, a DSDS-capable terminal (DSDS = Dual SIM Dual Standby). In this case, reading all system information would potentially generate 16 gaps of, for example, 30 ms each.In this case, the data rate loss of communication channel 406 during the period when system information is being read would be at least (16 * 30 / 2000) * 100% = 24%. Due to the TCP / IP and acknowledged 3GPP protocols, the data rate loss can be expected to be much higher in a practical application. However, sending the system information over communication channel 406 itself would take less than 1 ms compared to 16 * 18 ms in accordance with GSM on a 7.2 Mbit / s channel, even when taking into account a 100% protocol overhead. Therefore, reading the system information for the second radio cell 402 using the second server 409 (e.g., an internet server) requires less than 1% of the time that would be needed to create the transmission gaps in the data transmission over communication channel 406 (and, for example, the data transmission over the first communication link 410). Considering that a 405 mobile terminal may need to read system information not only for a serving cell but also for a number of neighboring cells, reading system information using channel 406 can be a huge improvement in the data throughput of channel 406 in terms of the number of transmission gaps required to read the broadcast system information from the cells themselves. The communication device 405 can be configured to determine whether system information (or, more generally, idle-mode information) is available via the internet and, if so, where the information is located. For example, the internet address (i.e., the IP address) of the second server 409 can be stored in the SIM card assigned to the second radio cell 402, which can simultaneously indicate whether the communication network to which the second radio cell 402 belongs supports reading system information via the internet. If the operator of the communications network wants the information to be protected, 21 bytes of the information blocks can be protected, for example, by the A5x algorithms in accordance with 3GPP. In the example above, the first radio cell 401 and the second radio cell 402 belong to different radio communication networks, with the communication device 405 having a first SIM assigned to the first radio cell (i.e., a first SIM for use with the radio communication network to which the first radio cell 401 belongs) and a second SIM assigned to the second radio cell (i.e., a second SIM for use with the radio communication network to which the second radio cell 401 belongs). However, transmitting the system information (or, more generally, the idle information) for the second radio cell 402 over communication channel 406 can also increase efficiency in the case where the first radio cell 401 and the second radio cell 402 belong to the same communication network. For example, if the communication device 405 is "always on," i.e., has a lot of data traffic (a communication device 405 might, for example, be constantly active), the efficiency of the communication device 405 can be increased by transmitting the system information (or, more generally, the idle information) to the second radio cell 402 over communication channel 406.(up to 30% of the time being active only from using Facebook), power can be saved because the communication device 405 can save many system wake-up calls if the data bursts over the communication channel 406 (which is used, for example, to transmit Facebook information) are used to read the system information of the second radio cell 402. Another example of the sleep mode information of the second radio cell 402, which can be read via communication channel 405, is the information for synchronizing with the second radio cell 402. Synchronization with a network, in this case the second radio cell 402, mainly involves synchronizing with the frequency and timing of the second radio cell. If both the frequency and timing of the second radio cell are known to some extent, the transmission gap in communication channel 405, required to achieve true synchronization with the second radio cell, can be significantly reduced. As an example, synchronization in GSM is a two-step approach: first, reading a frequency burst (FB) that specifies the frequency offset to the second radio cell 402, and timing the first timeslot (timeslot 0) in the second radio cell, and then the synchronization burst (SB) that specifies the training sequence, frame number, and timing reference to the second radio cell 402 with quarter-bit accuracy. By looking up this information (at least partially, e.g., a larger portion of it) on the internet, i.e., by having this information provided by the second server 409, the communication device can potentially synchronize with the SB to achieve true synchronization with the second radio cell 402. In the case where the communication device 405 has a more advanced receiver, it can potentially bypass the SB entirely and directly receive a "normal" data burst, radio call, or system information burst. Reading an SB requires only 3 GSM timeslots. If data transmission in UMTS over communication channel 405 is interrupted for less than 2 ms, the normal 10 ms frame structure would not be affected under good radio conditions. Only HSPA (High Speed ​​Packet Access), which uses 2 ms frame structures, would be affected. In single-SIM open platform terminals, a data connection is typically open for up to one-third of the time. In such a case, the 405 communication terminal can receive the synchronization information via channel 406. This incurs a small additional overhead and saves the receiver from using the 50 ms needed to search for the FS and SB, resulting in power savings. It should be noted that the sleep mode information for the second radio cell 402 does not necessarily have to be provided by a server via a (e.g. TCP / IP) connection, as illustrated in Fig. 2, but can also be provided by a network component of the radio communication network, such as the base station 403, to the communication device 405. While the invention has been shown and described in detail with reference to specific aspects, it should be obvious to those skilled in the art that various modifications to the form and its details can be made without deviating from the inventive concept and scope of protection as defined by the accompanying claims. The scope of the invention is therefore specified by the accompanying claims, which thus provide that all modifications falling within the scope and equivalence of the claims are included.

Claims

Communication device (405) comprising: a transmitter / receiver (201) configured to: establish a communication channel (406) via a first radio cell (401), wherein the first radio cell (401) is connected to a gateway (407) which is connected to a first server computer (408) and a second server computer (409), and wherein the first radio cell (401) is a radio cell of a first radio communication network; establish a first communication link (410) with the first server computer (408) via the gateway (407); establish a second communication link (411) with the second server computer (409) via the gateway (407); request sleep mode information of a second radio cell (402) from the second server computer (409) via the second communication link (411), wherein the second radio cell (402) is a radio cell of a second radio communication network;and receive the sleep mode information of the second radio cell (402) from the second server computer (409) via the communication channel (406) (302); wherein the communication device (405) comprises a first subscriber identification module that identifies the communication device (405) as a subscriber of the first radio communication network and a second subscriber identification module that identifies the communication device as a subscriber of the second radio communication network.; Communication device (405) according to claim 1, wherein the communication channel (406) is a physical channel. Communication device (405) according to claim 1, wherein the communication channel (406) is a dedicated channel for the communication device (405). Communication device (405) according to claim 1, wherein the transmitter / receiver (201) is configured to establish the first communication link (410) and the second communication link (411) via the communication channel (406) and to receive useful data via the first communication link (410) and the second communication link (411). Communication device (405) according to claim 1, wherein the transmitter / receiver (201) is configured to establish the communication channel (406) with a base station (403) operating the first radio cell (401). Communication device (405) according to claim 1, wherein the first communication link (410) and the second communication link (411) are transport layer links. Communication device (405) according to claim 1, wherein the communication device (405) is a mobile communication terminal device. Communication device (405) according to claim 1, wherein the communication device (405) is a subscriber terminal device. Communication device (405) according to claim 1, wherein the communication device (405) is a subscriber terminal of the first radio communication network and a subscriber terminal of the second radio communication network. Communication device (405) according to claim 1, wherein the sleep mode information for the second radio cell (402) is control information. Communication device (405) according to claim 1, wherein the sleep mode information includes information up to layer 3. Communication device (405) according to claim 1, wherein the sleep mode information is radio call information of the second radio cell (402), system information of the second radio cell (402), synchronization information of the second radio cell (402) or radio cell broadcast information of the second radio cell (402). A method for receiving information, comprising: establishing a communication channel (406) via a first radio cell (401), wherein the first radio cell (401) is connected to a gateway (407) which is connected to a first server computer (408) and a second server computer (409), and wherein the first radio cell (401) is a radio cell of a first radio communication network; establishing a first communication link (410) with the first server computer (408) via the gateway (407); establishing a second communication link (411) with the second server computer (409) via the gateway (407); requesting sleep-mode information of a second radio cell (402) from the second server computer (409) via the second communication link (411), wherein the second radio cell (402) is a radio cell of a second radio communication network; and receiving the sleep mode information of the second radio cell (402) via the communication channel (406);and identifying a communication device (405) as a subscriber of the first radio communication network by means of a first subscriber identification module, and identifying the communication device (405) as a subscriber of the second radio communication network by means of a second subscriber identification module.; Method according to claim 13, wherein the communication channel (406) is a physical channel. The method of claim 13, which is carried out by a communication device (405), wherein the communication channel (406) is a dedicated channel for the communication device.

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