Delivery of mobile station operational and self-performance test results to network in response to encrypted request message

• Main Authors: SALOW SEPPO, KOIVUKANGAS TAPIO, TERVO TIMO P, HAYRYNEN ANTTI, LUIRO VESA
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 26.05.2005
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; TRANSMISSION; WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

A mobile station ( 10 ) and wireless system ( 32 ) operates in accordance with a method that has steps of: (A) during the operation of the mobile station, determining and storing a set ( 24 A) of performance-related data (PPCs) in the mobile station; and (B) responsive to an occurrence of a triggering event, transmitting the set or a sub-set of the PPCs to a computer ( 33 A) for analysis. The PPCs can be stored in physical counters and registers or in memory locations that are managed to function as counters and registers. The PPCs can include a count of dropped calls, and/or an indication of a result of a mobile station self-test mode of operation. The triggering event can be a receipt by the mobile station of a message to transmit the set or sub-set of the performance-related data, or a receipt by the mobile station of an input from a user of the mobile station, or an expiration of a timer, or at least one of the PPCs being equal to a threshold value. The step of transmitting the set or a sub-set of the PPCs can include steps of receiving the transmitted PPCs at a control center ( 33 ) associated with a network service provider and/or at a (remote) diagnostic center ( 38 ); and then analyzing the data with the computer ( 33 A) to determine an indication of an occurrence of at least one of a fault in the mobile station, a fault in a system of the network service provider or a no fault condition. An optional step transmits the determined indication to the mobile station. The analysis may further include determining statistical information regarding a population of mobile stations. For the case where the triggering event is the reception of a wireless message, the message may be in the form of an encrypted message to transmit the set or sub-set of the performance-related data. In this case the mobile station operates to decrypt the received message using an associated public key stored in the mobile station and to transmit the set or the sub-set of the performance-related data only in response to correctly decrypting the encrypted message.