Abstract:
Embodiments of apparatuses, articles, methods, and systems for utilizing a subscriber identity module having a plurality of subscriber identities for communications within wireless networks are generally described herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Description:
FIELD 
     Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to the field of wireless telephony networks, and more particularly to a subscriber identity module having a plurality of subscriber identities to be used in devices of said wireless networks. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Mobile telephony may provide for wireless voice communication by mobile equipment used in a public land mobile network (PLMN). A user may utilize a mobile station to communicate with other entities that belong to the PLMN or another network that is coupled to the PLMN. The PLMN may itself, contain a number of different network domains. As the station travels from one network domain to another, so must the call handling responsibilities. The number and types of existing network domains continually increase with each one having associated capabilities and standards of communicating designed to match the objectives of the particular domain. Roaming between these different domains and utilization of their particular capabilities and standards may present a variety of challenges for handling calls of a mobile station. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references indicate similar elements and in which: 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a mobile communication system in accordance with an embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a station in accordance with an embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates a subscriber identity module in accordance with an embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 4  illustrates a subscriber identity registration in accordance with an embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 5  illustrates a subscriber identity registration in accordance with another embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 6  illustrates the mobile communication system in accordance with another embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 7  illustrates the mobile communication system in accordance with another embodiment of this invention; and 
         FIG. 8  illustrates the mobile communication system in accordance with another embodiment of this invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Embodiments of the present invention may provide a method, article of manufacture, apparatus, and system for utilization of a subscriber identity module (SIM) having a plurality of subscriber identities. 
     Various aspects of the illustrative embodiments will be described using terms commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that alternate embodiments may be practiced with only some of the described aspects. For purposes of explanation, specific devices and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the illustrative embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that alternate embodiments may be practiced without the specific details. In other instances, well-known features are omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the illustrative embodiments. 
     Further, various operations will be described as multiple discrete operations, in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the present invention; however, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations need not be performed in the order of presentation. 
     The phrase “in one embodiment” is used repeatedly. The phrase generally does not refer to the same embodiment; however, it may. The terms “comprising,” “having,” and “including” are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise. 
     In providing some clarifying context to language that may be used in connection with various embodiments, the phrase “A/B” means “A or B.” The phrase “A and/or B” means “(A), (B), or (A and B).” The phrase “A, B, and/or C” means “(A), (B), (C), (A and B), (A and C), (B and C) or (A, B and C).” The phrase (A) B means “(B) or (A and B),” that is, A is optional. 
     As used herein, reference to a “component” may refer to a hardware, a software, and/or a firmware component employed to obtain a desired outcome. Although only a given number of discrete components may be illustrated and/or described, such components may nonetheless be represented by additional components or fewer components without departing from the spirit and scope of embodiments of the invention. The term “element” may be used interchangeably with “component.” 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a communication system  100  in accordance with an embodiment of this invention. The mobile communication system  100  may include a mobile network device, e.g., a station  104 , coupled to a voice-call continuity (VCC) server  108  of a mobile telephony network  112  (hereinafter “network  112 ”). VCC, as used herein, may refer to services that allow for a handover of an existing voice call from one network access domain to another without interrupting the call. A handover may also be referred to as a handoff. 
     The station  104  may include a network interface, e.g., a wireless network interface card (WNIC)  116  designed to use an antenna structure  118  to allow the station  104  to communicate with entities of the network  112  via wireless connection with a network access device  120 . The station  104  may also communicate with entities of other networks, e.g., Internet  122  and/or public switched telephone network (PSTN)  126 , that are coupled to the network  112 . 
     The station  104  may include a SIM  124  having an identity manager  128  to cooperate with the WNIC  116  to register one or more of a plurality of subscriber identities  132  with the VCC server  108 , more particularly, with a database  136  of the VCC server  108 . The VCC server  108  may also include a service manager  140  and a network interface  144  to communicatively couple the VCC server  108  to other network entities, e.g., network access device  120 . The VCC server  108  may provide functionality to receive and process mobile application part (MAP) transactions and messages among the entities of the network  112 . 
     The registered subscriber identities may be utilized to access various information on the station  104  stored in the database  136 . The service manager  140  may also use the registered subscriber identities as indicia of a requested level of service, which will be discussed in further detail below. In various embodiments the database  136  may be a home location register (HLR) and/or a home subscriber station (HSS). 
     The subscriber identities  132 , which may be, e.g., international mobile subscriber identities (IMSIs), mobile identification numbers (MINs), etc., may be unique numbers that are associated with the station  104 . The subscriber identities  132  may each be mapped to the same mobile phone number, e.g., mobile station international subscriber directory number (MSISDN). A subscriber identity may be, e.g., a 15-digit number with the first three digits indicating a country code, the next two or three digits indicating a network code, and the remaining digits indicating a unique subscriber number within the network&#39;s customer base. 
     In various embodiments, the station  104  may be any type of device capable of wirelessly communicating with entities of the network  112 . For example, the station  104  may be, but is not limited to, a mobile phone, mobile personal computer, personal digital assistant, or a smart phone. In various embodiments, the antenna structure  118  may include one or more directional antennas, which radiate or receive primarily in one direction (e.g., for 120 degrees), cooperatively coupled to one another to provide substantially omnidirectional coverage; or one or more omnidirectional antennas, which radiate or receive equally well in all directions. 
     The network  112  may be a network such as a public land mobile network (PLMN) with the entities communicating according to any of a variety of mobile communication standards such as those developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), e.g., the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) standard. The mobile telephony network  112  may include a variety of mobile access domains. For example, in an embodiment, the network  112  may include a packet-switched Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) access domain to provide both mobile and fixed multimedia services for the station  104 . The mobile telephony network  112  may also include circuit-switched (CS) mobile access domain. 
     In an embodiment, the station  104  may have VCC capabilities that allow for a voice call to be handed-over between heterogeneous access domains, e.g., between an IMS domain and a CS domain. When the VCC enabled station  104  communicates over networks supporting a VCC call a seamless handover between these access domains may occur without a noticeable disruption to the voice call. A network domain providing VCC support may be referred to as an intelligent network (IN) utilizing, e.g., Customized Applications for Mobile Networks Enhanced Logic (CAMEL), operating on a GSM core network. 
     While VCC services may allow for seamless handover of a voice call, there may be instances in which a VCC call may not be desirable and/or possible. For example, when the call termination and origination points are both in a CS domain providing, or attempting to provide, a VCC call may introduce unnecessary inefficiencies. These inefficiencies may include a high number of control signals being transmitted if VCC support is not found in order to downgrade the service to a non-VCC call. This may be the case if, e.g., a VCC server in the home network domain (e.g., VCC server  108 ) attempts to inform a non-IN, visited network domain using CAMEL procedures that a CS procedure is to be followed. These inefficiencies may result in a call-failure or service delay. 
     In an embodiment, selective registration of the one or more of the subscriber identities  132  by the identity manager  128  may indicate to the VCC server  108  a preference of the station  104  with respect to VCC services. For example, the station  104  may register a particular subscriber identity to indicate a request for VCC services, e.g., the station  104  can and wishes to receive VCC calls. This may be referred to as a VCC subscriber identity. The station  104  may register another subscriber identity to indicate that VCC services are not requested, e.g., the station  104  is not able to and/or does not wish to receive VCC calls. This may be referred to as a non-VCC subscriber identity. 
     In various embodiments, the identity manager  128  may determine call-continuity parameters to decide which of the subscriber identities to register. In various embodiments, call-continuity parameters may include any data relevant to determining whether or not a VCC call is possible and/or desirable. Examples of call-continuity parameters will be discussed in greater detail below with respect to various embodiments. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates the station  104  in accordance with an embodiment of this invention. In this embodiment, the station  104  may receive a SIM card  200  in a port  204  to implement the SIM  124 . The SIM card  200  may be a smart card, e.g., a universal integrated circuit card (UICC), designed to securely store information related to, e.g., identities, subscriptions, security mechanisms, user preferences, etc. The station  104  may include a host  208  communicatively coupled to the SIM card  200  and the WNIC  116  via input/output drivers  212 . 
     The identity manager  128  may include a SIM application toolkit (SAT) to provide a standardized execution environment to provide interoperability between the SIM card  200  and a large number of stations, regardless of the type or manufacturer of the station. The SAT may allow for the components on the SIM card  200  to utilize certain functions of the station  104 . 
       FIG. 3  illustrates the SIM card  200  in accordance with an embodiment of this invention. The SIM card  200  may include a processor  304 , memory  308 , storage  312 , and an input/output module  316  coupled to each other via a bus  320 , as shown. The SIM card  200  may also include an input/output module  316  to interface with the port  204  and I/O drivers  212 . 
     Memory  308  and storage  312  may include in particular, temporal and persistent copies of ID-manager logic  324 , respectively. The ID-manager logic  324  may include instructions that when accessed by the processor  304  result in the SIM card  200  performing operations or executions described in conjunction with the SIM  124  in accordance with embodiments of this invention. In particular, the accessing of the ID-manager logic  324  by the processor  304  may facilitate subscriber-identity selection and registration operations of the identity manager  128  as described herein in connection with various embodiments. The instructions implementing the ID-manager logic  324  may be provided to memory  308  and storage  312  from a machine-accessible medium. 
     The storage  312  may also include copies of the subscriber identities  132  and other subscriber information. In various embodiments, the storage  312  may store this information in flash memory or some other type of non-volatile storage medium. 
     In various embodiments, storage  312  may be a storage resource physically part of the SIM card  200  or it may be accessible by, but not necessarily a part of, the SIM card  200 . For example, the storage  312  may be accessed by the station  104  over the network  112 . 
     In various embodiments, the memory  308  may include RAM, dynamic RAM (DRAM), static RAM (SRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), etc. 
     In various embodiments, the processor  304  may include one or more single-core processors, multiple-core processors, controllers, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc. 
     In various embodiments, SIM card  200  may have more or less elements, and/or different architectures. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates a subscriber identity registration in accordance with an embodiment of this invention. In this embodiment, the identity manager  128  may detect a registration event, block  404 . A registration event may be, e.g., a power-on of the station  104 , an initial connection to the network  112 , a location update event (e.g., when the station  104  detects a different area code), etc. 
     The identity manager  128  may then communicate with the host  208  and/or the network  112  to determine call-continuity parameters, block  408 . In various embodiments, this may include capabilities of the network  112  (and in particular the access domain to which the station  104  is connected), capabilities of the station  104 , and/or settings of the station  104 . 
     The identity manager  128  may then select one or more appropriate subscriber identities from the subscriber identities  132 , based at least in part on determined call-continuity parameters, and cooperate with the WNIC  116 , either directly or through the host  208 , to register the selected subscriber identities, block  412 . 
       FIG. 5  illustrates a subscriber identity registration in accordance with another embodiment of this invention. In this embodiment, similar to the above embodiment, the registration may be initiated with a detection of a registration event, block  404 . As discussed above, the SIM card  200  may be compatible with a wide variety of stations, including legacy stations. Therefore, the identity manager  128  may communicate with the host  208  to determine if the station  104  is VCC capable, block  504 . In an embodiment, this may be determined based at least in part on the type of identity request posted to the SIM card  200  from the host  208 . For example, if the VCC flag is set in the identity request from the host  208 , then the identity manager  128  may determine that the station  104  is VCC capable. If the station  104  is not VCC capable, the identity manager  128  may select and register the non-VCC subscriber identity, block  508 . 
     If the station  104  is VCC capable, the identity manager  128  may determine if the network  112  (and in particular, an access domain to which the station  104  is connected) can support a VCC call, block  512 . Whether the access domain can support a VCC call may be indeterminable by the station  104 . If this is the case, then the identity manager  128  may select and register both the VCC subscriber identity and the non-VCC subscriber identity, block  516 . If it is determined that the access domain cannot support a VCC call, the identity manager  128  may select and register the non-VCC subscriber identity, block  508 . 
     In some embodiments, the identity manager  128  may be able to determine if the access domain can support a VCC call. For example, if the access domain is the home domain, the identity manager  128  may conclude there is sufficient VCC support. If it is determined that the access domain can support a VCC call, the identity manager  128  may determine whether the station  104  desires VCC calls, block  520 . If the station  104  desires VCC calls, the identity manager  128  may select and register the VCC subscriber identity, block  524 . 
     The figures to be discussed below may present some examples of specific scenarios in which the station  104  may be deployed in accordance with embodiments of this invention. Other scenarios are within the scope of the teachings of embodiments of this invention. 
       FIG. 6  illustrates the mobile communication system  100  in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment the network  112  may be a (visited) home domain  604 . That is, the station  104  may be coupled to a home domain directly, or indirectly through a visited domain. The home domain may be the domain to which the station  104  subscribes and therefore has the primary responsibility for provisioning services to the station  104  and managing billing functions. If the station  104  is roaming in an area not serviced by the home domain it may still connect to the network  112  through a visited network domain that has a subscription agreement with the home domain. 
     In this embodiment, the identity manager  128  may determine that the station  104  is a legacy station without VCC capability. Therefore, the identity manager  128  may select and register the non-VCC subscriber identity with the VCC server  108 . Communication between the station  104  and other network entities may be transmitted through a router and/or switch  608  (hereinafter “mobile switching center (MSC)  612 ”), which may be coupled to, or integrated with, the network access device  120  shown in  FIG. 1 . 
     An incoming call may be directed to the station  104  from the PSTN  124  through the use of a telephone number, e.g., an MSISDN. This call may be received at a gateway MSC (GMSC)  612 , of the (visited) home domain  604 . The GMSC  612  may transmit a query to the VCC server  108  to determine the location of the station  104 . Information about the station  104  associated with the registered subscriber identity may be returned to the GMSC  612 . This information may include routing information that includes directives consistent with a non-VCC call. The GMSC  612  may then connect a non-VCC call to the station  104 , e.g., by using standard CS call setup procedures. 
     If the (visited) home domain  604  includes a visited domain, a visiting MSC (VMSC) may be employed in the visited domain to facilitate communications between the station  104  and the home domain. 
     The VCC server  108  may also use the non-VCC subscriber identity for outgoing calls in this embodiment. 
       FIG. 7  illustrates the mobile communication system  100  in accordance with another embodiment of this invention. In this embodiment the network  112  may include a visited domain  704  and a home domain  708 . The station  104  may be roaming and therefore may be connected to the mobile communication system  100  through a visited MSC (VMSC)  712 . The identity manager  128  may be unable to determine whether the visited domain  704  has VCC capabilities, e.g., does not know if the visited domain  704  is a CAMEL network. Therefore, the identity manager  128  may select and register both the VCC subscriber identity and the non-VCC subscriber identity. 
     The VCC server  108  may be able to determine the VCC capabilities of the visited domain  704 , e.g., determine if the visited domain  704  is a CAMEL network. Therefore, the VCC server  108  may be in a position to determine whether to use the VCC subscriber identity or the non-VCC subscriber identity for purposes of call routing. The VCC server  108  may respond with the appropriate subscriber identity when it receives an identity request from the GMSC  612 , in response to the GMSC  612  receiving an incoming call from the PSTN  124 . If the non-VCC subscriber identity is used, the GMSC  612  may use standard CS call setup procedures. 
     It may be noted that in this embodiment, the selection and registration of the VCC and the non-VCC subscriber identities may be done if the identity manager  128  is unaware of the VCC capabilities of the visited domain  704  and desires VCC services. If the identity manager  128  is unaware of the VCC capabilities of the visited domain  704  and does not desire VCC services, just the non-VCC subscriber identity may be selected and registered. 
       FIG. 8  illustrates the mobile communication system  100  in accordance with another embodiment of this invention. In this embodiment, the network  112  may include a home domain  708  and the station  104  may be coupled directly to the MSC  608 . 
     In an embodiment, the identity manager  128  may determine that the station  104  does not desire (e.g., for charging reasons) VCC service or cannot support VCC service (e.g., the station  104  is a legacy device). This determination may be based at least in part on settings of the host  208 , which may be configurable by a user of the station  104 . Therefore, in this embodiment the identity manager  128  may select and register its non-VCC subscriber identity. As a result, the VCC server  108  may return routing information associated with a non-VCC call to the GMSC  612  in response to an identity request. All calls may be routed without VCC service using normal CS call setup procedures. 
     Although the present invention has been described in terms of the above-illustrated embodiments, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that a wide variety of alternate and/or equivalent implementations calculated to achieve the same purposes may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown and described without departing from the scope of the present invention. Those with skill in the art will readily appreciate that the present invention may be implemented in a very wide variety of embodiments. This description is intended to be regarded as illustrative instead of restrictive on embodiments of the present invention.