Patent ID: 8665791

Claim:
An system for providing a Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS) in a mobile communication system, the system comprising: a specific terminal desiring to use the MBMS; a node with which the specific terminal desiring to use the MBMS communicates; a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) which is configured to initiate the direct tunnel feature; and a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) which is configured to directly transmit data corresponding to the MBMS to the node with which the specific terminal desiring to use the MBMS communicates, wherein after performing a session start process, the SGSN receives information of the specific terminal that desires to use the MBMS service from the RNC to generate a session update request message comprising the received information, and transmits the generated session update request message to the GGSN, and wherein upon receiving the session update request message from the SGSN, the GGSN determines whether the direct tunnel feature is supported, and if the GGSN determines that the direct tunnel feature is supported, the GGSN responds to the SGSN within a predefined time, and if the GGSN determines that the direct tunnel feature is not supported, the GGSN does not respond to the SGSN within the predefined time.