Mobile multipoint service

A method of establishing a multicast tunnel in a packet radio data network to mobile stations (MS) wirelessly attached to radio access nodes (RAN), wherein the packet radio network is transporting packet data from an external packet data network, the method comprising the steps of:

• a gateway node tunneling IP streams (packet data units) (PDU) to a mobile station via a point of attachment of the mobile station to a radio access node utilizing a routing functionality in the gateway node;
• a serving node activating PDP procedures which enable a given mobile station to perform packet switched communication with the external packet data network and enable charging of such communication, wherein the serving node comprises mobility management and security functions for the mobile stations;
• the gateway node combining IP streams pertaining to a plurality of multicast groups in the same tunnel towards the serving node, and
• responsive to receiving information that a mobile station desires to register to a multicast group and no tunnel currently exists or existing tunnels are full,
• the serving node creating a PDP context request of multipoint type, the gateway node responding with a PDP context response setting up a multicast tunnel between the gateway node and the serving node.

A method of establishing a multicast tunnel in a packet radio data network transporting packet data from an external packet data network to mobile stations (MS) wirelessly attached to radio access nodes (RAN) the method comprising:

• tunnelling IP streams (packet data units) (PDU) to a mobile station via the given point of attachment of the mobile station to a radio access node (RAN) utilizing a gateway node (GGSN) that comprises routing functionality in the packet radio data network,
• utilizing a serving node for engaging in PDP context activation procedures, which enable a given mobile station to perform packet switched communication with the external packet data network and enable charging of such communication, wherein the serving node comprises mobility management and security functions for the mobile stations,
• the gateway node establishing a tunnel to the serving node carrying IP streams relating to a given multicast group, the serving node establishing a tunnel to at least one radio access node (RAN) carrying identical IP streams relating to the same multicast group, the serving node validating a received multipoint PDP context request from a mobile station;
• and
• determining whether the requested PDP context request is not already activated by another mobile station, and if the PDP context request is not active, the serving node issuing a create PDP context request to the gateway node.