CN106027681B

CN106027681B - Providing communication information service via mobile network

Info

Publication number: CN106027681B
Application number: CN201610608105.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 阿梅迪奥·因宾波; 恩里克·德鲁卡; 古伊多·格兰
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Current assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Priority date: 2007-12-20
Filing date: 2007-12-20
Publication date: 2020-02-07
Anticipated expiration: 2027-12-20
Also published as: CN106027681A

Abstract

The present invention relates to the use of a mobile network (110) in a communication environment. A method embodiment of the invention performed by an application server (108) accessible via a mobile network (110) comprises the steps of: receiving setting information (124) via a wireless interface (126) of the mobile network, wherein the setting information indicates an environment setting of an environment in which the user terminal (106) is deployed; and controlling (504) an application (109) hosted by the application server in accordance with the received setting information.

Description

Providing communication information service via mobile network

Description of the cases

The present application is a divisional application of a chinese patent application entitled "providing communication information service via mobile network" with an application number of 200780102341.8, which is filed on 20/12/2007.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a technique for controlling an application server accessible via a mobile network, and more particularly, to a technique for controlling a communication information (telematics) service that hosts the application server accessible via the mobile network.

Background

From a general point of view, the communication services include a wide variety of applications, such as traffic-related services, facility management services, remote control of applications, health-related communication services ("E-health"), communication services in the field of security devices, and so forth. Perhaps the most popular is the field of traffic-related communication information services, sometimes also referred to as vehicle communication information when it comes to communication information services in or for vehicles, and the services provided in this field are referred to as vehicle communication information. Although the terms "traffic-related communication" and "vehicle communication" will be used herein essentially as synonyms and automotive services from this field will be considered as examples, it must be borne in mind that the following description applies equally to communication services in many other fields.

Examples of vehicles are road vehicles like cars, trucks, buses; marine vehicles such as ships and boats; air vehicles such as airplanes, aircraft and helicopters, and rail vehicles such as trains.

Many traffic-related communication information services are ultimately intended to coordinate road traffic, i.e. to increase the efficiency of use of the traffic infrastructure, for example by avoiding traffic jams, traffic caused by searching for parking spaces or by minimizing idle running of freight vehicles. In this regard, typical road vehicle communication information services (also referred to as automotive applications) are traffic forecast services and traffic alert services. The service information provided by such a service may be directly output to the road vehicle driver or may be retrieved to an electronic car navigator. Other road vehicle services may for example involve assistance in the event of a road vehicle malfunction or accident. Many of these road vehicle communication information services are based on the geographical position or location of the user, respectively his user terminal. The required position information (positioning information) may be determined, for example, by a GPS (global positioning system) unit mounted on the vehicle, or derived from the user terminal. For other types of vehicles (such as water vehicles, air vehicles or rail vehicles), similar applications are conceivable.

The communication information service may be provided by an application server to which information from the vehicle must be sent and from which service information is sent back to the vehicle. For example, traffic forecasting services will rely on the geographic positioning information of a reasonable subset of vehicles that make up a particular traffic flow to be able to determine not only the instantaneous state of the traffic flow, but also to reach a realistic assumption of future development of the traffic flow. Thus, an application server hosting an application for traffic forecast services receives positioning information on a first communication path and provides traffic forecast information on a second communication path (where the two paths are typically not identical).

The use of a mobile network to provide one or two communication paths between a vehicle and an application server in a communication environment provides advantages over the use of other networks, which are likely to be specially designed. Mobile networks are available and mobile telephones (mobile terminals, user terminals) are widely used in many areas where communication services are available, for example, in europe and many regions of asia. The location of the mobile phones can be tracked not only because some of the mobile phones have a built-in GPS unit; and because the mobile network itself can determine the location of the mobile device through one of various cellular location procedures; for example, the location of the mobile device can be determined via triangulation from nearby base stations. In many mobile networks, this technique may be used to provide location-based services. Thus, in many mobile phones and/or vehicles, there is no need for a complex and expensive GPS unit to be available; instead, the mobile network may determine location information from a sufficiently large number of service participants to provide, for example, traffic forecast services.

While the accuracy of conventional GPS is low, differential GPS (D-GPS) can achieve accuracy in the meter range; however, D-GPS is also more complex and not available anywhere at any time. The cellular positioning mechanism has an accuracy in the range of 200 meters-2 kilometers, which can be improved by comparing the measured phone position with a stored road map.

Generally, when using location information indicating the location of a mobile phone, it is implicitly assumed that the location of the mobile phone is the same as the location of the vehicle. However, while the onboard GPS unit of a vehicle may be fixedly associated with the vehicle, this is not the case with mobile phones; mobile phones are typically (loosely) associated with their users and are thus mobile.

Vehicle communication information services based on traditional cellular positioning may not be very reliable and accurate because it is not possible to determine whether any particular mobile terminal is actually located within a vehicle that is part of the traffic flow to be analyzed, or indeed belongs to a user within a parked vehicle, a pedestrian, or even a nearby building. In the case where these mobile phones (user terminals) are registered for service, the server will take into account its location information, even though this will distort the traffic flow calculation.

To provide more reliable and accurate services, complex mechanisms are required, such as D-GPS and/or mapping of measured positions to road maps. Even so, services are based on e.g. the availability of D-GPS, and their accuracy depends strongly on plausible considerations: a mobile phone positioned on a road according to a road map actually participates in a traffic flow to be analyzed. In any event, these types of improved mechanisms involve complex determination routines and produce erroneous results in the event of a basic assumption that the mobile telephone is actually engaged in traffic flow.

Disclosure of Invention

There is a need for a technique for providing reliable server-based communication services (e.g., vehicle communication services) that are less complex than the mechanisms described above.

This need is met by a first method of controlling an application server. The method is performed by an application server accessible via a mobile network and comprises: receiving setting information via a wireless interface of a mobile network, wherein the setting information indicates an environment setting of an environment in which a user terminal is deployed; and controlling an application hosted by the application server according to the received setting information.

The mobile network may for example be a GSM (global system for mobile communications), UMTS (universal mobile telecommunications system) or LTE (UMTS long term evolution) network. The application server may be associated with the mobile network in various ways, e.g. the server may be part of the mobile network, e.g. may belong to the IMS (internet multimedia subsystem) of a UMTS network. In a further variant, the application server is located outside the mobile network and is accessible, for example, via one or more fixed networks, such as the internet. The user terminal may be any terminal device capable of communicating via a wireless interface of a mobile network, e.g. a user terminal comprising a mobile phone, a smart phone, a PDA (personal digital assistant), a notebook, etc. The user terminals may be associated with a single user or a group of users, and may also be associated with one or both of physical users or non-individual users, such as companies.

The setting information may be understood as information relating to the deployment of the user terminal in the environment. Thus, it may indicate the relationship between the user terminal and the environment in which the user terminal is deployed. This relationship may be defined by an environment setting.

The environment settings may be expressed by a framework that includes one or more specific ambient or ambient conditions of the environment in which the user terminal is deployed. As an example, two environment settings, namely "in vehicle" and "not in vehicle", may be predefined, meaning "the user terminal is in an environment referred to as a vehicle" or "the user terminal is not in an environment referred to as a vehicle". The setting information may accurately indicate one of these predefined possibilities. In this example, setting information, i.e., "bit set" and "bit unset", which may indicate the above-described environment setting according to a predefined specification may be received as 1-bit information, and for example, "in vehicle" may be indicated by setting information "bit ═ 1" and "out of vehicle" may be indicated by setting information "bit ═ 0". Thus, in case a plurality of environment settings are predefined, the setting information may indicate one of these settings by means of a (short) reference only.

According to one implementation, the environment may be a physical object, and the setting information indicates a relationship between the user terminal and the physical object. For example, the setting information may comprise an indication of the position of the user terminal relative to the physical object. For example, it may refer to the type or kind of physical object. For example, the physical object may be a vehicle (e.g., a car, bus, truck, but may also be a ship, airplane, etc.), a building (e.g., a public building such as a library as opposed to other public or private buildings), a room in a building (e.g., such as a conference room). A physical object may also be understood as a general site, for example a "stop close to public transport" (such as a railway or bus station) or a "central location of a city". The setting information may indicate that the location of the user terminal related to the physical object is "in", "within", "close", and the like. As a more general example, the existence of a positional relationship of the user terminal and the physical object may be determined based on, for example, the establishment of a local communication connection between the user terminal and a local communication unit in the physical object (e.g., a bluetooth communication unit in the user terminal and a vehicle), in particular via a short-range communication technology such as bluetooth or other technologies with a coverage of a few meters or less. In this case, the setting indication may indicate "local communication establishment", which may not necessarily mean "in" the user terminal physical object, but may define the meaning of "close" or "immediate".

In any case, the application server is able to distinguish the terminal device by which the appropriate setting information was received from other terminal devices that did not submit such setting information.

As has been exemplarily described, in some implementations, the setting information may indicate whether the user terminal is close to or within the physical object. Still further to the above examples, the setting indication may indicate "in vehicle" or "not in vehicle" (herein sometimes given as "not in vehicle" for simplicity), "not in/in a meeting," not in/at home, "" at a central location in a city, "or" a stop near public transportation. Other spatial relationships may also be indicated as desired for a particular application.

The setting information may include an indication of an operational state of the physical object. For example, the status indication may indicate whether the subject's engine is started and/or whether the subject is moving. Additionally or alternatively, a speed of the physical object may be indicated. Such information may be useful in relation to any type of motorized and/or movable physical object type, e.g. "not in/in a vehicle" for environmental settings, as well as settings relating to buses, trucks, trains, ships, etc., and also to help distinguish parked (not working) vehicles from (working) vehicles driven on a traffic path, such as roads, rivers, etc., thereby improving the accuracy of the application.

Some implementations of the method may include the steps of: triggered by the reception of the setting information, the execution of the positioning service is initiated to determine a location related to the user terminal and/or to a terminal device associated with an environment in which the user terminal is deployed. For example, the traffic forecast service application may be configured to include the location of the user terminal in the traffic forecast only after the terminal has indicated its environment settings as "in vehicle". Upon receiving such a setting indication, a location service (location application) may be started to determine the location of the user terminal. For example, a location service in a mobile network may request location information from a user terminal or from a terminal device associated with a physical object (such as a vehicle) in which the user terminal is located. A GPS unit provided in the user terminal or built into a physical object, such as a vehicle, may be used to determine the requested location information.

The applications executing on the server may implement vehicle communication information services such as traffic forecasting or traffic alert services, or may implement any other vehicle communication information services related to vehicle tracking, trailer tracking, fleet management, emergency warning systems for vehicles, and the like. Applications may also relate to rail traffic or any other kind of traffic, as opposed to road traffic. Still further, the application may be a communication application in a broader sense, for example involving remote control of devices such as home appliances, control of traffic lights or control of configurations relating to the user of the user terminal; for example, a user profile of a user in a mobile network and/or any other network may be configured according to the received setting indication.

The setting information may be included in a user profile associated with the user terminal. For example, the step of controlling the application may comprise the steps of: representing the setting information in a user profile relating to the user terminal; and accessing, by the application, the setting information represented in the user profile. The user profile may be hosted in a user profile store in the mobile network (e.g. in an HLR (home location register) or HSS (home subscriber server)), in other networks, or may be hosted or associated by the application server itself. Any other application and control entity in the mobile network may also access the user profile, e.g. repeatedly (due to polling operations of the application server) or independently of the time at which the setting information is established. Furthermore, in this way, the setting information may be used to control the user profile of the user terminal in the mobile network and/or in any other communication environment (e.g. the user terminal and its user are located in or near the communication environment depending on the environment and the surrounding communication environment).

The step of controlling the application may comprise launching the application. For example, a positioning application may be launched to determine the location of the user terminal and provide corresponding location information to other applications, such as traffic prediction applications. Alternatively or additionally, the step of controlling the application may comprise: the application is (re) configured. For example, the traffic forecast application may be configured to include the location of the user terminal only in response to receipt of the appropriate setting information.

In some implementations of the method, the step of controlling the application may comprise the steps of: result information generated by the execution of the application is provided to at least one of the user terminal and the physical object. For example, traffic forecast services may provide traffic forecast information to user terminals via a mobile network and via a point-to-point connection or a point-to-multipoint connection (broadcast, multicast).

The above need is further met by a second method of controlling an application server accessible via a mobile network. The method is performed by a terminal device of a mobile network and comprises the following steps: establishing setting information indicating an environment setting of an environment in which a user terminal is deployed; and transmitting the setting information to the application server via a wireless interface of the mobile network to control the application according to the setting information. The terminal device may comprise a user terminal or a terminal device associated with an environment setting in which the user terminal is deployed; for example, the terminal device may be fixedly built in a vehicle.

The necessary and optional characteristics of the setting information and the application have been summarized above in relation to the first method, wherein the discussed aspects may also be applied to the setting information and the application mentioned in the second method.

Further referring to the second method, the step of transmitting the setting information may be automatically triggered by the step of establishing the setting information. For example, the user terminal may be physically connected to a vehicle and may execute an environment setting determination routine that operates on information received from the vehicle to determine whether the location of the user terminal is "not/in the vehicle. At this routine it is concluded that: in the event that the environmental setting is or has been changed to "in-vehicle," the routine may trigger the transmission of setting information indicating "in-vehicle.

The step of establishing the setting information may include the steps of: an indication of an environment setting is received via a local communication connection between the user terminal and a terminal device associated with an environment in which the user terminal is deployed, and setting information is determined from the indication. For example, the indication may include: the establishment of a particular communication regime typically used in a particular environment. For example, the user terminal may establish bluetooth communication with a hands-free kit of a vehicle. Bluetooth HFP (handsfree mode) may be established between the user terminal and a handsfree kit of a vehicle. The user terminal may infer that it is located in the vehicle based on the connection establishment. For example, a bluetooth pairing mechanism may be performed between the user terminal and a local communication unit in the vehicle. The device address of the bluetooth communication unit of the user terminal may be stored in the bluetooth communication unit of the vehicle (and/or vice versa). The user may also authorize himself or herself in other ways before the vehicle. For example, an actuation of the starter lock may be used as an indication by the user "in the vehicle", wherein information about the actuation indicates the environmental setting represented by the setting information "in the vehicle".

As another variation, if the bluetooth communication is maintained for a period of time exceeding, for example, 10 seconds, the user terminal may conclude that it is indeed in the vehicle rather than just passing by and may then send the corresponding setting information to the mobile network.

In another embodiment, a terminal device fixedly associated with the vehicle may use the establishment of the short-range communication connection with the user terminal as an indication, and the setting information "in the vehicle" may accordingly be determined in dependence on the indication in relation to the user terminal connected to the terminal device.

The local indication may be received during the establishment of a local communication connection with, for example, an environment setting specific device (i.e., a terminal device fixedly associated with the environment) (e.g., during USB or bluetooth communication establishment). The set-specific device may be a local communication unit physically associated with the physical object, for example, a hands-free kit built into the vehicle. Another example may involve a bluetooth base station or WLAN access point located in a conference room, at home, at a public transportation stop, etc.

As has been exemplarily described, the local communication connection may comprise a wireless local communication connection according to bluetooth, WLAN or similar short-range communication standards. Due to its contactless nature, the wireless communication connection can advantageously be established automatically, i.e. without requiring the user to perform any action.

The second method may comprise the further steps of: receiving a request for location information from an application server; and providing the requested location information. For example, the positioning application may request GPS information from the user terminal in response to setting information provided by the terminal.

Furthermore, the above needs may be met by a computer program product comprising program code portions for performing the steps of any of the method and method aspects described herein when the computer program product is executed on one or more computing devices (e.g., an application server or a user terminal). The computer program product may be stored on a computer readable recording medium, such as permanent or rewritable memory within or associated with a computing device, or a removable CD-ROM, DVD or usb disk. Additionally or alternatively, the computer program product may be provided for downloading to a computing device, for example via a data network, such as the internet, or a communication line, such as a telephone line or a wireless link.

The above needs are also met by an application server that is accessible via a mobile network. The application server includes: a first component adapted to receive setting information via a wireless interface of a mobile network, wherein the setting information indicates an environment setting of an environment in which a user terminal is deployed; and a second component adapted to control an application hosted by the application server according to the setting information.

The characteristics of the setting information and the application have been summarized above. The discussion may also apply to setting information received and used by the application server and applications hosted by the application server.

The application server may further include: a component adapted to execute a positioning application to determine a location of the terminal device triggered by the reception of the setting information. The positioning application may be hosted by the mobile network or may be hosted by an application server. In any case, the positioning application may be configured to request location information from the terminal device.

The second component may be adapted to represent the setting information in a user profile related to the user terminal and may further be adapted to access the setting information comprised in the user profile.

Further, the above-mentioned needs may be met by a terminal device of a mobile network. The terminal includes: a first component adapted to establish setting information indicating an environment setting of an environment in which the user terminal is deployed; and a second component adapted to send setting information to the application server via a wireless interface of the mobile network to control the application according to the setting information. The terminal device may comprise a user terminal or a terminal device associated with an environment in which the user terminal is deployed.

The first component may be adapted to automatically trigger the second component when setting up the setting information.

The first component may be adapted to receive a local indication of the environment setting via a local communication connection; and may be adapted to determine the setting information based on the local indication. The first component may be further adapted to: a local indication is received during establishment of a local communication connection with the environment setup specific device. Additionally or alternatively, the first component is adapted for local communication connections including wireless local communication connections.

The above-mentioned needs are also met by a user profile associated with the user terminal. The user profile may be implemented in a user terminal connectable to the mobile network, in a user profile store of the mobile network, or in association with an application server accessible via the mobile network. The user profile includes: a data field for representing setting information indicating an environment setting in which the user terminal is deployed. The setting information may have the characteristics as summarized above.

Furthermore, the above needs are also met by a communication system comprising an application server and a user terminal as summarized above.

Drawings

The invention will be further described with reference to exemplary embodiments illustrated in the drawings, in which:

fig. 1 is a schematic overview of an embodiment of a communication system for providing a communication service to a user terminal;

FIG. 2A schematically illustrates functional components of a first embodiment of the user terminal and vehicle of FIG. 1;

FIG. 2B schematically illustrates functional components of a second embodiment of the user terminal and vehicle of FIG. 1;

fig. 3 is a flowchart exemplarily illustrating an operation of the terminal device of fig. 2A or 2B;

figure 4 schematically illustrates functional components of a mobile network and an application server in the communication network of figure 1;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustratively illustrating operation of the application server of FIG. 4;

fig. 6 is a sequence diagram exemplarily illustrating a message flow in the communication system of fig. 1.

Detailed Description

In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth, such as particular environment settings and network systems including particular network nodes, communication standards, etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the teachings of the present invention may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from the specific details disclosed herein. While the present description focuses on vehicle communication services, the present invention may also be practiced in other fields, such as remote control of devices in private and/or public environments, emergency services, other communication services, and the like. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the present invention may be implemented with communication networks other than the UMTS network discussed below to illustrate the present invention. This may include other mobile networks such as GSM networks. The present invention may also be implemented in conjunction with a wired communication system. For example, the application server may be provided in an indoor IP network (e.g., a company's intranet). Basically, the present invention may be implemented with any communication system that provides server-based services (e.g., communication information services in the broadest sense).

Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the functions explained herein below may be implemented using individual hardware circuits, using software functioning in conjunction with a programmed microprocessor or general purpose computer, using an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), and/or using one or more Digital Signal Processors (DSPs). It will also be appreciated that when the present invention is described as a method, the method may also be implemented in a computer processor and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory is encoded with one or more programs that, when executed by the processor, perform the methods disclosed herein. Any of the nodes or functional entities described herein (e.g., application servers and user terminals) may be implemented as a computing device including a computer processor and a memory coupled to the processor.

Fig. 1 schematically illustrates a communication system 100 for providing traffic-related services to users of

vehicles

101 and 104. The communication system 100 comprises a user terminal 106 and an Application Server (AS)108 in a UMTS network 110, wherein the UMTS network 110 is an exemplary implementation of a mobile network. The user terminal 106 is a mobile terminal that can be used to communicate with the UMTS network 110. From the components of the network 110, only two nodebs (radio base stations) 112 and 114 and an HSS (home subscriber server) 116 are explicitly illustrated. The location server 118 provides location services to services in or associated with the UMTS network 110 (i.e., presence services for the network and/or external application providers) to network-based determination of location information for the mobile device. Location server 118 may, for example, host a mobile location service (MPS). The application server 108 hosts a Traffic Forecast Service (TFS) application 109.

Next, with reference to fig. 1, a brief overview will be given of the operation of the communication system 100 in relation to providing a TFS implemented by the application 109. A more detailed description will be given later. A local communication connection 120 will be established between the user terminal 106 and a local communication unit fixedly associated with the vehicle 101. It will be assumed next that the communication 120 is a bluetooth communication, however, any other implementation of a local communication connection based on WLAN, FireWire, etc. may be used. The terminal 106 determines that it is located within the vehicle 101 through the communication connection 120 (for illustration purposes, the terminal 106 is depicted outside the vehicle 101 in fig. 1). Based on this determination, the user terminal 106 sends setting information 124 indicating "in vehicle" (e.g., "in car") in a transmission 122 via a wireless interface 126 to the UMTS network 110. As discussed previously, the indication may be, for example, the ASCII string "in a vehicle" in an XML message, but may also include only a single bit (set or unset) in the data field provided for the setting information, depending on the communication mechanism on which the transmission 122 is based. For example, transmission 122 may include an SMS sent to application server 108.

The NodeB 112 forwards the received setting information 124 to the application server 108. The application server 108 may for example be located in the IMS (internet multimedia subsystem) domain of the UMTS network 110. Although server 108 is shown in fig. 1 as part of network 110, in other embodiments, an application server may be located outside of the mobile network and may be connected to the mobile network via, for example, a fixed communication line to receive setup information such as information 124. The application server 108 determines from the setting information 124: from now on, the user terminal 106 has to be considered by the TFS application 109. Thus, the application server 108 initiates a communication 128 with the location server 118.

The location server 118 uses a network-based triangulation mechanism to determine the location of the user terminal 106 with an accuracy of a few meters in an urban area or, in the case of a suburban area, with an accuracy of only a few tens or even hundreds of meters. To this end, the location server 118 may for example use the nodebs 112 and 114 (not explicitly illustrated in fig. 1). In other embodiments, the AS108 or the mobile network 110 may request location information from the user terminal 106, and the user terminal 106 may distribute the location information based on the terminal 106 or a GPS unit in the vehicle 101. Referring to fig. 1, the location server 118 provides location information 132 for the terminal 106 to the application server 108 via the communication connection 128.

The application 109 uses the location information 132 to determine the traffic forecast by assuming that the location of the terminal 106 given by the information 132 indicates the location of the vehicle 101. This assumption is based on the previous reception of the setting information 124, resulting in a more reliable traffic forecast than a service that takes into account the location of any registered terminal without information about the actual environmental settings of the terminal. The AS108 provides 134 traffic forecasts to distribution areas supported by the mobile network 110, which may include the

nodebs

112 and 114. The NodeB then sends the traffic forecast to the

vehicles

101 and 104, e.g. via a broadcast or multicast transmission 136.

Although the NobeB 112 is shown in fig. 1 as forwarding the provisioning information 124 directly to the application server 108, in other embodiments the provisioning information may instead be provided to the HSS 116. For example, a user profile managed in the HSS may include one or more data fields representing setting information. For example, in the case where the setting information or part thereof has changed, the setting information may be automatically provided from the HSS to the application server; or upon request to the application server (in fig. 1 the provisioning of the settings information from the HSS to the application server is indicated by the dashed arrow 138).

Fig. 2A illustrates some more detailed functional components of the first embodiment of the user terminal 106 and the terminal device 102 in the vehicle 101. The user terminal 106 may be located inside a passenger compartment of the vehicle 101, while the terminal device 102 is assumed to be fixedly built into the vehicle 101. The illustrated components contribute to the operation of the system 100 of fig. 1. The mobile terminal 106 includes a short-range or Local Communication Unit (LCU)202, a setting determination component 204, a mapping memory 206, a profile memory 208, a transmission component 210, and a Mobile Communication Unit (MCU) 212. The end device 102 includes an LCU 222 and a state memory 224. As described further below, the terminal device 102 may, for example, comprise a bluetooth communication unit. One or both of the user terminal 106 and the vehicle 101 may further include

GPS units

214 and 226, respectively.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart illustrating exemplary operations 300 of the mobile terminal 106 and the terminal device 102 in the vehicle 101 and the interoperation between the components thereof. In general, the mobile terminal 106 operates to control a traffic forecast service application 109 (see fig. 1) via the mobile network 110 according to an environment setting related to an environmental characteristic of the terminal 106.

Referring to fig. 2A and 3, in step 302, the terminal 106 establishes setting information 124 indicating an environment setting of an environment to which the user terminal 106 belongs. In the example illustrated in the drawing, the setting information indicates that the terminal 106 is located "in a vehicle", i.e., in the vehicle 101. The setting information 124 does not indicate any particular vehicle (e.g., vehicle 101, specifically) or geographic location, but rather indicates the overall environment or type of environment setting within or at which the terminal 106 is located.

To establish the setting information 124, the following steps may be performed: when a user of a user terminal 106 enters the vehicle 101, the

LCUs

202 and 222 may establish the communication 120 automatically or based on commands manually entered on the terminal 106. Both

LCUs

202 and 222 may be, for example, bluetooth communication units adapted to communicate according to the bluetooth standard and use the bluetooth standard hands-free mode (HFP) for hands-free kits in vehicles (hands-free kits are not shown in the figures for clarity). During communication establishment, both

LCU components

202 and 222 agree to communicate with each other according to HFP. The mobile terminal 106 may use the device address of the LCU 222 as an indication of its local environment settings. As indicated by arrow 216 in fig. 2A, LCU202 is configured to provide a trigger signal to setting determination component 204, which indicates a device address of LCU 222. Of course, the LCU202 may also process other data, such as data 228 described below, to transceive data via the communication link 120.

Upon receiving the trigger message 216 from the LCU202, the setting determination component 204 operates to access the mapping memory 206. The memory 206 includes a mapping table 207, the mapping table 207 including an association of indications, such as an indication 216 that the LCU202 may provide with predetermined environmental settings. For example, device addresses according to various local (short-range) communication standards may be associated with settings. The mapping table need not explicitly include such setting information. For example, in the case where there are only two possible environment settings "not/in the vehicle," a single bit, set or unset, is sufficient to carry the setting information. A more complex set of predetermined environment settings requires a longer bit map or the determined environment settings may actually be represented in text, for example in human-readable ASCII format.

Component 204 extracts the appropriate setting information from the mapping stored in component 206 and provides the setting information 124 to an active user profile 209 stored in component 208. The component 208 may be a memory component of the terminal 106 or may be located, for example, on a SIM or USIM (UMTS subscriber identity module) card inserted into the terminal 106. The user profile 209 may comprise various data fields relating to the user of the terminal 106, the terminal itself and the mobile network 110, which may in particular comprise data fields for indicating the setting information "not present/in vehicle". As previously described, the data field may have a length of only a single bit, or may be configured to represent the setting information in the form of text, such as "not in vehicle".

Rather than using only the communication establishment itself to derive the setting information, in a more complex example, the LCU 222 in the terminal device 102 associated with the vehicle 101 may access the storage component 224 during establishment of the communication 120 to read out the operating state information 228 of the vehicle 101. The storage component 224 may be adapted to store such operational state information, which may be determined from sensors in the vehicle and processor logic connected thereto. The operation state information may represent, for example, information on: whether the engine is started, whether the vehicle is moving, and its current speed if the vehicle is moving. The storage component 224 may be, for example, a cache or similar storage component associated with a central processor in the onboard network of the vehicle 101, wherein the cache stores current operating state conditions for various purposes, e.g., for access by an electronic drive assist system such as an Antilock Braking System (ABS) or an Electronic Stability Program (ESP).

The LCU 222 may read operational status information, such as whether the engine is started, etc., and may provide the operational status information 228 to the LCU202 at the other end of the local communication connection 120. The LCU202 may control the storage of this operational state information in or in association with the user profile 209. In the event that the user profile 209 is not suitable for storing one or more of these operational state information items, the component 208 may discard the corresponding information.

Referring again to fig. 3, in step 304, the settings information 124 is transmitted to the application server 108 via the wireless interface 126 and the mobile network 110 (see fig. 1) using the transmission component 210 and the MCU 212. In more detail, in parallel with initiating the storage of the setting information 124 in the user profile 209, the setting determining component 204 may automatically trigger the transmitting component 210 adapted to access the user profile 209 to extract the setting information 124 from the user profile 209 and send the information to the application server 108. In the case of a user registration service, the transmission component 210 may additionally or alternatively provide the setting information from the user profile to the application server periodically. As another possibility, the application server may also request setting information from the terminal 106. As yet another example,

components

204, 208, and 210 may interoperate to indicate to the application server only changes to the setting information stored in user profile 209.

The address of the application server may also be stored in the user profile 209. Such an address may be provided to the terminal 106, for example, when the terminal registers with a service provided by the server 108.

Although not illustrated in the figure, a location server in the network may request location information from the mobile terminal 106 after the setting information 124 has been provided. In response to such a request, the terminal 106 may provide location information based on the GPS unit 214 or the GPS unit 226 in the vehicle 101. In the latter case, the user terminal 106 may be provided with location information derived from the operation of the unit 226 via the bluetooth communication 120.

Fig. 2B illustrates the functional components of a second embodiment of the user terminal 106 of fig. 1 and the terminal device 102 in the vehicle 101, denoted in fig. 2B by reference numerals 106 'and 102', respectively, for clarity. Again, as in the first embodiment of fig. 2A, it is assumed that the user terminal 106 'is located inside the passenger compartment of the vehicle 101, while it is assumed that the terminal device 102' is fixedly built in the vehicle 101 in fig. 2B. Generally, in FIG. 2B, elements having the same or similar function or meaning as the elements in FIG. 2A are identified using the same reference number plus an apostrophe. The mobile terminal 106 'includes a Local Communication Unit (LCU) 202'. Terminal device 102' includes an LCU 222', as well as a setting determination component 204', a transmission component 210', and a Mobile Communication Unit (MCU)212 '.

In fig. 2B, the terminal device 102' establishes the setup information 124 and transmits over the wireless interface 126. This alternative is chosen to illustrate an alternative process for providing the setting information 124. It is apparent that the transfer of the setting information 124 from the user profile associated with the terminal device 102' may be performed in a similar manner as already described with reference to the user profile 208 in the user terminal 106 in fig. 2A for the procedure according to fig. 2B. Similarly, a mapping entity corresponding to mapping memory 206 in fig. 2A may also be available in terminal device 102'.

Thus, steps 302 and 304 in fig. 3 may be performed not only by the user terminal itself (i.e., user terminal 106 in fig. 2A), but may alternatively be performed by a terminal device associated with the environment (e.g., device 102' in fig. 2B associated with vehicle 101).

Specifically (step 302), when a user of the user terminal 106' enters the vehicle 101, the LCUs 202' and 222' may establish the communication 120', either automatically (preferably) or based on a command entered manually on the terminal 106 '. For example, the communication 120' may be based on a short-range communication technology such as bluetooth. As a specific example, the terminal device 102' may support the bluetooth SIM card access profile (SAP). In this case, the user terminal 106' (in case it also supports SAP) may provide its IMSI to the terminal device 102' during the establishment of the communication 120 '. The terminal device then uses the IMSI to subscribe to mobile network 110 (see fig. 1) or communicate with mobile network 110. The user terminal 106' may be set to a standby mode.

During the establishment of the communication 120', the LCU202 provides (arrow 216') a trigger signal to the setting determination component 204 'indicating the communication link 120'. Upon establishment of the communication 120', the setting determination component 204' in the terminal device 102 'determines information about the positional relationship between the user terminal 106' and the vehicle 101. Thus, the setting determination component 204 'is adapted to determine that the user terminal 106' is in the vehicle 101 and may accordingly establish that the setting information 124 is "in the vehicle". A simple provision may be used according to which the establishment of a local communication (e.g. communication 120') to the user terminal results in setting information "in vehicle". Termination of the local communication 120' may result in setting the information "not in vehicle". Similar to what has been described with reference to fig. 2A, the setting information may additionally include operating state information (not shown in fig. 2B) of the vehicle 101.

The setting information 124 established by the setting determining component 204 'is provided to the transmitting component 210'. Unlike the mechanism illustrated in FIG. 2A, in the embodiment of FIG. 2B, the settings information 124 is provided directly to the transport component 210' without being stored in the user profile. The provision of the setup information "in vehicle" 124 may trigger the transmission component 210 'to control the MCU 212' to transmit (step 304) the setup information 124 to the mobile network 110 (see fig. 1) via the wireless interface 126.

As already illustrated using fig. 2A and 2B, the process 300 of fig. 3 may be performed in the user terminal 106 itself, or in a terminal device 102' fixedly associated with the vehicle 101. In other embodiments, the distribution of tasks between two end devices may still be organized in other ways. For example, although the setting information is transmitted from a terminal device in a vehicle, the setting information may be established in a user terminal. In this case, the user terminal provides the setting information to the terminal device in the vehicle for transmission. As another alternative, the user terminal may indicate predefined setting information stored by the terminal device in the vehicle (e.g., within the user profile). As a variant, the user terminal may simply indicate one of the one or more user profiles, and the terminal device in the vehicle will, in response to receipt of this indication, automatically send the setting information "in the vehicle" for the user terminal associated with the indicated user profile.

Accordingly, terminal devices 102 and 102 'associated with vehicle 101, respectively, may include local communication units (e.g., 222 and 222', respectively) and may or may not (102') include a mobile communication unit such as MCU 212'.

Fig. 4 illustrates functional components of the UMTS network 110 and the application server 108 of fig. 1. It should be noted that although the functional entity hosting the traffic forecast service application 109 is referred to as the application server 108, the server may comprise an application environment for automotive applications, including a plurality of application servers and other entities such as gateways, firewalls, authentication servers, and the like. In other words, it should be understood that the application server 108 may be a fully developed site of the application provider, and not just a single server. Thus, the functions described below may be implemented on a single server, or may be implemented in a distributed manner on several nodes of an application server farm. The application provider of the application environment may be the same as the operator of the mobile network 110 or may be different.

The application server may be part of the mobile network or may be located outside the mobile network. To explicitly illustrate both configurations, fig. 1 shows the AS108 inside the mobile network 110, whereas in fig. 4 the AS108 is drawn outside the network 110.

The UMTS network 110 comprises a NodeB 112 and a location server 118, which have been illustrated in fig. 1. The application server 108 includes a receiving component 402, a profile store 404, an application control component 406, the traffic prediction application 109 from fig. 1, and a location client 408.

Fig. 5 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary sequence 500 of operational steps that the application server 108 may perform within the framework of providing a TFS implemented by the application 109. Basically, the application server operates to control the communication information application 109 according to the setting information 124 received from the user terminal 106 (refer to fig. 1) via the mobile network 110.

In step 502, the receiving component 402 receives the setting information 124 and provides the received setting information 124 to the profile store 404 for storage in association with a user profile related to a user of the user terminal 106 (although in the following description for the sake of brevity the user terminal 106 refers only to the user terminal 106 illustrated in fig. 1 and 2A, it is to be understood that any such reference refers equally to the user terminal 106' as illustrated in fig. 2B). The user profile 410 may also include other data related to the user of the terminal 106 and may or may not be similar in structure to the user profile 209 discussed with reference to FIG. 2A. For example, the user profile 410 may be specifically targeted with respect to services such as TFS services implemented by the application 109 provided by the application server 108. In other words, the user profile 410 may define attributes from an application perspective of an application provider. The profile store 404 may store a plurality of user profiles for users of services provided by the application server 108. In other embodiments, the setting information may be provided directly to one or more applications without storing the setting information in the user profile.

In step 504, the control component 406 operates to control the application 109 according to the setting information 124 stored in the user profile 410. Although component 406 is shown as an additional component in fig. 4, it may also be part of the TFS application 109. In the implementation illustrated in fig. 4, after the setting information 124 is stored in the storage component 404, the receiving component 402 provides a trigger signal 412 to the control component 406. Upon receiving the trigger signal 412, the control component 406 executes the TFS application 109 in view of the setting information 124.

In more detail, the trigger signal 412 may initiate access of the control component 406 to the user profile 410 in the memory 404 to first determine whether the user of the terminal 106 is registered for the service provided by the TFS application 109. If so, the setting information 124 itself is analyzed. Since this information indicates that the user terminal 106 is "in the vehicle," the control component concludes (either explicitly or only implicitly) that the user terminal 106 will now contribute to the traffic forecast calculated by the TFS application 109. Additionally or alternatively to accessing the user profile in the profile memory 404 upon receipt of the trigger signal 412, the control component 406 may periodically access the profile memory 404 to determine a user who is registered with the TFS application 109 and has an associated user terminal momentarily located "in-vehicle". For example, even in the absence of the trigger signal 412, after the receiving component 402 has stored the setting information for the user terminal 106 "in the vehicle" in the user profile 410, the control component 406 will automatically recognize during its next poll: from now on the terminal 106 has to be considered. In other embodiments, the setting information may additionally or alternatively be provided directly to an application that is expected to use the setting information.

Upon determining that the user terminal 106 has to be considered, the control component 406 triggers 414 the location client 408, which then the location client 408 operates to provide the signal 128, which has been discussed with reference to fig. 1, to the location server 118 of the mobile network 110. The positioning client 408 then provides the traffic forecasting application 109 with the location information 132 received from the server 118. Accordingly, during the determination of the traffic forecast, the location of the terminal 106 is taken into account. In other embodiments, the location client 408 may additionally or alternatively provide the location information 132 to the user profile 410. Finally, the generated traffic forecast is provided to the mobile network 110 via the communication 134 for distribution to its users.

As already discussed, the setting information 124 may include other information, such as operating state information of the vehicle 101, in addition to indicating "in vehicle". The control component 406 may use this information in determining whether the location of the user terminal 106 (or terminal device 102) is to be actually used for the TFS application 109. For example, an indication such as "engine on" and/or "vehicle is moving" may be used to determine whether the vehicle is parked in a parking space or is actually part of the traffic flow to be analyzed. The decision algorithm may have to take into account that, for example, in the case of a traffic jam, the vehicle is not moving and the driver may also have stopped the engine. Previous information (historical setup information) and/or setup information (possibly including operational status information) of other registered participants located nearby may be used to more reliably determine whether a particular user is actually to be considered and in this way further improve the reliability of the resulting traffic forecast.

Although it has been illustrated in fig. 4 that the setting information 124 is stored in the profile memory 404 of the application server 108, the setting information may additionally or alternatively be stored in a user profile memory in the mobile network 110, for example in the HSS 116 (cf. fig. 1).

As described previously, an application hosting the application server or in the application environment may be controlled to take into account the location of the user terminal according to the environment settings of the terminal. Additionally or alternatively, the provision of applications to the user terminal may also be controlled accordingly. For example, the car service may be provided only to a terminal where the environment setting indicates that the terminal is located in a vehicle.

Fig. 6 is a sequence diagram illustrating an exemplary sequence of messages exchanged between the user terminal 106, the vehicle 101, and the application server 108.

Message exchanges

602 and 604 illustrate establishment of the bluetooth connection 120 between the

LCUs

202 and 222 illustrated in fig. 2A. Each illustrated message exchange may include one or more message pairs exchanged between communication partners.

Already described with reference to fig. 2A: the terminal 106 may use the internal mapping table 207 to determine that the transmission setting information 124 "in the vehicle" is required. In an alternative implementation, the vehicle may provide an explicit indication to the terminal that it is communicating with the vehicle. Further, the vehicle may send an explicit indication that the settings information "in vehicle" should be sent to the application server. In the case of the message sequence 600, such an indication may be provided to the terminal 106, for example during the service level connection establishment procedure 604. In other implementations, other protocols may be used in addition to the bluetooth protocol used for

message exchanges

602 and 604 to provide indications from the vehicle to the terminal device regarding environmental settings and/or operational status information. Such protocols may be defined over one or more local communication protocols (e.g., bluetooth, WLAN, etc.).

An explicit request of the vehicle to send the setting information 124 to the application server is another possibility to enable automatic sending of the setting information to the application server when the setting information is established in the user terminal 106. The vehicle may or may not provide the address of the appropriate application server for providing the setting information to the appropriate application server. At least in the latter case, such an address may be configured in the user terminal 106 as described above with reference to fig. 2A. Various mechanisms may be used to send 122 the setting information 124 to the application server via the mobile network 110 (not shown in fig. 6). For example, an SMS may be sent, or SIP signaling, user-to-user signaling, ISDN signaling, and so forth may be used. With respect to SIP, for example, a SIP presence mechanism may be used. Furthermore, any proprietary protocol may be used, such as an IP-based protocol provided by the mobile network operator.

In response to receiving the setting information 124 in the transmission 122, the application server 108 can activate or modify one or more vehicle communication information services that host the server 108. For example, the traffic forecast application may start considering the user terminal for its service. As illustrated in fig. 4, the application server may initiate a positioning procedure to determine the location of the terminal 106. The resulting message exchange for positioning is not indicated in fig. 6. The application then considers the location of the user terminal to determine the traffic forecast. Since the application may only consider user terminals "in the vehicle" (according to their corresponding setting information), the traffic forecast will be more accurate than if all registered user terminals were considered independently of their actual environment settings.

Through the message exchanges 606 and 608, the bluetooth communication link between the user terminal 106 and the vehicle 101 will be terminated, for example, because the user removed the terminal 106 from the vehicle 101. During termination, for example after the service level connection has been torn down, the terminal 106 may automatically or triggered by the vehicle 101 perform a transmission 610 to the application server 108, the transmission 610 including the setting information "not in vehicle". The application server may then revoke the consideration of the (location of) the terminal 106 for one or more of its services hosting it. For example, the requesting mobile phone's location may cease.

Although the setting information has been described hereinbefore indicating the relationship of the user terminal to a physical object such as a vehicle, in general, the setting information may include any information relating to the environment of the terminal in the broadest sense and relating to a specific service. For example, the setting information may also or additionally indicate environmental parameters, such as local temperature, local time, and the like. The operation state information of the vehicle, which may be included in the setting information, may further include: the make and model of the vehicle, or the specific type of vehicle, such as a passenger car, taxi, bus, van, etc.

The technology presented herein has been illustrated using, by way of example, an application that implements a vehicle communication information service. Emergency applications are another category of applications related to these technologies. For example, consider that the user terminal is performing an emergency call. In this case, the location of the terminal will be sent to the emergency centre. The emergency centre may additionally or automatically be provided with environment setting information such as "in vehicle". This setting information can then be used to trigger actions to be taken manually by the operator of the center or automatically. For example, the decision whether to dispatch a helicopter, vehicle or police may be based on such setting information.

The provision of the setting information to the application server may also be triggered by the user, i.e. manually, e.g. by selecting a specific profile (e.g. "vehicle", "meeting", etc.) on the user terminal. In this case, no connection between the user terminal and, for example, a vehicle is required. However, this approach also excludes the case where the setting information includes the operating state information of the vehicle.

In case there is a GPS unit available in the user terminal or in the vehicle, positioning based on a positioning service in the mobile network and positioning based on a GPS unit can be used as complementary mechanisms. For example, in the case where the GPS unit currently has no available satellite connection, the location service may be used as a backup mechanism. In other embodiments, a location service may be used to limit the use of transmission resources over the wireless interface of the mobile network.

The techniques presented herein may also be used for services other than vehicle communication information services. For example, consider an environment setting "not present/in a meeting (room)". In case the setting information indicates "in the meeting room", a telecommunications supplementary service like unconditional call transfer (to mailbox, to colleague, to secretary) can be automatically activated. Services such as call forwarding or call barring in a user profile may be controlled using context settings such as "not present/in operation" so that incoming calls (e.g., private calls) are barred or forwarded only after a predetermined time.

The techniques presented herein allow for more reliable application services to be provided, for example, in a communication environment. For example, the present invention allows analyzing traffic flow in a more reliable manner by tracking user terminals (mobile phones) by considering only terminals that are actually part of the traffic flow. The setting information may be used to indicate general environment settings or the type of environment in which the user terminal is located, near or within. The setting information may be used alone or in addition to location information indicating the geographical location of the user terminal. Although calculations and the like may be performed in an application using position information as input data, the setting information may be control data for controlling such a positioning application (or any other application). For example, the application may be controlled to start recognizing the position of the mobile phone for traffic forecasts/alerts only after the terminal has signaled that it is in the vehicle.

The availability of such setting information enhances the availability of the service. For example, traffic flow related services will be able to provide more reliable traffic flow predictions. The action to be taken in response to the emergency call may be more specifically adapted to the circumstances in which the emergency situation occurs. The setup information can be used to automatically configure supplementary telecommunications services such as call forwarding unconditional.

A user profile, such as a user profile relating to a mobile/fixed network, may be automatically configured according to the environment (e.g., "meeting", "home", "work") of the user terminal. The above advantages may be available to the user without any additional manual configuration effort, in case the user terminal is adapted to detect the environment settings and to provide the setting information automatically, e.g. via a local communication connection. In other cases, the user may have to manually select an environment such as "absent/in-vehicle". Manual configuration (change) may trigger propagation of the setting information to the application server and/or to a user profile or other service infrastructure in the mobile network, e.g. in the HSS.

Only minor modifications are required in e.g. the user terminal or the mobile network components in order to implement the proposed technique. For example, in case predetermined setting information is provided to the user terminal and the application server, it may even be necessary to additionally transmit a single bit via the wireless interface to control the application.

With existing triangulation-based location services in mobile networks with limited accuracy, many location-based services (e.g., traffic prediction services) can exploit the proposed techniques, i.e., without the need to determine the location of a vehicle with an accuracy in the centimeter range to improve the accuracy of traffic predictions.

While the invention has been described with respect to preferred embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that this description is merely for purposes of illustration. Accordingly, the invention is to be limited only by the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A method of controlling an application server, the method comprising the following steps performed by an application server (108) accessible via a mobile network (110):

-receiving (502) setting information (124) via a wireless interface (126) of a mobile network, wherein the setting information is determined based on a local communication connection (120) between a user terminal (106) and a terminal device associated with an environment in which the user terminal is deployed and indicates an environment setting of the environment in which the user terminal (106) is deployed; and

-controlling (504) an application (109) hosted by the application server in accordance with the received setting information,

wherein the environment is a physical object (101), the setting information explicitly indicating whether the user terminal (106) is close to the physical object (101) or within the physical object (101).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the setting information comprises an indication of an operational status (228) of the physical object.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the physical object is a vehicle (101), and the setting information indicates "in vehicle" or "not in vehicle".

4. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the setting information is 1-bit or longer information.

5. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the setting information is represented in a text form.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the text form is in ASCII format.

7. The method according to claim 1 or 2, comprising the steps of: triggered by the reception of the setting information, the execution of a positioning service (408, 118) is initiated to determine a location related to the user terminal and/or to a terminal device associated with an environment in which the user terminal is deployed.

8. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the application (109) implements a vehicle communication information service.

9. The method according to claim 1 or 2,

-wherein the setting information is comprised in a user profile (410) related to the user terminal.

10. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the setting information indicates one of a plurality of predetermined environmental settings.

11. A method of controlling an application server accessible via a mobile network, the method being performed by a terminal device (106, 102') of the mobile network (110), the terminal device (106, 102') of the mobile network (110) comprising a user terminal (106) or a terminal device (102') associated with an environment in which the user terminal is deployed, the method comprising:

-establishing (302) setting information (124) determined based on a local communication connection between a user terminal (106) and a terminal device (102') associated with an environment in which the user terminal is deployed and indicating environment settings of the environment in which the user terminal (106, 106') is deployed; and

-sending (304) the setting information to an application server (108) via a wireless interface (126) of a mobile network for controlling an application (109) according to the setting information,

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the physical object is a vehicle (101), and the setting information indicates "in vehicle" or "not in vehicle".

13. The method of claim 11 or 12, wherein the setting information is 1-bit or longer information.

14. The method according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the setting information is represented in a text form.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the text form is in ASCII format.

16. The method of claim 11 or 12, wherein the step of sending the setting information is automatically triggered by the step of establishing the setting information.

17. The method according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the step of establishing setting information comprises the steps of:

-receiving an indication of an environment setting via a local communication connection (120) between a user terminal (106; 106') and a terminal device (102; 102') associated with an environment in which the user terminal is deployed; and

-determining setting information (124) from the indication.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the indication is received during a local communication connection (120) setup (602, 604).

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the local communication connection comprises a wireless local communication connection (120).

20. A method of controlling an application server accessible via a mobile network, the method comprising the steps of the method of any of claims 1 to 10 and the steps of the method of any of claims 11 to 19.

21. An application server (108) accessible via a mobile network (110), comprising:

-a first component (402) adapted to receive setting information (124) via a wireless interface (126) of a mobile network, wherein the setting information is determined based on a local communication connection between a user terminal (106) and a terminal device associated with an environment in which the user terminal is deployed and indicates environment settings of the environment in which the user terminal (106) is deployed; and

a second component (406) adapted to control an application (109) hosted by an application server in accordance with the setting information,

22. The application server according to claim 21, wherein the application server is adapted to perform the steps of the method according to any of claims 2 to 10.

23. A terminal device (106, 102') of a mobile network (110), comprising:

-a first component (204) adapted to establish setting information (124) determined based on a local communication connection (120) between a user terminal and a terminal device associated with an environment in which the user terminal is deployed and indicating environment settings of the environment in which the user terminal (106, 106') is deployed; and

-a second component (210) adapted to send said setting information to an application server (108) via a wireless interface (126) of a mobile network (110) for controlling an application (109) according to said setting information,

24. The terminal device of claim 23, wherein the terminal device is adapted to perform the steps of the method of any one of claims 12 to 19.

25. A communication system (100) comprising an application server (108) according to claim 21 or 22 and a terminal device (106, 102') according to claim 23 or 24.