Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Auxiliary data signaling
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-22
2001-09-11
Le, Thanh Cong (Department: 2684)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Auxiliary data signaling
C455S518000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06289223
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile telecommunication network and, in particular, to the multipoint transmission of short message service (SMS) messages to selected multipoint destinations.
2. Description of the Related Art
The evolution of wireless communication over the past century, since Guglielmo Marconi's 1897 demonstration of radio's ability to provide continuous contact with ships sailing the English Channel, has been remarkable. Since Marconi's discovery, new wireline and wireless communication methods, services and standards have been adopted by people throughout the world. This evolution has been accelerating, particularly over the last ten years, during which the mobile radio communications industry has grown by orders of magnitude, fueled by numerous technological advances that have made portable radio equipment smaller, cheaper and more reliable. The exponential growth of mobile telephony will continue in the coming decades as well, as this wireless network interacts with and eventually overtakes the existing wireline networks.
In order to promote compatibility of the equipment and operations of various Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMN), standards have been developed and are currently being implemented, e.g., the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Personal Communications System (PCS) and other standards.
With the introduction of GSM, PCS and other digital-based telecommunications systems, a number of advanced non-speech services are further provided to mobile subscribers. One such service includes a point-to-point Short Message Service (SMS), a subscriber service which operates similarly to a pager. Using an SMS message, a mobile subscriber is able to communicate text messages with another Mobile Station (MS) or an SMS terminal without establishing a circuit connection. A first mobile subscriber simply types the desired text message, e.g., up to about 160 alphanumeric characters, indicates the directory number associated with the destination mobile subscriber, and transmits the SMS message encapsulating the desired text message.
Another type of SMS messaging currently available is multipoint or cell broadcast in which a given message, e.g., traffic conditions, stock exchange information, etc., is transmitted to all active mobile phones in a particular cell. One difference between point-to-point and multipoint is that whereas reception confirmation is generally obtained in point-to-point transmissions, multipoint SMS is a one-way transmission without confirmation.
At present only the above two modes of SMS messaging are available: a message to one or all. Current SMS systems and services are unable to selectively deliver an SMS message to a subset of the available users, e.g., many in the aforementioned particular cell, such as all sales people in a company. Accordingly, there is a need for a selection mechanism so that an SMS subscriber can specify a number of other SMS subscribers to receive a given communication without having to transmit to all possible SMS subscribers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention discloses a system and method that enables the transmission of SMS messages to select multipoint addressees from a single point of origination. Point to select multipoint SMS, hereinafter referred to as select multipoint SMS, would require that the user desiring to originate such a transmission be a subscriber to such service. A valid subscriber could then define a usergroup of SMS subscribers to which a multipoint SMS transmission is desired. Preferably, the originating user would be allowed to define a plurality of such groups, with each group having a unique identifier. A database of such groups would then be maintained in the Service Center (SC). When the user desires to send a multipoint SMS message, creation and transmission of such a message would follow in a manner similar to traditional point-to-point SMS broadcasts. The originating user would first enter the desired message, either through the ten-digit keypad of the mobile phone or through a DTE or other appropriate device. The user would then initiate an SMS transmission by entering the group identifier in place of the receiver identifier. In this manner, once the usergroups and identifiers have been defined, a multipoint SMS transmission would be executed significantly as a point-to-point SMS transmission.
Upon reception of the SMS request at the SC, the SC would recover the receiver identifier from the request and thereupon interrogate the usergroup database in the SC. The SC would recognize the receiver identifier as a group identifier and subsequently recover each member's identifier of the defined usergroup therein. Transmission of the identical SM is then initiated to each group member. Failure to identify the receiver identifier as a group identifier causes the SC to process the SMS request as a 'normal'point-to-point transmission or, if applicable, a multicast transmission.
Allowances are also made for usergroup access restriction, such that only certain users would have privilege to originate a SMS multipoint transmission to a specific usergroup. Proposals for augmenting the usergroup profiles via the Internet are also made.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5806000 (1998-09-01), Vo et al.
patent: 6026296 (2000-02-01), Sander, III et al.
Boltz David
Evanyk Walt
Hiri Farzad
Mukherjee Subrata
Patel Mahesh
Cong Le Thanh
Ericsson Inc
Jenkins & GilChrist PC
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