Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Zoned or cellular telephone system
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-30
2001-01-16
Eisenzopf, Reinhard J. (Department: 2745)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Zoned or cellular telephone system
C455S466000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06175741
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications systems and methods for providing business card services to mobile subscribers within a cellular network, and specifically to enhancing features provided by business card services within a cellular network.
2. Background and Objects of the Present Invention
Cellular telecommunications is one of the fastest growing and most demanding telecommunications applications ever. Today it represents a large and continuously increasing percentage of all new telephone subscriptions around the world. A standardization group, European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), was established in 1982 to formulate the specifications for the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) digital mobile cellular radio system.
With reference now to
FIG. 1
of the drawings, there is illustrated a GSM Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), such as cellular network
10
, which in turn is composed of a plurality of areas
12
, each with a Mobile Switching Center (MSC)
14
and an integrated Visitor Location Register (VLR)
16
therein. The MSC/VLR areas
12
, in turn, include a plurality of Location Areas (LA)
18
, which are defined as that part of a given MSC/VLR area
12
in which a mobile station (MS)
20
may move freely without having to send update location information to the MSC/VLR
14
/
16
that controls the LA
18
. Each Location Area
12
is divided into a number of cells
22
.
Mobile Station (MS)
20
is the physical equipment, e.g., a car phone or other portable phone, used by mobile subscribers to communicate with the cellular network
10
, each other, and users outside the subscribed network, both wireline and wireless. The MS
20
may also include a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card
200
, or other memory, which provides storage of subscriber related information, such as a subscriber authentication key, temporary network data, and service related data, such as language preference.
The MSC
14
is in communication with at least one Base Station Controller (BSC)
23
, which, in turn, is in contact with at least one Base Transceiver Station (BTS)
24
. The BTS
24
is the physical equipment, illustrated for simplicity as a radio tower, that provides radio coverage to the geographical part of the cell
22
for which it is responsible. It should be understood that the BSC
23
may be connected to several BTSs
24
, and may be implemented as a stand-alone node or integrated with the MSC
14
. In either event, the BSC
23
and BTS
24
components, as a whole, are generally referred to as a Base Station System (BSS)
25
.
With further reference to
FIG. 1
, the PLMN Service Area or cellular network
10
includes a Home Location Register (HLR)
26
, which is a database maintaining all subscriber information, e.g., user profiles, current location information, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) numbers, and other administrative information. The HLR
26
may be co-located with a given MSC
14
, integrated with the MSC
14
, or alternatively can service multiple MSCs
14
, the latter of which is illustrated in FIG.
1
.
The VLR
16
is a database containing information about all of the MSs
20
currently located within the MSC/VLR area
12
. If an MS
20
roams into a new MSC/VLR area
12
, the MSC
14
will request data about that MS
20
from the HLR database
26
(simultaneously informing the HLR
26
about the current location of the MS
20
) and store the data in the VLR
16
connected to that MSC
14
. Accordingly, if the user of the MS
20
then wants to make a call, the local VLR
16
will have the requisite identification information without having to reinterrogate the HLR
26
. In the aforedescribed manner, the VLR and HLR databases
16
and
26
, respectively, contain various subscriber information associated with a given MS
20
.
Today, a number of non-mobile held devices support business card applications for storing business cards in electronic form. The information from a business card can include the person's name, fax and telephone number and e-mail address. In addition, recent developments have proposed implementing such business card applications within mobile devices, such as an MS
20
. The business card information can be stored within, for example, the SIM card
200
, and can be accessed to initiate an outgoing call to a selected person's telephone number, fax number, or, alternatively, to the selected person's e-mail address through the Internet.
However, the utilization of such mobile-based business card applications has been limited to the storage and retrieval of the business card information. In today's society, with the mobility of employees between various employers, business card information can change rapidly. Instead of providing a hard copy of such business card information each time the information changes, which must be manually entered into the mobile-based business card application, it would be more convenient to store such information in the mobile-based business card application, transmit the information over the cellular network to each desired subscriber that has this business card application, and re-transmit the information if any changes are made without having to remember each subscriber that the information was initially sent to.
Furthermore, with the increase in available supplementary services, such as call forwarding, call blocking, caller ID, call priority, positioning and conference calling, it would be advantageous to utilize the business card information to tailor these supplementary services to the individual subscriber.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to enhance business card services within the cellular network to provide additional features to mobile subscribers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to telecommunications systems and methods for enhancing business card services implemented within cellular networks to provide additional features to mobile subscribers. Business card information associated with a mobile subscriber can be stored within a memory within a mobile station (MS) of the mobile subscriber. This business card information can be transmitted by a business card application within the MS through the cellular network to another MS that has the business card application for receiving, storing, sorting and displaying the information. The business card application within the sending MS can record the telephone number of each receiving MS as historical data. This historical data can later be used when a change is made to the business card, for example, the address, company name, or telephone number, of the mobile subscriber changes. The business card application within the sending MS can transmit updates to all or some of the MSs that received the business card before the change was made by using this historical data. In addition, the business card application can interface with existing supplementary services, such as call forwarding, call blocking, caller ID, call priority, positioning and multiparty calling to tailor the supplementary services to the individual mobile subscriber.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5440559 (1995-08-01), Gaskill
patent: 5920826 (1999-07-01), Metso et al.
patent: 6084951 (2000-07-01), Smith et al.
Eisenzopf Reinhard J.
Ericsson Inc.
Jenkens & Gilchrist P.C.
Mehvpour N.
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