Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Auxiliary data signaling
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-01
2001-01-16
Maung, Nay (Department: 2744)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Auxiliary data signaling
C455S566000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06175743
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications systems and methods for delivering Short Message Service (SMS) messages, and specifically to allowing a SMS message to be received by a specified group of subscribers.
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 in use today, and described in more detail herein.
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 Services 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 area
12
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
13
, or other memory, which provides storage of subscriber related information, such as a subscriber authentication key, temporary network data, and service related data (e.g. 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 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 base transceiver stations
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 Mobile Stations
20
currently located within the MSC/VLR area
12
. If a MS
20
roams into a new MSC/VLR area
12
, the VLR
16
connected to that MSC
14
will request data about that Mobile Station
20
from the HLR database
26
(simultaneously informing the HLR
26
about the current location of the MS
20
). 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 VILR and HLR databases
16
and
26
, respectively, contain various subscriber information associated with a given MS
20
.
With reference now to
FIG. 2
of the drawings, text messages, containing up to 160 alpha numerical characters, can be sent to and from MSs
200
, using the Short Message Service (SMS)
210
. SMS
210
utilizes a Service Center
220
, which stores and forwards short messages to MSs
200
. A SMS
210
message can be sent from the Service Center
220
to the MS
200
or from the MS
200
to the Service Center
220
.
The mobile terminated SMS
210
transfers a short message from the Service Center
220
to the MS
200
. In addition, information about the delivery of the short message is returned to the Service Center
220
. This information is either a delivery report, which confirms the delivery of the message to a recipient, or a failure report, which informs the originator that the short message was not delivered and the reason why. If the information is a failure report, the originator has the ability to order retransmission later.
A mobile terminated SMS message
210
typically originates by a user
240
sending a message to the Service Center
220
, which then forwards the message to the SMS Gateway Mobile Switching Center (SMS-GMSC)
250
. Thereafter, the SMS-GMSC
250
interrogates the HLR
260
for routing information pertaining to the designated MS
200
. The HLR
260
returns this routing information to the SMS-GMSC
250
, which can then route the message to the MSC/VLR
270
serving the location area (LA)
205
that the MS
200
is in. If the MS
200
is in IDLE mode (not in use), the MS
200
is paged, and a connection is set up between the MS
200
and the network
270
, as in the normal call setup case. The MSC/VLR
270
then delivers the SMS message
210
to the MS
200
. SMS messages
210
are preferably transmitted on the allocated signaling channel. However, if the MS
200
is in busy mode (in use), the SMS message
210
will be transmitted on the Slow Associated Control Channel (SACCH). In that case, no paging, call setup, or authentication need to be performed.
After the MSC/VLR
270
sends the SMS message
210
to the MS, a delivery report is sent from the serving MSC/VLR
270
to the Service Center
220
. If delivery of the SMS message
210
was not successful, the HLR
260
is informed, and a failure report is sent to the Service Center
220
. In addition, if the delivery was unsuccessful, a Messages Waiting service
215
within the Service Center
220
can optionally provide the HLR
260
and the serving MSC/VLR
270
with the information that there is a message in the originating Service Center
220
waiting to be delivered to the MS
200
. Once the MS
200
becomes available for receipt of the SMS message
210
, the HLR
260
informs the Service Center
220
and the SMS message
210
is sent again. The mobile terminated SMS message
210
can be input to the Service Center
220
by a variety of sources, e.g., speech, telex or facsimile.
A mobile originated SMS message can also be submitted by the MS
200
to the Service Center
220
. The MS
200
first establishes a connection to the network (serving MSC/VLR
270
), as in the case of a normal call setup. However, it should be noted that if the MS is in busy mode, a connection already exists. Once a connection is made with the serving MSC/VLR
270
and the authentication of MS
200
is confirmed, the MS
200
can send the SMS message to the Service Center
220
via the serving MSC/VLR
270
. The Service Center
220
in turn forwards the SMS message
210
to its destination, which could be another MS
240
or a user in the fixed network (not shown), the former of which is illustrated in FIG.
2
. Once the SMS message
210
is delivered to the end user
240
, either a delivery report or a failure report is sent to the Service center
220
.
The SMS messages
210
can currently be sent point-to point, e.g., from one subscriber to another subscriber, or can be broadcast to all subscribers in a cell
208
. This latter method of delivery does not differentiate between particular groups of subscribers, as all subscribers within the cell
208
are treated as one group. Thus, many subscribers do not use SMS
210
to send messages to a particular
Alperovich Vladimir
Valentine Eric
Ericsson Inc.
Jenkens & Gilchrist P.C.
Maung Nay
Vuong Quochien B.
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