Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-30
2001-11-13
Hunter, Daniel (Department: 2746)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at same station
Radiotelephone equipment detail
C455S422100, C455S445000, C455S517000, C455S428000, C455S015000, C455S016000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06317609
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications systems and methods for transmission of digital images from a mobile station within a cellular network, and specifically to the transmission of digital images obtained by a digital camera associated with a mobile station in association with a call connection.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
Cellular telecommunications is one of the fastest growing and most demanding telecommunications applications. 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 wireless network
10
, which in turn is composed of a plurality of areas
12
, each with a Mobile Services 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 area
12
that controls the LA
18
. Each Location Area
18
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 wireless network
10
, each other, and users outside the subscribed network, both wireline and wireless.
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 wireless 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 VLR
16
connected to that MSC
14
will request data about that MS
20
from its home 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 home 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
.
When an MS
20
places a call to a subscriber, for example, another mobile subscriber (not shown) the MS
20
sends a call setup request along with the dialed B-number associated with the called mobile subscriber to the serving MSC/VLR
14
/
16
. The MSC/VLR
14
/
16
requests the BSC
23
to allocate a free traffic channel, which is forwarded to the BTS
24
and the MS
20
to activate the allocated traffic channel. The MSC/VLR
14
/
16
queries the HLR (not shown) associated with the called mobile subscriber to determine the MSC/VLR (not shown) currently serving the called mobile subscriber. The MSC/VLR
14
/
16
forwards the call to the MSC/VLR serving the called mobile subscriber to establish a call connection between the MS
20
and the called mobile subscriber.
With the advent of Internet telephony services, a mobile subscriber now can choose to route a wireless call either through the traditional cellular network, as described hereinabove, or through the Internet. The Internet is based on the Internet Protocol (IP), which was developed as a standard protocol to allow different types of computers to exchange electronic mail and other files over a network. The IP specifies the addressing of nodes on the Internet and provides a method of sending packets of data from one node to another. The data is routed in datagrams and is transmitted using connection-less network services. Therefore, IP does not guarantee the reliable delivery of the data or the sequencing of the datagram.
Hence, an upper layer, such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) must provide this function. TCP connection-oriented services provide reliable delivery of data between the nodes by establishing a connection before the applications send data. Thus, TCP guarantees that the data is error free and in sequence. Alternatively, another upper layer, User Datagram Protocol (UDP), can be used by various applications, such as voice applications, to send messages where the integrity of the data is not as important. It should be noted that speech is not routed using the more reliable TCP/IP.
As shown in
FIG. 2
of the drawings, in order to use Internet telephony services, the calling mobile station
20
a
dials a special number, which indicates to the serving MSC/VLR
14
a
that the call should be routed to an Internet Gateway
220
. This Internet Gateway
220
then obtains the B-number for the called mobile station
20
b
, converts this dialed B-number into an IP address and encapsulates this dialed B-number into an IP datagram. The Internet Gateway
220
routes the call through the Internet
230
using the IP address to a Gateway Mobile Switching Center (GMSC)
240
serving the home PLMN
10
b
of the called mobile station
20
b
. It should be understood that the IP address consists of the IP address of the GMSC
240
. The GMSC
240
extracts the dialed B-number and queries the HLR
26
b
for routing information for the MSC/VLR
14
b
serving the called mobile station
20
b
. The GMSC
240
then routes the call to the serving MSC/VLR
14
b
of the called mobile station
20
b
to establish a call connection. Speech can then be transmitted between the calling mobile station
20
a
and called mobile station
20
b
through the Internet
230
via UDP/IP.
With reference again to
FIG. 1
of the drawings, in addition to the advances in Internet telephony, MSs
20
now have the capability to take pictures with digital cameras (not shown) either attached to the MS
20
or included within the MS
20
. The MS
20
can send these captured digital images (not shown) along with voice communications through the cellular network
10
and/or the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) (not shown) to a receiving terminal, e.g., another MS
20
or multimedia device, for display and storage of the digital image.
However, the transmission of large amounts of data through these circuit switched networks, e.g., the cellular
10
and PSTN networks, can undesirably increase the load on the networks
10
, which can affect the quality of the received digital picture. In addition, the calling MS
20
must first establish a call connection with the called party prior to sending the digital image. This can increase the time necessary for uploading the digital image from the MS
20
to the cellular network
10
and for transporting this image to the called party. Furthermore, during the time the called party is waiting
Alperovich Vladimir
Evanyk Walt
Valentine Eric
Ericsson Inc.
Hunter Daniel
Jenkens & Gilchrist P.C.
Woldetatios Yemane
LandOfFree
System and method for transporting digital speech and... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with System and method for transporting digital speech and..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and System and method for transporting digital speech and... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2582735