Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Usage measurement
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-17
2002-12-10
Chin, Vivian (Department: 2682)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Usage measurement
C455S407000, C455S550100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06493547
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to communications systems, and more particularly, to apparatus and methods for providing information to users of wireless communications services.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Wireless communications systems are commonly employed to provide voice and data communications to subscribers. For example, analog cellular radiotelephone systems, such as those designated AMPS, ETACS, NMT-450, and NMT-900, have long been deployed successfully throughout the world. Digital cellular radiotelephone systems such as those conforming to the North American standard IS-54 (superseded by IS-136) and the European standard GSM have been in service since the early 1990's. More recently, a wide variety of wireless digital services broadly labeled as PCS (Personal Communications Services) have been introduced, including advanced digital cellular systems conforming to standards such as IS-136 and IS-95, lower-power systems such as DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephone) and data communications services such as CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data). These and other systems are described in
The Mobile Communications Handbook
, edited by Gibson and published by CRC Press (1996).
FIG. 1
illustrates a typical terrestrial cellular radiotelephone communication system
20
. The cellular radiotelephone system
20
may include one or more radiotelephones (terminals)
22
, communicating with a plurality of cells
24
served by base stations
26
and a mobile telephone switching office (MTSO)
28
. Although only three cells
24
are shown in
FIG. 1
, a typical cellular network may include hundreds of cells, may include more than one MTSO, and may serve thousands of radiotelephones.
The cells
24
generally serve as nodes in the communication system
20
, from which links are established between radiotelephones
22
and the MTSO
28
, by way of the base stations
26
serving the cells
24
. Each cell
24
will have allocated to it one or more dedicated control channels and one or more traffic channels. A control channel is a dedicated channel used for transmitting cell identification and paging information. The traffic channels carry the voice and data information. Through the cellular network
20
, a duplex radio communication link
30
may be effected between two mobile terminals
22
or between a mobile terminal
22
and a landline telephone user
32
through a public switched telephone network (PSTN)
34
. The function of a base station
26
is to handle radio communication between a cell
24
and mobile terminals
22
. In this capacity, a base station
26
functions as a relay station for data and voice signals.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that “cells” may have configurations other than the omnidirectional cells
24
illustrated in FIG.
1
. For example, the coverage areas conceptually illustrated as a hexagonally-shaped area served by a base station
26
may actually be subdivided into three sectors using separate directional antennas mounted at the base station
26
, with the sector antenna having patterns extending in three different directions. Each of these sectors may itself be considered a “cell.” As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, other cell configurations are also possible, including, for example, overlaid cells, microcells, picocells and the like.
As illustrated in
FIG. 2
, a satellite
42
may be employed to perform similar functions to those performed by a conventional terrestrial base station, for example, to serve areas in which population is sparsely distributed or which have rugged topography that tends to make conventional landline telephone or terrestrial cellular telephone infrastructure technically or economically impractical. A satellite radiotelephone system
40
typically includes one or more satellites
42
that serve as relays or transponders between one or more earth stations
44
and terminals
23
. The satellite conveys radiotelephone communications over duplex links
46
to terminals
23
and an earth station
44
. The earth station
44
may in turn be connected to a public switched telephone network
34
, allowing communications between satellite radiotelephones, and communications between satellite radio telephones and conventional terrestrial cellular radiotelephones or landline telephones. The satellite radiotelephone system
40
may utilize a single antenna beam covering the entire area. served by the system, or, as shown, the satellite may be designed such that it produces multiple minimally-overlapping beams
48
, each serving distinct geographical overage areas
50
in the system's service region. The coverage areas
50
serve a similar function to the cells
24
of the terrestrial cellular system
20
of FIG.
1
.
The use of wireless communications systems has rapidly grown, spurred by the availability of less expensive user terminals, the introduction of easier-to-understand billing plans, and an overall reduction in billing rates. These and other features have helped increase the worldwide population of wireless users to over 300 million.
In many countries, licenses to operate wireless communications systems are granted on a countrywide basis. However, in the United States and a few other countries, licenses to blocks of spectrum have been granted on a regional basis, resulting in the concepts of “home” and “roaming” areas. Although consolidation of the telecommunications industry has resulted in the concentration of these regional licenses into the hands of a smaller number of large operators, these artificial regional boundaries still exist. Their presence has made it difficult to provide seamless operation across the boundaries, often making wireless usage problematic for traveling users.
The cost of roaming in the United States has traditionally been relatively high. Unlike in many countries where the cost of a call is independent of where the call is placed or received, the cost of calls in the United States can be variable and unpredictable. A user may be charged a daily roaming charge when he activates himself on the roaming (visited) network. Long distance charges may be added for calls made to destinations outside the visited system's “local” area, which typically is defined differently than the coverage area of the system's operator. Daily charges may be applied when roaming in a network outside of one's home network. Because of these and other difficulties, users frequently turn off their terminals when not placing a call, particularly when traveling.
Techniques have been developed to deal with the aforementioned problems. For example, systems conforming to the GSM and ANSI 136 cellular standards provide for a Charge Rate Indication (CRI) that allows the system operator to inform a user of the per minute cost of a call the user has requested the system to place. In GSM, for example, this feature can be used to provide prospective estimates of charges to users that are traveling across national boundaries, with the charge estimate being provided in the user's home currency. A motivation for provision of CRI in ANSI 136 was to support wireless pay phone systems. The user of CRI can reduce cost uncertainty, but requires support in the cellular network. Generally, operators have little incentive to provide such information to users, as roaming charges represent a significant source of revenue.
Another approach to monitoring costs is to use a so-called “prepaid” package. In a typical prepaid package, a user purchases a fixed amount of wireless services, e.g., a fixed number of call minutes. In some systems, the user can call an operator to determine the number of prepaid minutes remaining on his or her package. The system may respond with a computerized voice message or an alphanumeric message that is transmitted to the user.
Other calling plans have been developed that remove some of the uncertainty involved in roaming. Many operators offer package rates, wherein a subscriber pays a fixed monthly charge for a predetermined number of minutes of cal
Chin Vivian
Ericsson Inc.
Moore James K
Myers Bigel & Sibley & Sajovec
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