Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail
Reexamination Certificate
1997-07-29
2001-11-06
Vo, Nguyen T. (Department: 2682)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at same station
Radiotelephone equipment detail
C455S554100, C455S557000, C455S573000, C455S575100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06314303
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to an apparatus that provides enhanced functionality for a mobile station. More particularly, the present invention is directed to an apparatus that provides a base unit to which a mobile station can be coupled to increase the functionality of the mobile station in accordance with features available in the base unit.
The communications industry continues to see explosive growth in the area of wireless communications. Such communications have a number of advantages including the fact that wireless communications do not require the same amount of infrastructure for installation as do wired communication networks. Also, wireless communications lend themselves to the use of mobile stations which can be moved throughout a service area.
As wireless systems have become more and more prominent, their uses in different contexts have also been considered. As an example, it has already been disclosed to provide a wireless communication system that corresponds to the functionality of equipment commonly referred to as PBXs or private branch exchanges. Examples of prior art wireless PBX configurations are illustrated in
FIG. 1 and 2
.
For instance, a station in a wireless PBX environment may be a mobile station such as
10
in FIG.
1
. The mobile station could be moved throughout the area (such as a building or campus) serviced by the wireless PBX which could in turn provide certain PBX functionality to the various stations. An alternative configuration is represented in
FIG. 2
where a PBX featured desk-set phone,
20
, that is not intended to be fully mobile can also communicate via wireless links with a wireless PBX,
21
, to provide PBX functionality. An example of such a desk set is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,401 to Thompson.
The above two configurations have limitations, however. In the first system the nature of the handheld device
10
in providing a smaller size to facilitate portability results in a rather limited feature set which can be made available through the handheld device that interacts with the wireless PBX. Also, that feature set tends to be a static feature set defined for the handset. The desk-set configuration has its own limitations in that while it may have sufficient additional memory and processing capability to provide a full complement of PBX functions, it does not have the mobility that the stations or devices of
FIG. 1
have because it must include extra processing and memory to be able to provide the full feature set of functions.
It would be advantageous if an apparatus was provided that enabled both a full PBX feature set and yet provided some degree of mobility, thus improving on the configurations of FIG.
1
and FIG.
2
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an improvement to the known configurations by providing a mobile station that has a first feature set and which is to be in communication with the wireless switch and by providing an additional desk-set enhancement module or base unit that can be coupled to the mobile station and enhance the functionality of the mobile station in its communication via the wireless switch.
In an embodiment of the present invention the base unit includes a cradle that has a mobile station interface that provides electrical connections to a mobile station. The base unit further includes a processor which is coupled to the cradle to permit communications and the flow of control signals from the base unit to the mobile station. A transceiver in the mobile station is used as the communication device when the mobile station is either in the cradle or out of the cradle. A function memory is coupled to the processor in the base unit and provides the capability of enhancing the functionality of the mobile station by providing additional functions in interaction with the wireless switch. These functions could be a more complete set of PBX functions.
The base unit of the present invention could further include a display coupled to the processor and a keypad coupled to the processor to provide the user with visual cues and the ability to provide key-input control information. Also, the base unit may include a microphone and speaker combination that provides hands-free telephony and/or the processor could be coupled to a handset to provide more private communications.
The present invention provides the advantage that the user retains a certain function set capability while having mobility with respect to a wireless switch and can enhance the functionality available through the wireless switch by coupling the mobile station to a base unit that has an interface designed to receive and communicate with the mobile station.
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AT&T Wireless Services Inc.
Kenyon & Kenyon
Nguyen Duc
Vo Nguyen T.
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