Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Zoned or cellular telephone system
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-05
2001-02-13
Hunter, Daniel S. (Department: 2749)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Zoned or cellular telephone system
C455S458000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06188901
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a call destination number conversion system, and more particularly to a call destination number conversion system which offers representative phone number connection services in mobile radio communications, including cellular and cordless systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a mobile communications system, representative phone number connection services permit a caller to reach a member of a specific subscriber group by simply dialing the group's representative number, without the need for knowing the member's individual phone number. To make this service feature available, a representative number is previously assigned to a plurality of subscriber terminals, in addition to their own individual phone numbers in such a way that the representative number will be unique within a predivided geographical zone. When a mobile user has dialed such a representative phone number to initiate a call from a certain predivided zone, the system automatically identifies and calls up a subscriber terminal that resides in the same zone and is associated with the representative phone number that he/she dialed.
Suppose, for instance, that a certain company has a plurality of branch offices at many places in the country. More specifically, think of convenience stores operating under a franchise arrangement, or auto shops and body shops affiliated with a particular automobile manufacturer, and assume that there is a user of a mobile station who wishes to make a contact with someone in such a shop or branch office. In an attempt to call the nearest shop or office, he/she now dials a representative number of the company, without knowing the actual phone numbers of that particular shop or office. The representative phone number connection service then connects him/her to the desired place.
In such a service, a single common representative number has to be preassigned to the subscriber terminals at the branch offices, while each terminal has its own phone number. The relationships between this representative phone number and corresponding individual phone numbers are managed in a database, separately for each different geographical region. When a mobile station initiates a call by using the representative phone number, it is transferred to a mobile services switching center (MSC) via a base station. The MSC then makes access to the above database to retrieve the phone number of a subscriber terminal that is relevant to the representative phone number and location data received from the mobile station. Now that the individual phone number is obtained, the MSC sets up a connection between the mobile station and the subscriber terminal. As such, the knowledge of a common, nation-wide representative phone number permits the mobile user to call up the nearest branch office of the company, wherever he/she may be in the country.
The aforementioned database, however, tends to increase in volume, because it generally has to serve for a wide coverage area, and this results in higher equipment costs. Although this problem could be avoided by limiting the size of the database, it would impose more stringent restriction on the allowable number of subscriber terminals per representative number. In other words, it would be difficult to divide the coverage area into smaller segments to allow more subscriber terminals to share a common representative phone number. This spoils flexibility of the service.
Further, in conventional systems, the MSC has to examine each phone number received from mobile stations as to whether it is a representative phone number, and if so, the MSC has to generate a query to the database to retrieve a relevant destination phone number to which the call should be connected. This leads to a concern that such processing burden could cause degradation in the throughput and/or reliability of mobile communications systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Taking the above into consideration, an object of the present invention is to provide a call destination number conversion system which enables reduction in equipment costs, throughput enhancement in a mobile communications system, and improvement in representative phone number connection services.
To accomplish the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a call destination number conversion system for use in a mobile communications system to provide a representative phone number connection service which permits a user of a mobile station to reach, by simply dialing a representative phone number, a specific subscriber terminal located within a predivided zone where the mobile station stays, the representative phone number being previously assigned to the plurality of subscriber terminals each having an individual phone number, in such a way that the representative phone number will be uniquely associated with one individual phone number within each predivided zone. This call destination number conversion system comprises the following elements:
a notification unit, disposed in a base station, for notifying the mobile station of the representative phone number and the individual phone number of a subscriber terminal that is associated with the representative phone number and is located in the same predivided zone as the base station resides;
a storage unit, disposed in the mobile station, for storing the representative and individual phone numbers notified from the notification unit;
a reading unit, disposed in the mobile station, for searching the storage unit upon receipt of the representative phone number that the mobile user has dialed in an attempt to initiate a call from the mobile station, and reading out the individual phone number that is associated with the representative phone number; and
a call request unit, disposed in the mobile station, for sending a call setup request to the base station, specifying as a call destination number the individual phone number read out by the reading unit.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred embodiments of the present invention by way of example.
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patent: 5953673 (1999-09-01), Neubauer
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patent: 5970417 (1999-10-01), Toyryla
patent: 800 320 (1997-10-01), None
patent: 2309617 (1997-07-01), None
patent: 9009354 (1997-01-01), None
Corsaro Nick
Fujitsu Limited
Helfgott & Karas P.C.
Hunter Daniel S.
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