Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Zoned or cellular telephone system
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-04
2004-04-13
Le, Thanh Cong (Department: 2684)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Zoned or cellular telephone system
C455S423000, C701S035000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06721558
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for updating system configuration information, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for automatically determining information, such as type and version information, related to hardware installed on remote equipment, such as a cell station.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1
illustrates a conventional cellular telephone system
100
. The cellular telephone system
100
includes a central control station
200
that interconnects the cellular telephone system
100
with any suitable telephone switching system, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
120
, and one or more cell stations
300
. The cell stations
300
are generally remote from the central control station
200
and are typically placed throughout a cellular telephone service area. Telephone calls may be selectively placed by the central control station
200
between standard land line telephone subscribers of the PSTN
140
and a cellular telephone unit
130
or directly between two cellular telephone units
130
, in a known manner. For a more detailed description of a suitable cellular telephone system
100
, see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,554, incorporated by reference herein.
The central control station
200
typically performs a number of conventional functions, including supervision and control; assigning telephone calls to the appropriate cell stations
300
; and switching functions to interconnect callers. Each cell station
300
includes equipment to serve a plurality of cellular telephone units
130
simultaneously placing or receiving telephone calls. Thus, the cell stations
300
each include a plurality of transmitters and receivers (or transceivers). Likewise, each cellular telephone unit
130
includes a transmitter and a receiver (or a transceiver), tuned to the respective transmit and receive frequency of an assigned communication channel.
In order for a cell station
300
to perform required functions, the cell station
300
typically incorporates various pieces of hardware equipment. The same cell station
300
, for example, might include a set of time division multiplex access (TDMA) transceivers and a set of code division multiplex access (CDMA) transceivers, each for communicating with different classes of cellular telephone units
130
, and other hardware equipment, such as control and timing boards, in a known manner. In addition, the same cell station
300
might include a plurality of time division multiplex access (TDMA) transceivers, for example, each having a potentially different manufacturer, model number or version. Furthermore, in the event of a failure or when routine servicing is required, a given piece of hardware on a cell station
300
might be suddenly replaced by a compatible piece of hardware, having a different manufacturer, model number or version.
In order for the central control station
200
to properly communicate with and supervise each of the various remote cell stations
300
and its various included hardware components, however, the system configuration information stored by the central control station
200
must match the physical hardware elements that are actually installed on each cell station
300
. Some systems for determining system configuration information, however, including type and version information of hardware installed on remote wireless equipment, are labor-intensive and require considerable manual effort. Specifically, an operator at the central control station
200
typically manually enters the type and version information for all hardware installed on a given remote cell station
300
As apparent from the above-described deficiencies with conventional techniques for obtaining system configuration information, a need exists for an automated technique for automatically determining system configuration information, including the type and version of hardware installed on remote equipment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Generally, according to one aspect of the invention, a technique is disclosed for automatically determining system configuration information, including the type and version of hardware installed on remote equipment, such as a cell station. According to a further aspect of the present invention, a modified central control station communicates with each remote cell station to perform an iterative system configuration process that progressively refines the system configuration information, until the actual installed system configuration is obtained, or until manual intervention is required.
The system configuration process initially assumes a system configuration having the cell station fully installed with a default hardware component. The default “guess” configuration is sent to the cell station. A default message is then sent to the cell station which, in turn, queries each of the hardware components for their associated type and version. The cell station communicates with the installed hardware utilizing a conventional message protocol associated with the default hardware component. The responses from the actual installed hardware components are collected by the cell station and returned to the central control station. The returned responses provide information that can be used by the central control station to ascertain the type and version of each hardware component actually installed. The assumed system configuration is refined over a number of iterations, until the system configuration is obtained, or until manual intervention is required. In this manner, the system configuration process can obtain the system configuration over a number of iterations, with little, if any, manual involvement.
A more complete understanding of the present invention, as well as further features and advantages of the present invention, will be obtained by reference to the following detailed description and drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5786998 (1998-07-01), Neeson et al.
patent: 5878209 (1999-03-01), Manssen
patent: 5929848 (1999-07-01), Albukerk et al.
Paul McFedries, Windows 95 Unleashed, Professional Reference Edition, 327-29 (Sams Publishing 1997).
Windows NT Server, Plug and Play for Windows NT 5.0, White Paper, Microsoft Corp., downloaded from http://home.miningco.com (1997).
Cong Le Thanh
Gantt Alan T.
Lucent Technologies - Inc.
Ryan & Mason & Lewis, LLP
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