Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system
Reexamination Certificate
1996-01-26
2002-10-08
Cumming, William (Department: 2684)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Reexamination Certificate
active
06463270
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless communications and, more particularly, to a method and device for identifying the location of subscriber information for a portable communications device (such as a portable telephone) user using a non-geographic number as the only identifying information.
2. Discussion of Background Art
Most wireline telephone numbers are geographic telephone numbers. For example, a fixed communications device, such as a wireline telephone, facsimile (fax) machine, personal computer or the like, has a telephone number with an area code. The area code and the next three numbers of the telephone number (the exchange) contain geographic location information to allow a call directed to the geographic number to be properly channeled through the long distance telephone lines (which may be owned and/or operated by a long distance service provider) to the proper local telephone lines (which may be owned and/or operated by a different, local telephone service provider).
Many wireless communications devices, such as cellular telephones, also have geographic telephone numbers. Because the communications device is portable, it may not always be located in the geographic area indicated by the area code. The exchange may identify a wireless communications service provider. These geographic telephone numbers do, however, provide sufficient information about the wireless subscriber to successfully connect a call.
FIG. 1
is a greatly simplified illustration of a wireless communications network, called a Personal Communications System (PCS) network
100
. The PCS is similar to other types of wireless networks and is described to provide background to the following discussion of the invention; it is not intended by any means to limit the invention to use with PCS systems. Indeed, a person skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the invention may be used in many types of communications systems and is particularly suitable for use in wireless communications systems. The PCS
100
includes a signaling network
102
, which supports a switched communications network. A switched communications network may be, for example, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) or an Integrated Signaling Digital Network (ISDN). The signaling network
102
is connected to a wireless communications system
104
.
An illustrative signaling network
102
includes (among other things) a network database
105
, which may be a service control point (SCP). A database called a Home Location Register (HLR)
106
is part of the signaling network. The HLR
106
is connected via link
108
to a Regional Signaling Transfer Point (RSTP)
110
. The RSTP
110
is connected via a number of links
112
to several Local Signaling Transfer Points (LSTPs)
114
. Each LSTP
114
is connected via a number of local links
116
to a number of switches such as Service Switching Points (SSP)
118
. The SSP
118
connects to customer premises to provide for premises equipment, such as a wireline telephone
120
. An SSP
118
may also connect to one or more Wireless Switching Centers (WSC), Mobile Switching Centers (MSC), or Radio Port Control Units (RPCU)
122
, which are part of the wireless communications system
104
. The WSC (or MSC or RPCU)
122
is connected to a number of Base Stations (BS) (or Radio Ports (RP))
124
, which monitor a “cell” (or “coverage area”)
126
. One or more WSC
122
are connected to a second database called the Visiting Location Register (VLR)
128
.
The HLR
106
contains a database maintained by a user's local telecommunications service provider at the user's home location. This database includes information about the user, called the user profile. The VLR
128
is maintained by a telecommunications service provider at the location the portable device user and portable device
130
are visiting. The portable device
130
may be a wireless telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA) having wireless communication applications, or other device. The VLR
128
stores a subset of the HLR
106
user information, and records that the portable device
130
is currently located in the area serviced by that VLR. The HLR
106
keeps a record of the VLR in which the portable device is currently located. When the portable device
130
travels to an area covered by a different WSC
122
, the device is registered in the new WSC
122
. The new location is stored in the VLR
128
. If the portable device
130
travels to an area covered by another VLR
128
, the subset of the HLR
106
data stored in the previous VLR is transferred to the new VLR. The location of the new VLR is stored in the HLR and the previous VLR location is deleted from the HLR
106
.
Wireless communications services are provided by wireless communications service providers, which may or may not also be local telephone service providers. Some wireless services, such as proposed PCS service, do not use geographic telephone numbers. Such telephone numbers, called non-geographic (tele)phone numbers or NGPN, do not contain the information identifying the subscriber's signaling network database, which contains, for example, the service provider's HLR containing the subscriber's user profile. They also do not contain the information necessary to identify the service provider serving that subscriber, from which the identity of the signaling network database may be obtained.
Each wireless service provider may have one or more HLRs. Moreover, a service provider may need to add HLRs as it obtains additional subscribers when the current HLR(s) have run out of storage space or the current HLR(s) cannot efficiently process information for all of the subscribers contained in the existing HLRs. Also, a service provider may have HLRs located in a number of geographic locations to reduce communications costs to subscribers having home locations in those geographic regions.
One currently proposed manner in which the appropriate signaling network database is identified from a NGPN is Global Title Translation (GTT). GTT is performed by the local and regional signaling transfer points and translates a subscriber's NGPN to the identity of the appropriate HLR
106
for that subscriber. These signaling transfer points' main function is to handle call setup and calls. Use of the LSTP and RSTP resources to perform the NGPN translation ties up valuable signaling resources.
In addition to the drawback of STP resource usage, GTT may not be practical in future communications systems. This is because future communications systems may use asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks as the wireline communications network. GTT may not be used because an ATM network will use the same physical network for transmitting signaling messages used to set up calls and for transmitting the calls themselves. (Currently, signaling messages are sent on a signaling network separate from the voice trunk network.) Because the same network will be used for call set up and the actual data transmission, signaling transfer points will not be used in the network, and therefore GTT will not be available.
NGPN translation may be required in many situations. Three of these situations are:
(1) When a subscriber travels from an area covered by a first VLR into an area covered by a second VLR, the HLR must be updated so that calls may be routed to the proper location. The subscriber's HLR needs to be identified in order to update the user profile.
(2) When a call is directed to the subscriber having a NGPN, the translation is used to locate the HLR so that (a) the portable device may be located, and (b) call delivery options—such as call forwarding or call screening—may be obtained.
3) When a subscriber having a NGPN. originates (places) a call, the translation may be used to identify the subscriber's HLR so that authentication information and service profile information (such as billing information, long distance carrier, etc.) may be obtained.
The NGPN translation process is initiated
Chang Li-Fung
Jain Ravi Kumar
Rajagopalan Subhashini
Cumming William
Giordano Joseph
Telcordia Technologies Inc.
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