Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Security or fraud prevention
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-31
2001-07-24
Cumming, William (Department: 2684)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Security or fraud prevention
C455S426100, C455S445000, C455S456500, C455S518000, C379S265080, C370S441000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06266526
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for using a mobile switching center (hereinafter, MSC) having a large capacity, and in particular to a method for multiple service providers to use a single MSC in common.
2. Background
As depicted to
FIG. 1
, a conventional MSC is composed of: 1) a speech path unit including a plurality of subscriber modules
11
a-
11
n
for connecting subscriber lines, trunk modules
13
a-
13
n
for connecting a plurality of trunks, and a switch module
12
for switching the speech path; and 2) a control unit including a speech path control equipment (SPCE)
14
for controlling the speech path, performing operations such as connection and release.
Nearly all conventional MSCs operate according to international standards, so the basic functions inside mobile communication (hereinafter, MC) networks are implemented so that they may be commonly used by all service providers.
Each conventional MSC has a call-processing module, referring to FIG.
2
. The call processing module must differ for each service provider according to the different set of provider policies and strategies for functions such as: processing method for authentication failure and denied authorization; usage of greeting announcements; usage of leased lines; usage of exclusive trunks for specific called numbers according to the specific service provider; usage of hot lines; presence of Customer Information Center (CIC); and the billing format. Accordingly, a service provider must possess exclusive usage of an MSC.
Therefore, regardless of the MSC equipment capacity of one service provider, other service providers have no choice but to install a separate MSC. In cases where subscribers belonging to a certain service provider are concentrated abnormally in a certain area and in a certain condition, communication service is limited by the service provider's MSC equipment capacity, though there may be ample resources available on other MSCs located in the same area belonging to other service providers.
Additionally, conventional MSCs perform call processing, trunk connections and announcement services indiscriminately in order according to the called number, regardless of the service provider to which the caller belongs. In other words, due to the fact that call-processing procedures are performed in an indiscriminate fashion in an MSC while the network operating policies of service providers vary from one another, it has not been possible for multiple service providers to use a common MSC.
SUMMARY
The objective of this invention is to provide a method for common usage of an MSC among multiple service providers. The method is achieved through taking into account both the call group (CG), i.e. the service provider of the caller, and the called number in the processing of services.
In order to achieve this, the present invention provides a method for the common usage of an MSC, which consist of:
identification of the CG of the caller;
reception of the called number, and authentication and authorization of the caller;
identification of the predefined handling method of the corresponding CG in cases of failures in authentication/authorization and execution of identified method;
determination of predefined announcements according to CG, connection of announcement to the caller, and connection to a certain trunk of the corresponding CG regardless of a called number which is dialed by the caller, by searching a predefined trunk;
call processing according to the outgoing trunk selected from determination of local termination, pre-assigned number according to CG or result of number translation on the called number;
determination of CIC connection requirement, searching the CIC number for the corresponding CG of caller, and connection/termination to CIC; and
identification of a maintenance and administration function according to CG, and execution of billing and statistics procedures according to the format for the corresponding CG.
The invention also provides a method for the common usage of an MSC, regarding the treatment of callers according to CG for occurrences of failure in the authentication/authorization process listed above, which consists of:
identification of announcements according to CG and connection of the announcement to the caller;
identification of hotline numbers according to CG and connection of the hotline to the caller; and
Connection of default announcement provided by MSC regardless of the caller's CG.
This invention also provides a method for the common usage of an MSC, regarding callers associated with a CG for which announcements are not required in the process for determination of predefined announcement listed above, which consists of:
identification of pre-assigned trunk and determination of whether or not routing through the pre-assigned trunk should be performed according to CG, and routing unconditionally through the identified trunk regardless of the dialed number.
This invention also provides a method for the common usage of an MSC, regarding selection of outgoing trunk from number translation on the called number in the call processing/outgoing trunk selection process listed above, which consists of:
call processing according to identification/selection of outgoing route according to CG and the called number, in cases where the service provider requires connection through a specific outgoing route among multiple outgoing routes designated to the CF, and
identification and connection of CIC allocated according to CG, for callers associated with a CG requiring CIC connection, on occurrences of special conditions during call process.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5717830 (1998-02-01), Sigler et al.
patent: 5737701 (1998-04-01), Rosenthal et al.
patent: 5797100 (1998-08-01), Dettner
patent: 5841854 (1998-11-01), Schumacher et al.
patent: 5914958 (1999-06-01), Chinitz et al.
patent: 5924041 (1999-07-01), Alperovich et al.
patent: 6011975 (2000-01-01), Emery et al.
patent: 6064887 (2000-05-01), Kallioniemi
patent: 727914 (1996-08-01), None
Cumming William
LG Information & Communications Ltd.
Long Aldridge & Norman LLP
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