Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at separate stations
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-27
2001-02-27
Tsang, Fan (Department: 2746)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at separate stations
C455S412100, C455S039000, C340S870030
Reexamination Certificate
active
06195533
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to wireless messaging systems in general and, in particular, to methods for tracking information in wireless messaging systems.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Wireless messaging systems such as paging systems have undergone significant changes in the past 20 years. Early paging units were simple radio receivers that beeped upon receipt of a paging signal from a paging service. With advancements in paging technology, it became possible to send message data to a paging unit. This message data could include alphanumeric messages. For example, a paging message could tell the user to call home, call the office, stop by the dry cleaners, etc. An increasing percentage of the information transmitted through these paging systems began coming from computerized sources, rather than through telephone numeric keypad entry. Such messages were entered as text into specialized computer programs that were only used for sending messages to pagers.
More recently, paging devices have been undergoing a revolution. New features in pagers include the ability to: accept binary data as well as text or numbers; transmit messages back to the caller; and be embedded into machines, such as a vending machine that can signal a home base on its own initiative when it is in need of servicing. Now technology is being developed to allow paging messages to come from sources such as E-mail or the World Wide Web.
In order for a separate system such as E-mail or the World Wide Web to be connected to a wireless messaging infrastructure that is used by the paging system, a computer software application must be developed to facilitate the flow of information between the two systems. The computer software application is run on an application platform that includes all of the hardware and supplemental software needed to run the application. Developers who wish to write such applications face many obstacles. For example, to write an application a developer may be required to know all of the coding formats that are being used over the air in the wireless messaging system and the types of pagers that are being used. Additional complexity has been added by the vast numbers of existing programs, computer platforms, and user interfaces that currently exist for paging systems.
While solutions have been developed for many of these problems, one problem in particular that has plagued application developers has been the task of developing application databases. Application databases are included in the application platform and store information required by the application; for example, a given application may need access to message information such as: the date and time that a paging call came in; the identity of a caller; the type of call (such as an E-mail page request or other); the page priority requested by the caller; or the text of the page request. Such information can be used by the application for whatever purposes the developer desires. For example, the information could be used to recreate a message if it were lost, to help facilitate the processing of replies to messages from a pager, or for general record keeping purposes regarding the flow of information through the system.
A usual requirement is that the application databases be real-time databases that can store data for potentially thousands or millions of transactions. It is also desirable that the data be accessible very quickly so that the application can process many calls per second. Development of this type of database has been a large burden on application developers. It often requires significant development time, which slows the process to market, and it requires designers to have advanced knowledge of real-time embedded systems designs. The present invention is directed to providing a method of developing applications that overcomes the foregoing and other disadvantages. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a method of tracking message data for an application without requiring the application to have an application database.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A method for storing transaction data for an application is disclosed. The application is created on a platform that is external to the paging infrastructure. An example of this type of application would be an Internet Gateway application using a Sun workstation. A caller sends a paging message to the application for further transmittal through the wireless messaging infrastructure to a pager. The application processes the message so that the necessary format and information is sent to the wireless messaging infrastructure.
According to one aspect of the invention, certain transaction data that would otherwise be stored by the application in its own database is instead stored in a database in the wireless messaging infrastructure. Such transaction data may include information such as: the date and time that a call came in; the identity of the caller; the type of call (examples: WWW page request versus an E-mail page request); page priority requested by the caller; or the complete text of the page request. The method the application uses to store data in the database of the wireless messaging infrastructure includes a special set of networking messages between a code library and the wireless messaging infrastructure that instruct the wireless messaging infrastructure to perform the desired data storage functions. When the data is to be returned from the wireless messaging infrastructure to the application, another set of networking messages are used that allow the application to process the transaction data as if it had come from its own database.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, when the invention is being used, the application passes all transaction data through the wireless messaging infrastructure when originating a page request, and the wireless messaging infrastructure returns all of this data when returning any responses back to the application. In this mode the application is “state-less,” in that the application is not keeping track of the state of a transaction.
As another aspect of the invention, the application is still able to have its own transaction database as more software within the same platform. Then some types of transaction data may be stored in the application's transaction database, while other types of transaction data are stored in a database in the wireless messaging infrastructure. Under such circumstances, the wireless messaging infrastructure passes a unique transaction ID when returning responses back to the application, so that the application can reference the appropriate transaction in its database.
It will be appreciated that the disclosed method of tracking transaction data for an application is advantageous in that it lessens the burden on applications developers. Through use of this method, applications developers do not have to design their own transaction databases. The method thus increases the chances that more successful applications will be produced by designers who are not necessarily experts in real-time embedded systems design. The time to market for such applications is thus also reduced. In addition, in hybrid systems where the application still includes its own database for storing some types of transaction data, the complexity and requirements for developing the database are significantly reduced by storing the remaining transaction data in the wireless messaging infrastructure.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5212789 (1993-05-01), Rago
patent: 5257366 (1993-10-01), Adair et al.
patent: 5809415 (1998-09-01), Rossmann
patent: 5905944 (1999-05-01), Goldman et al.
patent: 5918158 (1999-06-01), LaPorta et al.
Quon Colin S. C.
Tkatch Randy T.
Christsensen O'Connor Johnson Kindness PLLC
Glenayre Electronics, Inc.
Sobutka Phllip J.
Tsang Fan
LandOfFree
Method for storing an application's transaction data in... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Method for storing an application's transaction data in..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method for storing an application's transaction data in... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2581497