Communications: electrical – Continuously variable indicating – With meter reading
Reexamination Certificate
1997-02-18
2001-07-31
Zimmerman, Brian (Department: 2635)
Communications: electrical
Continuously variable indicating
With meter reading
C340S870030, C340S311200, C455S456500, C455S457000, C455S458000, C455S039000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06268802
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a Personal Reach Service (PRS) in which a subscriber is alerted to a waiting call by a wireless page, and more specifically to a method for improving the efficiency of such paging.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In a Personal Reach Service, a calling party places a telephone call to a subscriber's PRS telephone number, which typically may be a call to an “800” number. If the PRS call is placed to an “800” number, a Network Control Point (NCP) translates the dialed 800 number into a conventional NPA+NXX+XXXX telephone number and routes the call to an adjunct connected to the network, which contains bridging and signaling units for providing this service. If not an 800 number call, but a conventional POTS call, the subscriber's call is directly connected to this adjunct. At a bridging and signaling unit at this adjunct, the identity of the subscriber with whom which the calling party wants to communicate is determined from the number dialed by the calling party, or through the inputting by the calling party of the subscriber's code or name via touch-tone inputs or using voice-recognition techniques. Using the subscriber's identity as a database locator, the identity of the subscriber's paging company and the Capcode that identifies that subscriber's pager is retrieved. A signal is then sent to the identified paging company to initiate the broadcast of a wireless page to the identified called subscriber's pager. The subscriber, upon receiving the page and wishing to talk to the calling party, places a revertive call to the adjunct. After the revertive call is associated with the subscriber at the adjunct through the entry by the subscriber of a touch-tone sequence, for example, the calling party's waiting call and the subscriber's revertive call are bridged together. With such a system, the subscriber can be reached wherever his or her pager is capable of receiving the paging company's signal and the subscriber is proximate to a telephone to be able to place the revertive telephone call.
Generally, upon receiving a signal from the network adjunct to initiate a page to an identified subscriber, the paging company launches a nationwide page. Since the subscriber is in only one place at any given time, the pages to the subscriber's pager broadcasted by the plurality of local transmitters across the nation, except for the page in the one area in which the subscriber is actually located, are a waste of resources. These “wasted” pages increase traffic and thus the paging interval at each of the local paging transmitters. The paging interval is that time difference between when a message packet is received by a paging transmitter and placed in a queue for transmission, and when that message packet is served from the queue and actually transmitted by the transmitter.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, a subscriber to a Personal Reach Service is paged only in the local area in which he or she is likely to be at that time, the latter being determined as a function of that subscriber's last known location and the amount of time that has elapsed since being located that last known location. That last known location is determined as of the time the subscriber was last connected to the network and was identified both as to person and location. Such last call could be to the PRS adjunct to respond to a page in a previous PRS call, or any call to a network platform to place a call, to receive messages, or otherwise, in which the identity of the subscriber can be determined and, from the Automatic Number Identification (ANI) or other mechanism, from which the geographic location of the subscriber at that previous time can be determined. That last known location of the subscriber can also be determined from any mechanism in which the subscriber's identity and location can be ascertained and that information provided to the network, and from there to the adjunct. Using that previous location of the subscriber and the time at which the subscriber was located there, the outer perimeter defining the geographic area within which the subscriber is at present most likely to be located is identified and the subscriber is paged only by those local transmitters that cover that area. If more than a predetermined time has elapsed since the subscriber's location was last identified, during which interval the subscriber could in fact have traveled anywhere within or even outside the nation, then a nationwide page is launched to the subscriber. Advantageously, if only a short time has elapsed since the subscriber was last located, a subsequent page to the subscriber can be localized within that same paging area and, depending upon the magnitude of the elapsed time, within nearby adjacent areas. Thus, pages need not be transmitted from transmitters in areas in which the subscribers presence is highly unlikely based on the subscriber's last known location and the time elapsed since the subscriber's presence at that location was determined. Local transmitters are thus able to operate at a more efficient level.
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Foladare Mark Jeffrey
Goldman Shelley B.
Silverman David Phillip
Weber Roy Philip
AT&T Corp.
Dalencourt Yves
Kenyon & Kenyon
Zimmerman Brian
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