Telephonic communications – Plural exchange network or interconnection – Interexchange signalling
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-17
2003-05-13
Maung, Nay (Department: 2681)
Telephonic communications
Plural exchange network or interconnection
Interexchange signalling
C379S229000, C455S426100, C455S435100, C370S401000, C370S466000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06563919
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a system and method for unifying the implementation and processing of mobile communications by various mobile devices and units and terminals that operate on various mobile communication protocols and in particular to a unified mobility manager system and method that is used to provide such unified implementation and processing of mobile communications by various mobile devices and units that operate on various mobile communication protocols. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to normalizing messages from the various mobile devices and units and terminals, to processing, handling, and responding to these normalized messages, and to converting the normalized responses back to respective communication protocols.
2. Description of the Related Art
For the present description, the term “mobile” or “mobility” is used to define and describe a device, unit, terminal, or system that is able to be moved from one location to another location, whether the device, unit, terminal, or system is a wireless system that is movable or a wireline system that is movable. Furthermore, for this present description, the phrase “mobile communication” or “mobility communication” is used to define and describe communication protocols that track movement of such “mobile” devices, units, terminals, or systems from one location to another location and that provide and support communications for such “mobile” devices, units, terminals, or systems (i.e. whether these devices, units, terminals, or systems are wireless systems that are movable or wireline systems that are movable). As will be seen later in the specification, the present invention is not in any way limited to any particular communication device, unit, terminal, system, or respective communication protocol, and the present invention may be utilized with any device, unit, terminal, or system that is able to be moved from one location to another location (whether a wireless system or a wireline system) and with any communication protocol that tracks, provides, and supports communications for such devices, units, terminals, or systems from one location to another location.
In the telecommunications field, various access technologies and communication protocols exist. Examples of such access technologies and communication protocols are ANSI41 (North American Cellular), Group Special Mobile (GSM) network, cable modem network, mobile Internet protocol (IP), Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), data network, IS-136 Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), IS-54B Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), and any other such technologies that provide voice and data applications to a mobile customer.
With reference now to the figures and in particular with reference to prior art
FIG. 1
,
FIG. 1
illustrates that each of a number of conventional communication systems employing differing technologies and protocols requires its own serving system
10
for a mobile unit or device or terminal
14
to locate and find its own home system
12
in order to enable further communication based services to be provided to the mobile unit or device or terminal
14
(i.e. voice related applications, data related applications, or any other form of information exchange). A home system
12
is typically where the subscriber or user information resides, and a serving system
10
is any system that provides services to and that registers or attempts registration of a mobile unit or device or terminal
14
that is outside of its home system
12
by finding and forwarding a request(s) to the home system
12
.
FIG. 1
shows that the mobile system
14
is away from its home system
12
and is at a location in which it sends its request to the serving system
10
. The serving system
10
then tracks, finds, and forwards the request to the home system
12
of the mobile system
14
. The home system
12
has a home message processor
15
that processes the request. A response to the request is sent from the home message processor
15
to the mobile system
14
through the serving system
10
.
FIG. 1
shows that each different type of mobile communication protocol involves a mobile unit or device or terminal type that requires and accesses its respective type of serving system and home system. For example, ANSI41 or North American Cellular (NAC) is the communication protocol for cellular communications in North America.
FIG. 1
shows that if an ANSI41 mobile unit or device
14
A (i.e. cellular telephone or device) is away from its home area (i.e. home system
12
A), then the ANSI41 mobile unit or device
14
A must communicate with a local and compatible ANSI41 serving system
10
A. The local and compatible ANSI41 serving system
10
A, in turn, finds and locates the home system
12
A for that mobile unit or device
14
A, which is an ANSI41 type, for the mobile unit or device
14
A, and the serving system
10
A sends a request(s) on behalf of the ANSI41 mobile unit or device
14
A to its home system
12
A. The home system
12
A has an ANSI41 message processor or HLR
15
A that is able to handle and process the ANSI41 request and sends back a corresponding response to the request.
FIG. 1
shows similar topologies for the GSM protocol, cable protocol, and Internet protocol (IP). For example, a GSM mobile unit or device
14
B requires and is enabled with communications only through a GSM serving system
10
B and a GSM home system
12
B having a GSM message processor
15
B that handles and processes GSM requests or messages. A cable modem mobile unit or device
14
C similarly requires and is enabled with communications only through a cable modem serving system
10
C and a cable modem home system
12
C having a cable modem message processor
15
C that handles and processes cable modem requests or messages, and an IP mobile unit or device
14
D requires and is enabled with communications only through an IP serving system
10
D and an IP home system
12
D having an IP message processor
15
D that handles and processes IP requests or messages.
Thus, each individual type of communication protocol, such as the ones discussed above, requires its own type of message processor at the home system and its own separate hardware system for implementation. Furthermore, as shown in
FIG. 1
, the communications provided and enabled by the home systems
12
,
12
A,
12
B,
12
C, and
12
D are tracked to respective mobile systems
14
,
14
A,
14
B,
14
C, and
14
D. However, a person who possesses mobile devices or units of different communication protocol types generally has subscriptions to the services for those types of communication, and these subscriptions and services require separate provisions of the services and usually separate management and billing. Presently, cross-over for processing and handling the various messages and responses for the different communication protocols generally does not exist at this time. A system and method of unifying management of the various mobile communication protocols and of tracking a person with subscriptions to services of various mobile communication protocols do not exist. Furthermore, the unification of subscriptions of various communication services across various respective communication protocols under a single umbrella for each subscriber, user, or customer also does not exist at this time.
For example, if a person owns a cellular telephone and a mobile laptop computer with Internet access, then another person trying to reach that person has to separately dial the cellular telephone and separately send an e-mail message to communicate through the mobile laptop computer. A system and method of tracking the mobility communications of a person and allowing a unified manager to automatically try the various mobile communication protocols for which the person has subscription(s) does not exist. For example, such a method that does not exist involves a type of unified commu
Aravamudhan Lakshminarasimhan
Gupta Rohit
Larkins John P.
Li Haitao
Bracewell & Patterson L.L.P.
Crane John D.
Fulbright Paul W.
Lele Tanmay
Maung Nay
LandOfFree
System and method for unifying the implementation and... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with System and method for unifying the implementation and..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and System and method for unifying the implementation and... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3077065