Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Security or fraud prevention
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-30
2001-07-10
Urban, Edward F. (Department: 2683)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Security or fraud prevention
C455S408000, C455S455000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06259907
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method and system for managing data related to cellular telephone operations, and more particularly, relates to a method and system for the retrieval and processing of data from a cellular telephone switch.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Cellular telephone use is rapidly expanding throughout the world and particularly in the United States. Many telephone companies offer cellular telephone services in various regions of the country and, unfortunately, this type of communication is subject to fraud and theft by unauthorized users. During cellular telephone operation, cellular telephones transmit a mobile identification number (MIN) identifying the cellular network to which the cellular telephone belongs and an electronic serial number (ESN) identifying the particular cellular telephone being used. The identification numbers are often intercepted by unauthorized individuals who use the identification information associated with the cellular telephones to clone the telephones.
In order to combat cellular telephone fraud, cellular telephone service providers employ various methods and technologies to authenticate, fingerprint, or otherwise protect the services offered by the companies from unauthorized use. The methods employed by the service providers vary, particularly for different regions of the country. The providers find it difficult to manage the various types of technologies deployed and the information associated with the technologies for each of the regions serviced and for the large number of customers serviced. The information that plays a significant role in making management decisions with respect to the technology or servicing customer service calls is contained in the cellular switches of the various regions where cellular service is provided. For example, when a cellular telephone call is initiated through a cellular telephone switch, data packets containing information regarding the authentication, electronic fingerprinting or other security measures are collected at the switches through which the cellular telephone calls are processed. While this information is valuable to service providers in making deployment decisions about certain technologies or servicing customers, obtaining accurate, current information from the switches is often difficult.
Information regarding the various technologies deployed for cellular telephone service and tracking information regarding particular telephone calls are gathered and calculated manually from cellular switches by individuals responsible for the collection of information for particular service regions. Information retrieved by these individuals is typically imparted to customer service representatives or those responsible for generating reports by using rudimentary techniques, such as e-mail or memorandums.
These rudimentary techniques of tracking information that is pertinent to the overall management of cellular operations that expand over various regions of a country have numerous disadvantages. One disadvantage is the reliability of the information. Particularly, a summation of the information for a particular service provider is dependent upon multiple contacts who need to update the information regularly. With multiple contacts responsible for updating the information, obtaining consistent and timely reports is often difficult. Furthermore, if the individual responsible for obtaining the data from the cellular switches and creating the reports is not available, the integrity or timeliness of the information processed by another may be substandard. The collection of the information and organization of the information by the individuals is a difficult, time consuming and tedious task. Additionally, the collected information must be distributed to the proper departments or individuals responsible for analyzing or viewing the information. Thus, consolidating reports from various sources for analysis by different individuals or departments of a telephone company can be difficult. Due to the time consuming process of gathering the information and interpreting the switch information, current consistent information regarding the cellular service is often not readily available to departments or individuals of the company who need information to resolve troubleshooting or specific technology issues.
Thus, there is a need for a method or system for ensuring accurate and reliable retrieval and reporting of information from cellular telephone switches for use in analyzing cellular telephone technology and data deployed in various regions of the country serviced by a service provider.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Generally described, the present invention provides a method and system for automatically retrieving cellular telephone data for analysis of call data associated with cellular telephone calls. Such methods and systems ensure reliable retrieval and reporting of information from cellular telephone switches for use in analyzing cellular telephone technology and data deployed in various regions of the country.
A system and method consistent with the invention automatically downloads cellular telephone data from cellular switches of a telephone network at predetermined time periods. The cellular telephone data pertains to cellular calls routed through the switches. Certain elements of the cellular telephone data are chosen for storage in a central database and are reformatted for placement in tables in the central database. The tables have a format that enables the cellular telephone data to be selectively chosen for inclusion in various documents that summarize the cellular telephone data that is downloaded.
The cellular telephone data may be automatically downloaded to a temporary data storage facility and the temporary data storage facility may be searched for files that contain information that is to be stored in the central database. The information may be retrieved from the temporary data storage facility and may be analyzed to determine whether the information stored in the temporary storage facility is formatted properly. The properly formatted information is stored in cellular information tables in the central database. If the properly formatted information represents changes to data that was previously stored in the cellular information tables, this changed information is stored in changed information tables. The information contained in the cellular information tables may be displayed in response to a request initiated by a user. The user request is compared to queries stored in query tables stored in the central database and a query that corresponds to the request is selected. The tables are searched using the corresponding query and the tables corresponding to the located query are displayed.
In another implementation consistent with the present invention, a system for collecting cellular telephone data from cellular telephone switches for access by users includes a first database system operative to execute instructions to periodically retrieve cellular telephone data stored in a first format as transmitted through cellular telephone switches associated with a cellular telephone network. The first database system is operative to store the retrieved cellular telephone data to files. A second database system is operative to initiate a search of stored files to retrieve selected files and is operative to store retrieved selected files in a second format that is customized for display of reports that summarize the cellular telephone data.
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Bellamy, Jr. Gary Wayne
Lavender Roger Brian
Tobey Mathew John
GTE Wireless Service Corporation
Milord Marceau
Urban Edward F.
Weixel James K.
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