Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at separate stations – Plural transmitters or receivers
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-20
2001-08-28
Trost, William (Department: 2683)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at separate stations
Plural transmitters or receivers
C455S414200, C455S433000, C455S436000, C455S453000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06282429
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is related to an application titled “SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING GUARANTEED WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SERVICE TO PRIORITY WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SUBSCRIBERS”, filed on Apr. 16, 1999 as U.S. Patent Application Serial Number not yet assigned.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to wireless communications systems and, in particular, to a system for providing subscribers with priority access to wireless communication services on an authorized subscriber basis, as identified by a priority feature code that is included in the initial call origination dial string received at the cell site from the calling mobile wireless communication device.
PROBLEM
It is a problem in the field of wireless communication systems to appropriately allocate cell site and network resources to serve the increasing demand for wireless communications services. This problem of allocation of resources is exacerbated in emergency situations, where a multitude of wireless communications subscribers all vie for limited available wireless resources. An example of this situation is in the instance of a natural disaster, such as a severe weather conditions, where the land lines are down or otherwise inaccessible or unavailable and the only communication service available to the subscriber is wireless communications. In this instance, wireless subscribers' service requests can cause a temporary overload in the wireless communication system. The emergency service personnel operational in the affected area have to compete for wireless communication service on an equal basis with the other wireless communication subscribers. The emergency service personnel can therefore be blocked from call origination within a cell or their existing wireless calls can be interrupted in a call handoff or as they traverse multiple cells. The interruption of an emergency call or the inability to place an emergency call is an unacceptable service condition, yet a reality in existing wireless communication systems.
To a lesser degree, the same resource overload phenomena occurs in heavy traffic areas at certain times of day, such as in the vicinity of an airport at rush hour when a large number of flights are concurrently arriving and/or departing. Furthermore, the call origination by emergency service personnel is not the only critical service cases that are impacted by these conditions. The origination of a wireless call by a subscriber to an emergency service number represents another critical communication connection that is subject to the above-noted blocking. Thus, existing wireless communication systems treat vital communications with the same priority as non-essential wireless communications, since there is presently no capability in such systems to differentiate among wireless subscribers and/or call destinations.
A further complication is that the very process of screening the identity of the wireless subscriber for each call origination places an additional call processing burden on the wireless system and can itself exacerbate the call overload. It would be advantageous to identify wireless subscribers who have priority calling before the call origination request consumed significant call processing resources.
SOLUTION
The above described problems are solved and a technical advance achieved in the field by the present system for providing prioritized wireless communication service to wireless communication subscribers. This system provides the capability to restrict access to wireless communications services to a selected set of subscribers, such that their access to wireless communication services is given preferential treatment. This is accomplished by provisioning the cell sites of a wireless communications system into a plurality of service priority groupings, with the wireless subscribers also being divided into these service priority groupings, by being assigned one of the plurality of service priorities. The wireless service provider can then differentially provide wireless communication services to the wireless subscribers, based upon the service priority assigned to a particular subscriber.
The present system for providing prioritized wireless communication service to wireless communication subscribers can be manually activated to provide prioritized wireless communication service for subscribers in a selected one or more of the service priorities in response to the occurrence of an emergency. Subscribers whose service priority has been authorized can therefore receive wireless communication services by the dialing of a predefined feature code upon call initiation. Alternatively, the present system for providing prioritized wireless communication service to wireless communication subscribers can automatically engage in response to a traffic overload condition to ensure that emergency service personnel have immediate access to wireless communication services, regardless of the presence of an emergency situation that impacts the traffic load on the wireless communication system and priority wireless subscribers have preferential access to wireless communication services. In either case, the wireless subscribers who have been assigned a predetermined service priority are preferentially queued or provided with access to reserved wireless communication capacity in the wireless communication system via the dialing of a predetermined feature code to ensure their preferential access to wireless communication services.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5745481 (1998-04-01), Phillips et al.
patent: 5765108 (2000-12-01), Martin et al.
patent: 5812656 (1998-09-01), Gardland et al.
patent: 6009331 (1999-12-01), Ueda
patent: 6052562 (2000-04-01), Dorenbosch
patent: 6069882 (2000-05-01), Zellner et al.
patent: 6119014 (2000-09-01), Aiperorich et al.
patent: 6167255 (2000-12-01), Kennedy, III et al.
patent: 6167261 (2000-12-01), Amin
patent: 6208865 (2001-03-01), Veerasamy
Baiyor Robert John
Wolchik Diane Colby
Duft, Graziano & Forest, P.C.
Lucent Technologies - Inc.
Tran Congvan
Trost William
LandOfFree
System for providing prioritized wireless communication... 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 for providing prioritized wireless communication..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and System for providing prioritized wireless communication... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2550879