Multiplex communications – Pathfinding or routing
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-05
2001-08-14
Patel, Ajit (Department: 2662)
Multiplex communications
Pathfinding or routing
C370S328000, C455S433000, C455S456500
Reexamination Certificate
active
06275489
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telecommunication system. It is particularly, but not exclusively, concerned with a telecommunications system for mobile telephones.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
The present invention arises as a development of the ideas disclosed in WO 96/11557. A call to a mobile telephone is not to a fixed point, and therefore the system must determine the location of the destination. In arrangements prior to that disclosed in WO96/11557, a call to a mobile telephone results in a signal being transmitted to a data storage unit in the form of a Home Location Register unit (HLR) which determines the location of the mobile telephone, and so permits routing of the call to occur. Inevitably, HLRs have a limited capacity, and some arrangement is therefore necessary to enable telecommunication systems to access multiple HLRs. Therefore, WO96/11557 proposed that the switch network which connects users to other users, HLRs, and system services, had a register unit associated therewith, which register unit contained information relating each telephone number to a corresponding one of a plurality of HLRs. The relationship between telephone numbers and HLRs was then freely selectable within the register unit, so that the register unit acted as a converter between the number and the information identifying the HLR. By providing such a register unit, the fixed relationship between numbers and HLRs was broken, and any telephone number was then assignable to any HLR, assuming space permitted. Note that, although not explicitly mentioned in WO96/11557, it is not necessary that the different HLRs belong to a single service provider thus, it was possible for a user to have the same telephone number even when changing from one service provider to another.
WO96/11557 also mentioned that the register unit may also store further information associated with the mobile telephones which permitted the switch network to enable calls from mobile telephones to be routed to different services, depending on the calling mobile telephone itself, in addition to the number dialled.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In the disclosure of WO96/11557, such additional routings were triggered by the user inputting appropriate codes. However, it has been realised that by providing additional processing at the register unit, the functioning of the system disclosed in WO96/11557 may be further developed.
The present invention proposes that predetermined conditions are stored within the register unit for individual telephone numbers, or for groups of telephone numbers, which conditions control the register unit to cause the register unit to switch between a first state in which it operates as in WO96/11557 to cause appropriate access to an HLR, and at least a second state in which the call is directed to one or more further processing units (hereinafter referred to as routing units). The or each routing unit may handle the call in various different ways, such as re-routing the call back to the telephone network, or terminating the call at the routing unit, possibly in combination with a message being returned to the telephone that originated the call.
In addition to the second state, it is possible for the register unit to be controlled to have a third state in which it neither operates as in WO96/11557 nor directs the call to one or more routing units. In this third state, the register unit may perform other actions, such as a general override of the predetermined conditions to allow correct interaction with other telecommunication services in the switch network. A different signal to the register unit at a later point in the call setup may result in the register unit reverting to the second state.
It is preferable for the register unit and the or each routing unit to be separate physical components. In such circumstances in the second state, the call is directed from the register unit to one of the routing units, before being handled by that routing unit. However, it is not excluded from the present invention that the register unit and the or all routing units are integrated into a single structure, and have components in common. The register unit and routing unit(s) of the invention may then be considered as separate functions within that structure. In such a case, since the call will be handled within the structure, it is not appropriate to think of the call being passed from the register unit to the routing unit.
Suppose, for example, the predetermined conditions relate co times of the day. At first time of the day, eg normal working hours, a call to a mobile telephone received by the telephone network results in a signal to the register unit which converts the number in the received signal to information identifying the appropriate HLR, and the signal is then routed to the mobile telephone in the normal way. This is thus as described in WO96/11557. However, at other times of the day, the register unit directs the call to the routing unit, which may then re-direct the call to some other number, such as the home telephone number of the owner of the mobile telephone. From the point of view of the person initiating the call, the same number is used at all times, but the destination number changes. That change is controlled by predetermined conditions in the register unit, and also in the routing unit.
It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the case where the predetermined conditions relate to times of day, week, etc. They may, for example, relate to the origin of the call, the availability of the destination mobile telephone, or may simply be set on and off on a manual basis.
It is also not necessary in the present invention that there is only a single routing unit; in practice there may be a plurality of them. Where a plurality of routing units are associated with a single register unit, the selection of the appropriate routing unit may depend on both the source of the call and its destination. Different services may be provided via different routing units, and thus the selection of the routing unit may depend on the service that is needed by the incoming call.
Furthermore, the same service may be provided by all or many routing units and selection of the routing unit may depend on the location of the call, with the most conveniently located routing unit being used.
It can be noted that the choice of routing unit is, at least partially, affected by the requirements for information storage in the system. The predetermined is conditions, which may vary from one mobile telephone to another, need to be stored at, or associated with, the register unit. However, any further information about subsequent routing, such as alternative destinations for the call, etc, may then be stored at the routing unit.
In the arrangements described above, one type of call may cause problems in this arrangement, namely calls to the originally dialled mobile telephone which originate at the routing unit itself. Those calls, after they have been returned to the network by the routing unit, must not be returned to the routing unit by the action of the register unit. It is therefore necessary that the register unit recognises calls of this type it receives which have already passed back to the network by the routing unit, so that the register will not route them to that further routing unit again.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5579375 (1996-11-01), Ginter
patent: 5825759 (1998-10-01), Liu
patent: 6038451 (2000-03-01), Syed et al.
patent: 6038456 (2000-03-01), Colby et al.
patent: 6134433 (2000-10-01), Joong et al.
patent: 6167256 (2000-12-01), Yla-Outinen
patent: WO 95/20299 (1995-07-01), None
patent: WO96/1157 (1996-04-01), None
patent: WO 96/11557 (1996-04-01), None
patent: WO 97/07644 (1997-02-01), None
Giordano, et al., “PCS Number Portability,” 1994 (IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications—Abstract).
Ho Duc
Orange Personal Communications Services Limited
Patel Ajit
Townsend and Townsend / and Crew LLP
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