Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-25
2004-06-01
Maung, Nay (Department: 2151)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at same station
Radiotelephone equipment detail
C455S556100, C455S557000, C455S418000, C719S328000, C719S330000, C719S331000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06745048
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention generally relates to application programming interfaces (APIs). More particularly, the invention relates to an API set for accessing functionality contained within a memory device.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Presently, functionality of a GSM-type SIM card is accessed using Radio Interface Layer (RIL) APIs, which roughly correspond to the AT commands specified by ETS 300 585, Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2); Use of Data Terminal Equipment—Data Circuit terminating Equipment (DTE—DCE) interface for Short Message Service (SMS) and Cell Broadcast Service (CBS) (GSM 07.05), Fifth Edition, April 1997, and ETS 300 642, Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2); AT command set for GSM Mobile Equipment (ME) (GSM 07.07 version 4.4.1), Fourth Edition, March 1999. Often, more than one RIL API function is required for accessing a particular SIM card feature so that synchronization is necessary between different RIL API calls. For example, to read an entry stored in a particular SIM phonebook using RIL APIs, an RIL function must first be called for setting the current phonebook on the SIM card. A second API is then called for reading a phonebook entry having a specified index. When another application sets the SIM phonebook to a different phonebook prior to a response to the second API, the results of the second API will be erroneous.
Consequently, what is needed is a way for information to be safely read or written to a SIM card without the possibility of another application invalidating the results.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a way for information to be safely read or written to a SIM card without the possibility of another application invalidating the results. Moreover, the present invention provides a set of synchronous commands that encapsulate conventional RIL APIs so that applications calling the API set of the invention are not required to have specific knowledge regarding conventional RIL APIs.
The advantages of the present invention are provided by a SIM Manager that accesses functionality contained within a GSM-type telephone SIM by combining the functionality of a plurality of asynchronous RIL functions into a single synchronous application programming interface. According to the invention, a first dynamic link library receives a function call for performing a selected function from an application operating in a GSM-type telephone device. The first dynamic link library is preferably a stub dynamic link library to which applications link. A second dynamic link library contains at least one application programming interface corresponding to the selected function. Each application programming interface corresponding to the selected function within the second dynamic link library links to a radio interface layer of the GSM-type telephone device for performing the selected function. The second dynamic link library is loaded by the first dynamic link library when the first dynamic link library receives the function call. The second dynamic link library initiate a process thread corresponding to the received function call and blocks all subsequently received calls until the received function call for the selected function is complete.
When the first dynamic link library receives a function call for performing the initialization function, the first dynamic link library sends an initialization call to the second dynamic link library for initializing the SIM card. When the second dynamic link library initializes the SIM card, the second dynamic link library obtains an HRIL handle for making subsequent calls to the RIL. According to the invention, the initialization function creates a globally named event handle for synchronizing calls from a plurality of applications operating in the GSM-type telephone device to the SIM Manager. When the first dynamic link library receives a function call for performing a selected function after the initialization function, the second dynamic link library attempts to obtain a globally named event handle that was created during an initialization process of a SIM card. When the function call for performing the selected function is complete, the second dynamic link library releases the globally named event handle. When the first dynamic link library receives a function call from the application for performing a notification function, the second dynamic link library initiates a second process thread so that the calling application does not block other applications running on the GSM-type telephone device. Notifications can be received directly from the radio interface layer or from a SIM toolkit process.
The present invention also provides a method for communicating between an application layer within a GSM-type telephone device and a radio interface layer (RIL) within the GSM-type telephone device. According to this aspect of the invention, a function call for performing a selected function is received at a first dynamic link library from an application operating in the GSM-type telephone device. The first dynamic link library is preferably a stub dynamic link library to which applications link. When the function call is received, the first dynamic link library then loads a second dynamic link library. Next, a process thread corresponding to the received function call is initiated, and all subsequently received function calls at the first dynamic link library are blocked by the second dynamic link library until the received function call for the selected function is complete. A function call is issued to a second dynamic link library corresponding to the selected function. The second dynamic link library contains at least one application programming interface corresponding to the selected function, such that each application programming interface corresponding to the selected function links to a radio interface layer of the GSM-type telephone device for performing the selected function.
REFERENCES:
patent: 6539437 (2003-03-01), Windheim et al.
patent: 6650895 (2003-11-01), Ravishankar et al.
patent: WO 200017786 (2000-03-01), None
IEEE Communications Magazine,Overview of the GSM System and Protocol Architecture, 9 pages, Apr. 1993.
European Telecommunication Standards Institute, ETS 300 585,Digital Cellular Telecommunications System(Phase 2);Use of Data Terminal Equipment—Data Circuit Terminating Equipment(DTE-DCE)Interface for Short Message Service(SMS)and Cell Broadcast Service(CBS) (GSM 07.05), 68 pages, Apr. 1997.
European Telecommunication Standards Institute, ETS 300 642Digital Cellular Telecommunications System(Phase 2);AT Command set for GMS Mobile Equipment(ME) (GSM 07.07 version 4.4.1), 78 pages, Mar. 1999.
Shen Alan W.
Vargas Garrett R.
Banner & Witcoff , Ltd.
Maung Nay
Microsoft Corporation
Sobutka Philip J.
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