KR100421576B1 - A communication system and a method for providing services to a terminal in such a communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

The communication system 100 includes a service provider 200 that provides a plurality of services to a plurality of terminals 400, 401, 402. The controller 300 with the user identifier stored in the controller may be associated with a reader in the terminal to read the user identifier. The selector in terminal 400 selects one or more of a plurality of services to be associated with the user identifier. The transmitter transmits information on the selected services and user service information corresponding to the user identifier to the service provider 200. The service provider 200 receives the user service information and determines from which service providing area the user service information is transmitted. The service provision controller determines whether specific information should be provided to the user and the determining means determines whether a particular service is included in the first set of selected services. A paging message having paging information corresponding to the user service information is transmitted to the service providing area. The terminal 400 receives the paging message and responds to the service provider 200 when it can accept the service.

Description

A communication system and a method for providing services to a terminal in such a communication system

Communication systems are providing increasingly complex sets of services to end users. For example, in the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), many new services will be introduced in the next few years, such as high-speed circuit switch data, packet data services, and so on. It is anticipated that next generation communication systems, for example Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), will provide much more services available to end users. An end user may subscribe to a majority of different services and may require a number of different terminals to use different services or sets of services. For example, an end user may choose to have one terminal (mobile phone) for voice telephone services, another terminal (fax machine) for fax services, and another terminal (laptop computer) for packet data services. Of course, it is also possible to provide access to many services in one terminal.

Preferably, the user has one dialable number for all his communication needs. Pending UK Patent Application No. 9516870.4 filed by the present applicant discloses a system in which a single user's identifier is associated with a user identification module (UIM) for accessing a set of specific services by a particular terminal, The UIM is associated with the terminal, and the user selects services available at the terminal. The user can select the mode of operation of the terminal where the terminal maintains the availability when the UIM is canceled from the terminal and can repeat the processing at different terminals for different sets of services.

In known systems, when a service provider attempts to deliver a service to a user, the service provider sends a paging message to a single identifier to locate the receiving terminal. In the above-described system, since there is a single user identity associated with multiple terminals providing different services, all terminals will respond to the paging message if the service provider attempts to deliver the service to the user identity. Such a service provider does not know which terminal the service should be provided.

Moreover, if other terminals have different mobilities, one terminal, such as a fax terminal, may be fixed in one location and other terminals, such as a mobile phone or pager, may be moved to different locations, If the mobile terminal is located in a different cell than the fixed terminal, the service provider does not know which cell the paging message should be transmitted to.

Summary of the Invention

Thus, in a first aspect,

A service provider for providing a plurality of services;

A controller having a stored user identifier associated with the user;

Wherein the terminal comprises at least one terminal for receiving one or more of a plurality of services,

A reader for reading the user identifier,

First storage means coupled to the reader for storing a read user identifier,

A selector for selecting one or more of a plurality of services to be associated with a user identifier as a first set of selected services,

Second storage means coupled to the selector for storing a first set of selected services,

And a transmitter coupled to the first and second storage means for transmitting information about the first set of selected services and user service information corresponding to the user identifier to the service provider,

The service provider,

A receiver for receiving user service information from the terminal,

First storage means coupled to the receiver for storing user service information,

Location determining means, coupled to the receiver, for determining which service providing region the user service information has been transmitted from,

A service provision controller for determining whether a particular service should be provided to the user,

Determining means coupled to the service providing controller and to the first storing means for determining whether a particular service is included in the first set of selected services,

And transmission means connected to the first storage means, the positioning means, and the determination means for transmitting a paging message having paging information corresponding to the user service information to the service providing region determined by the positioning means, The terminal,

Receiving means for receiving the paging message, and

And response means for responding to the service provider that the service can be received by being connected to the receiving means.

In one embodiment, the service provider further comprises generating means for generating a unique alias identifier for the user service information received from the terminal, the transmitting means for sending the alias identifier to the terminal receiving means, The paging message includes an alias identifier, and the terminal receiving means recognizes the alias identifier when a paging message is received.

Alternatively or additionally, the paging message may include information about a particular service to be provided to the user, and the terminal further includes a determination device for determining whether a particular service is included in the first set of selected services And the responding means responds only if the determining device determines that the first set of selected services includes a particular service.

In another embodiment, the terminal further comprises generating means for generating a unique terminal identifier for the user service information, wherein the terminal transmitting means transmits the terminal identifier to the service provider, and the receiver of the service provider receives the terminal identifier And the paging message includes a terminal identifier when the determination means determines that the first set of selected services includes a specific service.

In a second aspect, the present invention provides a method of providing one or more of a plurality of services to a plurality of terminals associated with a user in a communication system having a service provider providing a plurality of services, silver,

Associating the controller with a terminal having a user identifier stored in the controller;

Reading, by the terminal, a user identifier from a controller;

Selecting, by the terminal, one or more of a plurality of services to be associated with a user identifier as a first set of selected services;

Transmitting, by the terminal, information on the first set of selected services and user service information corresponding to the user identifier to the service provider,

Receiving, by the service provider, user service information transmitted from the terminal;

Determining, by a service provider, which service provision area the user service information has been transmitted from;

Determining, by the service provider, whether a particular service should be provided to the user;

Determining, by the service provider, whether a particular service is included in the first set of selected services;

Transmitting, by a service provider, a paging message having paging information corresponding to user service information to a service providing area;

Receiving, by the terminal, the paging message;

And responding to the service provider that the service can be accepted by the terminal.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises, by the service provider, generating a unique alias identifier for the user service information received from the terminal, wherein the alias identifier is transmitted to the terminal receiving means If the service provider determines that a particular service is included in the first set of selected services, the paging message includes an alias identifier, and the terminal recognizes the alias identifier if a paging message is received.

Alternatively or additionally, the paging message may include information about the particular service to be provided to the user, the method comprising the steps of determining by the terminal whether the particular service is included in the first set of selected services And the terminal responds only when it determines that the particular service is included in the first set of selected services.

In another embodiment, the method further comprises: generating a unique terminal identifier for the user service information by the terminal; transmitting, by the terminal, the terminal identifier to the service provider; receiving, by the service provider, Wherein the paging message comprises a terminal identifier when the terminal determines that a particular service is included in the first set of selected services.

Referring to the drawings, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in more detail as an example.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to communication systems and, more particularly, to a communication system that provides a number of different types of services to a plurality of different types of terminals, such as voice telephony, fax, data transmission, paging, ≪ / RTI >

1 illustrates a communication system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 shows in more detail the terminal of the first embodiment used in the system of Figure 1;

Figure 3 shows in greater detail the service provider of the first embodiment used in the system of Figure 1;

Figure 4 shows in greater detail the terminal of a second embodiment which may be used in a system similar to that of Figure 1;

Figure 5 shows in greater detail a service provider of a second embodiment that may be used in a system similar to that of Figure 1;

6 and 7 are flow charts showing the operation of the terminal and the service provider of the second embodiment;

Figs. 8 and 9 are flow charts showing the operation of the system of the first embodiment; Fig.

Figure 10 shows in greater detail the terminal of a third embodiment that may be used in a system similar to that of Figure 1;

Fig. 11 and 12 are flowcharts illustrating operations of a terminal of the third embodiment and a service provider similar to that of the first embodiment; Fig.

1, communication system 100 includes at least one service provider 200, terminals 400, 401, and 402 for use by end users to use one or more services provided by service provider (s) And a memory 320 having a user set of microprocessor 310 and a single user identifier for the end user embedded in the memory.

The service provider 200 can add more services as a means to compete for revenue and market share. In such a situation, an end user can purchase many terminals. Perhaps the user initially starts with a basic voice terminal 401 such as a cellular phone and then does not want to abandon the investment in the voice terminal and then does not want to purchase one more expensive terminal that supports all services, 400 and a voice and data terminal 402, such as a lab-top computer. These three terminals perform the same functions as the terminals of the more expensive integrated services.

Each terminal, for example, the terminal 400 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2, includes a reader 410 and a reader 410 for reading a user identifier stored in the memory 320 of the controller 300 And a first storage means (420) for storing the read user identifier. Reader 410 is a contactless reader or reader that may need to contact controller 300, for example, by inserting controller 300 into a slot (not shown) within the terminal. The terminal also includes a transmitter 450 coupled to the first storage means 420 for communicating information stored in the service provider via the antenna 455. A service selector 430 is provided for selecting one or more services from among a plurality of services associated with the user identifier and therefore the user can select the required services from the services provided by the service provider. The service selector 430 may be a driven menu if the terminal has a display, or may simply require the user to press buttons corresponding to the services to be selected. Information about the selected services is coupled to a second storage means 440 connected to a transmitter 45 for delivery to the service provider along with a user identifier and stored in the storage means. Additionally, the terminal 400 is coupled to a receiver 460 and a receiver 460 for receiving paging messages across an antenna 455 from a service provider, such that one of the services associated with the user identifier in the terminal And response means (470) for sending a response to the service provider when the paging message is used to indicate that it is requested.

3, the service provider 200 of the first embodiment receives information about the selected services transmitted from the antenna 455 of the terminal 400 and a user identifier via the antenna 205 A receiver 210 and memory 220 coupled to the receiver 210 for storing information about which services are currently selected for a particular user identifier and received user identifiers. A locator 230 is also coupled to the receiver 210 to determine which service providing area the terminal is in when the user identifier and selected services are received at the receiver 210. [ The service provision controller 240 determines whether or not a specific service to which a service call is being attempted should be provided to the user. Processor 250 is coupled to service provision controller 240, locator 230, and memory 220. The processor 250 determines whether a particular service is included in the currently selected set of services. The transmitter 260 is coupled to the processor 250, the locator 230 and the memory 220 to transmit the paging message to the terminal 400 via the antenna 205.

A second embodiment of the present invention is shown in Figs. As shown in FIG. 4, the service provider 200, which includes the same reference numerals in the same elements as in the embodiment of FIG. 3, includes an associated set of user services and a unique alias identifier corresponding to the user identifier And an alias generator 270 coupled to the memory 220 for generating the alerts. The unique alias identifier is stored in the memory 220 of the service provider and transmitted to the terminal 400 via the antenna 205. [ The terminal 400 shown in FIG. 5 having the same reference numerals in the same elements as the embodiment of FIG. 2 is connected to the receiver 460 and the response means 470 to generate an alias And a storage device 480.

In a second embodiment of the present invention, the structures shown in Figures 1, 4 and 5 are used using the steps illustrated by the flow chart shown in Figure 6. [ At step 600, registration for the set of selected services is attempted and the service provider 200 determines whether a valid registration attempt is made, for example, as described in the pending UK Patent Application No. 9516870.4 . At step 605, alias generator 270 generates a unique alias identifier such that the registration attempt corresponds to a set of successful selected services. In step 610, the unique alias identifier and corresponding user identification corresponding to the set of selected services are stored in the memory 220 of the service provider 200 such that correspondences are maintained. At step 615, the unique alias identifier and the successful status of the registration attempt are transmitted to the terminal 400 using the transmitter 260. At step 620, the unique alias identifier and the successful status of the registration attempt are received by the terminal 400 using the receiver 460. In step 625, the alias identifier is stored in the alias storage device 480. This sequence may be repeated for different sets of services selected at other terminals, as shown by step 630. [

In this second embodiment, an alias identifier is used during the location update procedures of the system. Their location update procedure is well known in the art. As a result of the location update procedures, the service provider may maintain accurate information regarding the current location of each terminal associated with each alias identifier. This function is provided by the locator 230 in the service provider 200.

In this embodiment, the appropriate terminal 400 needs to be accessed by the service provider 200 to deliver one of the services in one of the sets of selected services to the terminal according to the steps shown in FIG. 7 . Upon receipt of an incoming call attempt, as shown by step 700, for a particular service and a particular called user identification, the service provision controller 240 determines whether the user Check to see if you are authorized to receive this type of call. If not, the service provider 200 then rejects the call, as shown in step 710. If authorized, processor 250, as shown in step 715, retrieves the memory 220 to recover the alias identification associated with the service set for the user identification including the requested service. . At step 720, the processor 250 retrieves the current location of the terminal associated with the alias identifier from the locator. In step 725, the terminal 400 is paged at the correct location by the transmitter 260 that transmits at least the alias identifier to the cell in which the terminal 400 is located. At step 730, the remainder of the call setup procedure is completed according to methods well known in the art.

In the first embodiment, the service provider is configured in the same manner as the second embodiment, except that the alias generator 270 is not present, as shown in Fig. The terminal 400 is configured in the same manner as the second embodiment, except that the alias storage device 4110 is not present, as shown in Fig.

In the first embodiment of the present invention, the steps illustrated by the flow chart shown in Figure 8 are used to register various sets of selected services. At step 800, registration for the selected set of services is attempted and the service provider 200 determines whether a valid registration attempt has been made, for example, as described in pending U.S. Patent Application No. 9516870.4, supra, do. In step 810, the set of selected services and the corresponding user identification are stored in the memory 200 of the service provider 200 so that communications are maintained. At step 815, the successful state of the registration attempt is transmitted to the terminal 400 using the transmitter 260. At step 820, the successful state of the registration attempt is received by the terminal 400 using the receiver 460. The sequence may be repeated for further sets of services selected in other terminals, as shown in step 830. [

In the first embodiment, the appropriate terminal 400 is provided by the service provider 200 to deliver one of the services in one set of the selected sets of services to the terminal according to the steps shown in Fig. There is a need to be accessed. Upon receipt of an incoming call attempt, as shown in step 900, for a particular service and a particular called user identification, the service provision controller 240 determines whether the user has the type ≪ / RTI > is received to receive a call. If not, the service provider 200 then rejects the call, as shown at step 910. [ The processor 250 retrieves the current location of the terminal 400 associated with the service from the locator 230, as shown in step 920. [ At step 925, the terminal 400 is paged at the correct location by the transmitter 260, which transmits at least a paging message including the called user identifier and the service being requested to the cell in which the terminal is located. In step 927, each terminal that receives the paging message first determines whether the paging message is for a user identifier associated with the terminal, and second, if the requested service determines the set (s) of selected services associated with the user identifier in the terminal, In order to find out whether it is one of them. If this check fails, the paging message is ignored, and if the check passes, the paging message is answered by the terminal. If the terminal responds to the paging message, then step 930 is followed in which the remaining call setup procedure is completed according to methods well known in the art.

In the third embodiment, the service provider 200 is configured in the same manner as in the first embodiment shown in Fig. 3, and the terminal identifier is stored in the memory 220. [ The terminal 400 is provided with a terminal ID storage device 490 for storing an unchanging terminal identifier instead of the alias store 480 as shown in FIG. Are constructed in the same manner as in the embodiment.

In a third embodiment of the present invention, the steps illustrated in the flow diagram shown in Figure 11 are used to register for service access. At step 1000, registration for a selected set of services is attempted and the service provider 200 determines whether valid registration has been attempted, for example, as described in pending UK application number 9516870.4. As part of this registration procedure, the terminal identifier is forwarded to the service provider 200. In step 1010, the terminal identifier and the corresponding set of selected services and corresponding user identification are stored in the memory 220 of the service provider 200 such that communications are maintained. At step 1015, the successful state of the terminal identifier and the registration attempt is transmitted to the terminal 400 using the transmitter 260. [ At step 1020, the successful state of the terminal identifier and the registration attempt is received by the terminal 400 using the receiver 460. This sequence may be repeated for other sets of services selected in other terminals, as shown in step 1030. [

In this third embodiment, a suitable terminal 400 may be provided by the service provider 200 to deliver one of the services of one of the selected sets of services to the terminal according to the steps shown in Fig. There is a need to be accessed. Upon receipt of an incoming call attempt, as shown in step 1100, for a particular service and a particular called user identification, the service provision controller 240 determines whether the user has the type ≪ / RTI > is received to receive a call. If not, the service provider 200 then rejects the call, as shown at step 1110. If authorization is granted, the processor 250 sends a request to the memory 220 to retrieve the terminal identifier associated with the service set for the user identification, including the requested requested service, . At step 1120, the processor 250 retrieves the current location of the terminal associated with the alias identifier from the locator 230. At step 1125, the terminal 400 is paged to the correct location by the transmitter 260, which at least transmits the terminal identifier to the cell in which the terminal 400 is located. In step 1130, the remaining call setup procedure is completed according to methods well known in the art.

Although only three specific embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail, it will be understood that various modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Claims (2)

In a communication system, A service provider for providing a plurality of services; A controller having a stored user identifier associated with the user; And a plurality of terminals for receiving one or more of the plurality of services, A reader for reading the user identifier, First storage means coupled to the reader for storing a read user identifier, A selector for selecting one or more of the plurality of services to be associated with the user identifier as a first set of selected services, Second storage means coupled to the selector for storing a first set of the selected services, And a transmitter coupled to the first and second storage means for transmitting information on the first set of selected services and user service information corresponding to the user identifier to the service provider, The service provider, A receiver for receiving the user service information from the terminal, First storage means coupled to the receiver for storing the user service information, Positioning means connected to the receiver for determining which service providing area user service information has been transmitted from, A service provision controller for determining whether a particular service should be provided to the user, Determining means coupled to the service providing controller and the first storing means for determining whether a particular service is included in the first set of selected services, Transmitting means for transmitting a paging message, which is connected to the first storing means, the positioning means, and the determining means, and has paging information corresponding to the user service information, to the service providing region determined by the positioning means Including, The terminal comprises: Receiving means for receiving the paging message, and And response means for responding to the service provider that the service can be accepted, the response means being connected to the receiving means, The service provider, Further comprising generating means for generating a unique alias identifier for the user service information received from the first terminal, The transmitting means transmits the alias identifier to the first terminal receiving means and if the determining means determines that a particular service is included in the first set of selected services, the paging message includes the alias identifier And the first terminal receiving means recognizes the alias identifier when the paging message is received. A method for providing one or more of a plurality of services to a plurality of terminals associated with a user in a communication system having a service provider providing the plurality of services, Associating the controller with a user identifier stored in the controller with each terminal; Reading the user identifier from the controller by the terminal; Selecting one or more of a plurality of services to be associated with the user identifier as a first set of selected services by the terminal; Transmitting, by the terminal, information on the first set of selected services and user service information corresponding to the user identifier to the service provider; Receiving, by the service provider, the user service information transmitted from the terminal; Determining, by the service provider, which service providing area the user service information has been transmitted from; Determining, by the service provider, whether a particular service should be provided to the user; Determining, by the service provider, whether the particular service is included in the first set of selected services; Transmitting, by the service provider, a paging message having paging information corresponding to the user service information to the service providing area; Receiving, by the terminal, the paging message; And Responding to the service provider by the terminal that the service can be accepted, Further comprising, by the service provider, generating a unique alias identifier for the user service information received from the first terminal, Wherein the alias identifier is transmitted by the sending means to the first terminal receiving means and if the service provider determines that the first set of selected services includes a specific service, the paging message includes the alias identifier And the first terminal recognizes the alias identifier when the paging message is received.