Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W88/00—Devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations or access point devices
  • H04W88/18—Service support devices; Network management devices
  • H04W88/184—Messaging devices, e.g. message centre
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
  • H04W4/12—Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Definitions

• This invention concerns the field of telecommunications and in particular the areas of mobile telephone networks and messaging, specifically relating to telecommunications services apparatus and methods.
• Text messaging is established as a popular and effective means of communication for users of mobile telephones.
• SMS Short Message Services
• the Short Message Services (SMS) of the GSM mobile telephony system provide an example of such a text messaging facility, and support for the composition, transmission and reception of Short Messages is present in the majority of GSM mobile terminals.
• Text messaging requires alphanumeric entry using the standardised Man Machine Interface (MMI) of the mobile handset, and also requires that the message be addressed to the desired recipient.
• MMI Man Machine Interface
• the destination address for the message may typically be specified either by entering a Mobile Station ISDN number (MSISDN) that is the mobile telephone number of the desired recipient, or by selecting an entry from the handset's address book that already has the desired MSISDN pre-programmed in.
• MSISDN Mobile Station ISDN number
• the address book normally provides the MSISDN by using alphanumeric look-up of a name.
• SMS Hosts are typically used for receiving the results of SMS voting events, or transmitting messages such as football results in bulk to users who subscribe to a premium service, for example. SMS Hosts are responsible for an increasing proportion of SMS traffic.
• SMS Short Message Service
• an identifier corresponding to the sender's identity is normally transmitted to the recipient. It may not be optionally withheld by the sender. Exceptions to this include certain specialised services which may be offered by an operator, such as chat or dating whereby an alternative or temporary Calling Line Identity (CLI) is presented to the recipient, permitting reply but obscuring the originator's identity.
• CLI Calling Line Identity
• the CLI is normally sent and may be displayed in the form of an MSISDN, although most handsets will translate this to an alphanumeric name if there is a corresponding MSISDN entry in the handset's address book. This provides ease of recognition of the sender, without the recipient having to remember telephone numbers.
• the mobile CLI feature is analagous to the CLI facility available on fixed networks. Another benefit of receiving CLI is that a reply to the message is more easily achieved, without having to explicitly specify the return address.
• the MMI for mobile handsets in GSM defines "Reply" as a standard feature.
• SMS Reply function of the handset's MMI an additional complexity of such SMS to email services.
• the CLI field of the original message delivered to the handset must contain a valid reply address. Since this can be either an MSISDN number or an 11 character alphanumeric string, it is not generally possible to directly store an email address there. Consequently the network must maintain a correlation mechanism.
• a special CLI value is generated and sent to the mobile handset with the message. The network stores the CLI value and the corresponding sender's email address. When the user replies, the special CLI is used as the destination address.
• telecommunications services apparatus for use with a mobile telephone network, the apparatus being operable to receive text messages from mobile telephone terminals, the apparatus comprising means for recognising a characteristic of certain text messages indicating that those messages are to be processed according to a first function, and operable to pass on other text messages in accordance with a standard second function, means for processing the recognised text messages so as to extract an alphanumeric identifier from the body of the text message representing a desired delivery destination, means for translating the identifier into an email address, and means for converting the processed text message to an email format and for delivering the converted text message by email to the translated email address.
• a telecommunications services method for use with telecommunications services apparatus in a mobile telephone network, the apparatus being operable to receive text messages from mobile telephone terminals, the method comprising recognising a characteristic of certain text messages indicating that those messages are to be processed according to a first function, passing on other text messages in accordance with a standard second function, processing the recognised text messages so as to extract an alphanumeric identifier from the body of the text message representing a desired delivery destination, translating the identifier into an email address, converting the processed text message to an email format and delivering the converted text message by email to the translated email address.
• a preferred embodiment of the present invention allows the user to send a text message using a name, which may for example be the name of a brand, product, service or organisation.
• the name is specified in the body of the text message using a pre-defined syntax. For example, the name may be specified at the beginning of the text message body, delimited from any subsequent message by a defined character or characters, such as a space.
• the completed message is then sent to a service number which may preferably be a memorable short code, such as 111, or 622 (representing the associated key-letters M2B referring to a possible name for the service such as 'mobile2brand').
• apparatus for use with a mobile telephone network operable to receive text messages from mobile telephone terminals, to recognise characteristics of certain text messages that indicate that they are to be processed by the apparatus, and to pass other messages on for normal delivery, wherein the recognised text messages are processed to extract an alphanumeric identifier from the message body representing the desired delivery destination, the identifier is translated to an email address by means of a database or lookup table, and the processed message is converted to an email format and delivered by email to the translated email address, and further providing that a reply to the email is delivered to the sender' s mobile terminal.
• the said translation of the identifier includes the capability to incorporate an algorithmic processing step for converting a short form part of an address to a long form part of an address.
• Figure 1 shows a block diagram of telecommunications services apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention.
• SMS router 2 the mobile switching centre
• Telsis RTM SMS Router
• Telsis Limited a Telsis (RTM) SMS Router
• Telsis Limited a Telsis (RTM) SMS Router
• This equipment is capable of connection to mobile telephone networks using known and standardised signalling protocols such as SS7 and TCP/IP.
• the network can arrange for SMS messages directed to the network's SMSC(s) to be routed by the SMS router to other destinations.
• the SMS router 2 identifies certain messages according to their characteristics, and routes these messages to a message processing means 3. Other messages follow the normal path through the network and are delivered either directly to a destination MSC
• the message processing means 3 is operable to extract a destination identifier from the message body and translate this to an email address using a lookup table or database (not shown), and to send the processed message via an email gateway 5 where the message is converted to email format and delivered via an email network to a recipient email system 6.
• the recipient email system 6 may generate an email reply, in which case this is delivered via the email gateway 5, which converts the reply to SMS format and passes it to the message processing means 3.
• the reply is then delivered to the originator either directly via the SMS router 2, or by a store and forward method using the SMSC 4.
• the operation of the apparatus is now described in detail by means of a specific example.
• the example uses the apparatus to allow a mobile network subscriber to send a text message to a brand identity without knowing any telephone number or email address relating to the company that owns the brand.
• a mobile subscriber wishes to send a message to a company that manufactures a product called ⁇ CHOCOBAR>.
• the company name is ⁇ THE CHOCOLATE COMPANY> but the user is unaware of this.
• the user composes his message, which consists of the text ⁇ CHOCOBAR CURRENT COMPETITIONS ?> and sends it to the numeric address 111.
• the user's MSISDN CLI is referred to as ⁇ USERCLI> in the following text.
• the text message is sent to the network via the MSC 1 and arrives at the SMS router 2.
• the SMS router 2 examines characteristics of the message and identifies this message as one of a class of messages that is to be directed to the message processing means 3.
• the characteristics that identify the message as such may be, for example, having a destination address of 111, although other characteristics may be taken into account.
• Local intelligence in the SMS router 2 or equivalent function may be used to make this decision, or alternatively a centralised resource such as a Service Control Point may be queried by the SMS router 2.
• the message is then passed to the message processing means 3.
• the message processing means 3 determines that in this case the message indicates that the message is to be delivered by email to an address associated with ⁇ CHOCOBAR>. This determination may be made by means of a lookup table, database or other means.
• the message processing means 3 also determines the new origination address and destination email address to be used.
• prefix@h an algorithmic translation could be used to convert this into a full address such as prefix@hotmail.com.
• Other types of translation are possible.
• Literals such as Debenhams (RTM) are shortforms and as prefix@h are examples of types of identifier that could advantageously be used, because they are both easy to remember for the user, and readily spotted and translated by the apparatus.
• a new origination address is required in order to ensure that any reply returns via a desired route, which in this example is back through the message processing means 3.
• the message processing means 3 may also store this in some way, although this is not essential.
• the new origination address is created by including the user's CLI along with an email domain name corresponding to the email gateway, forming the address ⁇ USERCLI>@EMAILGATEWAYDOMAIN.COM> Many other suitable forms of address are possible.
• a new destination address is required in order to deliver the message to an appropriate email address. Characteristics of the desired destination address may be looked up in a table or database using the identifier ⁇ CHOCOBAR>. In this example the new destination address is ⁇ SALES@THECHOCOLATECOMPANY.COM>.
• the identifier ⁇ CHOCOBAR> could be prepended to the message content for the convenience of the recipient, but this is not essential.
• the message is now passed to the email gateway 5 where it is converted to email format and delivered via an email network to the recipient email system 6.
• the secondary purpose of the technique is to permit a reply, or origination, path from organisations such as ⁇ THE CHOCOLATE COMPANY> to mobile subscribers. Using a reply to the previous case as an example, this works as follows.
• This message arrives at the email gateway 5, is converted to SMS format and passed to the message processing means 3.
• the message addresses are then further transformed to be appropriate for the mobile telephone network, and to permit further reply by the user to 111.
• the user's telephone number is extracted from the email destination address.
• a unique reference identifier could be stored along with this, and included in the sender's email address, such that it is returned in the destination address of the email reply.
• the apparatus is then able to retrieve a matching identifier from its store and determine the corresponding user's CLI for delivering the reply to his mobile terminal.
• This method also allows the number of replies to be controlled, for example limiting this to one reply per original message. Other techniques are possible.
• the reply properties at this point are —
• Security issues are important for an email reply path, as with all systems that allow SMS messages to be initiated from the Internet. It is desirable for the mobile network operator to be able to authenticate traffic with a source address indicating for example ⁇ THE CHOCOLATE COMPANY> as genuinely originating from there. It is also desirable to be able to block unauthorised traffic from the Internet from obtaining access to mobile subscribers via the apparatus.
• Known prior art techniques such as digital signatures can be employed to provide the desired level of security. Using such techniques the mobile network is able to control and police the access to the apparatus. If desired, traffic arriving at the gateway may be restricted to replies to mobile originated messages, or alternatively, particular destinations may be allowed also to originate messages to subscribers.
• spaces in the brand name would be supported even if the chosen delimiter between the addressed brand name and the message was a space. Brand name matching would be performed in such a way that the longest match found would be used.
• the database might contain entries for
• the apparatus could have a direct connection to certain organisations, or to third party service providers of a mobile telephone network, who might provide connectivity on behalf of the operator.
• Such interfaces might involve a wide area network other than email, for example using TCP/IP or another protocol.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Telephonic Communication Services (AREA)
• Information Transfer Between Computers (AREA)
• Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)

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• 2003
  • 2003-01-20 GB GB0301203A patent/GB0301203D0/en not_active Ceased
• 2004
  • 2004-01-20 WO PCT/GB2004/000218 patent/WO2004066648A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2004-01-20 EP EP04703435A patent/EP1586207A1/de not_active Withdrawn

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