IE20000436A1

IE20000436A1 - A short message gateway

Info

Publication number: IE20000436A1
Application number: IE20000436A
Authority: IE
Inventors: Owen Sullivan; Joseph Cunningham
Original assignee: Markport Ltd
Priority date: 1999-06-01
Filing date: 2000-06-01
Publication date: 2001-02-21
Also published as: WO2000074405A1; AU4775100A

Abstract

A gateway (1) has an SMPP ink with an SMSC, and has UNIX pipe links with platforms hosting child programs. The child programs perform various functions such as accessing data in a data source such as a Web server. The gateway (1) returns the data in SMS or USSD form to the handset. The gateway thus provides for services in a versatile manner activated by a simple user message input.

Description

have been in use for some years, and one such product is that marketed render the name Telepath™ by Logica Aldiscon. They provide for very fast and 30 effective text-based communication in a user-friendly manner. However, an aspect ω $ ^f short messaging is that it has not been utilised t the extent that the effectiveness of Q I The transport mechanism would indicate.

O z j therefore an object of the invention is to provide additional flexibility for mobile handset message communication. iX? rC3 r°* o Ψ Ν' N SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the invention, there is provided a short message gateway comprising:a message interface for communicating with a mobile network messaging platform; a child program interface for communicating with a child program to activate the program and receive a program output, and IE000436 -2means in the short message interface for routing the child program output to the messaging platform..

In one embodiment, the message interface comprises means for returning retrieved 5 data to the messaging platform, said data being fetched from a database by the child program.

In one embodiment, the gateway comprises means for creating an event log to log events such as message delivery.

In one embodiment, the log is at a default path location.

In one embodiment, the gateway comprises debugging means.

In one embodiment, the debugging means is compatible with SMSC debugging.

In one embodiment, the child program comprises means for calling a selected one of multiple child programs.

In one embodiment, the child program interface comprises means for activating a child program for performing a data fetch to a data source.

In one embodiment, the child program interface comprises means for activating a child program to perform a URL data fetch.

In one embodiment, the child program interface comprises means for activating a child program to perform a data fetch from a Teletext service.

In one embodiment, the child program interface comprises means for activating a 30 child program to perform a data fetch from a proprietary database.

IE000436 -3In one embodiment, the child program interface comprises means for activating a child program on a location server and for returning subscriber location data to the subscriber.

According to another aspect, the invention provides a method of providing data to a mobile handset, the method comprising the steps of: the handset transmitting a message with a code indicating requirement for said data, a message platform routing the request to a gateway which, in response, activates an external child program to perform a data fetch from an external data source, and the gateway routing the fetched data to the message platform, and the platform routing said data to the handset.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Brief Description of the Drawings The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of some embodiments thereof, given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:Fig. 1 is a schematic representation of a short message gateway of the invention; and Fig. 2 is a diagram illustrating another gateway and the devices to which it is linked. -4IE000436 Description of the Embodiments Referring to Fig. 1, a gateway (termed “TPaccess”) 1 is connected to a TCP/IP link 2, which allows communication with a Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) 3. The SMSC comprises a kernel 15 interfacing with the link 2 via a Short Message Peer-to Peer application interface module (SMPP AIM). SMPP is a public protocol. The SMSC 3, on the other side, has access to network elements such as IVRs, mobile handsets, and any other subscriber application with SMPP protocol capability.

The gateway 1 is connected between the link 2 and a server 10 connected to a database 11. The database stores various programs to carry out short message related functions. Such programs are called “child programs” in this specification. The gateway 1 may run on either the same or a different platform from the SMSC.

Thus, the gateway 1 acts as a gateway between short message services (SMS) and child programs. In a typical example, the child program allows access to a database so that the SMS accesses an external data service. The gateway 1 passes the text of an incoming short message to a child program. The child program performs a function such as retrieving data from a database and returns the result to the gateway 1. The gateway 1 then forwards this data back to the original user via the link 2. The gateway 1 creates UNIX pipes to communicate with the child programs and then reads the standard out data stream from the child program via the pipes. In this embodiment, the maximum number of characters which is passed back to the SMSC is 160.

The gateway 1 uses debugging in a similar way to an SMSC although more restricted. An environment variable DBG_MASK can be set to ffffffff to indicate turn debugging on. Any other setting for this environment variable indicates turn debugging off. If this variable is not set, debugging will be off. The environment variable DBG_DIR can be used to specify a location for the debug file. By default IE000436 -5.the debug file is /maint/telepath/debug/thegateway.dbgO. If debugging is left on, this file will grow without bound.

This default behaviour of calling one child program can be modified by passing the m command line parameter to the gateway when it is started. If-m is specified, the gateway 1 expects the text of the message it receives to begin with a numeric value from 1 to 5, followed by a colon acting as a delimiter, followed by the text of the message to be passed to a child program. One of five child programs will be called, depending on the first character of the message: The gateway expects the pathnames to the child programs to be of the format /apps/telepath/aim_bin/the gatewayl.sh (although the path to this script can be modified by setting the TELE_HOME environment variable appropriately).

An advantage of using a single child program is that users do not have to type additional characters in the message. An advantage of the multiple child programs option is that different data sources or programs can be made available to the user.

Multiple instances of the gateway 1 can be run using a different MSISDN for each instance, giving the user multiple sources of data but minimising the number of characters he/she has to type in.

Referring to Fig. 2, a gateway 20 interfaces with both an SMSC 21 and with an unstructured supplementary services data platform 22. The gateway 20 uses a configuration database 25 and a location server 26. The gateway 1 links with various external platforms for child programs, in this embodiment: a stock market data fetch device 27, a Teletext fetch device 28, a URL fetch device 29 providing access to Web sites 30.

IE000436 -6A handset using the gateway may also have access to the Web sites 30 via a WAP gateway 31, however, the gateway 1 allows access to the Web sites without the need for the handset to be WAP enabled.

As shown in Fig. 2 the gateway 20 can invoke a child program to perforin URL (or other data) fetches. The data fetch is to a program such as CGI or ASP on a remote Internet node. Also, child programs support fetching and parsing of data from sources such as Teletext and SQL database as well as proprietary data sources for data such as stock market prices. Child programs are in this embodiment responsible for access validation. The gateway may itself invoke the remote CGI scripts according to the configuration file 25. However, it could alternatively invoke a special child program that would do further pre and post processing of the request/response.

The gateway 1 provides the user identifier (*MSIDN) to some child programs. One example is a location server 26 which determines the subscriber’s location information based on the mobile network base station and possibly also GPS.

It will be appreciated that the gateway serves as a bridge between the telecommunications domain of SMS, USSD and the general data processing domain including the Web to provide both auxiliary processing and access to data sources. The link with the subscriber is a very effective channel such as SMS or USSD and there is no need for the handset to be WAP-enabled. The subscriber only needs to use simple short message inputs to activate a range of services and data accesses. The invention puts control of the data with the data sources such as Web sites, but keeps control of the billing and security with the telecommunication network operator.

The invention is not limited to the embodiments described but may be varied in construction and detail.

Claims

1. A short message gateway comprising:a message interface for communicating with a mobile network messaging platform; a child program interface for communicating with a child program to activate the program and receive a program output, and means in the short message interface for routing the child program output to the messaging platform.

2. A gateway as claimed in claim 1, wherein the message interface comprises means for returning retrieved data to the messaging platform, said data being fetched from a database by the child program.

3. A gateway as claimed in claims 1 or 2, wherein the gateway comprises means for creating an event log to log events such as message delivery.

4. A gateway as claimed in claim 3, wherein the log is at a default path location.

5. A gateway as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the gateway comprises debugging means.

6. A gateway as claimed in claim 5, wherein the debugging means is compatible with SMSC debugging.

7. A gateway as claimed in any preceding claim, further comprising means for calling a selected one of multiple child programs. -8IE000436

8. A gateway as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the child program interface comprises means for activating a child program for performing a data fetch to a data source.

9. A gateway as claimed in claim 8, wherein the child program interface comprises means for activating a child program to perform a URL data fetch.

10. A gateway as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the child program interface comprises means for activating a child program to perform a data fetch from a Teletext service.

11. A gateway as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the child program interface comprises means for activating a child program to perform a data fetch from a proprietary database.

12. A gateway as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the child program interface comprises means for activating a child program on a location server and for returning subscriber location data to the subscriber.

13. A gateway substantially as described with reference to the drawing.

14. A method of providing data to a mobile handset comprising the steps of: the handset transmitting a message with a code indicating requirement for said data, a message platform routing the request to a gateway which, in response, activates an external child program to perform a data fetch from an external data source, and IE000436 -9the gateway routing the fetched data to the message platform, and the platform routing said data to the handset. 5

15. A method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the messages are short messages. 1/2 IE000436