JP2003507947A - System and method for identifying a user zone using a broadcast addressing notification message - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] A system and method for specifying a user zone using a broadcast address designation notification message. A system and method for providing a user of a wireless terminal, such as a telephone, with special information for a zone. The zone special information is transmitted to the user periodically over one common overhead link using available messaging formats (204). If the phone is located within the zone, it will receive the information (208, 210). If the information is directed to the phone (220), the phone will process the information (224) and display the information to the user (228). If the information is not directed to the phone (220), the information is discarded (230). An example of an implementation in a CDMA radiotelephone system is to provide special information to a zone using a feature notification message broadcast on the paging channel of a particular zone. The information is provided using broadcast addressing. Broadcasting special information to the zone on the paging channel using the feature notification message results in a reduction in the number of access channel registration messages required for mobile phones. The second embodiment uses broadcast addressing with Short Message Service (SMS) to provide special information to the zone. Broadcast addressing is advantageous in that zone-specific information can be sent to a subset of wireless terminals. This enables simultaneous transmission of a wide variety of zone special information in the same zone targeting various wireless terminals.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION I. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to wireless communications. More specifically, the present invention relates to a new and improved system and method for using broadcast addressing feature notification messages to notify wireless device users of the zone in which they are currently located. II. 2. Description of Related Art In a wireless communication system such as a cellular telephone system or a personal mobile services (PCS) telephone system, the system is physically divided into a number of coverage areas. The coverage area may be defined by both physical and non-physical constraints. The coverage area defined by a service provider's identity is an example of a non-physical constraint, while the coverage area defined by a single base station transceiver (or cell) is dependent on terrain, transmitter power and receiver sensitivity. Physically constrained. The service provider divides its service area into a number of smaller zones. Each zone contains at least a cell defined by a single base station transceiver, and possibly many cells. The size of each zone is determined by the service provider when the system is designed.

The coverage area defined by the identity of the service provider is important for billing and billing purposes. Service providers that assign telephone numbers and provide billing and issuance for certain wireless devices
The device is called the home service provider. When a wireless device is used outside the service provider's coverage area, it is considered roaming. The cost of roaming telephone calls is typically higher than the cost of telephone calls within the home service provider's system. Due to the difference in cost between home and roaming calls, the wireless device uses overhead information transmitted from the base station to the wireless device to inform the user when the phone is in a roaming state. Wireless devices typically provide indicators on the phone display to inform the user of roaming conditions.

The same home / roaming concept can be used within the coverage area of a service provider. Dividing the service provider's coverage area into distinct zones provides the opportunity for the service provider to provide zone-based progressive tariff plans. In such a plan, wireless telephone users would have to
Will pay progressively higher telephone charges as distance increases (measured in number of zones). Progressive tariff plans based on this zone are based on the public switched telephone network (PSTN)
It is similar to the billing and issuance practices used by service providers. However, unlike the case of PSTN where the telephone charges are based on the zone of the called number, the charges for calls from zone-based radiotelephones are based on the zone the radiotelephone is making calls from.

One problem experienced by wireless telephone users, which the public switched telephone network (PSTN) telephone users do not experience, derives from the mobility of wireless telephones. The mobility of wireless phones makes real-time determination of wireless phone zone locations critical. When the radiotelephone initiates a call and as the call continues, the zone in which the radiotelephone is located must be located. Wireless phones can move from zone to zone in the course of a single call.

A possible solution requires registering a wireless telephone with the system each time the telephone crosses a zone boundary. In response to the phone registration message, the base station responds with a message to the registering phone telling it what zone it is in. Every wireless telephone system has some provision for mobile telephone registration, regardless of the type of modulation. Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) Cellular System Interface is a mobile station for the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and Electronic Industries Association (EIA) interim standard TIA / EIA / IS-95 dual mode spread spectrum systems.
Base Station Compatibility Standards (MOBILE STATION-BASE STATION
COMPATIBILITY STANDARD FOR DUAL-MOD
E SPREAD SPECTRUM SYSTEMS).

As specified in TIA / EIA / IS-95, CDMA cellular telephones
It has multiple registration modes. The standard is supported by CDMA systems 9
Define two different registration methods. Different forms of registration are power-up, power-down, timer-based, distance-based, zone-based, ordering, traffic channels, parameter changes, and implications.

In a CDMA system, each base station periodically sends overhead messages on the paging channel to any phone within its coverage area.
The overhead information is sent to the phone as a system parameter message and includes a system identification (SID) number and a network identification (NID) number. From these two numbers, the phone can determine if it is within the coverage range of its home system. Phones not within the home coverage area are considered roaming. Since the charges incurred for roaming phone calls are typically higher for the same phone call made from the home system, the phone displays roaming status to the user.

Furthermore, the system parameter message includes a data field for the registration zone. Registration zones associated with SID and NID numbers can trigger mobile phone zone based registration. The phone is a list of zones it has registered,
Store ZONE_LIST. The number of zones stored in ZONE_LIST is a variable that can be set by the data field in the system parameters message. Phone is SID, NID received in system parameter message
, And the registered zone information with the entries in ZONE_LIST. SID
, NID and registration zone information are not already stored in the ZONE_LIST, the phone initiates registration on the access channel.

The ZONE_LIST is kept up to date by starting a zone list timer for each entry in the ZONE_LIST. When the timer expires for a particular entry in ZONE_LIST, that entry is removed from the list. Similarly, if the information received in the system parameters message indicates a new zone and the maximum number of zones already exists in the ZONE_LIST, the phone determines the oldest entry and deletes it from the list of zones to remove it from the list. Would use a timer.

Zone-based registration is particularly effective in maximizing paging channel capacity. Paging messages can be directed to phones that use only those base stations with which the phone has recently registered. This maximizes system resources by eliminating the need to broadcast paging messages across all base stations just to ensure that only one user receives the paging message.

A general zone-based registration can be modified to allow zone information to be transmitted to the phone whenever the phone enters the zone. To achieve this, the system needs to be configured so that the number of entries maintained in the ZONE_LIST is limited to one. This ensures that the phone will initiate a registration message whenever it crosses a zone boundary. In response to the phone registration, the base station sends a message directed to the registration phone informing the user of the zone status. This directed message would be a text message displayed to the user. As such, the user will always know the current zone status and probably know what the corresponding billing and issuance fee is in that zone.

However, there are a number of disadvantages to configuring the system in this way. Since the number of entries in the phone ZONE_LIST is reduced to 1, the number of times the phone has to register with the system will increase. The increase in the number of registration messages sent by the phone is most pronounced when the phone is operating in the border area between two zones. When the phone is operating in a border area, it will likely cross the coverage area of two zones multiple times. Since the number of entries in ZONE_LIST is limited to one, the phone is required to transmit a registration message each time the phone receives a system parameter message indicating another zone. The effect is to significantly increase the number of times the phone is required to transmit registration messages. The increase in registration messages transmitted causes the battery of the phone to run out of battery energy, thereby reducing the phone's available standby time and talk time. Many phones that constantly send registration messages have the effect of overloading the access channel. If zone boundaries occur on major public roads, the problem is that the majority of phones overload the access channel with substantially simultaneous registration messages.

Furthermore, each registration message triggers a complementary directed message that informs the registration phone of the zone. Messages directed by that very definition are sent to individual phones. The number of messages directed is greatly increased by the current planned way of informing the telephone user of zone information. This results in a loss of paging channel capacity.

The loss of access channel and paging channel capacity is not balanced with the user benefit of knowing which zone they are currently in. Moreover, if the zone-based progressive tariff scheme is used only by a small number of subscribers supported by the service provider, the majority of subscribers will be severely disadvantaged to benefit a small group of users. Although each phone user has less talk time and standby time due to the increased number of registration messages required for the phone, complementary receive zone information is useful only to a small number of progressive tariff plan subscribers.

What is needed is for those users who are subscribed to a progressive tariff calling plan to
A system and method for notifying a zone information without penalizing a wireless system or a user who does not subscribe to the same calling plan.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a new and improved system and method for notifying a user of zone information using a broadcast addressed feature notification message. Instead, the user is informed of the zone information using Short Message Service (SMS) messages.

The base station periodically transmits a broadcast addressing feature notification or SMS message containing a text message informing the user of the zones in which the base station is within range. Phones that subscribe to the zone-based progressive tariff plan are assigned a specific broadcast address. All other phones using other calling schemes are not assigned the same broadcast address. A phone addressed to the broadcast address can determine that the addressed information is directed to that phone. Phones with no specified broadcast address simply discard the message. Therefore, phones that subscribe to the progressive tariff plan can constantly update the zone information for the user. There is no detrimental effect on those phones that do not subscribe to the progressive rate plan. System capacity on the access channel is maintained due to the lack of registration messages required by the phone in response to zone information messages. The capacity on the paging channel is only reduced by a nominal amount, not the level at which destined messages are used. The use of broadcast messaging is aimed at because broadcast messaging can direct a single transmission to many phones, whereas directed messaging allows only one recipient per transmission. Much more efficient than the message sent.

Features, objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which like reference characters are correspondingly identified throughout.

Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments In a CDMA radiotelephone system operating in accordance with TIA / EIA / IS-95, there are multiple messaging formats that can be used to send information from the base station to the telephone. . Two such usable messaging formats are Feature Notification Message and Short Message Service (SMS).

The feature notification message is sent from the base station to the phone on the paging channel. One of the fields in the feature notification message allows the message to take advantage of broadcast addressing.

Broadcast addressing allows a base station to direct only one message to many phones at the same time. Many phones can share the same broadcast address. If the phone is configured to receive a broadcast addressing message and is configured with a particular broadcast address, the phone will process the message. This is in contrast to the message intended for the base station to send to a particular telephone using the telephone mobile station identification number.

The use of broadcast addressing is advantageous because one message can be directed to many recipients, and only to those individuals for whom the message provides useful information. It is advantageous. In the case of zone-based progressive billing issuance, those phones that are subscribed to the tariff plan are assigned certain broadcast addresses that are not included in phones that are not subscribed to the tariff plan. Only those phones that subscribe to the progressive tariff plan will process zone identification messages transmitted using broadcast addressing. This is in contrast to requiring the phone to register each time it crosses a zone boundary. Phone registration cannot be configured differently between phones in the same system. When all phones are required to register whenever the zone boundaries are crossed, the wireless system suffers a significant reduction in capacity to benefit a small percentage of total subscribers.

The benefits provided to a subscriber of a progressive tariff plan are information identifying the zone in which the phone is located. In addition to leveraging broadcast addressing to direct messages, feature notification messages can be constructed to provide "display" records. Use of the "display" record indicates to the phone that the content of the feature notification message is an alphanumeric character displayed on the phone. The particular alphanumeric message transmitted by each base station is zone information (eg, "You are in zone 3" or "Welcome to downtown" or "shopping district", etc.). The user can then determine if a telephone call initiated from that particular zone will result in an increased charge. By periodically transmitting a feature notification message, any phone that enters the zone will be notified about changes in zone status. Transmission activity from the telephone is not required. Further, because broadcast addressing is used, only those phones to which the message is directed will process and display the message.

Short Message Service (SMS) messages can be used as an alternative to feature notification messages. SMS messages are primarily used to convey alphanumeric information to wireless telephones. The general specifications for SMS in CDMA telephone systems are the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and Electronic Industries Association (EIA) Interim Standard TI.
A / EIA / IS-637, short message service for broadband spread spectrum cellular systems (SHORT MESSAGE SERVICES FOR
WIDEBAND SPREAD SPECTRUM CELLULAR S
YSTEMS). The message may be initiated at the message center and transmitted to the telephone via the base station. The message may be telephone initiated and transmitted to the message center through the base station. The only concern here is the regular transmission of zone information from the base station to the phone.

The message transmitted from the base station to the telephone may be transmitted on a paging channel or a traffic channel. The message transmitted to the telephone is TIA /
It is formatted as a data burst message, as specified in EIA / IS-95. The message may be sent to individual phones as a point-to-point directed message, as in the case of feature notification messages, or
Or it may be sent simultaneously to many phones as a broadcast message.

The operation of the invention is shown in FIG. Referring to FIG. 1, a portion of wireless system 100 is shown. The first base station 110 provides coverage on one side of the zone boundary 130. The second base station 120 provides coverage on the opposite side of the zone boundary. The large number of elements comprising each base station 110 or 120 is not critical to this figure and is therefore assumed to be implemented in the diagram representing each base station 110 and 120.

The zone boundaries 130 are drawn as randomly varying curves to highlight the inability to define separate zone boundaries. Although the zone boundaries may be defined separately in the system design, the actual zone boundaries 130 will change due to a number of factors including terrain, RF obstructions, and antenna patterns. Mobile phone 14
A user 140 operating one within the coverage area of wireless system 100 will communicate with at least one base station 110 or 120 at any specified time.

When the mobile phone 141 moves in the boundary area between zones, the coverage will alternate between the first base station 110 and the second base station 120. The mobile telephone 141 will cross the zone boundary 130 many times for the designated route 142 along the boundary area. When the mobile phone 141 is within the coverage area defined by the first base station 110, both forward link 114 information and reverse link information 112 will be supported by the first base station 110. Similarly, mobile phone 141
Are within the coverage area defined by the second base station 120, the corresponding forward link 124 channel and reverse link 122 channel are supported by the second base station 120.

Under the existing embodiment of the mobile phone 141, the zone location is the zone boundary 130.
Is updated by requesting to register with the mobile phone 141 each time. Each time mobile phone 141 crosses a zone boundary, the system parameter message received at mobile phone 141 will originate from another base station. Figure 1
Taking the situation shown in, the mobile phone 141 is initially operating within the coverage area defined by the first base station 110. The system parameter message broadcast from the first base station 110 identifies the zone in which the first base station 110 is within range. Upon first entering the zone and receiving a system parameters message on the forward link 114 paging channel, mobile phone 141 sends a registration message to first base station 110 on the reverse link 112 access channel. The first base station 110 responds on the paging channel by sending a directed message containing the zone information to the mobile phone 141. As mobile phone 141 travels along route 142 within the border area, it crosses zone boundary 130. Once mobile phone 141 crosses zone boundary 130, coverage is now provided by second base station 120. The second base station 120 sends out a system parameter message indicating another zone. In response to the indication of a zone different from the zone in which mobile phone 141 is already registered, the mobile phone initiates another registration message to second base station 120 on the reverse link 122 access channel. Instead, the second base station 120 sends a directed message containing zone information to the mobile phone 141. This scenario of zone change system parameter message display followed by mobile phone 141 registration and base station transmission of the directed message is repeated each time mobile phone 141 crosses zone boundary 130. When the registration scenario is multiplied by the number of phones crossing the zone boundaries at any given time, it can be seen that the load presented to the wireless system is significant.

Additional mobile phones 150 and 160 operating along the zone boundary 130
Each will traverse independent paths 152 and 162. Mobile phone 150 is route 1
Crossing 52, it crosses zone boundary 130 twice, which results in zone boundary 1
You will be required to register every time you exceed 30. Mobile phone 150 will receive zone information in response to each registration. Similarly, a third mobile telephone 160 traversing along a separate path 162 will be required to initiate a registration message and will receive a zone information response each time it crosses the zone boundary 130. Certain registration messages from mobile phone 141 reduce the capacity of the access channel, while multiple directed messages from base station 110 or 120 reduce the capacity of the paging channel.

Revisiting the situation of FIG. 1 in which the invention is implemented in a system, it can be seen that the invention does not require transmission from the mobile phone 141. Instead, each base station 110 or 120 periodically transmits a broadcast addressing feature notification message or SMS message that includes an indication record along with zone information. The period during which the base station 110 or 120 repeats the feature notification message is determined at system design,
It is typically within the range of 5 to 15 seconds. When mobile phone 141 is in a particular zone, it receives and processes the feature notification message and displays the zone information to the user. As mobile phone 141 travels along path 142 at the boundaries between zones, mobile phone 141 receives alternating feature notification messages from either first base station 110 or second base station 120. The feature notification message received and processed by mobile phone 141 corresponds to the zone in which it currently resides. Mobile phone 141
Is not required to make active transmissions to be informed of the current zone. This reduces the load on the access channel and preserves battery power in the phone. Further, base stations 110 and 120 can use broadcast addressing messages instead of directed messages, thus reducing the load on the paging channel. It can be seen that the additional mobile phones 150 and 160 operating within the zone boundaries do not put an increased load on the system. Each base station 110 or 120 transmits a zone notification message regardless of the number of mobile phones 141, 150 and 160 that cross the zone boundary 130. Each mobile phone 141, 150 and 160 displays a zone announcement message corresponding to the base station 110 or 120 providing zone coverage.

The zone notification method is summarized in FIG. After initiating 200 the method, a zone announcement message is transmitted from the base station 204. The base station does not transmit the zone advertisement message in response to the event, rather the transmission of the message is the only zone advertisement activity required by the base station. The base station configures the message as a broadcast addressing message for directing the message to multiple phones simultaneously. Decision step 20
At 8, due to base station coverage area limitations, in practice the routine can only proceed when the phone is within the coverage area. No device actually performs the decision, but rather the decision is made by physical coverage limits. If the telephone is not within the coverage area of the transmitting base station, the transmitted signal will be too weak to be received by any telephone. Therefore, the routine ends 240. If there is a phone in the coverage area, the phone receives the zone notification message 210. In decision step 220, the phone checks to see if the message was destined for the phone. This check is performed by comparing the broadcast address of the zone notification message to a predetermined address stored in the phone. If the broadcast address is not an address stored in the phone, the phone determines that the message was not addressed to it. Therefore, the phone discards the message 230 and the routine ends 240. However, if the broadcast address matches the address stored in the phone, the phone processes the message 224 and displays to the user 228 the text component of the message. If the method of Figure 2 is repeated on a regular basis, each phone within the coverage area of the base station will be constantly updated with the correct zone information.

The above description of preferred embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the invention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without the use of inventive force. . As such, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown individually, but should be given the broadest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 depicts a system implementation of the invention and illustrates the impact on users moving within changing zone boundaries and boundary regions.

[Fig. 2]   It is a flowchart which shows the zone notification method.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 ... Wireless system 110, 120 ... Base station 140, 150, 160 ...
Mobile phone 130 ... Borderline

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (81) Designated countries EP (AT, BE, CH, CY, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IE, I T, LU, MC, NL, PT, SE), OA (BF, BJ , CF, CG, CI, CM, GA, GN, GW, ML, MR, NE, SN, TD, TG), AP (GH, GM, K E, LS, MW, MZ, SD, SL, SZ, TZ, UG , ZW), EA (AM, AZ, BY, KG, KZ, MD, RU, TJ, TM), AE, AG, AL, AM, AT, AU, AZ, BA, BB, BG, BR, BY, BZ, C A, CH, CN, CR, CU, CZ, DE, DK, DM , DZ, EE, ES, FI, GB, GD, GE, GH, GM, HR, HU, ID, IL, IN, IS, JP, K E, KG, KP, KR, KZ, LC, LK, LR, LS , LT, LU, LV, MA, MD, MG, MK, MN, MW, MX, MZ, NO, NZ, PL, PT, RO, R U, SD, SE, SG, SI, SK, SL, TJ, TM , TR, TT, TZ, UA, UG, UZ, VN, YU, ZA, ZW (72) Inventor Kuhazaka, Samir K.             California, United States             92108 San Diego, Number E             209, Hotel Circle South 1621 F-term (reference) 5K024 AA71 CC11 DD02 FF03 GG10                 5K067 BB03 BB04 BB21 CC14 DD19                       EE02 EE10 EE23 FF03 FF23                       GG01 GG11 [Continued summary] This results in a reduced number of channel registration messages. The second embodiment is for providing special information to the zone. Broadcast with Short Message Service (SMS) Address addressing. Broadcast address specification is Can send zone-specific information to a subset of wireless terminals That is advantageous. This allows various wireless ends A wide range of zones with the end as the same zone with the same special information In-house simultaneous transmission becomes possible.

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of base stations that define a plurality of predetermined zones, each zone comprising one or a plurality of base stations, and a plurality of mobile devices that can move between the predetermined zones. The station transmits a zone information message corresponding to the predetermined zone in which the base station resides, and each mobile device receives and processes the zone information message from the base station with which the mobile device is currently communicating to process the zone presence message. A wireless communication system used to inform users of their presence in a given zone, providing a user indication of. 2. The wireless communication system according to claim 1, wherein each base station periodically transmits a zone information message. 3. The wireless communication system according to claim 1, wherein the zone information message is a feature notification message. 4. The wireless communication system according to claim 3, wherein the feature notification message uses broadcast addressing and display record type. 5. The wireless communication system according to claim 4, wherein the user indication regarding the existence of the zone is the content of the feature notification message display record. 6. The zone information message is a short message service (SM
The wireless communication system according to claim 1, which is an S) message. 7. A step of transmitting a zone information message from a base station, a step of receiving the zone information message at a wireless telephone, a step of processing the zone information message within a wireless telephone, and a zone information for a wireless telephone user. Indicating the presence of a zone corresponding to the content of the message, a method for informing a plurality of wireless telephone users of the presence in a given zone. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the steps are periodically repeated. 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the zone information message is a feature notification message. 10. The feature notification message is a broadcast address.
The method described in. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the feature notification message defines a display record type. 12. The displaying step is performed only if the wireless telephone has the same broadcast address used in the feature notification message.
The method described in. 13. The zone information message is a short message service (S
8. The method of claim 7, which is a MS) message.