KR100257138B1 - Paging system and method with ack back signaling using a radio telephone system - Google Patents

Abstract

The combination system 40 of the wireless paging receiver and the wireless telephone includes a receiver 214 for receiving a paging signal provided from the paging terminal 32, a decoder 216 for decoding the paging signals for recovering the page and the page being response-verified. A controller 220 that determines whether to request a signal. The wireless telephone unit 205 responds to the decision 304 that the page requires a response-acknowledgment signal, the wireless having the paging terminal 32 to communicate the response-acknowledgement signal to the paging terminal 32 over the wireless telephone link. The controller 220, which forms a telephone link, is coupled to the wireless telephone system 15.

Description

[Name of invention]

Paging system and method for transmitting an acknowledgment signal using a wireless telephone system

[Field of Invention]

The present invention relates generally to a combination system of a paging system and a wireless telephone system, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for paging with acknowledgment-back signaling using a wireless telephone system.

[Background of invention]

An optional call signaling system (e.g., paging system) provides an optional call message, i.e. one-way radio frequency (RF) communication of a called page from a message originator to a paging receiver. The message sender contacts the paging system via a public switched telephone network system or other input interface means to provide message information to the paging terminal. This message information is encoded in a conventional signaling protocol, modulated into a carrier signal, and transmitted to the paging receiver as an RF signal. The paging receiver receives this signal, demodulates and decodes the signal to recover the message, and provides the message to a system subscriber who is a user of the receiver.

Because the optional call signal is a one-way communication system, typically, the message sender does not know whether the subscriber has received the message. Ack-back signals have been developed for the receiver to notify the system of the receipt of a message. However, in order to reduce the interference between the paging signal and the response-acknowledgment signal, either a communication path or a system air time should be prepared for the response-acknowledgement signal. Broadcast time is a very important factor in selective call signaling systems, especially in large area paging systems with many subscribers. Selective calling system service providers want to provide services to many subscribers in order to gain high value. Therefore, it is desirable to reserve the broadcast time for the response-acknowledgment signal.

Since the selective call signaling system is a one-way system, the service provider must make an expensive investment in the response-acknowledgment communication path to construct the communication path given to the response-acknowledgement signal. In addition, response-acknowledged signals rarely occur and usually require very little broadcast time. Therefore, the dedicated communication path is not efficient and could not provide the service enhancer with sufficient financial benefit for the additional response-confirmation feature.

Accordingly, there is a need for a response-acknowledgement signal system that does not require a dedicated communication path and does not require broadcast time from the selective call signal system.

[Summary of invention]

In one form of carrying out the invention, a radio frequency (RF) receiver for receiving a paging signal transmitted from a paging terminal, a decoder coupled to the RF receiving means to recover the page, for decoding the paging signal, the page requesting a response-acknowledgement A response-acknowledge signal in response to a flagged page identifier that determines whether the page is a flagged page, and a flagged page identifier that is coupled to a paging terminal via a wireless telephone system to determine that the page is a flagged page. An optional call receiver is provided that includes a controller for transmitting a.

In another aspect, a method is provided for sending a message to a combination system of a wireless telephone and a wireless pager in a paging system. The method includes a receiving step of receiving message information from a message sender, a determining step of determining whether the message sender wants a response-acknowledgment signal in response to receiving the message information by the wireless pager, and if the message sender is a response-acknowledgement signal. Flagging the message information as a flagged message requiring a response-acknowledgment signal upon receipt, and transmitting steps for sending the flagged message to a combination system of a wireless telephone and a wireless pager. The method comprises a combining step of coupling a combination of a wireless telephone and a radio pager via a wireless telephone system, a receiving step of receiving a requested response-acknowledgement signal through the wireless telephone system, and a notification informing the message sender that the message has been received. Further comprising the steps.

[Brief Description of Drawings]

1 shows a combination system of a paging system and a wireless telephone system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flow chart of the operation of a paging terminal in a combination system of the paging system and wireless telephone system of FIG. 1 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a block diagram of a combination system of the wireless pager and wireless telephone transceiver of FIG. 1 in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flow chart of the operation of the paging message processor in the combination system of the wireless pager and wireless telephone of FIG. 3 in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed description of the invention

Referring to FIG. 1, an optional call signaling system, which combines the wide area paging system 10 and the wireless telephone system 15, uses a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 20 for communication therebetween. A preferred embodiment of the present invention utilizes a second generation wireless telephone (CT-2) system, which is less expensive than other wireless telephone systems, such as cellular telephone systems. The message originator uses a page entry device 25 to enter paging information through the PSTN 20 for transmission to a subscriber of the encoding and paging system 10.

Typically, the page entry device 25 is a telephone for input of voice or numeric information. The page entry device 25 may also include a data processing device such as a computer terminal to generate paging information including graphics, facsimile or alphabetic character information.

The message originator initiates the message sending sequence by entering a voice or data message in the form of a call to the system access number of the particular paging device (wireless pager / wireless phone 40) to be called through page entry device 25. The message originator is coupled to the paging terminal 32 via the telephone network interface 30 of the paging system 10 and the PSTN path 20a for processing by the paging terminal 32. When an incoming call is answered by the paging terminal 32, a prerecorded message is played to the system 10 welcoming the message sender, and the caller enters a paging message to confirm the selective response that the message has been received. Explain how you can ask. The sender then inputs and responds to a voice or data message and a special code signal, indicating that acknowledgment of successful receipt of the message is required.

At paging terminal 32, a message is first entered into the buffer memory. Then, after the sender finishes the message entry sequence, paging terminal 32 accesses subscriber database 34 to obtain a subscriber address associated with the paging information to form a page. In the present invention, if the sender inputs a special code signal indicating that a response is required, the ack-back message flagger portion 42 of the page terminal 32 flags the message and the terminal ( 32 places the flagged message on the paging system queue 36 for the next transmission. Response-acknowledgement flagger 42 may flag a message, for example, by using an address designated for a message with a response request, or add a response request flag to the general addressing function portion of the message.

Pages stored in the paging system queue 36 are sequentially retrieved by the paging terminal 32 and provided to the paging transmitter 38 for transmission as an optional call signal.

Selective call signals sent from the paging system 10 are received by a combination system 40 of wireless pager and wireless telephone. The pager receives optional call signals. A cordless phone, such as CT-2, is coupled to PSTN 20 via a radiotelephone system 15 for communication.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the combining system 40 of the wireless pager / wireless telephone transceiver receives the selective paging signal broadcast by the paging system 10 via the paging transmitter 38. If a flagged message is received by the combination system 40 of the radio pager / cordless telephone transceiver, a radiotelephone link is established between the combination system 40 of the radio pager / wireless telephone transceiver and the radiotelephone system 15.

A call point transceiver 50 comprising a receiver portion 50a and a transmitter portion 50b is a radio pager with information identifying the access number for accessing the paging system 10 via the PSTN 20. A response confirmation signal is received from the coupling system 40 of the wireless telephone transceiver. An acknowledgment signal and access information are provided to a call point controller 52 using the access information to call the paging system 10 through the telephone network interface 54 of the wireless telephone call point station 15. up). Once a call is made between the call point controller 52 and the paging terminal 32 via the path 20b via the PSTN 20, a response signal is provided to the paging terminal 32 indicating a "received message". . In response to receiving the response signal, the paging terminal 32 may generate a received message receipt response signal that is returned from the page entry device 25 to the message sender. This response signal to the originator of the message may occur while the caller is continuously connected on the input telephone line at the telephone network interface 30 or may be directly connected to a pager or other communication device capable of receiving the response signal.

Otherwise, the acknowledgment signal may indicate the type of message received (eg, voice, numeric or alphabetic text message), the time the message was received, whether the message was free of reception errors, or a personalized acknowledgment signal. The paging terminal 32 may provide the message sender with the additional information received. In addition, the acknowledgment signal may also be used to initiate retransmission of the message received in error by the paging terminal 32.

Thus, according to the present invention, the paging system 10 need not have a dedicated broadcast time or dedicated channel to receive response acknowledgment signals from the wireless pager. The combination system of a wireless pager / wireless telephone transceiver uses a wireless telephone link to provide a response acknowledgment signal to the paging system 10 for a real time acknowledgment that the message has been received.

Referring to FIG. 2, a flowchart of the operation of the call receiving routine of the paging terminal 32 (see FIG. 1) begins as the paging system enters service (100). Processing then waits (102) until an incoming call is received from the message originator. When an incoming call is received 102 via telephone network interface 30 (see FIG. 1), a response is made to the call (104), and the paging terminal is via page entry device 25 (see FIG. 1). Provide a voice prompt 106 required by the caller (message sender) to enter the message. If a message is entered, it is stored 108 in the buffer memory of the paging terminal 32 (see FIG. 1) until the end of the message is detected (110). If the end of the message is detected (110), it is determined (112) whether a response-confirmation signal is required. If no acknowledgment signal is required (112), the message is called back from the temporary message memory 42 by the paging terminal 32 so that the message is queued for paging transmission 114 (paging system queue). Within 36). Thereafter, processing is returned to wait for the next incoming call 102.

If a response-acknowledgment signal is requested (112), the message is called back from the message memory 42 and provided to the paging system queue 36 (see also FIG. 1) for paging transmission, so that the message has priority ( priority queue). Thereafter, a record is played to the caller 118 requesting the caller to wait for an ack-back signal. Thereafter, processing waits for a response-acknowledgement signal to be received, or waits for a time out limit that is reached (122). The time out limit is a predetermined time that the system keeps the caller on the line waiting for a response-acknowledgement signal. When the timeout limit is reached (122), a message is played to the caller that no response has been received (124), the paging terminal 32 hangs up (126), and processing is received and then waits for an incoming call 102. To return. If a response-acknowledgement signal is received within the timeout limit (120), the response-acknowledgement signal is checked (127) to see if a given security ID has been received. If a security ID code has not been received with a response-acknowledgement signal (127), processing returns to wait 120 or time out 122 of another response-acknowledgement signal. The security ID code prevents communication failure by proving that a response-acknowledgment signal was generated in response to a message to the caller. For example, the hospital may preferably receive a response confirmation that the doctor has been paged. If a security ID code is detected (127), one of the response-acknowledgments, i.e., a standard message (e.g., "no response signal received") or a message generated by the pager user, is relayed to the caller ( 128). Thereafter, the paging terminal 32 hangs up 126 and processing returns to wait for the reception of the next incoming call 102.

Referring to FIG. 3, a combination system 40 (see FIG. 1) of a radio pager and a radiotelephone transceiver according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a paging receiver unit 200, a radiotelephone transceiver unit 205 and a message. And a display controller 210. The paging receiver 200 includes an antenna 212 for receiving an optional call signal, a paging channel radio frequency (RF) receiver 214 coupled to the antenna for demodulating the selective call signal, and a demodulation to recover the transmitted page. And an optional signal decoder 216 for decoding the received signal.

The decoded page is provided to the message processor and display controller 220 for processing. According to a conventional paging operation, the decoded page is enacted in the message memory 222 and the user (subscriber) is alerted via the information device 224 that the page has been received. The user may activate the user and display control 226 to retrieve the page from the message memory 222 and display it on the message display 228. The control 226 can adjust the message display 228 or change the receiving variable in a manner known to those skilled in the art.

In the present invention, the " flag " signal added to the paging address code or message is such that if the unit is within the range of the wireless telephone call point station 15 (see also FIG. 1), the message processor 220 is configured to be a wireless telephone. Initiate a telephone call through the transceiver unit 205. Thus, when an alarm signal is generated, the alarm device 224 may alert the user that a message has been received, indicating that a return response confirmation signal was required or returned to allow the user to start a response, depending on the desired operation. A response confirmation signal can be generated automatically. The acknowledgment signal is generated by activating the radiotelephone transceiver 205 of the combining system 40 of the radio pager / wireless transceiver.

The operation of the wireless telephone transceiver unit 205 is controlled by the telephone control logic device 230. Antenna 232 is used to transmit and receive signals for conventional transceiver operation. Antenna 232 is coupled to a transmit / receive switch 234 that operates under the control of telephone control logic device 230. The transmit / receive switch 234 processes the received RF signal and couples the antenna 232 in a first position to a telephone channel RF receiver 236 that provides this signal to the telephone control logic device 230. In addition, the transmit / receive switch 234 at the second position, antenna 232 to the telephone channel transmitter 240 to process the signal received from the telephone control logic device 230 for transmission as an RF signal from the antenna 232. Combine.

In another embodiment, speaker 238 may be coupled to receiver 236 and microphone 242 may be coupled to transmitter 240 for conventional wireless telephone operation. In another embodiment, the receiver 236 provides the acoustic portion of the signals to the speaker 238 and the digital portion of the signals to the telephone control logic device 230. Transmitter 240 will process acoustic signals received from microphone 242 and digital signals received from telephone control logic device 230 for transmission from antenna 232. In addition, the microphone 242 can allow the user to provide personalized response confirmation in response to the message originator.

According to the present invention, when the radiotelephone transceiver unit 205 is activated in an "acknowledge" mode, the receiver 236 retrieves a signal from the radio call point station 15 (see FIG. 1). If the receiver 236 determines that the combining system 40 of the wireless pager / wireless transceiver is within range of the call point station, the phone control logic device 230 activates the transmitter 240 to call the call point station 15. This allows calls to be placed in paging terminal 32 (see FIG. 1). When paging terminal 32 answers the acknowledgment call, processor 220 provides a special code that identifies the particular wireless pager 40 that is calling and the message acknowledgment signal received. The response acknowledgment signal may indicate the type of received message (eg, voice, numeric or alphabetic text message), the time the message was received, whether the message was free of reception errors, or a personalized response signal. In addition, the acknowledgment signal may also be used by the paging terminal 32 to request retransmission of an errored received message.

Next, referring to FIG. 4, operation of the paging message processor 220 in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention begins by activating a combination system 40 of a radio pager and a radiotelephone transceiver. Processing of the message awaits reception of a message having a paging address code assigned to the radio pager 40.

When the assigned paging address code is received (302), processing determines whether an ack-back signal is required. If the message is a flagged message being flagged by the response-acknowledgement message flagger 42 (see also FIG. 1), a response acknowledgment signal is required (304). In addition, the predetermined assigned paging address code indicates that a response signal is required (304).

If no acknowledgment signal is required (304), the message is stored for subsequent retrieval by the user in accordance with conventional pager operation (306), and information is generated to notify the user that the message has been received and stored. (308). Thereafter, processing returns to waiting for the reception of the next message with the assigned paging address code (302).

If a response confirmation signal is required (304), the message is stored (310) and information is generated (304). According to the present invention, a response acknowledgment signal is generated 314 including the security ID code assigned to the pager. The acknowledgment signal may be generated automatically or may be personalized by the user through activation of the display control 226 or through input of a voice message via the microphone 242 (see FIG. 3). In addition, a special response requesting retransmission may be generated by the processor 220 in response to sufficient error detection in the received message to indicate that the message may have been received correctly. The security ID code authenticates the response confirmation signal to verify that the response confirmation signal originated from the combination system 40 of the pager / wireless telephone.

After generating a response confirmation signal 314, the processor 220 activates the radiotelephone transceiver unit 205 in the response confirmation mode. Upon activating the radiotelephone transceiver unit 205 (316), the receiver 236 searches (318) the call point station. If a call point station signal is detected (318), a wireless telephone link is established between the transceiver unit 205 and the call point station. Processor 220 sends a signal to telephone control logic device 230 to call paging terminal 32 (see FIG. 1). When the transceiver unit 205 is coupled to the paging terminal 32 via a wireless telephone link, the generated acknowledgment signal is provided to the paging terminal 32. Thereafter, the call is removed (324) and processing returns to wait for the next received message with the assigned paging address code (302).

Therefore, in the present invention, paging messages transmitted from a paging terminal and received by the wireless pager may be acknowledged via a wireless telephone link between the transceiver and the paging terminal coupled to the wireless pager.

It will thus be appreciated that a response-acknowledgment signal system is provided that does not require broadcast time from the selective call signal system without requiring a predetermined communication path.

Claims (10)

First receiving means for receiving paging signals provided from a paging terminal; Decoding means coupled to said first receiving means for decoding said paging signals to return a page; Determining means for determining whether the page requires an acknowledgment back signal; Wireless telephone means coupled to communicate with a wireless telephone system; And if said determining means determines that said page requires said response-acknowledgement signal, said communication means is communicated to said paging terminal through said wireless telephone system. And control means for coupling said wireless telephony means to said wireless telephony system. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the determining means comprises: processing means for detecting and counting the number of errors in the page; And retransmission request means for determining that a response acknowledgment signal for requesting retransmission of the page is required when the number of errors is greater than or equal to a predetermined number. 2. The wireless telephone means of claim 1, wherein the control means causes the response means to communicate a paging terminal to the paging terminal when the determining means determines that the page requires the response confirmation signal. And a pager identification signal uniquely identifies a combination system of a wireless paging receiver and a wireless telephone. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising user input means coupled to the control means for providing a user input signal, wherein the control means determines the determining means that the page requires the response-confirmation signal; Coupling said wireless telephony means to said wireless telephony system for communicating a user input signal to a paging terminal. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the wireless telephone means comprises codeless telephone means for coupling to a wireless telephone system call point transceiver for communication, the control means determining by the determining means that the page requires the response-acknowledgment signal. And coupling said cordless telephone means to said wireless telephone system call point transceiver for communicating said answer-acknowledgment signal to a paging terminal. CLAIMS 1. A method of transmitting a message of a paging system to a combination system of a wireless telephone and a wireless pager, the method comprising: (a) receiving message information from a message sender; (b) determining whether the message originator wants a response-acknowledgment signal in response to receiving the message information by the wireless pager; (c) if the message originator desires a response-acknowledgment signal, flagging the message information as a flagged message requesting a response acknowledgment signal upon receipt; (d) transmitting the flagged message to a combination system of the radiotelephone and a radio pager; (e) a coupling step of coupling to the coupling system of the wireless telephone and the radio pager through a wireless telephone system; (f) receiving via the wireless telephone system a requested response-acknowledgment signal; and (g) informing the message sender that a message has been received. A radio frequency (RF) receiver for receiving paging signals transmitted from a paging terminal; A decoder coupled to the RF receiving means for decoding the paging signals to return a page; A flagged page identifier for determining whether the page is a flagged page requiring response-verification; And a controller coupled to the paging terminal via a wireless telephone system, thereby transmitting a response-acknowledgment signal when the flagged page identifier determines that the page is a flagged page. . 8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the controller further comprises: a signal generator for generating a response-acknowledgment signal when the flagged page identifier determines that the page is a flagged page requiring a response-confirmation; And transmit the response signal to the paging terminal via the wireless telephone system when the flagged page identifier determines that the page is a flagged page requesting response-confirmation, coupled to the wireless telephone system. An optional call receiver comprising a telephone transceiver. 8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said controller comprises: detecting means for detecting the number of errors in said page; Coupling means for coupling the wireless telephone system when the detection means detects a predetermined number of errors or more; Generating means for generating a retransmission signal; And transmitting means for transmitting a retransmission signal to the paging terminal via the radiotelephone system. A radio frequency (RF) receiver for receiving paging signals transmitted from a paging terminal; A decoder coupled to the RF receiving means for decoding the paging signals to return a page; Error detector means for detecting the number of errors in the page; And a controller coupled to the paging terminal via a wireless telephone system, whereby the error detector means transmits a retransmission signal when it detects a predetermined number of errors.