MXPA98001350A - Notification of reverted memory for network communication device, inalambr - Google Patents

Abstract

A wireless communication device, comprising a memory indicator exceeded. The wireless communication device receives a message from a network. Upon receipt of the message, the device determines whether there is sufficient memory to store the message. If there is not enough memory, the device activates a memory exceeded indicator that indicates that a message has been stored in the network and that the memory of the wireless communication device contains insufficient memory to receive and store that message. If one or more messages are deleted from the device memory in order to make room for the new messages, then a new message received from the network is stored in the memory of the device and the memory indicator is turned off.

Description

MEMORY NOTICE OVERWHELMED FOR NETWORK COMMUNICATION DEVICE, WIRELESS Field of the Invention The present invention relates in general to network communication devices. In particular, the present invention relates to an exceeded or exceeded memory warning for a network communication device.

Background of the Invention There are wireless communication devices that are capable of receiving messages from a network and storing received messages in a device memory. For example, a paging receiver receives a paging message from a paging terminal and the message may be stored in a paging receiver memory.

Similarly, a wireless mobile phone that operates in accordance with TIA / EIA Interim Standard IS - 136. 1, 800 MHz TDMA Cell ul ar- Radi or Interface - Mobil e Sta ti on - Base Sta ti on Compa tibili ty - Digi tal Control Channel, December 1994, Telecommunications REF .: 26795 Industry Association, (later referred to as "IS-136"), which is incorporated herein by reference, is capable of receiving messages from the short message service ("SMS") through the wireless telephone network. An SMS message is a text message of a maximum of 256 characters. When receiving the SMS message, the mobile phone can store the message in a memory of the mobile phone. After the message is stored in a memory of a wireless communication device, a user of the device can display the messages on a display screen of the device. After reading the message, the user can erase the message, thus leaving space in the memory for additional messages, or the user may wish to leave the message stored in the memory for a subsequent recall. Since the memory unit of a wireless communication device is of a finite size, at some point, the memory will be filled with messages such that there is insufficient capacity to store additional messages. These additional unavailable messages will remain stored in the network. The unavailable messages can be sent to the communication device, wireless periodically until there is sufficient capacity to store the additional messages in the memory of the communication device, wireless. If there are no additional messages in the network waiting to be distributed, then there is no disadvantage to leaving all the messages stored in the memory of the communication device, wireless, even if the memory is full to its capacity. Actually, leaving the messages stored in the memory may be desirable such that the user can recall the messages at a later time. However, if there are messages waiting in the network waiting for distribution, then these messages can not be distributed until one or more stored messages are erased from the communication device memory, wireless in order to make room for new messages. While it is known to provide a memory fill indication for a device, this memory fill indicator only indicates that the memory is full and that additional information can not be stored in the memory. However, in the context of the messages, this memory fill indicator presents the user of a message device with incomplete information. The user will know that the memory is full but the user will not know if there are additional messages waiting for them to be distributed. In this way, even if the user is aware that the memory is full, the user may still want to keep all the messages stored in the memory for later retrieval. If there are no messages that are waiting to be sent on the network, then this presents no problem. However, if there are additional messages waiting to be sent, the user may wish to delete the older messages to make space for new messages. In this way, just providing a memory fill indicator presents the user with a message device with incomplete information.

Brief Description of the Invention The present invention provides a wireless communication device comprising an exceeded or exceeded memory indicator, and a method for the operation of this device, to indicate that a message is being stored in a network and that a memory unit of the device is stored in a network. communication, wireless contains insufficient memory to receive and store that message. The wireless communication device receives a message from a network and determines whether it has enough memory to store the message. If there is insufficient memory to store the message, the wireless communication device activates a memory exceeded indicator indicating that it is waiting for a message on the network, but the message can not be received and stored by the device due to insufficient memory. Then, a user can erase some messages that are stored in the memory of the device, thereby making space for the additional message. If the message is sent back to the device later, the device will determine that there is enough memory to store the message. The message will be stored in the memory and the memory indicator exceeded will be deactivated. In the alternative modes, the memory exceeded indicator may be deactivated when the messages are cleared from the memory or when the wireless communication device is activated. In this way, the present invention provides an improved wireless communication device and method of operation. As described above, if the memory of a wireless communication device is full, it may be desirable to leave all the messages stored in the memory so that a user of the device can retrieve the stored messages. If there are no messages not available on the network that are waiting to be sent to the device, then there are no disadvantages of having a full memory. However, if there are messages waiting on the network, it is desirable to delete one or more messages from the device memory in order to make space for new messages. By providing a user with an indication that there are unavailable messages waiting in the network, the memory indicator exceeded in accordance with the present invention provides the information necessary to allow the user to properly manage the memory of the device. These and other advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.

Brief Description of the Drawings Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a relevant portion of a wireless communication network.

Figure 2 is a block diagram of a mobile station.

Figure 3 is a flow chart of the steps performed by the mobile station in accordance with the present invention.

Detailed description Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a relevant portion of the wireless communication network 100 that can be used to send messages to a mobile station 120. As shown in Figure 1, the wireless communication network 100 is a wireless network of cell phones and the mobile station 120 is a mobile, wireless telephone. However, the principles of the present invention can be applied to other types of communication networks and other types of communication devices. A message originates in the paging system 102. The paging system 102 may be, for example, an assisted installation, in which a person makes a call from a telephone 104 and connects to an assistant in the paging system. 102. The wizard enters the requested message in the paging system on a keyboard. Alternatively, a person can connect to the paging system 102 via a data terminal 106 and enter the message directly into the paging system 102 without the need for the assistant. The paging system is connected to a message center 108. The message center 108 receives and stores the messages of the paging system 102. The message center 108 is connected to a database 110, the routing information is stored which includes the location of the registered mobile stations with the wireless communication network. As is well known, the cellular, wireless communication networks contain a plurality of radio base stations (RBS), each of which communicates with the mobile stations within the geographic service area (cells) of the radio base station. The cell within which a mobile station is operating is called the service cell, and the radio base station within the service cell is called the service radio base station. Each radio base station is connected to, and controlled by, a mobile switching center (MSC). The MSC that connects to the service RBSs is the service MSC. Depending on the architecture, a wireless cellular communication network may have more than one MSC, with each MSC controlling a plurality of RBSs. For ease of illustration, Figure 1 shows an MSC 112 connected to an RBS 114. As shown in Figure 1, a mobile station 120 is communicating with the service RBS 114 and a wireless communication channel 116. The channel protocol wireless communication 116 may be, for example, the air interface described by IS-136. The mobile station 120 is shown in further detail in Figure 2. The mobile station 120 includes a transceiver 224 that sends and receives the signals from the antenna 222. The operation of the mobile station 120 is controlled by a control processor 228. The The control processor 228 operates by executing the instructions of the computer program which are stored in the memory of the program 240. The mobile station 120 also includes the message memory 230 which is used to store the messages that are received from the communication network 100. Wireless Figure 2 shows the program memory 240 logically separated from the message memory 230. It will be recognized by one skilled in the art that the program memory 240 and the message memory 230 could be separate memory units, or could be a unit of memory logically divided into separate storage area. "Mobile station 120 may also contain other memory (not shown) for storage of other data that is necessary for the operation of mobile station 120, such as user preferences. telephone number of the user, identification of the communication provider, and identification of the mobile station The storage of this different information is well known in the mobile communications technique and will not be further described herein. includes a numeric keypad 232 to allow a user to communicate with the control processor 2 28. The sound information to be transmitted by the mobile station 120 is received via the microphone 234 and the sound information received by the mobile station 120 is reproduced for the user via loudspeaker 238. The mobile station 120 also includes a wireless device. display 236 to allow the control processor 228 to display alphanumeric data to the user. These alphanumeric data may include alphanumeric messages that are received from the wireless communication network 100. In accordance with the present invention, the mobile station 120 includes an exceeded memory indicator 226 connected to the control processor 228 to indicate that a message is waiting in the wireless communication network 100 but can not be distributed because the message is full. message memory 230. The exceeded memory indicator 226 may be a separate indicator, or it may be incorporated into one of the output devices, such as the display devices 236 or the loudspeaker 238. If the memory indicator 226 exceeded is a separate indicator (as shown in Figure 2), can be, for example, a visual indicator such as a lamp or LED, or a tactile indicator such as a vibration unit. Alternatively, the indicator 226 of the exceeded memory may be incorporated in the display devices 236 such that a type of memory indication exceeded (e.g., a special icon) in the speed device 236. Alternatively, the exceeded memory indicator 226 may be incorporated in the loudspeaker 238 to provide an audible indication, such as a special tone. Now the transmission of the message will be described with reference to Figure 1. The message is initiated by a message sender that contacts the confining system 102 via telephone 104 or a data terminal 106. The paging system formats the message into an appropriate format for transmission to the message center 108 and transmits the message to message center 108. The message, as sent to message center 108, will include both the message and an indication of the proposed message receiver. For purposes of the present example, it is assumed that the proposed receiver is the station 120 that registers with the wireless communication system 100 and is operating in the cells followed by the RBS 114 and the MSC 112. The message center 108 makes a query database to the database 110 to retrieve the information identifying the location of the mobile station 120. The information and location indicates that the mobile station 120 is operating in a region that is served by the MSC 112 and as a result the MC 108 sends the message to the MSC 112. The MSC 112 knows what the mobile station 120 is currently communicating with the RBS 114 and the MSC 112 sends the message to the mobile station 120 via the RBS 114 on the air interface 116. In the reception of the message, the partial multiplying device 120 will store the message in the message memory 230. In order to retrieve the message, a user of the mobile station 120 will issue an order to the 228, via the numeric keypad 232. If the message is an alphanumeric message, the message stored in the message memory 230 may be displayed on the display device 236. It is noted that the message may also be a voice message. , in which case the message stored in the message memory 230 will be reproduced via the loudspeaker 238. In this way, multiple messages can be stored in the message memory 230 and the user can choose which message he wants to retrieve. In addition, the user of the mobile station 120 can issue an order to the control processor 228, via the numeric keypad 232, to erase one or more messages from the message memory 230. It may be desirable for the user to leave the messages stored in the message memory 230 so that messages can be retrieved at a future time. However, the message memory 230 is finite, and eventually the memory capacity will be reached such that no additional messages can be stored in the message memory 230. If no additional messages are sent to the mobile station 120 from the network 100 of wireless communication when the message memory 230 is full, then there is no disadvantage of leaving messages stored in the message memory 230, and in fact, there may be the advantage of future recovery. However, if they are waiting for additional messages to be sent by the wireless communication network 100, then the user of the mobile station 120 will need to delete one or more old messages from the message memory 230 to make room for new additional messages. Thus, in accordance with the present invention, a memory indicator 226 exceeded is provided in the mobile station 120 which will be activated when a message is waiting to be sent to the mobile station 120 but can not be successfully retrieved by mobile station 120 due to insufficient message memory 230. It is noted that the mechanism for transmitting a message from a wireless communication network 100 to a mobile station 120 is well known in the wireless message technique. For example, if the mobile station 120 was a paging receiver and the wireless communication network 100 was a paging network, then the message will be sent according to the well-known paging techniques. For additional information on the paging systems, see for example Wi rel ess Basi cs, 2a. Edition, 1996, Telephony Books, Overland Prk, KS, ISBN D-87288-633-6; and Tel Aviv Network Paging Protocol (TNPP) - Version 3.6, October 20, 1993, which are incorporated herein by reference. These paging techniques are known for both alphanumeric and voice messages. If the mobile station 120 was a mobile telephone and the wireless communication network 100 was a wireless telephone network of cellular telephones, then an alphanumeric message can be sent as a message of the short message service (SMS), as described in IS- 136 The steps performed by the mobile station 120 in accordance with the present invention will now be described in conjunction in the flow chart of Figure 3. As described above, these steps are performed under the control of the control processor 228 executing the instructions of the computer program. In step 300, a message is received by the mobile station 120 from the wireless communication network 100. In step 310, the mobile station 120 determines whether there is sufficient capacity in the message memory 230 to store the message. If there is not sufficient capacity in the message memory 230 to store the message, then in step 320 the mobile station 120 rejects the message and sends a reject message to the wireless communication system 100 indicating that the message rejection was caused by a lack of enough memory. In step 230, the exceeded memory indicator 226 is activated (e.g., illuminated or displayed indicator, sounding audio indicator, stimulated tactile indicator) to indicate that a message was sent by the wireless communication system 100 but was unable to to be received by the mobile station 120 due to insufficient memory. The processing ends in step 380. As a result of this processing, the user of the mobile station 120 is notified that there is a waiting message in the wireless communication network 100 that can not be distributed until there is sufficient capacity in the memory of messages 230 of the mobile station 120. As a result, the user can erase one or more messages in the message memory 230 to make space for the new message. As a result of the rejection message that is sent to the wireless communication system 100, the wireless communication knows that the message was rejected due to an insufficient memory condition. The wireless communication system can store the message in MC 108 and may attempt to re-send the message periodically. It is now assumed that the user of the mobile station 120 deletes one or more messages from the message memory 230 and there is now sufficient memory to receive the new message. It is also assumed that MS 108 has waited for a period of time and now attempts to resend the message. The mobile station 120 will begin processing the re-send message in step 300 and will determine in step 310 that there is sufficient memory capacity in the message memory 230 to receive the message. In step 340, the message will be stored in message memory 230. In case 350, an acceptance message will be sent to the wireless communication network 100 indicating that the message was received successfully. In step 360, it is determined if the memory indicator 222 exceeded is activated. If the memory indicator 226 is exceeded, then the overflow memory indicator 226 is deactivated in step 370. After step 370, or if it was determined in step 260 that the exceeded memory indicator 226 was not activated, the processing ends in step 380. It is noted that the deactivation of the exceeded memory indicator 226 can be handled in different ways. for example, the exceeded memory indicator 226 can be deactivated each time the mobile station 120 is operated. This technique can be useful where the wireless communication network 100 and the type that will send any of the stored messages to the mobile station 120 each once the mobile station 120 is activated and where the messages are deleted from the wireless communication network if they have been unavailable for a period of time. For example, suppose that the mobile station 120 is in a state in which its message memory 230 is full and the memory indicator 226 exceeded is activated. In this situation, there are messages stored in the message center 108 that are not available. If the mobile station 120 is deactivated and subsequently activated again, the memory indicator 226 exceeded will be deactivated in the drive, and the messages will be immediately sent to the mobile station 120. If the message memory 230 is still full, then the indicator 226 of memory exceeded will be activated. However, after a certain period of time, the unavailable messages stored in the message center 108 will be erased as they expire. Subsequently, if the mobile station 120 is deactivated and then activated, the memory indicator exceeded will be deactivated on activation. Since there are no messages for more time in the message center 108 that wait to be distributed, the memory indicator 226 will be deactivated. In an alternative technique, the exceeded memory indicator 226 may be deactivated by a user of the mobile station 120 which erases some messages from the message memory 230, making space for storing additional messages. In this mode, if the message center tries to resend a waiting message (either after some period of time or activation of the mobile station 120), then the messages can be received by the mobile station 120 and stored in the message memory 230. If all waiting messages are retrieved successfully, then memory indicator 226 exceeded will remain deactivated. Additionally, if the messages waiting in the message center 108 have been cleared from the message center 108 (due, for example, to having waited too long and have expired), the memory exceeded indicator 226 will remain deactivated because there are no new messages waiting to be sent to the mobile station. The above detailed description is to be understood as being illustrative and exemplary, but not descriptive, and the scope of the invention described herein is not to be determined from the detailed description, but instead claims must be construed accordingly. to full scope and allowed by patent laws. It is to be understood that the embodiments shown and described herein are only illustrative of the principles of the present invention and that various modifications may be implemented by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.

It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the present invention is that which is clear from the present description of the invention.

Having described the invention as above, the contents of the following are claimed as property:

Claims (21)

1. A wireless communication device, characterized in that it comprises: a transceiver for communicating with a network; a memory unit for storing messages received from the network; an indicator to indicate that a message is stored by the network and that the memory unit contains sufficient capacity to store the message.

2. The wireless communication device according to claim 1, characterized in that the indicator is a visual indicator.

3. The wireless communication device according to claim 1, characterized in that the indicator is an audible indicator.

4. The wireless communication device according to claim 1, characterized in that the indicator is a tactile indicator.

5. The wireless communication device according to claim 1, characterized in that the wireless communication device is a telephone.

6. The wireless communication device according to claim 1, characterized in that the wireless communication device is a paging receiver.

7. The wireless communication device according to claim 1, characterized in that the message is a textual message.

8. The wireless communication device according to claim 1, characterized in that the message is a voice message.

9. A method of operation of a wireless communication device, the wireless communication device that includes a memory, the method is characterized in that it comprises the steps of: receiving a message from a network; determine if the memory contains enough capacity to store the message; and if the memory does not contain sufficient capacity to store the message, it activates an indicator indicating that a message is stored on the network and that the memory contains insufficient capacity to store the message.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that it comprises the step of: sending a signal to the network indicating that the message was not received successfully.

11. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that it comprises the step of: deactivating the indicator when the memory unit contains sufficient capacity to store a message.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that it comprises the step: storing a message in the memory when the memory unit contains sufficient capacity to store the message.

13. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that it comprises the step of: deactivating the indicator when the wireless communication device is activated.

14. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that the message is a textual message.

15. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that the message is a voice message.

16. A wireless communication device, characterized in that it comprises: a transceiver for communicating with a network; a memory unit for storing messages received from the network; a memory indicator exceeded; and a control processor for controlling the operation of the wireless communication device, the control processor is configured to perform the steps of: determining whether the memory unit contains sufficient capacity to store a message received from the network; and if the memory unit does not contain sufficient capacity to relate the message, activate the memory indicator exceeded.

17. A wireless communication device according to claim 16, characterized in that the control processor is additionally configured to perform the step of: sending a signal to the network indicating that the message was not received successfully.

18. The wireless communication device according to claim 16, characterized in that the control processor is additionally configured to perform the step of: deactivating the memory indicator exceeded when the memory unit contains sufficient capacity to store the message.

19. The wireless communication device according to claim 16, characterized in that the control processor is further configured to perform the step of: storing the message in the memory when the memory unit contains sufficient capacity to store the message.

20. The method according to claim 16, characterized in that the message is a textual message.

21. The method according to claim 16, characterized in that the message is a voice message.