WO2010079522A2

WO2010079522A2 - A technique for managing incoming calls on a cell phone

Info

Publication number: WO2010079522A2
Application number: PCT/IT2010/000001
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ugo Nevi
Original assignee: Ugo Nevi
Priority date: 2009-01-09
Filing date: 2010-01-05
Publication date: 2010-07-15
Also published as: ITRM20090006A1; IT1402967B1; WO2010079522A3

Abstract

A technique for managing incoming calls on a cell phone that - when the telephone of the called party is reached by a call - provides for the opening, during signaling, of a listening time window equal to the duration of the signaling itself, in which the called cell phone detects a possible pause by the user set for interrupting the signaling. The immediate notification is then actuated to the calling party telephone containing the information related to the call that did not take place and the notice of the occurred detection of the signaling by the called party.

Description

A technique for managing incoming calls on a cell phone

Field of the invention

The invention refers to the mobile telephony field, and more particularly it deals with a technique that allows the called user - busy in other activities, so that he/she cannot respond - to send a "signal" to the calling party that notifies the latter of the occurred detection of the incoming call and that he/she will be called back as soon as possible.

State of the art

KEY

Detach : condition corresponding to the turning off of the cell phone by the user who pressed the OFF key,

GSM : Global System for Mobile Communications.

HLR : Home Location Register is the data bank used for the permanent conservation of the subscriber data with the related profiles of the assigned services. By querying the HLR, the SMSC obtains the necessary routing information for sending the SMS message to the subscriber.

MSC: Mobile Switching Center has the function of switching the voice and data traffic towards the GSM network.

MAP: Mobile Application Part is the protocol used by the nodes of the GSM network for managing the mobility of the users. MSC: Mobile Switching Center, switching center for mobile telephony.

MSISDN : Mobile Station Integrated Service Digital Network is the cell phone number (e.g. 349 3456457).

PLMN: public land mobile network

PSTN: public switch telephone network Roaming: is the condition of a GSM terminal which results connected to a different network from that which issued the SIM card (with which the terminal is equipped). SIM: Subscriber Identity Module (Service Subscriber/User) SMSC: Short Message Service Center is responsible for the transmission, storage and delivery of an SMS message.

SMS-Gateway MSC: this is a Mobile Switching Center capable of receiving an SMS from an SMSC, querying the HLR for the routing information, and then sending the message to another MSC for the reception by the receiver cell phone. STP: Signaling Transfer Protocol is a function of the telephone signaling network which allows transferring a signaling message towards its destination through intermediate nodes.

UCP: Universal Computer Protocol is a protocol used in data transmissions towards service centers. VLR: Visitor Location Register is a data bank that contains the user information that is temporarily assigned to the operator due to the roaming functions.

Notwithstanding the increasing use of answering services and call transfer services, each cell phone service manager entrusted with public mobile service certainly still sees a very high number of unsuccessful calls - since the user of the destination terminal cannot be reached and/or is busy with other activities. While extremely effective solutions exist for the conditions of recovery of the call on unreachable terminal, the problem of the terminal whose user is busy and thus does not respond - even though he/she acquired the call waiting signal - is unresolved. For example, a series of services offered by the various network operators to their own users are known which are based on a technique in which the call to the unreachable mobile terminal generates an SMS notification to the calling party. Said SMS comprises information of the following type: the number of the calling party, the time of the call etc.. Such procedure is actuated in a series of separate steps. The call to an unreachable terminal is routed onto a device for storing and managing the information related to the call. When the terminal is once again reachable, the receiver is served the SMS containing the information related to the missed calls. The normal sequence of steps related to the execution of a call on a mobile line to an unreachable terminal is opened and immediately interrupted following the acquisition of the calling party identification and is restarted when the reachability is ascertained, by activating a SMS channel. The patent EP 699.009 in the name of Alcatel et al. describes a technique in which the switching center determines if the called party is unreachable, producing a signal in the relative HLR register; such switching center forwards the user identification related to the calling party to the SMSC center, which in turn generates and stores a short message including the identification of the calling party. As soon as the called user is newly reachable, this is once again indicated in the HLR register with the signaling to the SMSC of the occurred reachability, and the previously stored short message is sent to the called party. This solution type refers to the problem of the unreachable terminal and does not consider the management of the incoming call by the mobile user terminal who is reachable but busy with other activities and/or cannot respond. On the other hand, it is known that for a telecommunications network to function correctly, it is necessary that the various functional units involved (including the user) exchange the open session information. The latter is said control signals, and they can be obtained according to two different techniques: signaling associated with the circuit and common channel signaling. The first technique, used in the conventional fixed telephone line on duplex cable, associates the signaling on the same channel used for transporting the sound. The second technique, used in modern telephony (e.g. GSM, ISDN, etc.), clearly separates the sound from the signals, assigning dedicated transmission channels to the latter.

Currently, applications are used in telephony in which the time interval dedicated to the signaling [i.e. the period preceding the actual conversation] is used as a period from which a further functionality is obtained, in addition to that already provided for by the original use.

Several intelligent telecare system devices should be mentioned, which allow the sending of an alarm signal towards programmable telephone numbers and allow the speaker activation for environmental control, the disengagement of the line occurring after a programmable number of minutes. Indeed, upon verification of the event corresponding to one of the alarms, the device generates a call sequence towards all the connected numbers and sends the associated signaling. If the alarm signal sending has, for example, a duration of thirty seconds, there is a pause between two alarm calls of (for example) fifteen seconds. The called user can interrupt the alarm signal by activating the speaker microphone in order to enter into an environmental control, confirm the reception of the signal so that he/she is not called back in subsequent cycles or reset and thus end the alarm.

Although it is possible to identify the use of the signaling service in such functionality for an object different from that for which it is set, and although it is provided that a return call is no longer actuated by the calling party confirming the reception of the signaling (so that it is not subsequently called back), this type of application is radically different from the finding that is the object of the present invention, which does not activate parallel functionalities at the same time as the signaling period, such as: a - interrupting the signaling, b - activating the speaker.

In other words, as usually occurs in a telephone answering service, the call develops into an actual conversation, even if there is no actual spoken exchange, with a charge to the calling party for the line engagement time. The object of the present invention is that of introducing a technique which already allows, only in the signaling step and hence in real time, signaling to the calling party that the called party cannot possibly respond, and that such party in any case detected the arrival of the call itself. One object of the present invention is that of overcoming the abovementioned disadvantages and to supply a solution which offers the called user an easy and "friendly" - user- friendly - way to manage the incoming call. A further object of the present invention is that of providing management procedures of the calls to the mobile terminal which allow improving the service by eliminating the gaps deriving from the terminal component that is reachable but with the called user busy with other activities.

Still another object of the present invention is that of providing an enhancement of the base services offered to the user by the manager. Finally, another object of the present invention is that of providing a management technique of the incoming calls by a user of the mobile terminal who is busy with other activities and/or who cannot respond which employs protocols, technologies and standard components in the cell phone field in order to achieve the technique itself with limited costs and easy maintenance. These and other objects are obtained by means of a technique which solves the problem of the user called on a mobile network who cannot respond, introducing a service on the mobile cell network which allows the calling user to acquire the notice in real time of the occurred reaching of the called party, and of the detection of the signaling, thus deducing that the called party is reachable and has the terminal turned on, but cannot respond because he/she is busy with other activities.

The invention regards both the service obtainment procedure and the functionalities of particular equipment involved in the supply as outlined in the attached claims. The invention will be better understood from the reading of the following description, provided merely as an example and obtained with reference to Figure 1 , a block diagram which shows the steps pertaining to the management process of the calls to a terminal according to the present invention.

The technique provides that procedures are introduced for managing the call to the user with reachable mobile terminal but who is busy with other activities, and also of information (such as time of call, called number and other accessory information) related to the called user. It is rendered operative by an event of voice pause type - an OK, a YES, or an OK, I WILL CALL BACK - or by means of a slight stroke bluntly hit on the telephone apparatus during the signaling which in turn generates a notification to the calling party - via sound signaling or SMS text channel -, of the occurred detection of the incoming call.

Two fundamental steps are provided for, separate but sequentially actuated in the scope of the same procedure: a- when the telephone B of the called user is reached by a call from a telephone A of the calling user, a listening time window is opened during the signaling equal to the duration of the signaling itself, in which the called cell phone B detects a possible pause on the cell phone B itself, set for interrupting said signaling and for forwarding the call onto a device for storing and managing the information related to the call itself, even if the called user B was reached and even if the call transfer was activated, with the lack of called party reply, towards the answering service or another number; b- the phone A of the calling party is immediately notified with an SMS or a sound signal containing the information related to the call that did not take place - notwithstanding the reachability of the called telephone B -, and the notice of the occurred detection by the called party itself of the incoming call signaling.

With the solution according to the present invention, a call on a mobile telephone line is opened and possibly interrupted during signaling, detecting the identifications of the calling party and the called party and using an accessory channel, such as SMS text or sound message by means of voice machine, for the immediate notification to the calling party of the occurred receipt of the signaling by the called party, which will in any case call back later, hi such a manner, the typical voice communication protocol transaction of the telephone answering service is entirely eliminated, and virtual-type traffic is thus generated that is not charged to the calling party. From the standpoint of the receiver-user of the call in possession of the telephone B. The service functions as described in the following steps:

- if the user is called when he/she is engaged in other activities - with the terminal in any case reachable (turned on and under coverage) - the calling party A receives a sound message or an SMS at the same time which communicates the reachability of the called party but also the fact that the same called party cannot currently respond;

- as soon as the called party, in possession of the cell phone B, becomes newly free/available for calling, he/she will call the calling party which some time before had already interrupted the signaling during the call waiting step, his/her own cell phone B having stored the number of the call to which he/she did not respond. For each call, the number of the called party, the time the call was made and the other accessory information related to the calling party and/or to the called party are reported to the calling party. If a same number made several calls, and on the other calls there was no interruption of the signaling by the called party, only the indication related to the last call made is reported.

More particularly, in the details of the units which make up the telephone network architecture, the calling party A actuates the selection 5 of the destination number and carries out the call, being interconnected on a PSTN telephone network if the call is made from a fixed line, or on a PLMN telephone network if the call is made from a mobile terminal.

Then, the origin exchange MSC queries the client register (from here on referred to as HLR), by means of the STP, requesting the roaming number of the receiver B. If, in the HLR, the information is acquired that the destination terminal results in Detach state, it is evaluated if the destination number has activated the call transfer 10 on unreachable terminal towards its own telephone answering service or towards another number in order to actuate the related forwarding and carry out the related functions. If it is detected in the HLR that the destination terminal is not in Detach state, there is the sending 20 to the origin center MSC of the roaming number of the MSC/VLR center, in which the destination number (destination center) is registered. Then, the destination center carries out a further test 30 for evaluating if the destination terminal is reachable. If the terminal of the calling user is turned off or unreachable in 28, the possible forwarding is executed for the transferring to another number or telephone answering service, or the calling user receives a notification and the call is routed towards the lack of reachability management procedures. If, however, the terminal is reachable, the call 23 is established towards the destination number according to the normal procedure provided for in mobile systems. The management procedure of the lack of reply of the reachable mobile terminal according to the present invention is capable of actuating the detection and the management of the information related to the aforesaid calls, meeting a series of specific functional requirements which regard the interworking by means of management of the ISUP protocol with the switching notes of the GSM network and the extraction of the calling number from the ISUP IAM message for the calls intended for the terminal that is reachable but that does not respond to the call. Also provided is the possibility to store the information related to the calls received from each terminal in a dedicated data bank. The management procedure of the occurred or lack of reply of the reachable terminal is also capable of interworking, by means of management of the UCP protocol, with the SMS service center for the real time sending of text messages towards the calling terminal.

The management procedure of the lack of reply of the reachable terminal provides for a series of operating steps in the following order: a- acquisition 24 of only the signaling component related to the call, extracting the number of the calling party from the IAM message of ISUP signaling, with the registration of the call time/date, b- then, with the selection 26, three different operating functionalities are provided for: b-i the reply 27 by the called party B who comes in communication with the calling party A; b-ii the lack of reply 28 by the called party, even if reached by the signaling in such case, and once the signaling time interval has been exceeded the call is stored with a control for evaluating if the calling number already belongs to the list of numbers which attempted to contact the given receiver number B, b-iii the interruption 29 of the signaling by the called party B, with the calling party A who at the same time receives a sound message or an SMS which communicates the reachability of the called party, but also at the same time the fact that the same called party cannot respond at that moment.

The optimal use of the SMS instrument should be underlined in order to achieve the implementation aspects of the present invention.

It is known that the messages are stored and transmitted from a message center, said SMS-Center (SMSC). The message center is the electronic equivalent of the ordinary mail service, since it stores and forwards the messages as soon as they can be routed.

The content of the VLR is on the other hand a subset of information drawn from the

HRL. Such subset is normally formed by all the data necessary for controlling the call and the allocated services of every single mobile device MS, currently localized in the geographical area controlled by the VLR.

Finally, in order to manage the mobility of the users, the MSC component must continuously exchange information with a database, said Visitor Location Register

(VLR), which temporarily stores the information related to the MS (Mobile Stations) which are found in that area (identity of the IMEI user, MSISDN telephone number, authentication parameters, etc.). The MS in question are simply "visiting" the area served by the VLR. hi fact, they can move at any time into the area served by another

VLR.

On the basis of that mentioned above, when one sends an SMS message the essential operations set in action are the following:

• Routing Information Request: First, the SMSC must recover the necessary information for the routing from the subscriber data bank, i.e. from the HLR, so as to be able to determine the cell to which the cell phone is connected. This process is carried out before the transmission of the message.

• Point to Point Short Message Delivery: This is the mechanism that sends the data of the SMS message from the Service Center to the MSC, which in that moment is connected to the cell connected to the cell phone.

• Short message waiting indication: This operation is activated when the SMSC is unable to send the SMS message for any one technical problem. In this manner, the Service Center requests to the HLR to be added to the SMSC list in order to be informed when the cell phone returns to being accessible.

• Service Center Alert: The HLR informs the SMSC that the cell phone - to which the transmission of an SMS message was previously attempted - has now returned to being accessible and can be reached by the MSC.

It is clear that this sequence of procedures is extremely simplified in the application being illustrated. Indeed, first of all, no "Routing Information Request" is necessary since the SMS will be delivered directly to the calling party cell phone, for which the cell in which it is currently operating is clearly known. Also the "Short message waiting indication" has no need to be actuated since the SMS will be immediately delivered to the calling party who waits for the communication to be activated. Finally, the "Service center alert" will also be non-activated, since there is no need to evaluate if the cell phone returns accessible, as that phone itself activated a call and for this reason is accessible for the entire signaling time. In order to neutralize the interruption effects - always possible on a GSM SMS channel - so as to prevent an incorrect functioning of the procedure according to the present invention, it will suffice to set the "Validity Period" field - which indicates the amount of time that the SMSC must keep the SMS message stored (before canceling it) in case of unreachable receiver - to a minimum time period, and the "Priority" field which positions the delivery priority of the SMS message to the maximum time period. A particular advantage of the finding lies in the fact that it is no longer necessary to detect information from HLR/VLR in order to know in which cell and related mobile base station one must send the SMS, since all is registered and stored in the initial detection - this allows resending an SMS at the same time as the signaling of the incoming call. This occurs since a procedure is per se established which defines - in real time - from "who" and from "where" (from which cell) the call is arriving, so that there is no need to newly query HLR and/or VLR with regard to the identification information of the receiver in order to send him/her the SMS during compilation or likewise the related sound message.

Since the information related to the preceding calls of the same number is registered, it is possible that the SMS is also configured on the basis of the preceding calls carried out. Hence, it could be composed according to a form of the following type: "You have already tried to call 349876543 several times, but the called party has only now received the notification: the party is still busy but will call back as soon as possible".

On the other hand, with regard to the notification to the calling party by means of voice answering service/machine, this is also managed when a conversation path with the terminal of the user A has not yet been established, so that the return call client generates a preconfigured voice message. For example, if one is calling from a fixed telephone in which the SMS service is not enabled, while one is still in the signaling step or at most after several seconds, the calling party will hear a voice message with a phrase such as "The called party number is busy at the moment but will reach you as soon as possible", thus communicating the impossibility of the called party to respond at that moment.

In any case, the service is invoked if a call transfer towards an answering service or another number is already activated. However, the service is not invoked if the calling number is not available or is not shown (e.g. international call, calling party with hidden number etc.).

Advantages and industrial uses of the finding In substance, the proposed technique is fundamentally different from the known forwarding of the call on telephone answering service, which requests a complete transaction and hence a cost for the user, possibly dependent on the channel use time. The service was obtained on GSM, GPRS and UMTS mobile technology. The advantages of the new application are also those evident in considering a service with automatic notification that ensures that the calling party does not persist in calling the called party after the first attempt, thus freeing the line and the calling party itself from having to call again.

Also under the aspect of the means employable for obtaining the finding, the otherwise unforeseeable interworking of sections and functionalities of the telephone network is of critical importance. First of all, the presence of an impact sensor and/or voice recognizer (coupled with the microphone already present in the cell phone), which only operate during signaling (calling), makes the described solution immediately feasible. In addition, the means through which the delayed return call message reaches the calling party (SMS, WAP, TCP/IP, interactive voice message) are in any case solutions which render the claimed main application reliable and secure.

It will be understood that the above description and the attached drawings are only intended for illustrating the present invention. It will be obvious to those who work in the field that the invention can also be varied and modified in other modes, without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the attached claims.

Claims

1. A technique for managing incoming calls on a cell phone, characterized in that when a phone (B) of the called user is reached by a call waiting signal from a phone (A) of the calling user,

I- during the signaling, a listening time window is opened equal to the duration of the signaling itself in which the called phone (B) detects a possible specific pause of the user on the same phone (B), set for interrupting said signaling and for forwarding the call onto a device for storing and managing the information related to the call itself, even if the called phone (B) was reached and even if the call transfer was activated, with the lack of called party reply, towards the answering service or another number; II- the phone (A) of the calling party is immediately notified with a notice containing: a- the indication of the occurred detection of the call signaling by the called party itself, and b- the information related to the call that did not take place, even though the called telephone (B) was reachable.

2. A technique for managing incoming calls on a cell phone according to claim 1, characterized in that for each call on mobile phone line that is already interrupted during signaling, the identification of the calling and the called parties are detected in order to use them through an accessory channel, such as SMS texts or voice messages, for the immediate notification to the calling phone (A) of the occurred receipt of the signaling by the called party.

3. A technique for managing incoming calls on a cell phone according to each of the preceding claims, characterized in that for each call already interrupted during signaling, the number of the called party is reported to the calling telephone (A), along with the time at which the call was made and the other accessory information related to the calling party and/or to the called party.

4. A technique for managing incoming calls on a cell phone according to each of the preceding claims, characterized in that the detection of the information related to the aforesaid call already interrupted during signaling is based on the interworking of the ISUP protocol with the switching nodes of the GSM network for extracting the calling number from the ISUP IAM message from the calls intended for the terminal that is reachable but does not respond to the call waiting signal.

5. A technique for managing incoming calls on a cell phone according to each of the preceding claims, characterized in that in the case of lack of reply by the called party reached by the call waiting signal, once the signaling time interval has been exceeded, the call is stored with a subsequent evaluation of the calling number with regard to its belonging to the list of numbers which previously attempted to contact the receiver number (B) in order to: a- insert a new number in said list if it is the first call for which the calling party does not have a reply, or b- update the data related to the most recent call in the call list of the specific calling number.

6. A technique for managing incoming calls on a cell phone according to each of the preceding claims, characterized in that if one same number has recently carried out several calls, and on the preceding calls there was no interruption of the signaling by the called party, the following is reported to the calling telephone (A): the indication related to the last conducted call interrupted during signaling by the called party and the indication of the preceding calls for which the called party neither responded nor set the interruption.

7. A technique for managing incoming calls on a cell phone according to each of the preceding claims, characterized in that the management of the lack of response of the reachable terminal is based on the functionalities offered by the UCP protocol for being interfaced with the SMS service center in order to send the text messages towards the calling terminal in real time.

8. A technique for managing incoming calls on a cell phone according to each of the preceding claims, characterized in that it minimizes the requests for information to be acquired from the HLR and from the VLR for the delivery of the SMS notice, since the cell in which the calling phone is situated is already known, thus limiting the use of the Routing Information Request, Short message waiting indication, and Service Center Alert procedures comprised in the SMS sending protocol.

9. A technique for managing incoming calls on a cell phone according to each of the preceding claims, characterized in that the configuration of the SMS messages sent to the calling party, in case of call already interrupted during signaling, provides for setting the "Validity Period" field - related to the time that the SMSC keeps the SMS message stored before cancelling it, in case of unreachable calling party - to a minimum time period, and the "Priority" field which sets the delivery priority of the SMS message to the maximum time period.