Patent Application
20120225638
This disclosure relates in general to, and more particularly to a broadband gateway femtocell service that enables a wireless dual mode cellphone device to also be used as the cordless phone inside the home.
The rapid and widespread success of mobile broadband services has sparked a dramatic increase in usage, including in-home usage. Consumer demand has prompted carriers to seek alternate means of expanding in-home/in-building coverage, including the use of femtocells to provide better signal reception and to reduce traffic congestion on the wireless network.
A femtocell is a small cellular base station. The femtocell connects to the service provider's network via broadband (such as DSL or cable). By using a femtocell, service providers are able to extend service coverage indoors, especially where access would otherwise be limited or unavailable, without the need for expensive cellular towers. The use of femtocells offloads mobile traffic to fixed networks, potentially reducing both operating expenses and capital expenditures through lower required investment in network capacity. Femtocells also offer mobile service providers the opportunity to gain a greater share of the wireline market by increasing in-building service quality and accelerating the fixed to mobile transition. As a result, many operators have launched commercial femtocell services, while still others have announced plans for providing femtocell services.
Cellular companies are offering femtocells to customers, but cellular companies have a model that is based on generating as many per minute charges as possible. Thus, from a consumer standpoint, the reason for placing a wireless femtocell in the house is to compensate for ineffective coverage. However, such cellular companies still charge on a per minute basis for that usage even though the data passed through a femtocell is backhauled over the customer's own Internet traffic. Thus, the customer is paying for the use of the data pipe and also paying for per minute charges.
Although wireless carriers offer standalone femtocells for home use to bolster poor WAN coverage, no carriers are offering femtocells that combine cordless-type flat-rate service within the home and metered, mobile functionality outside the home, bundled with high-speed Internet and home phone service. Equipment manufacturers have offered dual-band phones (cordless frequencies such as 900 MHz and/or 2.4 GHz combined with cellular frequencies), but no true interoperability has been available.
In conclusion, special interfaces are required and currently no one is offering different services for the same device based on whether you are in your home or outside the home. A cordless phone typically is based on a flat rate. Cellphones may be used in the house or outside the house, but its usage is typically metered and charged by minute of airtime. Additionally, each example involves the use of a different phone.
Accordingly, it can be seen then that there is a need for providing broadband gateway femtocell service to enable a single device to be used in a cellphone or mobile mode and in a cordless phone mode with a dedicated base station.
To overcome the limitations described above, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, embodiments for a broadband gateway femtocell service that enables a wireless dual mode cellphone device to also be used as the cordless phone inside the home are disclosed.
The above-described problems are solved by a Femtocell Service Network that will establish a connection between a traditional phone device and an Integrated Femtocell Broadband Gateway-connected dual mode wireless device.
In one embodiment, a mobile device is provided. The mobile device includes memory for storing data for supporting wireless communication, a processor, coupled to the memory, for processing data to support communication, a femto module, coupled to the processor, the femto module includes a femto transceiver for communicating with a femtocell providing packet-based communication over a broadband, hybrid fiber-coax or traditional POTS telephony network and a cellular transceiver, coupled to the processor, the cellular transceiver configured to provide communication with a cellular network, wherein the processor determines whether to communicate using the femto module or the cellular transceiver.
In another embodiment, a system for providing dual mode telephone service is provided. The system includes a femtocell for providing telecommunication service over a broadband, hybrid fiber-coax or traditional POTS telephony network, a cellular network, including cell towers, for supporting cellular services and a headend, coupled to the broadband network and the cellular network, for supporting the transmission of signals over the broadband network between the headend and the femtocell and over the cellular network between the headend and the cell towers.
In another embodiment, a method for providing dual mode telephone service to a mobile device is provided. The method includes providing a mobile device a cellular transceiver for accessing a cellular network, providing the mobile device a femtocell module for accessing a broadband, hybrid fiber-coax or traditional POTS telephony network through a femtocell, determining whether the mobile device is within range of the femtocell and accessing the femtocell to provide telephone service using the mobile device when the mobile device is within range of the femtocell.
In another embodiment, a computer readable medium including executable instructions which, when executed by a processor, provides dual mode telephone service to a mobile device. The service is provided by providing a mobile device a cellular transceiver for accessing a cellular network, providing the mobile device a femtocell module for accessing a broadband, hybrid fiber-coax or traditional POTS telephony network through a femtocell, determining whether the mobile device is within range of the femtocell and accessing the femtocell to provide telephone service using the mobile device when the mobile device is within range of the femtocell.
These and various other advantages and features of novelty are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed hereto and form a part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the disclosed embodiments, the advantages, and the objects obtained, reference should be made to the drawings which form a further part hereof, and to accompanying descriptive matter, in which there are illustrated and described specific examples of the disclosed embodiments.
Referring now to the drawings in which like reference numbers represent corresponding parts throughout:
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a broadband gateway femtocell service that enables a wireless dual mode cellphone device to also be used as the cordless phone inside the home.
Accordingly, a wireless phone acts like a cordless-type phone when inside the premises by using a femtocell and backhauling data over a customer's Internet service. Then, when the user is outside the premises, the wireless network 170 would allow the wireless phone to be used as a normal cell phone. Moreover, some network operators own spectrum that has not been commercialized. For example, a build operate transfer (BOT) market uses the spectrum 150 already existing within the area. Cell phone service may be provided in BOT markets once towers and infrastructure construction has been completed. In authorizing the sale of such spectrum, the FCC requires the spectrum to be used within a certain amount of time. The femtocell 130 would allow such spectrum to be used within the subscriber's home without building the wireless local or public infrastructure 170.
A combined high-speed Internet/digital telephony service/wireless offering incorporating a femtocell 130 can provide significant cost savings to the customer via bundling of these services (over the bundling discounts already planned for combinations of these services) as well as via wireless usage within the home. Depending on technical and financial feasibility, phone minutes within the home would not count against a customer's allotted wireless minutes but rather would be part of the customer's digital phone charges or an ancillary flat fee.
The femto module 220 includes a femto transceiver 222 for communicating with a femtocell 230 that provides packet-based communication over a switched network. Cellular transceiver 240 is coupled to the processor 212 and is configured to provide communication with a cellular network. The processor determines whether to communicate using the femto module 220 or the cellular transceiver 240. The dual mode device 210 communicates with the femtocell 230 while the user is at the home to provide the digital telephony service. The femtocell 230 is coupled to a network 232. The network 232 may include a hybrid fiber coax network. The network 232 is coupled to a headend 234. The headend 234 may be coupled to a packet-switched network that accesses the PSTN through a switch as shown in
The cellular transceiver 240 inside the dual mode device 210 may also communicate with cell tower 250 to provide service while outside the home. The cell tower 250 may also be coupled to the network 232. To support cellular communication, the network may also include cellular components that provide the telephone signals to the headend 234, wherein the headend routes the telephone signals to a PSTN.
Thus, the dual mode wireless device 210 would provide dual functionality of a cordless phone while inside the premises and a cellular phone when outside the premises. While operating inside the premises utilizing a femtocell 230 there would be no extra usage fees charged on top, i.e., no per minute usage fees when the wireless phone is used inside the home. When outside the home, the wireless device 210 would be coupled to the headend 234 to access the billing system 270 and authentication system 280 in the backoffice 290. The authentication system 280 would authenticate the subscriber thereby providing normal cellphone service to the subscriber. The billing system 270 and rating engine 272 monitor usage and charges applicable to cell phone usage.
To maintain integrity and session continuity of an established call or connection, a handoff between the femtocell 230 and an external cell service 250 is required. While such a handoff is not necessary, a handoff between the femtocell and the external cell service would provide a better user experience. Any handoff would also require a mapping from one call quality rating methodology to a second methodology while keeping the call intact. Furthermore, most connections will be handled entirely within the premises or entirely by the cell service, without requiring a handoff.
Referring to
Referring again to
As a digital telephony customer, the customer's home phone number could be forwarded to each wireless phone, and each of these devices would ring that number. Outside the home, the customer, if subscribed to the wireless service, would be authenticated as a wireless customer and would leverage that product's operational systems and support infrastructure. Each wireless phone would have a unique MIN (Mobile Identification Number) and NPA/NXX ((Numbering Plan Area code and Central Office (exchange) code) that would also ring either inside or outside the home. The customer would receive calls from their home number as well as the unique number assigned to that device. Optimally, customers that place a call inside the home would be able to continue that call (and be picked up by a wireless cell site) when they leave the home/LAN environment, with no disruption to the call.
Embodiments implemented on computer-readable media 490 may refer to a mass storage device, such as a hard disk or CD-ROM drive. However, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that tangible computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed or utilized by a processing device, e.g., server or communications network provider infrastructure.
By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media 490 may include, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other solid state memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (“DVD”), or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other tangible medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by a processing device.
As mentioned briefly above, a number of program modules and data files may be stored and arranged for controlling the operation of processing devices. Thus, one or more processing devices 420 may be configured to execute instructions that perform the operations of embodiments of the present invention.
It should also be appreciated that various embodiments of the present invention can be implemented (1) as a sequence of computer implemented acts or program modules running on a processing device and/or (2) as interconnected machine logic circuits or circuit modules within the processing devices. The implementation is a matter of choice dependent on the performance requirements. Accordingly, logical operations including related algorithms can be referred to variously as operations, structural devices, acts or modules. It will be recognized by one skilled in the art that these operations, structural devices, acts and modules may be implemented in software, firmware, special purpose digital logic, and any combination thereof without deviating from the spirit and scope of the present invention as recited within the claims set forth herein.
Memory 430 thus may store the computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processor 420, cause the processor 420 to implement a femto module 450 according to an embodiment of the invention as described above with reference to
The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiment of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. It is intended that the scope of the invention be limited not with this detailed description, but rather by the claims appended hereto.
