In the following detailed description of various embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part thereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
The present invention relates to a dialing method for originating a call by nickname request from a mobile terminal to a communication server, wherein the mobile terminal contains software or hardware logic adapted to generate a call by nickname request, the method comprising the steps of:
The examples and terminology used herein to describe the invention are taken mainly from a GSM mobile network, and are for illustration purposes only. It will be evident to any person skilled in the art, that the invention is applicable to any present or future mobile network, and that any example provided herein with a GSM terminology should be interpreted as covering any equivalent component or functionality within any other mobile or telephone network.
The following definitions of GSM and networking terminologies are available from Wikipedia's Internet site on: http://en.wikipedia.org.
DTAP (Direct Transfer Application Part)—DTAP is an application protocol that is employed to pass signaling information between the MS (Mobile Station) and the MSC (Mobile Switching Centre) in a GSM network.
IN (Intelligent Network)—The Intelligent Network or IN, as it is more commonly referred to, is a network architecture for both fixed and mobile telecommunication networks. It allows operators to differentiate themselves by providing value-added services in addition to the standard telecoms services such as GSM services on mobile phones. It can also be regarded as an overlay on the core network.
INAP (Intelligent Network Application Part)—INAP is a signaling protocol used in the intelligent network architecture. It is part of the SS7 protocol suite, typically layered on top of the TCAP protocol. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) defines several “capability levels” for this protocol, starting with Capability Set 1 (CS-1). A typical application for the IN (Intelligent Network) is a Number Translation service. For example, in the United Kingdom, 0800 numbers are free phone numbers and are translated to a geographic number using an IN platform. The Telephone exchanges decode the 0800 numbers to an IN trigger and the exchange connects to the IN. The Telephone exchange uses TCAP, SCCP and INAP and in IN terms is a Service Switching Point. It sends an INAP Initial Detection Point (IDP) message to the Service Control Point (SCP). The SCP returns an INAP Connect message, which contains a geographic number to forward the call to.
ISUP (ISDN User Part)—The ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) User Part or ISUP is part of the Signaling System #7 which is used to set up telephone calls in Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN). It is specified by the ITU-T as part of the Q.7xx series. When a telephone call is set up from one subscriber to another, many telephone exchanges will be involved, possibly across international boundaries. To allow the call to be set up correctly, the switches signal call-related information, like the called or calling party number, to the next switch in the network using ISUP messages.
MSISDN (Mobile Station Integrated Services Digital Network) is the mobile equivalent of ISDN and refers to the 15-digit number that is used to refer to a particular mobile station. The MSISDN number starts from the country code. The ITU-T recommendation E.164 defines the international numbering plan that MSISDN is based on.
PSTN—The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is the concentration of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the concentration of the world's public IP-based packet-switched networks. Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital, and presently includes mobile as well as fixed telephones.
SCP (Service Control Point)—An SCP is a standard component of an IN (Intelligent Networks) telephone system which is used to control the service. Standard SCP's in the telecom industry today are deployed using SS7, Sigtran or Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) technologies. The SCP queries the SDP (Service Data Point) which holds the actual database and directory. SCP, using the database from the SDP, identifies the geographical number to which the call is to be routed. This is the same mechanism that is used to route 1-800 numbers. An SCP may also communicate with an “intelligent peripheral” to play voice messages, or prompt for information to the user, such as prepaid long distance using account codes. This is done by implementing feature codes like “#,” which can be used to terminate the input for a username or password or can be used for call forwarding. These are realized using Intelligent Network Application Protocol (INAP) that sits above Transaction Capabilities Application Protocol (TCAP) on the SS7 protocol stack. The TCAP is part of the top or 7th layer of the SS7 layer breakdown.
SCPs are connected with either SSPs or STPs. This is dependent upon the network architecture that the network service provider wants. The most common implementation uses STPs.
SDP (Service Data Points)—In the Intelligent Network (IN) are defined Service Control Points (SCPs) that contain service logic, and Service Data Points (SDPs) that contain data.
STP (Signal Transfer Point) is a switch that relays SS7 messages between SSPs and SCPs. Based on the address fields of the SS7 messages, the STPs route the messages to the appropriate outgoing signaling link. To meet the stringent reliability requirements, STPs are provisioned in mated pairs. Some Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) number portability solutions are implemented in STPs. In UMTS, the STP provides Global Title Translation (GTT), which may be used to route queries from a Gateway MSC (GMSC) to the Home Location Register (HLR). Note that for every call to a mobile station (MS), the call is first routed to the MS's Gateway MSC.
TSC (Transit Switching Center)—The TSC simplifies the task of configuring a large network containing many interconnected switching elements, such as mobile switching centers and home location registers. By routing all inter-element signaling through the Transit MSC, operators are able to rationalize signaling routing and reduce time and money spent configuring new elements into the network (Definition provided by Nokia on http://press.nokia.com).
The present invention provides a new dialing method in which a user of a mobile terminal can dial another destination fixed or mobile telephone by providing a nickname instead of the actual telephone number. A given nickname can be associated with more than one telephone number and in that case the caller selects the destination he wants to reach among the different choices available. For example, between home, work, mobile or fax. Any telephone number may also have more than one nickname associated with it. The nickname can include any combination of letters, numbers and symbols available for input on a mobile terminal.
The user of the mobile terminal dials a nickname as if dialing a regular telephone number, that is, by entering the nickname and typically pressing a button associated with a “send” or “call” function. The mobile terminal used in the invention is equipped with adapted software or hardware logic that intercepts the dialed nickname, and converts it instead to a numeric code. Each nickname is converted into a unique numeric code. In one embodiment of the present invention, the numeric code is composed of a predefined prefix and a numeric value. The numeric code or the numeric value may be compressed in order to reduce their size.
The adapted software or hardware logic used by the invention then proceeds to generate a call request to said numeric code. The request to setup a call to said numeric code is broadcasted to a mobile switching center, typically using a signaling channel. In one embodiment of the present invention, the mobile terminal and the mobile switching center communicate by using the DTAP application protocol.
The adapted software or hardware logic can reside on the mobile terminal's SIM card, within the mobile terminal's internal memory, within a memory unit coupled with the mobile terminal or any combination thereof. The adapted software logic can be delivered with the mobile terminal, or downloaded at a later stage by means such as the Internet, a personal computer, a memory unit, over-the-air service provisioning (OTASP), a private or public network or any other available mean for delivering or updating software or hardware logic to the mobile terminal.
When the mobile switching center receives the request to setup a call to said numeric code, it is unable to execute the request on its own since said numeric code is not a valid telephone number. The mobile switching center thus transfers the call setup request to the communication server. The communication server recognizes the numeric code associated with the call setup request as a numeric code originating from a conversion of a nickname. In another embodiment of the present invention, the communication server interprets the predefined prefix of the numeric code as preceding a numeric value representing a conversion from a nickname.
The communication server looks up the numeric code in a translation database coupled to said communication server and retrieves the corresponding telephone number. Once the telephone number corresponding to said numeric code that resulted from the given nickname is retrieved, the call can be set up between the retrieved telephone number and the mobile terminal.
The term “mobile terminal” as referred to herein means any mobile device with telephony capabilities or that can be augmented with telephony capabilities. Examples include, but are not limited to: mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's), portable computers, portable media playing devices, portable game consoles and others.
The mobile station (MS) consists of the mobile equipment (the terminal) and a smart card called the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM). The SIM provides personal mobility, so that the user can have access to subscribed services irrespective of a specific terminal. By inserting the SIM card into another GSM terminal, the user is able to receive calls at that terminal, make calls from that terminal, and receive other subscribed services.
The mobile equipment is uniquely identified by the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI). The SIM card contains the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) used to identify the subscriber to the system, a secret key for authentication, and other information. The IMEI and the IMSI are independent, thereby allowing personal mobility. The SIM card may be protected against unauthorized use by a password or personal identity number.
The Base Station Subsystem is composed of two parts: the Base Transceiver Station (BTS) and the Base Station Controller (BSC). These communicate across the standardized Abis interface, allowing (as in the rest of the system) operation between components made by different suppliers.
The Base Transceiver Station houses the radio transceivers that define a cell and handles the radio-link protocols with the Mobile Station. In a large urban area, there will potentially be a large number of BTSs deployed, thus the requirements for a BTS are ruggedness, reliability, portability, and minimum cost.
The Base Station Controller manages the radio resources for one or more BTSs. It handles radio-channel setup, frequency hopping, and handovers. The BSC is the connection between the mobile station and the Mobile service Switching Center (MSC).
The central component of the Network Subsystem is the Mobile services Switching Center (MSC). It acts like a normal switching node of the PSTN or ISDN, and additionally provides all the functionality needed to handle a mobile subscriber, such as registration, authentication, location updating, handovers, and call routing to a roaming subscriber. These services are provided in conjunction with several functional entities, which together form the Network Subsystem. The MSC provides the connection to the fixed networks (such as the PSTN or ISDN). Signaling between functional entities in the Network Subsystem uses Signaling System Number 7 (SS7), used for trunk signaling in ISDN and widely used in current public networks.
The Home Location Register (HLR) and Visitor Location Register (VLR), together with the MSC, provide the call-routing and roaming capabilities of GSM. The HLR contains all the administrative information of each subscriber registered in the corresponding GSM network, along with the current location of the mobile. The location of the mobile is typically in the form of the signaling address of the VLR associated with the mobile station. There is logically one HLR per GSM network, although it may be implemented as a distributed database.
The Visitor Location Register (VLR) contains selected administrative information from the HLR, necessary for call control and provision of the subscribed services, for each mobile currently located in the geographical area controlled by the VLR. Although each functional entity can be implemented as an independent unit, all manufacturers of switching equipment to date implement the VLR together with the MSC, so that the geographical area controlled by the MSC corresponds to that controlled by the VLR, thus simplifying the signaling required. Note that the MSC contains no information about particular mobile stations—this information is stored in the location registers.
The other two registers are used for authentication and security purposes. The Equipment Identity Register (EIR) is a database that contains a list of all valid mobile equipment on the network, where each mobile station is identified by its International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI). An IMEI is marked as invalid if it has been reported stolen or is not type approved. The Authentication Center (AuC) is a protected database that stores a copy of the secret key stored in each subscriber's SIM card, which is used for authentication and encryption over the radio channel.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the communication server is implemented in the mobile network in an ISUP solution.
In an ISUP implementation of the invention, the communication server 40 is not directly integrated with the MSC 20. Furthermore, the communication server 40 is responsible for managing the entire call session, and thus is also responsible for the call's billing information. The communication server 40 and the MSC 20 are connected both by a signaling channel 35 and by a voice channel 55 using ISUP links. The ISUP solution is relatively easier to implement and is a good choice for a mobile operator wishing to test or soft launch the service of the invention.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the communication server 40 is implemented in the mobile network in an Intelligent Network (IN) solution.
Once the corresponding telephone number is retrieved by the communication server 40, the MSC 20 forwards the call request to the TSC 60, and the call session is then managed by the MSC 20. The billing information, for example, is handled by the MSC 20 in the same way that all other calls are handled in the mobile network (not involving the communication server 40). Integrating the communication server 40 according to the invention in an IN solution is a more complex task (compared to an ISUP solution), but the result is a more robust implementation from the mobile operator's point of view. It is envisioned by the present invention that mobile operators start by implementing the invention in an ISUP solution, and then move to an IN implementation once the service is successful.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, a chosen nickname may also be used by the user for other applications. For example, the same nickname can be used as the first part of an email address, as in nickname@domain.com, or the nickname can be used as an identifier for an instant messaging application, a Voice over IP (VoIP) application, or any other person-to-person communication application.
A user or a business may adopt several nicknames associated with the same telephone number. In yet another embodiment of the present invention, business rules can be applied to the call request in order to better respond the caller's and called person needs. Several examples of such powerful business rules are provided below, but it is clear that any person skilled in art will immediately understand how to create numerous other business rules for managing calls according to the invention, and all such other business rules are thus viewed to be included in the invention. Examples of business rules for managing a call of the invention include but are not limited to:
A further advantage of the invention is that it permits users to give out only a unique nickname as a way to call them without disclosing their actual phone number. When a user changes, for example, his mobile phone number all he needs to do then is to have the nickname correspond to his new telephone number. The user does not need to notify anybody of this new number since all calls to his nickname will automatically arrive to his new number.
Although the invention has been described in detail, nevertheless changes and modifications, which do not depart from the teachings of the present invention, will be evident to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are deemed to come within the purview of the present invention and the appended claims.