Method of doing a broadcast service of a short message in a communication system

[0002] The present invention relates to a method of doing a broadcast service of a short message in a communication system.

[0003] Generally, in the service of a mobile communication system like CDMA, the broadcast message service provided to the subscribers is provided to the mobile terminal (or a mobile station) of said subscribers through paging channels and traffic channels. This broadcast message does not request the subscribers to answer whether or not the terminal receives the transmitted broadcast message because of its essential peculiarities.

[0004] Three methods exist for transmitting the broadcast message by said paging channels. First, a multi-slot broadcast transmission method sends the broadcast message to all slots of a control channel to send the broadcast message by using all the mobile terminals that are located in the service area of a base station. This is the simple and fast method having no time delay in the message. However, this method gives a large load to the control channel and makes the process of the other message impossible. The second is a multi-slot broadcast paging method. This is a method improved from the multi-slot broadcast transmission method. This method informs all the terminals of the broadcast by transmitting the general paging messages of small size instead of large to all slots of the control channel and then transmits the broadcast message. The third is a periodic broadcast paging method. This is the most effective method. This method informs the terminals of periodically transmitting the broadcast message from the base station.

[0005] After then, when a predetermined period is passed, the periodic broadcast paging method transmits the broadcast message. The first slot of the period of which all the terminals are informed is called a reference slot. During this slot, a general page message including the broadcast address to be transmitted in future is transmitted. Through this broadcast address information, the terminals recognize the type and arrival time of the message and decide whether the terminals receive the message. The broadcast message corresponding to each broadcast address is transmitted by the period of three slots following the reference slot. The terminal (or the mobile station) which receives the broadcast messages by the method as described above displays the messages on its display device. The conventional techniques are the arts based on the International Standardization IS-637 concerned with the short message and uses IS-95 for the radio communication of the message transmission between a base station and its terminals.

[0006] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the network configuration of a general CDMA system for the broadcast service of the short message.

[0007] In FIG. 1, the base station (BS) includes the base transceiver subsystem and the base station controller. Referring to FIG. 1, the mobile communication service basically using the CDMA system provides radio or wireline communication to the mobile communication subscribers by using the public switch telephone network(PSTN) 1 for the general telephone subscribers, which is provided by the communication network agent, and the integrated service digital network(ISDN) 2 providing communication service for both voice and data by a digital subscriber line.

[0008] A mobile switching center (MSC) 3aperforms a circuit switching and a transit paging processing so that the subscriber can communicate with other mobile subscribers or general wireline subscribers by the mobile communication service and performs the functions of hand-off and roaming to provide a good quality of a communication service, and takes charge of the transport layer for the broadcast message transmission (20 in FIGS. 2 and 3).

[0009] Furthermore, the base transceiver subsystem 3bis connected with the mobile station 4, which is either in a geostationary position or in moving, by the radio communication path. Therefrom, the base transceiver subsystem 3balso connects the mobile station 4 with the device in the base station controller by radio or wireline path and takes charge of the relay layer 30 in FIGS. 3 and 4 for the broadcast message transmission.

[0010] Furthermore, the base transceiver subsystem contains the information about various kinds of mobile communication connected with the mobile switching center. Therefore, the base transceiver subsystem also contains the current position information of the mobile station 4, the state of the mobile communication subscribers, the statistical data about the mobile communication and the information concerning to various services. Both the home location register 6 to be connected with radio/wireline subscribers and the visitor location register 5 to be connected with the mobile switching center 3ain order to search the information for processing the paging from other network subscribers are included in the base transceiver subsystem 3b.

[0011] A cell broadcast center 7 which is an important element in the broadcast message transmission takes charge of the teleservice layer (10 in FIGS. 3 and 4). The short message entity (8) provides the broadcast message to said cell broadcast center 7.

[0012] The mobile communication service process of the basic network of the CDMA system in FIG. 1 is omitted and only the service for the broadcast message will be explained here.

[0013] Referring to FIG. 1, a communication network agent selects one of the three broadcast message transmission methods by the paging channels previously described.

[0014] A short message entity 8 sends the broadcast message that will be transmitted to the cell broadcast center 7 which takes charge of the teleservice layer 10. The cell broadcast center 7 sends the broadcast message to the mobile station 4 through the mobile switching center 3awhich takes charge of the transport layer 20 and through the base transceiver subsystem 3bwhich takes charge of the relay layer 30 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.

[0015] Said base transceiver subsystem 3bmakes said broadcast message included in the data burst message and transmits it to the mobile station 4 through the paging channel by said selected broadcast message transmission method.

[0016] The multi-slot broadcast transmission method uses the data burst message. The remaining two methods, the multi-slot broadcast paging method and the periodic broadcast paging method, use a general paging message with the data burst message.

[0017] The address field in the data burst message or the general paging message is filled with the broadcast address that is the address not the inborn address of the mobile station 4 but for the broadcast message transmission. According to this broadcast address, whether or not the broadcast message is received is decided.

[0018] FIG. 2 shows the broadcast address for the broadcast message transmission in a conventional system. This address consists of two priority bits (PRIORITY), six message identification bits (MESSAGE_ID), eight zone identification bits (ZONE_ID), sixteen service bits (SERVICE) and eight language bits (LANGUAGE).

[0019] The broadcast address will be explained as follows. The two priority bits (PRIORITY) are to decide the priority of the broadcast messages to be broadcast when a plurality of broadcast messages are transmitted.

[0020] The six message identification bits (MESSAGE_ID) are to decide whether the current broadcast message is a duplicate copy of the message that has already been transmitted in order to avoid a duplicate transmission.

[0021] The eight zone bits (ZONE_ID) are to discriminate an identical message received from a plurality of zones different from each other.

[0022] The sixteen service bits (SERVICE) are used to classify the broadcast message transmission services by their items. The eight language bits (LANGUAGE) are used as language indicator bits for the classification of the languages used for the broadcast message.

[0023] FIG. 3 shows the protocol stack structure for the broadcast message transmission service.

[0024] The link layer 40 in the lowest level is a protocol layer for establishing the connection of a communication circuit for the communication service.

[0025] Relay layer 30 of which the base transceiver subsystem 3bof FIG. 1 takes charge is a protocol layer to discard, when broadcast messages having an identical broadcast address are received overlapping in time within a broadcast period, the overlapping message. Relay layer 30 also takes charge of the communication path allocation, the address establishment and release.

[0026] Transport layer 20 of which the mobile switching center 3atakes charge is a protocol layer for the broadcast message transmission between the cell broadcast center 7 and the base transceiver subsystem 3band takes charge of the paging connection management, data classification and data flow control.

[0027] Teleservice layer 10 of which the cell broadcast center 7 takes charge is a protocol layer to provide the broadcast message transmission service by broadcast message subparameters.

[0028] The transmission of the broadcast message provided by the broadcast message subparameters of the teleservice layer 10 is achieved by the parameters provided from the transport layer 20), the relay layer 30 and the link layer 40 which are the protocol layers lower than the teleservice layer 10.

[0029] FIG. 4 shows the broadcast message subparameters of said teleservice layer 10. All the subparameters may be used optionally. Generally the subparameters of the broadcast message include a message identifier, a user data, a message center type stamp, a validity period-absolute, a validity period-relative, a priority indicator, an alert on message delivery, and a language indicator.

[0030] FIG. 5 shows the primitive type of relay layer 30 and the transport layer 20 in the structure of the protocol stack shown in FIG. 2.

[0031] There are four steps in the primitive between said two layers that are a request step requesting the processing of arbitrary work, an indication step informing of said requested work, a response step responding to said informed work, and a confirm step confirming the response to the request.

[0032] The relationship between the relay layer 30 and the transport layer 20 by the primitive is explained as follows.

[0033] After the request step requesting the broadcast message transmission in the transport layer 20, said relay layer 30 sends an indication for informing of the broadcast message transmission to the transport layer 20. At this time, the transport layer 20 responds so as to decide whether allowing the broadcast message transmission.

[0034] To the response, the transport layer 20 performs said broadcast message transmission by the confirm step of the relay layer 30.

[0035] According to the conventional arts described beforehand, the contents, for example a telephone number, corresponding to the received broadcast message is simply displayed on the display device of the terminal. Furthermore, in the case that the subscriber who receives the broadcast message is interested in the information of the received broadcast message, the subscriber must first store the displayed number. Therefore, if the subscriber inputs the number, the subscriber is automatically connected to the broadcast message provider and can confirm the information.

[0036] As described beforehand, according to the conventional technique, the information of the received broadcast message is only displayed on the LCD display of the terminal. Therefore, the following problems are presented.

[0037] First, for the case that the sender location of the received broadcast message is required to be stored in an address directory in the terminal in order to be used in the future, the displayed sender location must be memorized. Then, the user must store the memorized sender location in the address directory by using a separate process of the terminal.

[0038] Second, if the user wants to confirm the information of the received broadcast message, the user must memorize the previously displayed telephone number. Then, the user has to input the memorized telephone number by the keypad and make the connection with the information provider of the broadcast message. Therefore, memorizing and dialing the previously displayed telephone number must be vexatious processes.

[0039] Third, because of the above two inconvenient processes, the quality and efficiency of the broadcast service of the originally planned short message can decrease.

[0040] Accordingly, the present invention is directed to provide a method of doing the service of broadcast message in a communication system such that a terminal user can communicate easily and conveniently with the information provider such as the service agent providing a desired broadcast message.

[0041] Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of doing the service of the broadcast message in a communication system by which the terminal user easily stores the telephone number and name of the information provider in the address directory in the terminal so as to use it in the future.

[0042] To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, two subparameters for the broadcast message are used additionally in the present invention.

[0043] One subparameter, the third party call name, is used for inserting the name of the information provider. The other subparameter is the third party call number for inserting the telephone number of the information provider.

[0044] The cell broadcast center makes the name and telephone number of the information provider who requests the transmission fo the broadcast message included in the broadcast message by using the two subparameters (the third party call name and the third party call number). The terminal decides whether or not there are the two subparameters in the broadcast message when receiving the broadcast message. Therefore, in the case that the subparameters are included in the broadcast message, the terminal takes the processes for achieving the above objects.

[0045] According to the present invention, in the case that the cell broadcast center receives the transmission request message of the broadcast message including the name and telephone number of the information provider from the information provider, the name and the telephone number are inserted in the two subparameters (third party call name, third party call number), respectively.

[0046] The broadcast message having the two subparameters in which the name and the telephone number of the information provider are included, respectively, by the cell broadcast center is transmitted to all terminals through the base transceiver subsystem.

[0047] When the terminal receives the broadcast messages having the subparameters in which the name and telephone number of the information provider are included, the terminal displays the contents, the telephone number and the name in the subparameters of the broadcast message on its display device in a certain sequence.

[0048] When the terminal user wants, the terminal performs the process for establishing the traffic channel between the information provider and the terminal user by using the telephone number of the received information provider.

[0049] Therefore, when the service agent transmits advertisements and public information by using the service of the short message, the terminal user can easily communicate with the information provider of the broadcast message that the user wants. Furthermore, to use them in the future, the telephone number and the name of the information can be easily stored in the address directory of the terminal.

[0050] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention:

[0051] In the drawings:

[0052] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the network structure of a conventional CDMA communication system.

[0053] FIG. 2 is a table showing the general field parameters of the broadcast address for the transmission of the broadcast message.

[0054] FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of the protocol stack used in broadcasting the short message.

[0055] FIG. 4 is a table showing the subparameters of the conventional broadcast message.

[0056] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the primitive type between the relay layer and the transport layer among the protocol stacks used for the broadcast service of the short message.

[0057] FIGS. 6A and 6B are a table showing the subparameters of the broadcast message according to the present invention.

[0058] FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the process for processing the broadcast message at a message center according to the present invention.

[0059] FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the process for processing the broadcast message at a terminal according to the present invention.

[0060] Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

[0061] For the explanation of the present invention, figures used beforehand for explanation of the conventional techniques can be used.

[0062] FIG. 6A is a table showing the subparameters of the broadcast message according to the present invention. The table in FIG. 6A has the same subparameters as the conventional broadcast message in FIG. 4 except two subparameters, the third party call number and the third party call name. In the present invention, the new two subparameters (the third party call number and the third party call name) are added to the broadcast service format of the short message used for the transmission of the broadcast message in the teleservice layer 10 of FIG. 3. As explained beforehand, the broadcast message is transmitted from the base station 3 to the mobile station. Prior to this, in order to realize the present invention, when the information provider such as the service agent wants to transmit the information, for example the sender name and the message sender location such as the telephone number, the information together with the transmission request message of the broadcast message is transmitted to the cell broadcast center 7 of FIG. 1. The cell broadcast center 7 makes the name (for example, a firm name) and telephone number of the information provider inserted into the broadcast message of the information provider by using the added two subparameters (the third party call number and the third party call name)

[0063] The broadcast message process procedure in the cell broadcast center 7 for realizing the present invention is explained as follows. First, the cell broadcast center 7 receives the transmission request message of the broadcast message from the information provider such as the service agent. Then, the information provider transmits the telephone number and the name together with the information. The cell broadcast center 7 determines whether the information provider requests to transmit both the telephone number and the name together with the information of the broadcast message. If the information provider wants to transmit both the telephone number and the name, the cell broadcast center 7 inserts the telephone number and the name into two subparameters, the third party call number and the third party call name, respectively. After then, the cell broadcast center 7 transmits the transmission request message of the broadcast message including the two subparameters (the third party call number and the third party call name) to the base station 3 of FIG. 1. The base station 3 transmits the received transmission request message of the broadcast message to the mobile station 4. In other words, if the cell broadcast center 7 receives a bearer information of the short broadcast message including the telephone number and the name from the information provider, when the broadcast message of the teleservice layer is constructed, the telephone number of the information provider is included into the subparameter third party call number and the name of the information provider is included into the subparameter third party call name. After then, the transmission request message of the broadcast message is transmitted to the base station 3 of FIG. 1.

[0064] FIG. 6B is a table showing the subparameters of the broadcast message according to the present invention. The table in FIG. 6B has the same subparameters as the conventional broadcast message in FIG. 4 except one subparameter, the third party call number. In the present invention, the new subparameter (the third party call number) is added to the broadcast service format of the short message used for the transmission of the broadcast message in the teleservice layer 10 of FIG. 3.

[0065] On the other hand, the base station 3 transmits the broadcast message requested by the cell broadcast center 7 to all the terminals 4 through the control channel (paging channel) and the traffic channel.

[0066] Referring to FIG. 8, the process for the subscriber terminal (mobile station) 4 to receive the broadcast message from the base station 3 is explained as follows.

[0067] The terminal 4 decides whether there are two subpararmeters for the third party call number and the third party call name, or one of them.

[0068] Whether these two subparameters are added or one of them is added is the provider's option. If the subparameters are not included, the terminal 4 performs a general process for the received broadcast message. For example, if the subparameters (the third party call number and the third party call name) are in the broadcast message, the terminal 4 displays the contents of the broadcast message, the telephone number and name of the information provider on the display device in a certain sequence. In order to display the information, four sequences may be considered. As the first example, the terminal 4 displays the contents of the broadcast message on the display device (for example, liquid crystal display) and then displays alternately the telephone number and name of the information provider included in the subparameters (the third party call number and the third party call name) after a constant time (for example, one or two seconds) is passed. As the second example, the contents of the broadcast message and both the telephone number and the name of the information provider may be displayed on the display device at the same time. As the third example, the contents of the broadcast message are first displayed on the display device and after then, both the telephone number and the name of the information provider may be displayed on the display device at the same time. As the fourth example, the name of the information provider is first displayed on the display device and then the contents of the broadcast message may be displayed on the display device. Hence, the terminal 4 decides whether the user or the service subscriber presses the communication key on the keypad. Any key may be assigned to this communication key by the terminal provider. This communication key is to be used when the service subscriber of the terminal side wants to communicate with the information provider by using the telephone number of the information provider who provides the broadcast message. Therefore, if the communication key is pressed by the service subscriber, the telephone number of the information provider is inserted into the field parameter (called number) of the origination message. This origination message is transmitted from the terminal (mobile station) 4 to the base station 3 of FIG. 1. The base station 3 established a traffic channel between the service subscriber of the terminal side 4 and the information provider. The process for establishing the traffic channel is performed according to the standardization without any relation to the present invention and therefore the explanation for the establishing process is omitted here.

[0069] On the other hand, if the communication key is not pressed by the service subscriber even though the telephone number and the name are displayed, the terminal 4 checks whether or not the subscriber presses the store key on the keypad. This store key may be assigned by the terminal provider. This store key is used for the service subscriber to store the telephone number and/or the firm name of the information provider included in the subparameters (third party call name and third party call number) in the address directory of the terminal 4 so that the service subscriber can communicate with the information provider in the future. The name (or firm name) is stored in the name field of the address directory and the telephone number is stored in the number field. Therefore, as in FIG. 8, when the service subscriber presses the store key, the telephone number and the name of the information provider are stored in the address directory of the terminal 4. Then, the telephone number of the information provider may optionally be stored in the address directory or both the telephone number and the name may be stored. According to the present invention, the following effects may be obtained.

[0070] There may be the case that the subparameter third party call name to insert the name of the information provider does not exist in the broadcast message received by the terminal. This may be the case that the information provider of the broadcast message does not provide the name by mistake or on purpose intentionally when the provider transmits the transmission request message of the broadcast message to the cell broadcast center.

[0071] In this case, the terminal user may press the store key when the user wants to store the name as well ad the telephone number of the information provider. However, this is the case that the subparameter third party call name does not exist in the received broadcast message. If the result of the process for the terminal 4 to check whether or not there is the subparameter third party call name in the received broadcast message is that the subparameter does not exist, the terminal extracts the first ten bytes of the subparameter (user data) including the broadcast message content among the subparameters shown in FIG. 6 and then stores the data of the extracted ten bytes in the name field of the terminal address directory. Therefore, for this case, without regard to whether or not the subparameter (third party call name) exists, it is possible to store the telephone number in a classified order. Therefrom, the terminal user can easily find the telephone number that the user wants from the address directory.

[0072] First, when the service subscriber of the terminal 4 side wants to communicate with the provider of the broadcast message, by simply pressing the communication key, the subscriber can easily make the communication.

[0073] Second, by simply pressing the store key, the subscriber can store the telephone number and the name of the information provider in the address directory of the terminal.