Methods and systems for preventing delivery of unwanted short message service (SMS) messages

• US 20030083078A1
• Filed: 07/26/2001
• Published: 05/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tekelec Global, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Tekelec
• Inventors: Marsico, Peter J., Allison, Rick L.
• Granted Patent: US 6,819,932 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/47 Fraud detection or prevention means
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8088 involving increased rates, e.g. spam messaging billing differentiation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0148 Fraud detection or prevention means
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/184 Messaging devices, e.g. message centre

Abstract

A signaling message processing and routing node transmits and receives short message service (SMS) data packets via a communications network. The routing node includes an SMS message discrimination module that determines whether an unwanted or spam SMS message is being sent to a receiving or called party. Unwanted SMS messages are discarded and consequently not delivered to their intended recipient. As a result, mobile subscribers and network nodes are shielded from unwanted SMS traffic. The SMS message discrimination module also includes a provisioning interface that allows end users and network operators to control SMS message discrimination criteria.

Claims

1. A method for identifying and processing unwanted short message service (SMS) messages, the method comprising:

(a) receiving a first SMS message including sending and receiving party identification information;

(b) performing a lookup in an SMS message discrimination (MD) database using at least one of the sending and receiving party identification information to determine whether the SMS message is an unwanted message; and

(c) in response to determining that the first SMS message is an unwanted message, discarding the first SMS message.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a first SMS message includes receiving a signaling system 7 (SS7) mobile application part (MAP)-based SMS message.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein receiving an SS7 MAP-based SMS message includes receiving an Internet protocol (IP)-encapsulated SS7 MAP-based SMS message.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a first SMS message includes receiving a session initiation protocol (SIP)-based SMS message.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a first SMS message including sending and receiving party information includes receiving a first SMS message including a mobile subscriber integrated services digital network (MSISDN) number and wherein performing a lookup in the message discrimination database includes performing a lookup based on the MSISDN number.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a first SMS message including sending and receiving party information includes receiving an SMS message including an international mobile station identifier (IMSI) number and wherein performing a lookup in the SMS message discrimination database includes performing a lookup based on the IMSI number.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a first SMS message that contains sending and receiving party information includes receiving an SMS signaling message including an electronic mail (email) address and wherein performing a lookup in the SMS message discrimination database includes performing a lookup based on the email address.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a first SMS message including sending and receiving party information includes receiving an SMS signaling message that contains an Internet protocol (IP) address and wherein performing a lookup in the SMS message discrimination database includes performing a lookup based on the IP address.

9. The method of claim 1 including in response to determining that the first SMS message is an unwanted message, generating a second SMS message addressed to a sending party.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the second SMS message notifies the sending party that the first SMS message was blocked by the sending party.

11. The method of claim 1 including, in response to determining that the first SMS message is an unwanted message, generating a second SMS message addressed to a third party.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the second SMS message notifies the third party that unwanted SMS messages are being sent from a sending party to a receiving party.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the third party is a network operator or carrier.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the third party is a government agency.

15. The method of claim 1 including in response to determining that the first SMS message is an unwanted message, updating information in a usage measurements and billing (UMB) database to account for the discarded SMS message.

16. The method of claim 15 including generating a bill based on information stored in the UMB database.

17. The method of claim 15 including generating a billing verification report based on information stored in the UMB database.

18. The method of claim 15 including generating a report using data in the UMB database indicating the number of discarded SMS messages associated with or sent by a sending party.

19. A method for processing short message service (SMS) messages, the method comprising:

(a) allowing a user to provision SMS message discrimination data in an SMS message discrimination table;

(b) receiving SMS messages from a network;

(c) extracting parameters from the SMS messages;

(d) performing a lookup in the SMS message discrimination table using the extracted parameters; and

(e) identifying wanted and unwanted SMS messages based on the SMS message discrimination data provisioned by the user.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein allowing a user to provision SMS message discrimination data includes allowing the user to input receiving-party-based SMS message discrimination data in the SMS message discrimination table.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein allowing the user to input receiving-party-based SMS message discrimination data in the SMS message discrimination table includes allowing the user to input receiving mobile subscriber identification information in the SMS message discrimination table.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein allowing the user to input receiving-party-based SMS message discrimination data in the SMS message discrimination table includes allowing the user to input receiving network identification information in the SMS message discrimination table.

23. The method of claim 19 wherein allowing a user to provision SMS message SMS message discrimination data includes allowing the user to input sending-party-based discrimination data in the SMS message discrimination table.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein allowing the user to input sending-party-based SMS message discrimination data in the SMS message discrimination table includes allowing the user to input sending mobile subscriber identification information in the SMS message discrimination table.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein allowing the user to input sending- party-based SMS message discrimination data in the SMS message discrimination table includes allowing the user to input sending network identification information in the SMS message discrimination table.

26. The method of claim 19 wherein allowing a user to provision SMS message discrimination data includes allowing the user to input sending- and receiving-party-based discrimination data in the SMS message discrimination table.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein allowing the user to input sending—

and receiving-party-based SMS message discrimination data in the SMS message discrimination table includes allowing the user to input sending and receiving mobile subscriber identification information in the SMS message discrimination table.

28. The method of claim 26 wherein allowing the user to input sending- and receiving-party-based SMS message discrimination data in the SMS message discrimination table includes allowing the user to input sending and receiving network identification information in the SMS message discrimination table.

29. The method of claim 19 wherein the user comprises a mobile subscriber.

30. The method of claim 19 wherein the user comprises a network operator.

31. The method of claim 19 comprising discarding the unwanted SMS messages.

32. The method of claim 31 comprising generating and sending SMS discard notification messages to calling parties in response to discarding the unwanted SMS messages.

33. The method of claim 31 comprising counting unwanted SMS messages received from a particular calling party and when the count exceeds a threshold, sending a notification message to an enforcement agency.

34. The method of claim 19 comprising routing the wanted SMS messages to intended recipients.

35. A network element for preventing the delivery of unwanted short message service (SMS) signaling messages to a receiving party, the network element comprising:

(a) a communications module for sending and receiving SMS messages;

(b) an SMS message discrimination module for analyzing SMS messages received by the communications module and determining whether the SMS messages comprise unwanted messages; and

(c) an SMS message discrimination database containing data used by the SMS discrimination module to determine whether the received SMS messages are unwanted messages.

36. The network element of claim 35 wherein the network element is a signal transfer point (STP).

37. The network element of claim 35 wherein the network element is a signaling gateway (SG).

38. The network element of claim 35 wherein the network element is a stand-alone message processing platform (MPP).

39. The network element of claim 35 wherein the communications module is a signaling system 7 (SS7) link interface module (LIM).

40. The network element of claim 35 wherein the communications module is an Internet protocol (IP) data communications module (DCM).

41. The network element of claim 35 wherein the SMS message discrimination module is adapted to extract SCCP parameters from the SMS messages to determine whether the SMS messages comprise unwanted messages.

42. The network element of claim 35 wherein the SMS message discrimination module is adapted to extract MAP parameters from the SMS messages to determine whether the SMS messages comprise unwanted messages.

43. The network element of claim 35 wherein the SMS message discrimination module is adapted to extract SIP parameters from the SMS messages to determine whether the SMS messages comprise unwanted messages.

44. The network element of claim 35 wherein the SMS message discrimination module is adapted to discard unwanted SMS messages.

45. The network element of claim 44 wherein the SMS message discrimination module is adapted to notify a sending party when an SMS message is discarded.

46. The network element of claim 44 wherein the SMS discrimination module is adapted to notify a third party when an SMS message is discarded.

47. The network element of claim 35 including a usage measurements and billing database for maintaining statistics, generating usage reports, and generating bills associated with SMS messages processed by the SMS message discrimination module.

48. The network element of claim 35 comprising a provisioning interface for allowing a user to provision SMS message discrimination data in the SMS discrimination database.