Methods and systems for triggerless screening of wireless message service messages for delivery with differential quality of service

• US 20040095889A1
• Filed: 11/15/2002
• Published: 05/20/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tekelec Global, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Tekelec
• Inventors: McCann, Thomas M., Allison, Rick L., Chang, James Tjin-Tek
• Granted Patent: US 7,133,420 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/24 Negotiating SLA [Service Level Agreement]; Negotiating QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• 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 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing

Abstract

Methods and systems for triggerless screening of WMS messages for delivery with differential quality of service (QoS) are disclosed. Signaling messages are screened to determine whether they contain WMS content. In response to determining that a message contains WMS content, origination and/or destination party information is extracted from the WMS message to determine the QoS associated with the WMS message. The WMS message is then modified to include routing information for delivering the SMS messages to their intended destinations with different qualities of service.

Claims

1. A method for routing wireless message service (WMS) messages in a communications network with a desired quality of service (QoS), the method comprising:

(a) receiving an WMS message including mobile subscriber originating and destination party identification information;

(b) determining, based on at least one of the originating and destination party identification information, a QoS associated with the message; and

(c) routing the message to its intended destination with the indicated QoS.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a WMS message includes receiving a WMS message at a signal transfer point.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein receiving a WMS message at a signal transfer point includes receiving a WMS message addressed to the signal transfer point.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein receiving a WMS message at a signal transfer point include intercepting, at the signal transfer point, a WMS addressed to a node other than the signal transfer point.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a WMS message includes receiving a multimedia service (MMS) message.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a WMS message includes receiving an enhanced message service (EMS) message.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the originating and destination party identification information includes mobile subscriber ISDN (MSISDN) numbers.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the originating and destination party identification information includes international mobile station identifiers (IMSIs).

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the originating and destination party identification information includes mobile directory numbers (MDNs).

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the originating and destination party identification information includes mobile identification numbers (MINs).

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining step is performed based on the originating party information.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining step is performed based on the destination party information.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the QoS includes selecting between multiple QoS levels for providing different WMS delivery speeds.

14. The method of claim 1 determining the QoS includes selecting between a first QoS level that guarantees WMS delivery within a predetermined time period and a second level that does not.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the QoS includes selecting between a first QoS level that provides message delivery confirmation and a first message delivery priority and a second QoS level that does not provide message delivery confirmation and that provides a second message delivery priority lower than the first message delivery priority.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the QoS includes selecting between an emergency QoS level and a non-emergency QoS level.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the QoS includes determining the QoS based on information extracted from the IS-41 MAP SMS originating address of the message.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the QoS includes determining the QoS based on information extracted from the IS-41 MAP destination address of the message.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the QoS includes determining the QoS based on information extracted from the GSM MAP relay protocol origination address of the message.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the QoS includes determining the QoS based on information extracted from the GSM MAP relay protocol destination address of the message.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein routing the message to its intended destination with the indicated quality of service includes routing the message to a wireless message service center that provides the indicated quality of service.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein routing the message to its intended destination with the indicated QoS includes routing the message over a route that provides the indicated QoS.

23. A system for routing wireless message service (WMS) messages in a communications network with a desired quality of service (QoS), the system comprising:

(a) a communications module for sending and receiving WMS messages, each message including a mobile subscriber identifier; and

(b) a WMS quality of service identifier operatively associated with the communications module for determining, based on the mobile subscriber identifier, a QoS associated with the message and for modifying the message to include routing information for providing the indicated QoS for the message; and

(c) a routing module operatively associated with the WMS QoS identifier for forwarding the message to its intended destination based on the routing information.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the communications module and the WMS quality of service identifier are located within a signaling system 7 network element.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the SS7 network element is a signal transfer point.

26. The system of claim 23 wherein the communications module and the WMS QoS identifier are located within an Internet protocol network element.

27. The system of claim 25 wherein the communications module is adapted to triggerlessly intercept messages containing WMS content that are not addressed to the signal transfer point.

28. The system of claim 23 wherein the mobile subscriber identifier includes a mobile subscriber ISDN (MSISDN) number.

29. The system of claim 23 wherein the mobile subscriber identifier includes an international mobile station identifier (IMSI).

30. The system of claim 23 wherein the mobile subscriber identifier includes a mobile directory number (MDN).

31. The method of claim 23 wherein the mobile subscriber identifier includes a mobile identification number (MIN).

32. The system of claim 23 wherein the mobile subscriber identifier identifies a message originator.

33. The system of claim 23 wherein the mobile subscriber identifier identifies a message recipient.

34. The system of claim 23 wherein the WMS QoS identifier is adapted to select between first and second QoS levels, the first QoS level providing greater WMS delivery speed than the second QoS level.

35. The system of claim 23 wherein the WMS QoS identifier is adapted to select between first and second QoS levels, the first QoS level providing shorter WMS delivery time than the second QoS level.

36. The system of claim 23 wherein the WMS QoS identifier is adapted to select between first and second QoS levels, the first QoS level providing WMS message delivery confirmation and enhanced delivery priority and the second QoS level providing default delivery priority without WMS delivery confirmation.

37. The system of claim 23 wherein the WMS QoS identifier is adapted to select between first and second QoS levels, the first QoS level providing emergency WMS delivery service and the second QoS level providing non-emergency WMS delivery service.

38. The system of claim 23 wherein the WMS QoS identifier gives precedence to calling party information over called party information when identifying the QoS associated with a WMS message.

39. The system of claim 23 wherein the WMS QoS identifier gives precedence to calling party information over calling party information when identifying the QoS associated with a WMS message.

40. The method of claim 23 wherein the routing module is adapted to forward the message to a wireless message service center for providing the indicated quality of service.

41. The system of claim 23 wherein the routing module is adapted to forward the message over a route for providing the indicated quality of service.

42. A module for identifying the quality of service (QoS) to be given to wireless message service (WMS) messages and for modifying the messages for delivery with the indicated QoS, the module comprising:

(a) a WMS message identifier for identifying messages containing WMS content;

(b) a WMS QoS identifier for receiving the messages from the WMS message identifier that contain the WMS content, for identifying the quality of service to be given to each message, and for modifying each message for delivery with the indicated QoS; and

(c) a routing module for forwarding the WMS messages to their intended destinations.

43. The module of claim 42 wherein the WMS message identifier is adapted to identify short message service (SMS) messages containing SMS content.

44. The module of claim 42 wherein the WMS message identifier is adapted to identify multimedia message service (MMS) messages containing MMS content.

45. The module of claim 42 wherein the WMS message identifier is adapted to identify enhanced message service (EMS) messages containing EMS content.

46. The module of claim 42 wherein the WMS quality of service identifier is adapted to modify the messages to include routing information of one of a plurality of WMSCs for providing different qualities of service.

47. The module of claim 42 wherein the WMS QoS identifier is adapted to modify the messages to include routing information of a route for providing enhanced QoS.

48. The module of claim 42 wherein the WMS QoS identifier is adapted to mark the messages with priority information to indicate the quality of service that should be given to each message.

49. The module of claim 48 wherein the priority information includes a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) label.

50. The method of claim 48 wherein the priority information includes a virtual local area network (VLAN) tag.

51. The method of claim 48 wherein the priority information includes an IP precedence indicator.