Mobile station and method of use in radio communications

• US 20040102204A1
• Filed: 04/23/2003
• Published: 05/27/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bar-On, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,082,315 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/517
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 Processing of subscriber group data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A mobile station (10) for use in radio communications with other mobile stations the mobile station being operable to establish a group call with one or more of the other mobile stations by issuing a signal indicating which other mobile stations are requested or permitted to join the group call, wherein the mobile station includes input selection means for allowing a user of the mobile station to select one or more options from one or more call set-up criteria options available to the user and which is operable to issue a call set-up request signal including a plurality of fields relating to the requested call, wherein a first one of the fields relates to a group permitted or requested to join the call, and wherein a second one of the fields relates to an option related to the requested call selectable by the user using the input selection means. Fields included in the signal may include an indication of selections by the call initiator of other groups permitted to join the call and optionally a call priority level. A method of operation of the mobile stations is also described.

Claims

1. A mobile station for use in radio communications with other mobile stations the mobile station being operable to establish a group call with one or more of the other mobile stations by issuing a signal indicating which other mobile stations are requested or permitted to join the group call, wherein the mobile station includes input selection means for allowing a user of the mobile station to select one or more options from one or more call set-up criteria options available to the user and which is operable to issue a call set-up request signal including a plurality of fields relating to the requested call, wherein a first one of the fields relates to a group permitted or requested to join the call, and wherein a second one of the fields relates to an option related to the requested call selectable by the user using the input selection means.

2. A mobile station according to claim 1 and wherein the first one of the fields indicates a group identity number or code which in operation of the mobile station is input by the user separately from the input selection means.

3. A mobile station according to claim 1 or claim 2 and wherein the input selection means is operable to select one or more options from a plurality of group selection criteria options each defining a selectable group to be requested or permitted to join the call whereby a group call set-up request signal is issued to all of the contactable mobile stations in each group selected, whereby at least two of the plurality of fields of the said signal relate to different groups permitted or requested to join the call.

4. A mobile station according to any one of the preceding claims and which is operable whereby the said second field indicates whether or not the option related thereto has been selected.

5. A mobile station according to claim 3 or claim 4 and wherein the said second field relates to an option which is selectable by a user from a plurality of options and the mobile station is operable whereby the said second field indicates which one of the plurality of options has been selected by a user.

6. A mobile station according to any one of the preceding claims and wherein a selectable option defines selection of a group of mobile stations of members of an organisation or part of an organisation.

7. A mobile station according to claim 6 and wherein a selectable option defines selection of a group of mobile stations of members of the organisation who are in a given region or in a given department or branch of the organisation.

8. A mobile station according to any one of the preceding claims and wherein a selectable option defines selection of a group which includes all mobile stations that can be contacted.

9. A mobile station according to any one of the preceding claims and wherein a selectable option relates to a priority level of a call to be established and wherein the mobile station is operable to issue a group call set-up request signal including a field indicating a priority level of the group call set-up request.

10. A mobile station according to claim 9 and wherein the said selectable option relates to one of a plurality of selectable priority levels of a call to be established and wherein the mobile station is operable to issue a group call set-up request signal including a field indicating which of the priority levels of the group call set-up request has been selected.

11. A mobile station according to any one of the preceding claims and wherein in operation one or more options which may be selected by a user by the input selection means is indicated to the user by an option or group descriptor or code.

12. A mobile station according to any one of the preceding claims and which includes a display operable to indicate to the user the one or more selectable options available.

13. A mobile station according to any one of the preceding claims and wherein the display is operable to indicate to the user a plurality of options of selectable groups and optionally a plurality of message priority levels which may be selected by the user by the input selection means for inclusion in a group call set-up request signal.

14. A mobile station according to any one of the preceding claims and which is operable to receive via one or more buttons or keys an input selection of a user regarding an option selected by a user to be indicated in a call set-up request signal.

15. A mobile station according to any one of the preceding claims and which is operable as a receiving mobile station to receive an incoming signal from a transmitting mobile station requesting set-up of a group call with one or more other mobile stations the signal indicating the identity of mobile stations that are permitted to join the group call, wherein the received signal includes a plurality of fields at least one of which relates to an option selectable by the user of the transmitting mobile station and the receiving mobile station is operable to determine from the fields whether it is permitted or requested to join the group call.

16. A mobile station according to claim 15 and which is operable whereby the said at least one field of the received signal relates to a group of mobile stations defined by an option selectable by the user of the transmitting mobile station.

17. A mobile station according to claim 15 or claim 16 and which is operable whereby the said at least one field of the received signal relates to a priority level of the group call set-up request selectable as an option by the user of the transmitting mobile station.

18. A mobile station according to any one of claims 15 to 17 and which is operable in a manner such that upon determining as a receiving mobile station that it is permitted to join the group call, and optionally that a priority level of the call set-up request is at or above a pre-determined priority level, the receiving mobile station is operable automatically to be set to a state in which it participates in the requested group call.

19. A mobile station according to any one of claims 15 to 18 and which is operable in a manner such that upon determining that it is permitted to join the group call, and optionally that a priority level of the call set-up request is at or above a pre-determined priority level, the mobile station is operable to produce an indication to a user of the call set-up request.

20. A mobile station according to claim 19 and which includes a display and in operation the indication of the call set-up request to the user is provided on the display.

21. A mobile station according to claim 19 or claim 20 and which is operable to receive from a user a control input by which the mobile station is set to a state in which it participates in the requested group call.

22. A mobile station according to any one of the preceding claims and which is operable to produce and/or receive a group call set-up request signal on a common channel with other mobile stations using a protocol which supports synchronising the channel access between members of a selected group.

23. A mobile station according to any one of the preceding claims and comprising:

a processor,

a memory coupled to the processor and storing therein an instruction set,

a transmitter and a receiver both coupled to the processor and being adapted to operate in accordance with a communications protocol using Group Call Access Permission (GCAP) and Help Request Level (HRL) fields stored in the memory,

a user interface including a display coupled to the processor and responsive to the instruction set stored in the memory for selecting, setting and displaying the GCAP and HRL fields,

a GCAP extractor and an HRL extractor for extracting values of GCAP and HRL fields of an incoming message, and

respective comparators coupled to the GCAP extractor and to the HRL extractor for comparing the values of the respective fields extracted thereby with values stored in the memory;

said processor being responsive to respective outputs of the comparators for determining whether to join an incoming call.

24. A mobile station according to claim 23 and further including:

a DID (Distribution Identity) field value stored in the memory in respect of said communications protocol and being selectable and capable of display using the user interface,

a DID extractor for extracting the value of the DID of an incoming message, and

a comparator coupled to the DID extractor for comparing the value of the respective fields extracted thereby with values stored in the memory;

said processor being further responsive to the output of the DID comparator for determining whether to join an incoming call.

25. A mobile station according to any one of the preceding claims and which is operable to establish a group call in a direct mode of operation.

26. A mobile station according to any one of the preceding claims and which is operable to establish a group call in a trunked mode of operation.

27. A mobile station according to any one of the preceding claims and which is operable according to TETRA standard procedures.

28. A method for setting up a group call within a communication system providing radio communication among a plurality of mobile stations each being a mobile station according to any one of the preceding claims, by a call initiating mobile station issuing a call set-up signal indicating which other mobile stations are requested or permitted to join the group call, wherein the user of the initiating mobile station selects one or more options from one or more call set-up criteria options available to the user and the initiating mobile station issues a call set-up request signal including a plurality of fields relating to the requested call, wherein a first one of the fields relates to a group permitted or requested to join the call, and wherein a second one of the fields relates to an option related to the requested call selected by the user using the input selection means.

29. A method according to claim 28, the method using a broadcast call set-up request signal that includes a group identification code (GIC),the method being operable to allow mobile stations, which are not automatically programmed to respond to the transmitted GIC, to join the call, the method comprising the steps:

(a) providing at least first and second additional fields in the call set-up request signal, the first additional field carrying a Group Call Access Permission (GCAP) value and the second additional field carrying a Help Request Level (HRL) value,

(b) enabling a call initiator to select a GCAP value, according to a range of stations he wishes to reach, and a HRL value, according to a priority assigned to the call, for transmission alongside the group identification code in the respective fields of step (a), and

(c) enabling any mobile station that receives a group call set-up request message to determine whether to join the call, on the basis of the values of the GCAP and the HRL fields.

30. A method according to claim 29, wherein in step (c) the receiving station also has one or more Response Priority Level (RPL) values stored, each value corresponding to one or more combinations of HRL and GCAP values, and said determination includes comparing the received HRL value with the stored RPL value that corresponds to the received GCAP values.

31. A method according to claim 29 or claim 30 and which further comprises the step of the receiving. mobile station automatically joining the call, dependent on the result of said comparing.

32. A method according to claim 29,30 or 31 and which further comprises the step of displaying by the receiving mobile station any value selected from a group of field values that includes the received GCAP, the received HRL, the corresponding RPL and the result of said comparing.

33. A method according to claim 29 to 32 and wherein in step (c) said receiving station also has one or more pairs of Response Priority Level (RPL) values stored, each pair corresponding to one or more combinations of HRL and GCAP values, and said determination includes comparing the received HRL value with a first value of the stored RPL value that corresponds to the received GCAP value, said method further comprising the step of:

enabling any mobile station that receives a group call set-up message to notify its user about such reception, if the received HRL value equals or exceeds the second value of said stored RPL pair of values, and to join the call according to the response of the user.

34. A method according to claim 33 and wherein the broadcast set-up request signal also includes an organisation identification of the calling mobile station and whereby in step (c) said determining includes comparing the received organizational identification with an organisation identification stored in said station.

35. A method according to claim 34 and wherein step (a) includes providing a third additional field carrying a Distribution Identification (DID) value, corresponding to the organizational identification of the initiating station, and in step (c) said determining includes comparing the received DID with an organizational identification stored in said station.

36. A method for setting up a group call within a dispatch mobile radio communication system, using a broadcast call set-up request signal that includes a group identification code (GIC), whereby additional mobile stations, which are not programmed to respond to the transmitted GIC, are enabled to join the call, the method being a method according to any one of claims 29 to 35 and comprising the following steps, all carried out as operations of a mobile station by a call initiator:

(1) selecting a Group Call Access Permission (GCAP) value, according to a range of receiving stations the call initiator wishes to reach, and a Help Request Level (HRL) value, according to a priority assigned to the call,

(2) transmitting a group call set-up message including the group identification code and at least a first additional field carrying said Group Call Access Permission (GCAP) value and a second additional field carrying said Help Request Level (HRL) value, and

(3) receiving by a receiving mobile station a group call set-up message having GCAP and HRL fields and determining by the receiving station whether to allow the receiving station to join the call, on the basis of the values of the GCAP and the HRL fields.