Location information recovery and management for mobile networks
First Claim
1. A method for managing information concerning the location of a mobile device in a mobile communication network, the method comprising:
- maintaining a location database that stores location information indicative of the location of the mobile device;
receiving location update messages from the mobile device via a location update processor associated with a particular location area within the network when the location of the mobile device changes;
transmitting the location update messages to the location database, and in the event one of the location update messages is not received by the location database, transmitting location update retry messages at the end of successive retry intervals until one of the location update retry messages is received.
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Abstract
Systems and methods for recovering and managing location information in mobile communication networks using a fast recovery protocol and load balanced query and update processes. According to the fast recovery protocol, if a location update processor does not receive a message from a global database server acknowledging receipt by the global database server of a location update message after a predetermined retry interval has elapsed since the location update message was sent by the location update processor, the location update processor sends a location update retry message after each predetermined retry interval elapses until the location update processor receives an acknowledgement message from the global database server. The global database server can use the location update retry messages and the predetermined retry interval to recover from a database or link failure. The recovery period using the fast recovery protocol is bounded by the predetermined retry interval. The fast recovery protocol can also be used in a system having a distributed location information database architecture. The load balanced query and update processes can be used to query and update, respectively, the databases of the distributed location information database architecture.
38 Citations
50 Claims
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1. A method for managing information concerning the location of a mobile device in a mobile communication network, the method comprising:
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maintaining a location database that stores location information indicative of the location of the mobile device;
receiving location update messages from the mobile device via a location update processor associated with a particular location area within the network when the location of the mobile device changes;
transmitting the location update messages to the location database, and in the event one of the location update messages is not received by the location database, transmitting location update retry messages at the end of successive retry intervals until one of the location update retry messages is received. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A mobile communication network comprising:
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a mobile device;
a location database server having a location database storing location information indicative of the location of the mobile device; and
a location update processor that;
receives location update messages from the mobile device when the location of the mobile device changes, transmits the location update messages to the location database, and in the event one of the location update messages is not received by the location database, transmits location update retry messages at the end of successive retry intervals until one of the location update retry messages is received. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A location database server that receives location update messages having time stamps transmitted by a location update processor when a mobile device enters a location area associated with the location update processor and location update retry messages transmitted at the end of successive retry intervals by the location update processor in the event one of the location update messages is not received by the location database server, wherein the location update retry messages include the time stamps from the unreceived location update message, the location database server comprising:
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a location database for storing location information indicative of the location of the mobile device; and
a recovery processor, for recovering location information for the mobile device after a failure in the mobile communication network is fixed, that;
in the event that a location update message is received before the retry interval has passed since the failure was fixed, stores in the location database the location information for the mobile device from the location update message; and
in the event that the retry interval has passed since the failure was fixed without receiving a location update message while receiving at least one location update retry message, stores in the location database the location information for the mobile device from the location update retry message having the most recent time stamp.
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39. A location update processor for use in a mobile communication network having a mobile device and a location database server having a location database storing location information indicative of the location of the mobile device, the location update processor comprising:
- a location database for comprising;
a receiver that receives location update messages from the mobile device when the location of the mobile device changes;
a message processor that;
transmits location update messages to the location database server; and
in the event one of the location update messages is not received by the location database, transmits location update retry messages at the end of successive retry intervals until one of the location update retry messages is received.
- a location database for comprising;
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40. In a distributed database system having n database servers, D1, . . . , Dn, arranged in a logical ring, a method of updating k of the database servers, Dγ
- 1, . . . , Dγ
k, referred to by a placement vector Γ
=(γ
1, . . . , γ
k), wherein γ
i ε
{1, . . . ,n} is the index of the ith database server updated by the method, the method comprising;
selecting γ
1 from the set (1, . . . , n);
for i=1, . . . , k−
1, selecting γ
i+1 according to γ
⊕
└
n/k┘
+ai, wherein;
⊕
is modulo addition defined over the set (1,2, . . . , n);
displacement vector â
=(a1, . . . , ak) is a binary vector having a Hamming weight of β
; and
β
=n−
└
n/k┘
*k; and
updating the k database servers, Dγ
1, . . . , Dγ
k, referred to by the placement vector Γ
=(γ
1, . . . , γ
k), with updated information. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
- 1, . . . , Dγ
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48. In a distributed database system having n database servers, D1, . . . . Dn, arranged in a logical ring for storing information about a first group of items in k, of the database servers and for storing information about a second group of items in k2 of the database servers, wherein k1>
- k2, a method of querying the database servers for information about a given item, the method comprising;
selecting a first database server Di;
determining in parallel if any of ┌
n/k1┐
successive database servers, Di, Di+1, . . . , Di⊕
┌
n/k1┐
, on the logical ring contain information about the given item;
if at least one of the ┌
n/k1┐
successive database servers, Di, . . . , Di⊕
┌
n/k1┐
, does not contain information about the given item then determining in parallel if any of the next (┌
n/k1┐
−
┌
n/k2┐
) successive database servers, Di⊕
┌
n/k1┐
⊕
1, . . . , Di⊕
┌
n/k2┐
, on the logical ring contain information about the given device; and
if at least one of the next (┌
n/k2┐
−
┌
n/k1┐
) successive database servers, Di⊕
┌
n/k1┐
⊕
1, . . . , Di⊕
┌
n/k2┐
, does not contain information about the given item, then until information for the given item is found or until all the database servers D1, . . . , Dn, have been checked, determining in parallel if successive groups of ┌
n/k2┐
database servers, Di⊕
(j*┌
n/k2┐
)⊕
1, . . . , Di⊕
(j+1)*┌
n/k2┐
, on the logical ring contain information for the given item wherein j represents the jth group of ┌
n/k2┐
database servers that are checked. - View Dependent Claims (49)
- k2, a method of querying the database servers for information about a given item, the method comprising;
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50. A method of updating a database over a network with information from a device, the method comprising:
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receiving update messages from the device via a processor connected to the network;
transmitting the update messages to the database; and
in the event one of the update messages is not received by the database, transmitting update retry messages at the end of successive retry intervals until one of the update retry messages is received.
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Specification