Method and system for programmable control of mobile communications units

• US 20040253941A1
• Filed: 06/12/2003
• Published: 12/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TracFone Wireless, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: TracFone Wireless, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Rivera, Sergio, Maldonado, Victor
• Granted Patent: US 7,444,141 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/408
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

Accordingly, the present invention provides a toolkit for building programmable rules of operation for a prepaid mobile communications unit and for loading the rules into the prepaid mobile unit'"'"'s internal memory. A rules development language is provided with a predetermined syntax. A rule set is composed of sentences comprising strings of sequential operands terminated by a delimiter operand. Each operand comprises a low-level operator and its corresponding argument. The function of each low-level operator is predefined, with the number of corresponding arguments varying according to the operator type. Once constructed, the rules are compressed and loaded into the internal memory of a prepaid mobile unit and used to determine call restrictions, click rates, surcharges, or otherwise process calls. The compressed rules are encoded into number segments which are delivered to the internal memory of the prepaid mobile unit using a transport mechanism such as, for example, the mobile unit'"'"'s keypad, or using an over-the-air transport protocol. Inside the communication device mobile communications unit, the compressed rules are then reassembled from the received number segments and stored in the internal memory of the communication device mobile communications device.

Claims

1. A method for providing internally stored rules of operation to a mobile communications device, the method comprising:

using a predefined rules development language to compose one or more rules of operation in a text format;

converting the rules of operation from the text format into a compressed format;

encoding the compressed rules of operation into a sequence of numbers;

using a transport mechanism to transfer the number sequence to an internal memory area of the mobile communications unit;

decoding the number sequence into compressed rules of operation; and

storing the compressed rules of operation in predefined areas of nonvolatile random access memory of the mobile communications unit.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of composing one or more absolute rules wherein:

the absolute rules are composed of one or more operand sentences;

each operand sentence includes a sequence of one or more operands;

each operand is separated from the next sequential operand by an implicit boolean AND operator;

each operand sentence is terminated by a delimiter operand, the delimiter operand corresponding to a result;

each of the operand sentences is sequentially evaluated, the evaluation being either true or false;

an operand sentence evaluation of false causes the next sequential operand sentence to be evaluated; and

an operand sentence evaluation of true halts further operand sentence evaluation, the delimiter value of said true operand sentence being the result dictated by the absolute rules.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising the steps of composing one or more surcharge rules, wherein:

the surcharge rules are composed of one or more operand sentences;

each operand sentence includes a sequence of one or more operands;

each operand is separated from the next sequential operand by an implicit boolean AND operator;

each operand sentence is terminated by a delimiter operand, the delimiter operand corresponding to a result;

each of the operand sentences is sequentially evaluated, the evaluation being either true or false;

each operand sentence evaluation of true has a value corresponding to said operand sentence'"'"'s delimiter operand;

each operand sentence evaluation of false has a value of zero; and

each operand sentence is evaluated until all the operand sentences have been evaluated, and the resulting values of the operand sentence evaluations are added together to form the result of the surcharge rules evaluation.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the mobile communication unit is a prepaid unit.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the transport mechanism includes manually inputting the number sequence via an alphanumeric keypad.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the transport mechanism includes transferring the number sequence using an over-the-air transport protocol.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein the transport mechanism includes transferring the number sequence using DTMF tones.

8. A system for providing internally stored rules of operation to a mobile communications unit, the system comprising:

a computer configured to generate rules in a text format according to a predefined rules development language;

a pseudo-code interpreter configured to translate the rules from the text format into a compressed pseudo-code;

a loader module configured to prepare the compressed pseudo-code for delivery to the mobile communications unit by a transport mechanism; and

a transport mechanism configured to deliver the rules in compressed pseudo-code format to an internal area of nonvolatile random access memory in the mobile communications unit.

12. A device for providing internally stored rules of operation to a mobile communications unit, the device comprising:

means for generating rules in a text format according to a predefined rules development language;

means for translating the rules from the text format into a compressed pseudo-code;

means for preparing the compressed pseudo-code for delivery to the mobile communications unit; and

means for transferring the rules in compressed pseudo-code format to an internal area of nonvolatile random access memory in the mobile communications unit.

13. A method for processing internally stored rules of operation in a prepaid communication device, comprising:

receiving call data associated with either an inbound call or an outbound call;

interpreting rules of operation stored in a compressed format in an area of nonvolatile random access memory of the mobile communications unit;

applying the rules of operation to the call data to generate a deduct rate; and

applying the deduct rate against stored pre-purchased air time credit.

14. A system for processing internally stored rules of operation in a prepaid unit, comprising:

a mobile communications system configured to send call data to the prepaid communication deviceunit;

a call center configured to compose rules of operation for the prepaid unit and configured to transfer the rules of operation to an internal area of memory of the prepaid unit;

a call processor module stored in an internal area of memory of the prepaid unit, the call processor module configured to receive call data from the mobile communications system; and

a rules engine stored in an internal area of memory of the prepaid unit, the rules engine configured to apply the internally stored rules of operation to the received call data and return a result.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the returned result is a deduct rate.