Multimedia message service apparatus

• US 20060053197A1
• Filed: 03/22/2004
• Published: 03/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vodafone Group PLC
• Original Assignee: Vodafone K. K.
• Inventors: Akahoshi, Shinichi, Yoshimura, Takashi
• Granted Patent: US 7,730,163 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/184 Messaging devices, e.g. message centre
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

With the object of making it possible to generate international multimedia message calls, an MMSC 11 determines from the destination MSISDN of the header of a multimedia message that the call is an international transmission and, at the same time, determines whether or not the forwarding destination supports number portability, by referencing the MSISDN routing table 13. If number portability is supported, it acquires the IMSI corresponding to the destination MSISDN by inquiring the HLR 15. Next, the MMSC 11 acquires the domain name of the MMSE of the forwarding destination by referencing the IMSI routing table 16 from the IMSI that has thus been acquired and forwards the multimedia message to this MMSE. If number portability is not supported, it forwards the multimedia message to the MMSE of the domain name acquired by referencing the MSISDN routing table 13.

Claims

1. A multimedia message service apparatus characterized in that it comprises:

first decision means that, when receiving a multimedia message that has been transmitted, references an international prefix table to decide whether or not the message is to be transmitted internationally to the forwarding destination, based on transmission destination information in said multimedia message;

second decision means that, if the first decision means decides that the message is to be transmitted to the forwarding destination, references a first routing table based on said transmission destination information to decide whether or not the forwarding destination supports number portability;

first acquisition means that, if the second decision means decides that the forwarding destination does not support number portability, acquires the domain name of the forwarding destination from said transmission destination information by referencing said first routing table;

second acquisition means that, if said second decision means decides that the forwarding destination does support number portability, acquires international identification information corresponding to said transmission destination information by inquiring registration means that registers subscriber data and acquires the domain name of the forwarding destination by referencing the second routing table based on the international identification information that has thus been acquired; and

forwarding means that forwards said multimedia message to the forwarding destination of the domain name that has been acquired by said first acquisition means or said second acquisition means.

2. The multimedia message service apparatus according to claim 1 characterized in that said first routing table comprises information including the country code and the domain name of each operator specified by the operator code and information as to whether or not number portability is supported and said second decision means decides whether or not the forwarding destination operator supports number portability by searching said first routing table using as keys the country code information and operator code information in said transmission destination information.

3. The multimedia message service apparatus according to claim 1 characterized in that said first acquisition means acquires the domain name of the forwarding destination from the country code information and operator code information in said transmission destination information.

4. The multimedia message service apparatus according to claim 1 characterized in that said second routing table comprises domain name information for each of the operators specified by the country code information and operator information and said second acquisition means acquires the forwarding destination domain name by searching said second routing table using as keys information identifying the country and information identifying the operator in said international identification information.