Answer Modes In Push-To-Talk Mobile Communication Services

• US 20080248826A1
• Filed: 04/04/2005
• Published: 10/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Holm, Jan
• Granted Patent: US 7,672,684 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/518
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/08 Trunked mobile radio systems

Abstract

A method of operating a push-to-talk service over a mobile wireless communication network, where a user of a mobile wireless terminal may select an automatic or manual answer mode for incoming session invitations for at least some other users. The method comprises including in the push-to-talk session invitation sent from a calling party to a called party, a manual answer mode request, upon receipt of the session invitation at a push-to-talk server serving the called party, forwarding the invitation including the manual answer mode request to the called party regardless of any auto-answer mode setting for the called party, and receiving the invitation at the called party, and generating a ringing alert at the called party'"'"'s terminal.

Claims

1. A method of operating a push-to-talk service over a mobile wireless communication network, where a user of a mobile wireless terminal may select an automatic or manual answer mode for incoming session invitations for at least some other users, the method comprising:

including in the push-to-talk session invitation sent from a calling party to a called party, a manual answer mode request;

upon receipt of the session invitation at a push-to-talk server serving the called party, forwarding the invitation including the manual answer mode request to the called party regardless of any auto-answer mode setting for the called party; and

receiving the invitation at the called party, and generating an alert at the called party'"'"'s terminal.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the signalling protocol used to establish and control push-to-talk sessions is the Session Initiation Protocol, and the invitation that contains the manual answer mode request is one of the Session Initiation Protocol INVITE and REFER messages.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the push-to-talk session invitation is forwarded by said push-to-talk server to the called party only following an authorisation procedure carried out by the server.

4. A method according to any one of the preceding claims and comprising carrying out an authorisation procedure at a push-to-talk server serving the calling party, the request only being included in the invitation forwarded to the push-to-talk server serving the called party if authorisation is granted.

5. A method according to claim 3 or 4, the authorisation procedure(s) being carried out by comparing the identity of the calling party and/or called party against a list or lists of identities pre-stored at the push-to-talk server(s).

6. A method according to any one of the preceding claims and comprising receiving a user prompt at the calling party to request manual answer mode, and as a result including the request in the invitation at the calling party.

7. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 and comprising including said request at the calling party automatically.

8. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said push-to-talk service is a push-to-talk over cellular service.

9. A method of operating a push-to-talk enabled mobile wireless terminal, the method comprising including a manual answer mode request in an invitation sent by the terminal to a peer terminal

10. A method of operating a push-to-talk server within a mobile wireless communication network, the method comprising receiving a push-to-talk invitation from a calling client terminal, the invitation including a manual answer mode request, forwarding the request including the manual answer mode request to the called client terminal, and awaiting receipt of an answer message from the called client terminal before proceeding with session establishment.

11. A mobile wireless terminal having a processor and memory configured to facilitate participation of the terminal in a push-to-talk session facilitated by a mobile wireless communication network, and a user interface for allowing a user to interact with the processor and memory, the processor being arranged to receive a user input from the user interface initiating a push-to-talk session, to generate a push-to-talk invitation for sending to a called terminal and to include in the invitation a manual answer mode request, and to send the invitation to the called terminal.

12. A push-to-talk server for use in a mobile wireless communication network to provide a push-to-talk service to wireless mobile terminals, the server comprising:

an input for receiving a push-to-talk invitation from a first wireless mobile terminal destined for a second wireless mobile terminal, where the invitation may include a manual answer mode request;

an output for forwarding a received push-to-talk invitation to a second, destination wireless mobile terminal; and

a processor programmed to determine whether or not a received invitation includes a manual answer mode request and, if so and if an automatic answer mode has been set for the second wireless mobile terminal, overriding the automatic mode setting and forwarding the invitation to the second wireless terminal including the manual answer mode request via said output.