SYSTEM TO COMMUNICATE BETWEEN A FEMTOCELL BASE STATION AND MOBILE DEVICES

• US 20100240347A1
• Filed: 03/23/2009
• Published: 09/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Abramsky, Victor A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,958,791 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/385 of the core network

Abstract

This patent discloses a method to communicate between a femtocell base station and mobile devices. The method may include identifying as an alert group a set of mobile devices presently in communication with the femtocell base station and whose unique identifiers are preregistered with the femtocell base station. A first mobile device and a second mobile device may be in the set of femtocell service region mobile devices. The femtocell base station may receive a call from a third mobile device. If the call is for the second mobile device, then the method may send a paging message from the femtocell base station. The paging message may include a first unique identifier associated with the first mobile device.

Claims

1. A method to communicate between a femtocell base station and mobile devices, the method comprising:

identifying as an alert group a set of mobile devices presently in communication with the femtocell base station and whose unique identifiers are preregistered with the femtocell base station, where a first mobile device and a second mobile device are in the alert group;

receiving a call in the femtocell base station from a third device; and

if the call is for the second mobile device, sending a paging message from the femtocell base station, where the paging message includes a first unique identifier associated with the first mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, where the paging message is a first paging message, the method after sending the first paging message further comprising:

sending a second paging message from the femtocell base station, where the second paging message includes a second unique identifier associated with the second mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a paging message from the femtocell base station in response to the received call, where the paging message includes a first unique identifier associated with the first mobile device and a second unique identifier associated with the second mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the received call includes one of a unique identifier of a target mobile device and a unique identifier of the femtocell base station.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the call is for the second mobile device, determining whether the second mobile device answered the paging message; and

if the second mobile device did not answered the call, then determining whether the first mobile device answered the paging message.

6. The method of claim 1, where if the second mobile device answered the paging message and the first mobile device answered the paging message, the method further comprising:

determining whether to disconnect the first mobile device from a traffic channel with the femtocell base station.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether a conference call feature has been enabled in the femtocell base station.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the call is for the femtocell base station, sending a paging message from the femtocell base station in response to the received call, where the paging message includes a first unique identifier associated with the first mobile device and a second unique identifier associated with the second mobile device.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

accessing a phone number assigned to the femtocell base station; and

if the first mobile device answered the paging message, determining whether to block the second mobile device from answering the paging message.

10. An apparatus to facilitate communications between a femtocell base station and mobile devices, the apparatus comprising:

a processor to identify as an alert group a set of mobile devices presently in communication with the femtocell base station and whose unique identifiers are preregistered with the femtocell base station, where a first mobile device and a second mobile device are in the alert group;

a transceiver to receive a call in the femtocell base station from a third device and to send a paging message from the femtocell base station if the call is for the second mobile device, where the paging message includes a first unique identifier associated with the first mobile device.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, where the paging message further includes a second unique identifier associated with the second mobile device.

12. An apparatus to facilitate communications between a femtocell base station and mobile devices, the apparatus comprising:

a processor in a first mobile device to identify the first mobile device as being in an alert group, where the alert group includes the first mobile device and a second mobile device as part of a set of mobile devices presently in communication with the femtocell base station and whose unique identifiers are preregistered with the femtocell base station;

a transceiver in the first mobile device to receive a paging message from the femtocell base station, where the paging message includes a first unique identifier associated with the first mobile device and is received in the first mobile device in response to a call in the femtocell base station from a third device, where the call is for the second mobile device.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, where the paging message further includes a second unique identifier associated with the second mobile device.

14. An apparatus to facilitate communications between a femtocell base station and mobile devices, the apparatus comprising:

means for identifying as an alert group a set of mobile devices presently in communication with the femtocell base station and whose unique identifiers are preregistered with the femtocell base station, where a first mobile device and a second mobile device are in the alert group;

means for receiving a call in the femtocell base station from a third device; and

means for sending a paging message from the femtocell base station if the call is for the second mobile device, where the paging message includes a first unique identifier associated with the first mobile device.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

means for sending a second paging message from the femtocell base station after sending the first paging message, where the second paging message includes a second unique identifier associated with the second mobile device.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

means for sending a paging message from the femtocell base station in response to the received call, where the paging message includes a first unique identifier associated with the first mobile device and a second unique identifier associated with the second mobile device.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

means for determining whether the received call includes one of a unique identifier of a target mobile device and a unique identifier of the femtocell base station.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

means for determining whether the second mobile device answered the paging message if the call is for the second mobile device; and

means for determining whether the first mobile device answered the paging message if the second mobile device did not answered the call.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

means for determining whether to disconnect the first mobile device from a traffic channel with the femtocell base station if the second mobile device answered the paging message and the first mobile device answered the paging message.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

means for determining whether a conference call feature has been enabled in the femtocell base station.

21. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

means for sending a paging message from the femtocell base station in response to the received call if the call is for the femtocell base station, where the paging message includes a first unique identifier associated with the first mobile device and a second unique identifier associated with the second mobile device.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

means for determining whether to block the second mobile device from answering the paging message if the first mobile device answered the paging message.

23. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer-readable medium comprising codes for causing a computer to;

identify as an alert group a set of mobile devices presently in communication with the femtocell base station and whose unique identifiers are preregistered with the femtocell base station, where a first mobile device and a second mobile device are in the alert group;

receive a call in the femtocell base station from a third mobile device; and

if the call is for the second mobile device, send a paging message from the femtocell base station, where the paging message includes a first unique identifier associated with the first mobile device.

24. The computer program product of claim 23, where the paging message is a first paging message, further comprising codes for causing a computer to:

send a second paging message from the femtocell base station after sending the first paging message further comprising, where the second paging message includes a second unique identifier associated with the second mobile device.

25. The computer program product of claim 23, further comprising codes for causing a computer to:

send a paging message from the femtocell base station in response to the received call, where the paging message includes a first unique identifier associated with the first mobile device and a second unique identifier associated with the second mobile device.

26. The computer program product of claim 23, further comprising codes for causing a computer to:

determine whether the received call includes one of a unique identifier of a target mobile device and a unique identifier of the femtocell base station.

27. The computer program product of claim 23, further comprising codes for causing a computer to:

if the call is for the second mobile device, determine whether the second mobile device answered the paging message; and

if the second mobile device did not answer the call, then determine whether the first mobile device answered the paging message.

28. The computer program product of claim 23, further comprising codes for causing a computer to:

where if the second mobile device answered the paging message and the first mobile device answered the paging message, determine whether to disconnect the first mobile device from a traffic channel with the femtocell base station.

29. The computer program product of claim 23, further comprising codes for causing a computer to:

determine whether a conference call feature has been enabled in the femtocell base station.

30. The computer program product of claim 23, further comprising codes for causing a computer to:

if the call is for the femtocell base station, send a paging message from the femtocell base station in response to the received call, where the paging message includes a first unique identifier associated with the first mobile device and a second unique identifier associated with the second mobile device.

31. The computer program product of claim 30, further comprising codes for causing a computer to:

if the first mobile device answered the paging message, determine whether to block the second mobile device from answering the paging message.