Cordless telephone apparatus which restores radio channels after power loss

• US 5,426,690 A
• Filed: 07/30/1993
• Issued: 06/20/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Uniden Corporation (Cornwall Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: Uniden Corporation (Cornwall Capital Management LP)
• Inventors: Akiyama, Masaru, Hikuma, Hideo
• Primary Examiner(s): Kuntz, Curtis
• Assistant Examiner(s): CUMMING, WILLIAM D
• Application Number:
  US08/099,313
• Time in Patent Office: 690 Days
• Field of Search: 379/58, 379/61, 379/62, 380/23, 455/33.1, 455/34.1, 455/51.1, 455/54.1, 455/38.5, 455/127, 455/186.1, 455/343
• US Class Current: 455/411
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72505 Radio link set-up procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72516 with means for out-of-range alerting
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A cordless telephone apparatus detects the received field strength in a receive channel, as viewed from the base unit side, and if the field strength is below a prescribed level outputs an out-of-range signal on a receive channel, as viewed from the base unit side. The remote unit is provided with a volatile memory area for storing channel connection state data indicating whether or not two-way radio communication was established between the remote unit and the base unit. A backup power source enables the contents of the volatile memory area to be maintained even if there is an interruption in the supply of power from the battery in the remote unit. A call resumption control circuit to resume transmission of call information from the remote unit when internal power in the remote unit is supplied from the battery. The data in the volatile memory area indicating the channel connection state indicates whether two-way radio communication was established, and also detects an out-of-range signal transmitted from the base unit side.

Claims

1. A cordless telephone apparatus comprising:

a base unit connected by wire to a public telephone line circuit;

a remote unit driven by an internal replaceable battery power source;

a radio transmit-receive circuit, provided in the remote unit, and controlled by a main control circuit, that can transmit modulated call information from the remote unit via one of a pair of radio channels with mutually different frequencies for two-way radio communication, and can demodulate call information received from the base unit via the other channel;

a radio transmit-receive circuit, provided in the base unit, and controlled by a main control circuit, that can demodulate call information received from the remote unit via said one of a pair of radio channels, and can transmit from the base unit modulated call information carried by said other channel;

control circuit, provided in the base unit, that detects received field strength on said one of a pair of radio channels, output an out-of-range signal on said other channel via the transmit-receive circuit provided on the base unit if the detected field strength is below a prescribed field strength, and breaks the connection with the public telephone line circuit if the received field strength remains below the prescribed field strength for a prescribed time period;

a channel connection state volatile memory area, provided in the remote unit, in which channel establishment data is stored when two-way radio communication was established via the pair of radio channels between the base unit and the remote unit, and in which channel non-establishment data is stored when said communication was not established;

a backup power source, provided in the remote unit, that maintains the channel establishment data or channel non-establishment data selectively stored in the volatile memory area even if the supply of power from the battery source is interrupted; and

a call resumption control circuit, provided in the remote unit, that resumes transmission of call information from the remote unit, when it determines that the result of a check of the volatile memory area when power was supplied from the battery source in the remote unit is that channel establishment data is stored in said volatile memory area and when an out-of-range signal is detected via the transmit-receive circuit in the remote unit.

2. A cordless telephone apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

said apparatus is provided with a plurality of remote units and individual ID number data is assigned to each remote unit;

the main control circuit of the base unit can recognize the ID number data of the remote unit with which two-way communication is taking place;

an out-of-range signal transmitted by the base unit main control circuit via the transmit-receive circuit of the base unit is accompanied by the recognized ID number data of the remote unit; and

the call resumption control circuit in each remote unit only resumes transmission of the call information when said circuit receives the ID number data associated with its own remote unit and detects the out-of-range signal.

3. A cordless telephone apparatus according to claim 2, wherein:

the two-way communication link between the base unit and each remote unit is effected in accordance with a multi-channel access system;

each remote unit is provided with a volatile memory area for storing connection channel data specifying the channel pair at the time two-way communication was established, and this volatile memory area is also backed up by said backup power source; and

when transmission of call information from said remote unit is resumed by the call resumption control circuit, the channel pair used for the transmission is the channel pair specified by the connection channel data stored in the connection channel memory area.

4. A cordless telephone apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the main control circuit in the remote unit is a microcomputer; and

the channel connection data volatile memory area is provided within a random-access memory associated with said microcomputer.

5. A cordless telephone apparatus according to claim 3, wherein:

the main control circuit in the remote unit is a microcomputer;

the channel connection data volatile memory area is provided within a random-access memory associated with said microcomputer; and

the connection channel memory area also is provided within said random-access memory associated with said microcomputer.

6. A cordless telephone apparatus according to any one of claims 4 or 5, wherein:

a non-volatile memory containing memory check data is provided in the remote unit;

also provided, within the random-access memory, is a volatile memory area in which to store said memory check data from the non-volatile memory area;

this memory check data volatile memory area is also backed up by said backup power source; and

the call resumption control circuit only allows a resumption of the transmission of call information when a comparison of memory check data in the memory check data volatile memory area with memory check data in the non-volatile memory when power is supplied from the battery source in the remote unit shows that the two sets of memory check data match.

7. A cordless telephone apparatus according to claim 6, wherein:

when as a result of the comparison of memory check data in the non-volatile memory with memory check data in the volatile memory area it is found that the two sets of memory check data do not match the call resumption control circuit puts the remote unit into a waiting-for-call state without allowing the resumption of the transmission of call information, and memory check data in said non-volatile memory is written to said memory check data volatile memory area.

8. A cordless telephone apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein:

the call resumption control circuit transmits a call resumption signal prior to allowing a resumption of the transmission of call information; and

the main control circuit in the base unit breaks the connection with the public telephone line circuit if said call resumption signal is not received within a prescribed period of time from the emission of the out-of-range signal.

9. A cordless telephone apparatus according to any one of claims 4 or 5, wherein:

the microcomputer forming the main control circuit is used to also constitute the call resumption control circuit.

10. A cordless telephone apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein:

the backup power source is a capacitor charged by the battery.