Method for coordinating radio paging transmissions on local and nationwide channels
First Claim
1. A paging method comprising the steps of:
- storing travel schedules for users;
receiving a page request for one of the users;
determining from the stored travel schedules, in response to receipt of the page request, whether the one user is scheduled for travel beyond a page message reception area of a first paging system;
upon a determination that the one user is on scheduled travel;
transmitting a first page message, according to the page request, addressed to the one user over the first paging system and over a second paging system; and
upon a determination that the one user is not on scheduled travel;
transmitting the first page message addressed to the one user over the first paging system; and
transmitting a second page message addressed to the one user over the second paging system, the second page message being different from the first page message.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
To ensure that a user of radio paging services receives page messages while traveling, page messages are broadcast over both the user'"'"'s local paging channel and a nationwide paging channel during periods of scheduled travel. At all other times, page messages are broadcast over the user'"'"'s local channel and accompanied by tone-only messages of abbreviated length broadcast over the nationwide channel. Receipt of a tone-only message provides user notification that he or she was paged over the local channel. Receiving logic in the pager carried by the user automatically switches the pager between local and nationwide channel frequencies under the control of channel marker codes transmitted over the local channel and a switching code included in tone-only messages received over the nationwide channel. To facilitate system management, all page messages are routed through a nationwide paging terminal.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A paging method comprising the steps of:
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storing travel schedules for users; receiving a page request for one of the users;
determining from the stored travel schedules, in response to receipt of the page request, whether the one user is scheduled for travel beyond a page message reception area of a first paging system;upon a determination that the one user is on scheduled travel; transmitting a first page message, according to the page request, addressed to the one user over the first paging system and over a second paging system; and upon a determination that the one user is not on scheduled travel; transmitting the first page message addressed to the one user over the first paging system; and transmitting a second page message addressed to the one user over the second paging system, the second page message being different from the first page message. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of coordinating broadcasts of page messages over local and wide area broadcast channels, comprising the steps of:
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storing travel schedules filed by users of paging services; assembling first page messages addressed to the users; determining from the stored travel schedules whether the first page messages are addressed to users scheduled for travel beyond a reception area of the local broadcast channel; forwarding the first page messages to a transmitter for broadcast over the local broadcast channel; relaying the first page messages addressed to those users determined to be on scheduled travel to plural wide area network transmitters for broadcast over the wide area broadcast channel covering a wide reception area inclusive of the local terminal transmitter reception area; and assembling second page messages, said second page messages being abbreviated in length relative to the first page messages and addressed to those users determined not to be on scheduled travel; transmitting, in association with the local channel broadcasts of first page messages addressed to those users determined not to be on scheduled travel, the second page messages by the plural network transmitters over the wide area channel to alert the users of the local channel broadcasts of the first page messages addressed to them. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A radio paging system comprising:
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a local paging system including a local transmitter broadcasting over a local channel at a first frequency; a network paging system including a network terminal and a plurality of geographically dispersed network transmitters broadcasting over a network channel at a second frequency; a memory for storing travel schedules for users of paging services of the local paging system; first means for assembling first page messages addressed to the users; means for determining from the stored travel schedules which of the first page messages are addressed to first users scheduled for travel beyond a reception area of the local transmitter and which of the first page messages are addressed to second users not scheduled for travel beyond the reception area of the local transmitter; second means for assembling second page messages addressed to the second users the second pate messages differing from the first page messages; means for relaying those first page messages addressed to the first users from the network terminal to the local transmitter for broadcast over the local channel and to the plurality of network transmitters for broadcast over the network channel and for relaying those first page messages addressed to the second users from the network terminal to the local transmitter for broadcast over the local channel and for relaying the second page messages to the network transmitters for broadcast over the network channel, the second page messages including a signal for alerting the second users of local channel broadcasts of first page messages addressed to them. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
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17. A portable radio pager for use with a radio paging system operating to broadcast page messages addressed to travelling pager users over a local channel at a first frequency and over a wide area network channel at a second frequency and to broadcast page messages addressed to non-travelling users over the local channel at the first frequency and associated tone-only pages addressed to the non-travelling users over the network channel at the second frequency, the pager comprising:
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receiver circuitry capable of being tuned to either the first frequency or the second frequency to receive the page messages and the tone-only pages; a receiving logic circuit connected to the receiver circuitry for detecting channel marker signals broadcast over the local channel and for detecting a channel switching signal and an alert signal included in each tone-only page broadcast over the network channel, the receiving logic circuit operating to tune the receiver circuitry to the second frequency upon failure to detect channel marker signals during a time-out interval and to tune the receiver circuitry to the first frequency upon detection of the channel switching signal in a received tone-only page; and an alarm connected to the receiving logic circuit for emitting a signal, upon detection by the receiving logic circuit of the alarm signal in the received tone-only page, to alert the user to the broadcast over the local channel of a page message addressed to the user.
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Specification