Two way paging system with answer-back function

• US 5,561,848 A
• Filed: 02/03/1995
• Issued: 10/01/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/1991
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Minami, Yoichiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisenzopf, Reinhard J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): LE, THANH C
• Application Number:
  US08/384,450
• Time in Patent Office: 606 Days
• Field of Search: 455/38.1, 455/38.2, 455/32.1, 455/82, 455/83, 455/86, 455/88, 455/89, 455/87, 340/311.1, 340/313, 340/825.44
• US Class Current: 340/7.22
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/022 Paging systems personal calling arrangements or devices G08B3/1008; selective calling networks H04W84/022
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/025 with acknowledge back capability

Abstract

After bit synchronization and frame synchronization are established in accordance with a transmission signal from a transmission office, reception RX is stopped until a reception timing assigned to a group of a portable radio unit comes. A receiving operation is performed again at the reception timing assigned to the group of the unit. If the ID code of the received signal coincides with the ID of the unit, an informing operation is performed. At the same time, transmission TX is performed. A transmitting operation is performed during a transmission signal stop period TXOF upon completion of transmission of data corresponding to all the eight groups. The transmission timing of the portable radio unit is based on the fact that frame synchronization is established in the reception RX, so that transmission TX is performed at a timing assigned to the group of the unit in the reception RX. The above-described timings prevent the transmission office and the portable radio unit from performing simultaneous transmission.

Claims

1. A two-way system comprising:

a radio transmission office for transmitting a call signal in accordance with a predetermined transmission format, and for receiving an answer-back signal transmitted in time-division transmission in accordance with a predetermined transmission format; and

a portable radio unit for receiving said call signal from said radio transmission office, and transmitting said answer-back signal in accordance with the predetermined transmission format when an ID code contained in the received call signal coincides with an ID code of said portable radio unit, and

wherein the transmission format of the call signal in said radio transmission office is constituted by a frame sync signal transmission period during which a frame sync signal is transmitted, a data signal transmission period during which a data signal containing said ID code is transmitted, and a transmission stop period which is equal to the data signal transmission period in duration and during which transmission of data is stopped, said frame sync signal transmission period, said data signal transmission period and said transmission stop period occurring, respectively, in sequence, and

the transmission format of the answer-back signal in said portable radio unit is constituted by a frame sync signal reception period during which the frame sync signal transmitted during the frame sync signal transmission period is received and during which frame synchronization is established, a data signal reception period during which the data signal transmitted during the data signal transmission period is received, and an answer-back signal transmission period which is equal to the data signal reception period in duration, and during which the answer-back signal is transmitted in correspondence with the transmission stop period when the ID code contained in the data signal coincides with the ID code of said portable radio unit, said frame sync signal reception period, said data signal reception period and said answer-back signal transmission period occurring respectively, in sequence;

and wherein the data signal transmission period is constituted by a plurality of continuous calling side group transmission periods to which a plurality of data signals are respectively assigned to be transmitted, and the answer-back signal transmission period is constituted by a plurality of continuous answering side group transmission periods during which an answer-back signal is transmitted in a timing of a group transmission period assigned in correspondence with the transmission period of the data signal;

and wherein same frequency band is used for receiving said call signal and transmitting said answer-back signal, and wherein the data signal transmission period and the transmission stop period are equal to the data signal reception period and the answer-back signal transmission period, respectively, and wherein the frame sync signal transmission period, the data signal transmission period and the transmission stop period constitute one batch, and the answer-back signal is transmitted in a half batch after the ID code is received.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the data signal transmitted during the plurality of continuous calling side group transmission periods is constituted by two code words per group, and the ID code is provided at the first code word.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein during the data signal reception period, it is determined whether the ID code contained in the received data signal coincides with the ID code of said portable radio unit.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein said portable radio unit comprises:

a voltage-controlled oscillation means for generating a local oscillation signal having a frequency corresponding to a control voltage;

a demodulating means for obtaining a demodulated signal on the basis of a received radio signal and the local oscillation signal from said voltage-controlled oscillation means by an orthogonal detection/reception scheme to output the ID code contained in the received call signal;

a detecting means for detecting whether the ID code from said demodulating means coincides with the ID code of said portable radio unit to generate an answer-back signal for acknowledging reception of an incoming call; and

a modulating means for changing the control voltage to be applied to said voltage-controlled oscillation means on the basis of the answer-back signal from said detecting means to modulate the local oscillation signal of said voltage-controlled oscillation means as the answer-back signal.