Broadcast short message service architecture

• US 5,909,651 A
• Filed: 05/05/1997
• Issued: 06/01/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Mizikovsky, Semyon B., Chander, Sharat Subramaniyam
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Wellington
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jama, Isaak R.
• Application Number:
  US08/850,254
• Time in Patent Office: 757 Days
• Field of Search: 455/458, 455/466, 455/434, 455/515, 370/432, 370/449, 370/458, 370/259, 370/312, 370/313, 370/314, 370/468, 370/56.1, 340/311.1, 340/825.44
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services

Abstract

In certain wireless communication systems, including at least some CDMA cellular systems, short messages can be delivered to mobile stations in a broadcast fashion using a common forward (downlink) channel sometimes referred to as the Paging Channel. Economy in the use of the Paging Channel can be achieved by using so-called slotted mode reception. In accordance with this mode, the infrastructure directs messages to a given mobile station only during time slots allocated to the particular group of mobile stations to which the given station belongs. These time slots recur according to a paging slot cycle having a specified length (expressed as a number of slots), or slot cycle index. Disclosed here is a further cycle, referred to as the Broadcast Paging Cycle, for use in implementing a service for broadcasting short messages (to many mobile stations). The Broadcast Paging Cycle has an index that is larger than, and incommensurable with, the paging slot cycle index. Any given broadcast message is transmitted only once during each Broadcast Paging Cycle, in a predetermined slot thereof. This predetermined slot will eventually coincide, in a non-preferential manner, with each slot of the paging slot cycle. Consequently, the load on the Paging Channel due to the broadcast service will be averaged uniformly over all paging slots.

Claims

1. In a wireless communication network adapted for slotted mode transmission of messages to receiving stations, wherein a paging cycle consisting of a positive integer B of slots is defined, and a message destined for a particular receiving station or group of receiving stations must begin within a respective slot assigned to such station or group of stations,

a method for transmitting at least one broadcast message to the receiving stations, the method comprising transmitting the broadcast message in accordance with a further slot cycle, to be referred to as the broadcast cycle, wherein:

the broadcast message must begin within a specified portion of the broadcast cycle;

the broadcast cycle consists of a positive integral number B+N of slots;

B+N is greater than B; and

B+N is incommensurable with B, whereby occurrences of the specified portion of the broadcast cycle tend to be distributed uniformly over the respective slots of the paging cycle.

3. The method of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein B is equal to (2 raised to the power i) times 16, and i is a positive integer at least 1 but not more than 7.

4. The method of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein N is equal to 3.

5. The method of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the specified portion of the broadcast cycle comprises a specified slot thereof.

6. The method of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the specified portion of the broadcast cycle consists of a specified slot thereof and the following adjacent slot.

7. The method of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the specified portion of the broadcast cycle comprises the first slot thereof.

8. The method of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the specified portion of the broadcast cycle consists of the first and second slots thereof.

2. In a receiving station in communicative contact with a wireless communication network adapted for slotted mode transmission of messages to receiving stations, wherein a paging cycle consisting of a positive integer B of slots is defined, and a message destined for a particular receiving station or group of receiving stations must begin within a respective slot assigned to such station or group of stations,

a method for receiving at least one broadcast message from the network, the method comprising maintaining a further slot cycle, to be referred to as the broadcast cycle, and periodically awakening from a quiescent state in accordance with said cycle for receiving the broadcast message, wherein:

the broadcast message is received only if it begins within a specified portion of the broadcast cycle;

the broadcast cycle consists of a positive integral number B+N of slots;

B+N is greater than B; and

B+N is incommensurable with B, whereby occurrences of the specified portion of the broadcast cycle tend to be distributed uniformly over the respective slots of the paging cycle.