Campus area pager system

• US 6,275,477 B1
• Filed: 05/03/1996
• Issued: 08/14/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Symbol Technologies, LLC (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Telxon Corporation (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Inventors: Sojka, Marvin L., Trompower, Michael L.
• Primary Examiner(s): RAO, SEEMA SRINIVAS
• Application Number:
  US08/642,776
• Time in Patent Office: 1,929 Days
• Field of Search: 370/313, 370/326, 370/338, 370/348, 370/344, 370/349, 370/329, 370/352, 370/383, 455/435, 455/422, 455/31.2, 455/31.3, 455/426, 455/38.1, 455/517, 455/524, 340/825.44, 340/286.01, 379/167, 379/170
• US Class Current: 370/313
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/022 One-way selective calling networks, e.g. wide area paging

Abstract

A pager system which enables users to avoid having to pay monthly service charges. The pager system is particularly useful in that it can be coupled easily to an existing local area network (LAN) to provide paging capabilities within a local area (i.e., a campus) such as a building or set of buildings. Thus, businesses, universities, etc., who currently have a LAN or contemplate installing one can couple the pager system to the LAN in order to provide localized paging. Such localized paging is provided without the need to pay monthly service charges to paging service providers. A business, university, etc., incurs primarily only an initial cost to purchase the pager equipment. Therefore, the present system represents a substantial cost savings compared to WAN based paging service providers for those desiring localized paging.

Claims

1. A campus area pager system, comprising:

a local area network (LAN) having a system backbone;

at least one base station coupled to the system backbone, each of the at least one base station including a wireless communication section; and

at least one paging device for receiving page information from the system backbone via the wireless communication section;

wherein prior to the at least one paging device receiving the page information, the at least one paging device and the at least one base station are configured to establish registration with one another by way of the at least one paging device transmitting a find base station request to file at least one base station and the at least one base station transmitting an identification message to the paging device in response to the find base station request, the paging device selecting to register with one of the at least one base station transmitting the identification message based on a predetermined criteria and sending a registration request to the selected one of the at least one base station and the selected one of the at least one base station transmitting an acknowledgment to the at least one paging device in response to receiving the registration request.

2. The campus area pager system of claim 1, wherein the paging device includes at least one of a speaker for making sound and a vibrator for making mechanical vibration in response to receiving page information from the system backbone.

3. The campus area pager system of claim 1, further comprising a pager server coupled to the system backbone for receiving page information intended to be transmitted to the at least one paging device, and for forwarding the page information on the system backbone in order to be received by the at least one base station and transmitted to the at least one paging device via the wireless communication section.

4. The campus area pager system of claim 3, wherein the page information intended to be transmitted to the at least one paging device is transmitted to the pager server on the system backbone from another device coupled to the system.

5. The campus area pager system of claim 4, further comprising a telephone interface coupled to the pager server for allowing the page information to be transmitted to the at least one paging device to be received by the pager server from a local PBX and a local telephone network and thereafter placed onto the system backbone.

6. The campus area pager system of claim 1, wherein the system includes a plurality of base stations and a plurality of paging devices.

7. The campus area pager system of claim 6, further comprising a pager server coupled to the system backbone for receiving page information intended to be transmitted to one of order to be received by at least one of the plurality of base stations and transmitted to the one of the plurality of paging devices via the wireless communication section.

8. The campus area pager system of claim 7, wherein the at least one of the base stations is a base station with which the one of the plurality of paging devices is registered for service.

9. The campus area pager system of claim 7, wherein the pager server maintains a list of valid pager identification numbers for the plurality of paging devices and corresponding LAN addresses for the plurality of paging devices.

10. A cellular communication system comprising the campus area pager system of claim 6, and further comprising a plurality of mobile terminals located at different locations throughout the campus area for wirelessly communicating with the system backbone via the base stations.

11. The cellular communication system of claim 10, further comprising a pager server coupled to the system backbone for receiving information intended to be transmitted to one of the plurality of paging devices, and for forwarding the information on the system backbone in order to be received by at least one of the plurality of base stations and transmitted to the one of the plurality of paging devices via the wireless communication section.

12. The cellular communication system of claim 10, wherein at least one of the mobile terminals is adapted to both transmit and receive page communications.

13. A campus area pager system, comprising:

a local area network having a system backbone;

at least one base station coupled to the system backbone, each of the at least one base station including a wireless communication section;

a plurality of paging devices for receiving communications from the system backbone via the wireless communication section, each of the plurality of paging devices having a respective pager identification number; and

a pager server coupled to the system backbone, the pager server for receiving page request information including a page message and one of the pager identification numbers, and for transmitting the page information on the system backbone in order to be received by and transmitted via the wireless communication section to the paging device corresponding to the one of the pager identification numbers;

wherein prior to the at least one paging device receiving the page information, the at least one paging device and the at least one base station are configured to establish registration with one another by way of the at least one paging device transmitting a find base station request to the at least one base station and the at least one base station transmitting an identification message to the paging device in response to the find base station request, the paging device selecting to register with one of the at least one base station transmitting the identification message based on a predetermined criteria and sending a registration request to the selected one of the at least one base station and the selected one of the at least one base station transmitting an acknowledgment to the at least one paging device in response to receiving the registration request, the at least one base station broadcasting a new registration packet onto the system backbone to notify any other base station that the at least one paging device has previously registered, that the at least one paging device is now registered with the at least one base station.

14. The campus area pager system of claim 13, wherein the system comprises a plurality of base stations.

15. The campus area pager system of claim 14, wherein each paging device is registered for service to only one of the plurality of base stations at a time, and each of the plurality of base stations maintains a list of which of the plurality of paging devices is currently registered to the base station.

16. The campus area pager system of claim 15, wherein the base station to which the paging device corresponding to the one of the pager identification numbers is registered transmits the page information thereto.

17. The campus area pager system of claim 14, further comprising a plurality of mobile terminals which communicate wirelessly with the plurality of base stations, and wherein at least one of the mobile terminals wirelessly transmits the page request information which is received by the parer server to the system backbone via one of the plurality of base stations.

18. The campus area pager system of claim 13, further comprising a telephone interface for interfacing the pager server to a local telephone network, and wherein the pager server functions to receive page request information including a page message and a pager identification numbers of a paging device known to be serviced by a wide area network paging service provider, and to transmit the page information to the wide area network paging service provider via the telephone interface.

19. A network system, comprising:

a local area network (LAN) having a system backbone and a plurality of devices coupled to the system backbone for performing non-paging related activities via communications on the system backbone;

a plurality of base stations coupled to the system backbone, each of the plurality of base stations including a wireless communication section;

a plurality of paging devices for receiving communications from the system backbone via the wireless communication section of at least one of the plurality of base stations, each of the plurality of paging devices having a respective pager identification number; and

a pager server coupled to the system backbone, the pager server for receiving page request information including a page message and one of the pager identification numbers, and for transmitting the page information on the system backbone in order to be received by the at least one base station and transmitted via the wireless communication section to the paging device corresponding to the one of the pager identification numbers;

wherein prior to the paging device receiving the page information, the paging device and the at least one base station are configured to establish registration with one another by way of the paging device transmitting a find router request to the plurality of base stations and the at least one of the plurality of base stations transmitting an identification message to the paging device in response to the find router requests, the paging device choosing to register with one of the plurality of base stations transmitting the identification message based on a predetermined criteria and sending a registration request to the chosen one of the plurality of base stations and the chosen one of the plurality of base stations transmitting an acknowledgment to the paging device in response to receiving the registration request.

20. The network system of claim 19, wherein the communications relating to non-paging related activities are conducted based on a predefined information packet format, and communications involving the pager server are conducted based on the same predefined information packet format.