Apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving long message in digital portable terminal

• US 6,597,918 B1
• Filed: 08/30/2000
• Issued: 07/22/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Sung-Sik
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Thanh Cong
• Assistant Examiner(s): Harry, Andrew T
• Application Number:
  US09/651,773
• Time in Patent Office: 1,056 Days
• Field of Search: 455/412, 455/458, 455/403, 455/433, 455/426, 455/566, 455/414, 455/466, 370/347, 370/392, 370/474, 370/913, 370/230, 370/236, 370/471, 370/337
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/065 using assembly or disassembly of packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

There are provided an apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving a long message by SMS (Short Message Service) in a digital portable terminal. Upon request of the SMS message transmission, a message inputted by a user is read. The read message is divided into a plurality of shorter messages with a predetermined length if the read message exceeds the maximum allowable SMS message. A header having a long message ID and divided message sequence information are generated for each divided message. The short divided messages are generated by assembling each divided message with a header and transmitting successively in an appropriate order. Upon receipt of the successive short messages, a predetermined unique long message ID is detected from the header of each short message, and the message sequence information is read from the header if the long message ID is detected from the header. The successive short messages are re-assembled based on the long message ID and the message sequence information, and the re-assembled long message is generated and stored; then, the stored long message is displayed upon user request.

Claims

1. An apparatus for transmitting a long message using a short message service (SMS) in a digital portable terminal, comprising:

a message storage for storing a text message inputted by a user, said message storage having a short message area and a long message area;

a message divider for dividing said text message into a plurality of shorter messages having a predetermined length;

a header generator for generating a header information including a long message identifier and divided message sequence information for said divided shorter messages;

a long message detector for detecting a long message identification from each header of said divided shorter messages;

a sequence information reader for reading a message order information from each header of said divided shorter messages; and

a controller for selectively reading out a corresponding text message stored in one of said short message area and said long message area, for generating the plurality of said shorter messages by assembling each divided said shorter message with the header information, for controlling the transmission of said shorter messages consecutively in a pre-specified order, and for controlling the re-assembly of each divided said shorter message according to said long message identifier and said message sequence information thereof.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said predetermined length is a maximum length permitted in SMS (short message service).

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a message transmitter coupled to said controller for transmitting the plurality of said shorter messages generated by said controller.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said message sequence information represents the order of said short messages after segmenting said long message.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said long message identifier indicates whether one of said short messages belongs to said long message.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said controller determines whether each said short message received exceeds a predefined SMS length.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said controller displays said reassembled message stored in said storage means in response to a user request.

8. A method for transmitting a long message using a short message service (SMS) in a digital portable terminal, comprising the steps of:

retrieving a text message inputted by a user upon receiving a request for a SMS message transmission;

dividing the text message into a plurality of shorter messages having a predetermined length if the read message exceeds a maximum frame length allowed in the SMS;

generating a header including a long message information and a message sequence information for each divided shorter message;

attaching the header to each divided shorter message for transmission;

detecting the long message information from the header of each divided shorter message during an SMS receiving mode;

retrieving the message sequence information from the header of each divided shorter message;

re-assembling the plurality of shorter messages according to the long message information and the message sequence information;

storing the re-assembled long message in a long message area of a storage means; and

displaying the re-assembled long message in response to a user request.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the predetermined length is a maximum length permitted in the SMS.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of sounding an alarm to notify the completion of the re-assembled long message.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the message sequence information represents the order of short messages after segmenting the long message from a transmitting end.