Method for flood paging in a telecommunications network

• US 6,738,629 B1
• Filed: 05/10/2000
• Issued: 05/18/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: McCormick, Mark Alan, Boland, Richard Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Trost, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZEWDU, MELESS NMN
• Application Number:
  US09/569,983
• Time in Patent Office: 1,469 Days
• Field of Search: 455/422, 455/424, 455/432-435, 455/440, 455/445, 455/456, 455/458, 455/461, 455/422.1, 455/432--43, 455/435.1, 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/456.6
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like

Abstract

Methods for locating a missing called mobile unit in a telecommunications network are disclosed. With various equipment manufacturers present in the telecommunications industry, methods for use with a variety of equipment made by those manufacturers are necessary. The equipment in the network would include mobile units, home location registers and mobile switching centers. Through alterations in the operation of the home location registers and/or the mobile switching centers, the responses to page requests and/or routing requests are varied from the typical responses. Through those variations, missing called mobile units may be located in an efficient manner, regardless of the equipment provider.

Claims

1. A method for flood paging to signal a selected mobile unit that is operating in a mobile telecommunications system which includes at least two mobile switching centers, comprising the steps of:

sending a single request from a home location register that serves said selected mobile unit to each of a plurality of mobile switching centers, wherein said request includes a transaction identifier, an indication that said request is a flood paging request and an identifier for said selected mobile unit;

maintaining in said home location resister an index of the requests sent to each of said plurality of mobile switching centers;

broadcasting, in response to receipt of said single request, at least one page from each of said plurality of mobile switching centers to said selected mobile unit, wherein each of said pages includes the identifier for said selected mobile unit;

receiving a page response from said selected mobile unit in at least one of said plurality of mobile switching centers; and

providing a location acknowledgment to said home location register that serves said selected mobile unit identifying said at least one of said plurality of mobile switching centers which received said page response from said selected mobile unit.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

failing to provide a location acknowledgment to said home location register that serves said selected mobile unit by at least one of said plurality of mobile switching centers which received said page response from said selected mobile unit.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

forwarding a mobile unit present location signal from said home location register to a mobile switching center that is attempting to transmit a signal to said selected mobile unit.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said mobile unit present location signal is a first location acknowledgement received by said home location register in response to sending said single request.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

making a determination in said home location register as to which of a plurality of received location acknowledgments to act upon.

6. In a mobile telecommunications system that includes a plurality of mobile switching centers each of which serve a plurality of mobile units, a system for flood paging a selected mobile unit comprising:

a home location register that serves said selected mobile unit for providing a single location request signal that includes a transaction identifier, an indication that said request is a flood paging request and an identifier for said selected mobile unit to said plurality of mobile switching centers;

means for maintaining in said home location register an index of the requests sent to each of said plurality of mobile switching centers;

paging means, located in each of said plurality of mobile switching centers for transmitting at least one paging signal to said selected mobile unit in response to receipt of said single request; and

wherein at least one of said plurality of mobile switching centers is a serving mobile switching center, and only said serving mobile switching center provides a signal to said home location register in response to a positive response to said paging signal received from said selected mobile unit.

7. The system for flood paging a selected of claim 6 further comprising:

means for failing to provide a location acknowledgment to said home location register that serves said selected mobile unit by at least one of said mobile switching centers which received said page response from selected mobile unit.

8. The system for flood paging a selected of claim 6 further comprising:

means for forwarding a mobile unit present location signal from said home location register to a mobile switching center that is attempting to transmit a signal to said selected mobile unit.

9. The system for flood paging a selected mobile unit of claim 8 wherein said mobile unit present location signal is a first acknowledgement received by said home location register in response to sending said single request.

10. The system for flood paging a selected of claim 6 further comprising:

means for making a determination in said home location register as to plurality of received location acknowledgments to act upon.