Method and system for management of messages

• US 7,099,659 B1
• Filed: 06/05/2001
• Issued: 08/29/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sprint Spectrum LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Spectrum LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Schnake, Noel, Gilborne, Joe, Finnerty, Brian J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): PEREZ, JULIO R
• Application Number:
  US09/874,215
• Time in Patent Office: 1,911 Days
• Field of Search: 455/419, 455/466, 455/456, 455/452, 455/414.1, 705/14, 705/30, 705/26, 705/1, 705/7, 705/9, 705/27
• US Class Current: 455/419
• 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 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A method and system for managing message-presentation in a subscriber station. A message and a time-based schedule for the presentation of the message are sent over a communications network to the subscriber station. As a response to this, the subscriber station may responsively present the message according to the time-based schedule. Further, a schedule-change order may be sent to the subscriber station to change the time-based message-presentation schedule. Such a change may, for instance, substitute a substitute-schedule for the original schedule, alter a schedule for presentation, or delete a schedule.

Claims

1. A method of managing message-presentation in a subscriber station, the method comprising:

dividing a control instruction into a plurality of segments, the control instruction containing a time-based schedule for presentation of a presentable message;

producing a plurality of Short Message Service (SMS) messages by a process comprising, for each segment, encoding each segment so as to produce a respective SMS message; and

sending to the subscriber station, via a communications network, (i) the presentable message, and (ii) the plurality of SMS messages so as to allow the subscriber station to recover the plurality of segments and reassemble the plurality of segments into the control instruction, and so as to allow the subscriber station to then responsively present the presentable message according to the time-based schedule contained within the control instruction,

wherein the schedule includes a start-time value that indicates when to start presentation of the presentable message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the presentable message comprises an advertisement.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein the time-based schedule includes user-discard data indicating whether a user of the subscriber station may discard the presentable message, and

wherein discarding the presentable message is carried out by a function selected from the group consisting of:

(i) removing the presentable message from a memory device of the subscriber station, and (ii) causing a pointer to the presentable message to be moved to another location.

4. A method of managing message-presentation in a subscriber station, the method comprising:

dividing a first control instruction into a first plurality of segments, wherein the first control instruction includes a time-based schedule for presenting a presentable message;

producing a first plurality of Short Message Service (SMS) messages by a process comprising, for each segment of the first plurality of segments, encoding the segment so as to produce a respective SMS message of the first plurality of SMS messages;

sending to the subscriber station, via a communications network, (i) the presentable message, and (ii) the first plurality of SMS messages so as to allow the subscriber station to recover the first plurality of segments and reassemble the first plurality of segments into the first control instruction, and so as to allow the subscriber station to then responsively present the presentable message according to the time-based schedule; and

thereafter dividing a second control instruction into a second plurality of segments, wherein the second control instruction includes a schedule-change order defining a change to the time-based schedule for presentation of the presentable message;

producing a second plurality of SMS messages by a process comprising, for each segment of the second plurality of segments, encoding each segment so as to produce a respective SMS message of the second plurality of SMS messages;

sending to the subscriber station, via the communications network, the second plurality of SMS messages so as to allow the subscriber station to recover the second plurality of segments and reassemble the second plurality of segments into the second control instruction, and so as to allow the subscriber station to then responsively change the time-based schedule according to the defined change.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the presentable message comprises an advertisement.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the change to the time-based schedule comprises cancellation of the time-based schedule.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the subscriber station responding to the schedule-change order by deleting the time-based schedule.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the schedule-change order includes a substitute-schedule, and wherein the change to the time-based schedule comprises replacement of the time-based schedule with the substitute-schedule.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the subscriber station responding to the schedule-change order by deleting the time-based schedule and storing the substitute-schedule, whereby the subscriber station is then programmed to present the presentable message according to the substitute-schedule.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the schedule-change order comprises (i) a cancellation-order defining an instruction to cancel the time-based schedule and (ii) and a schedule-order defining the substitute-schedule.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

the subscriber station responding to the cancellation-order by deleting the time-based schedule; and

the subscriber station responding to the schedule-order by storing the substitute-schedule, whereby the subscriber station is then programmed to present the presentable message according to the substitute schedule.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein time-based the schedule defines a scheduling parameter, and the change to the time-based schedule comprises a change to the scheduling parameter.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the scheduling parameter comprises a date/time for presentation of the presentable message.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the scheduling parameter comprises a date/time to start presentation of the presentable message.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the scheduling parameter comprises a date/time to stop presentation of the presentable message.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the scheduling parameter comprises a duration for presentation of the presentable message.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the scheduling parameter comprises a number of times to present the presentable message.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the scheduling parameter comprises a frequency of presentation of the presentable message.

19. The method of claim 4, wherein the communications network comprises an air interface communicatively coupling the subscriber station with a base station.

20. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

sending to the subscriber station, via the communications network, a reporting request defining a request for data concerning presentation of at least one message; and

receiving from the subscriber station a report defining data concerning presentation of the at least one message.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the reporting request defines a network address to which the subscriber station should send the report, and wherein receiving the report comprises receiving the report at the network address.

22. The method of claim 4, wherein encoding each segment of the first plurality of segments and encoding each segment of the second plurality of segments is carried out using a Base 64 encoding scheme.

23. A method for managing message-presentation in a subscriber station, the method comprising:

receiving into the subscriber station, from a communications network, a presentable message and a first plurality of Short Message Service (SMS) messages, wherein each SMS message of the first plurality of SMS messages includes a respective segment of a plurality of segments of a first control instruction, and wherein the first control instruction contains a schedule for presentation of the presentable message;

recovering, from the first plurality of SMS messages, each segment of the first control instruction and reassembling each recovered segment of the first control instruction into the first control instruction so as to recover the schedule; and

storing the presentable message and recovered schedule in the subscriber station, wherein the subscriber station becomes programmed to present the presentable message according to the schedule.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

maintaining message-presentation statistics in the subscriber station;

receiving into the subscriber station a request for the message-presentation statistics; and

the subscriber station transmitting the message-presentation statistics to a remote entity.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the request defines a network address of the remote entity.

26. The method of claim 24,

wherein the presentable message includes an embedded web-link, and

wherein the message-presentation statistics comprise a count of a number of times the embedded web-link is invoked.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the presentable message comprises an advertisement.

28. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

receiving into the subscriber station, from the communications network, a second plurality of SMS messages, wherein each SMS message of the second plurality of SMS messages includes a respective segment of a plurality of segments of a second control instruction, and wherein the second control instruction contains a schedule-change order defining a change to the schedule for presentation of the presentable message;

recovering, from the second plurality of SMS messages, each segment of the second control instruction and reassembling each recovered segment of the second control instruction into the second control instruction so as to recover the schedule-change order; and

the subscriber station implementing the change and thereby becoming programmed to present the presentable message according to a modified schedule.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the schedule-change order comprises (i) a cancellation-order defining an instruction to cancel the schedule and (ii) and a schedule-order defining the modified schedule.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein implementing the change comprises:

deleting the schedule; and

storing the modified schedule.