Method and apparatus for supporting cellular data communication to roaming mobile telephony devices

• US 7,184,764 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2002
• Issued: 02/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Starhome GmbH
• Original Assignee: Starhome GmbH
• Inventors: Wolfman, Shlomo, Raviv, Li-On, Biran, Ory, Sofer, Carmel
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; CongVan
• Application Number:
  US10/067,536
• Publication Number:
  US 20020164983A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,846 Days
• Field of Search: 455/403, 455/422.1, 455/432.1, 455/432.3, 455/433, 455/435.2, 455/438, 455/439, 455/406, 455/466, 455/432
• US Class Current: 455/432.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/25 of the same type
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2871 Implementation details of single intermediate entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/12 between location registers or mobility servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/12 Application layer protocols, e.g. WAP [Wireless Application Protocol]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

A cellular data communication interfacing apparatus, for association with a mobile network and for supporting cellular data communication to roaming mobile telephony devices, comprises a data request analyzer, a service network selector, and an interfacing engine. Each of the roaming telephony devices is associated with a respective home network and a service profile specifying service networks providing data services to the device. The data request analyzer analyzes data requests from the roaming mobile. The service network selector uses the request analyses together with the device service profiles to select a corresponding service network. The interfacing engine introduces the devices to the service networks, directs the data requests to the service networks, and directs the corresponding data responses from the service networks to the requesting roaming mobile devices.

Claims

1. A visitor portal at a roaming mobile network for supporting data communication from roaming mobile telephony devices, said mobile telephony devices being associated with respective home networks and with respective service profiles, and being able to roam non-home networks, said visitor portal comprising:

a page provider at a respective roaming mobile network, being configured to retrieve a respective service profile from said home network and further configured to use said service profile to provide a visitor portal page customized for a respective roaming mobile telephony device roaming at said respective roaming mobile network, using said service profile; and

an interface configured to direct said respective mobile telephony device to said customized visitor portal page at said roaming mobile network, thereby to support data communication according to said service profile for said roaming mobile telephony device.

2. A visitor portal according to claim 1, wherein at least some of said service profiles comprise a user profile.

3. A visitor portal according to claim 2, wherein a user profile comprises user specified data service networks.

4. A visitor portal according to claim 1, wherein a non-home network being roamed by a mobile telephony device is operable to connect said mobile telephony device to said visitor portal.

5. A visitor portal according to claim 4, wherein said non-home network is operable to connect said mobile telephony device to said visitor portal upon initiation of a data session by said mobile telephony device.

6. A visitor portal according to claim 1, wherein said mobile device comprises one of a group of devices comprising:

WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), MHTML (MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Hyper Text Markup Language), CHTML (C (Compact) Hypertext Markup Language), and SHTML (S (Server Side Includes) Hyper Text Markup Language) devices.

7. A visitor portal according to claim 1, wherein said mobile devices are operable to perform CSD (Circuit Switched Data) communication.

8. A visitor portal according to claim 1, wherein said mobile devices are operable to perform GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) communication.

9. A visitor portal according to claim 1, wherein a portal page comprises at least one link to a service network.

10. A visitor portal according to claim 1, wherein said page provider is operable to provide said respective visitor portal page in accordance with a current location of said device.

11. A visitor portal according to claim 10, wherein said current location is determined by parameters associated with a non-home network being roamed by said mobile telephony device.

12. A visitor portal according to claim 1, wherein said page provider is operable to provide said respective visitor portal page in accordance with a non-home network being roamed by said mobile telephony device.

13. A visitor portal according to claim 1, wherein said page provider is operable to provide said respective visitor portal page in accordance with said home network associated with said device.

14. A visitor portal according to claim 1, wherein said visitor portal page contains links to at least one of a group comprising:

bookmark requests, a non-home user page, a mobile device home page, a home network page, a location based page, an Internet access page, a corporate access page, a search engine, and an e-mail service.

15. A visitor portal according to claim 1, comprising at least one visitor page template, and wherein said page provider is operable to provide a visitor portal page by insertion of information associated with a mobile device into one of said templates.

16. A system for supporting roaming data communication, said system comprising a network having home mobile device users and non-home mobile device users and a visitor portal at a mobile roaming network for non-home users, said non-home users having respective user profiles at their home networks, said system being operable to connect a non-home user to said visitor portal at said roaming mobile network, said visitor portal at said roaming mobile network configured to extract said user profile from a corresponding home network and to use said user profile to provide said non-home user with a portal page at said roaming mobile network to appear on a screen of a respective mobile device therethrough to provide access to services according to said user service profile.

17. A system for supporting roaming data communication according to claim 16, wherein said network comprises said visitor portal.

18. A system for supporting roaming data communication according to claim 16, wherein said system is operable to connect said non-home user to said visitor portal upon initiation of a data session by said user.

19. A system for supporting roaming data communication according to claim 16, wherein said visitor portal is operable to direct said non-home user to a visitor portal page associated with said device.

20. A system for supporting roaming data communication according to claim 19, said visitor portal comprising:

a page generator for generating for said visitor portal pages; and

an interface for directing said non-home user to said associated visitor portal page.

21. A system for supporting roaming data communication according to claim 20, wherein said page generator is operable to generate said associated visitor portal page in accordance with a current location of said device.

22. A system for supporting roaming data communication according to claim 21, wherein said current location is determined by parameters associated with said first mobile network.

23. A system for supporting roaming data communication according to claim 20, wherein said page generator is operable to generate said associated visitor portal page in accordance with said home network of said device.

24. A system for supporting roaming data communication according to claim 20, wherein said page generator is operable to generate said associated visitor portal page in accordance with a user profile associated with said device.

25. A system for roaming data communication according to claim 19, wherein said visitor portal page contains links to at least one of a group comprising:

a non-home user page, a mobile device home page, a home network page, a location based page, an Internet access page, a corporate access page, a search engine, and an e-mail service.

26. A support network for supporting roaming of cellular communication devices in at least a first cellular network, each of said cellular communication devices having a respective home cellular network being other than said first cellular network, and there being at least one service network configured to provide data services between said at least first and said home cellular networks, said support network comprising:

interfacing links to each of said cellular networks and each of said service networks; and

a roaming support unit associated with said interfacing links configured to provide home data of roaming devices stored at said respective home network over said service network to a respective interfacing link of said first cellular network, said home data including a respective service profile retrieved from said home network usable to provide a roaming user with a visitor portal page at a respective roaming mobile network, said visitor portal page being customized for a respective roaming mobile telephony device of said roaming user using said service profile.

27. A network for supporting roaming of cellular communication devices according to claim 26, further comprising a database for storing properties associated with said cellular devices.

28. A network for supporting roaming of cellular communication devices according to claim 27, wherein said database is further operable to store said home data.