Roaming services using home location register

• US 7,321,768 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2001
• Issued: 01/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Armbruster, Peter J., Schaefer, Bradley R., Magee, Stephen D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild; Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): Peaches; Randy
• Application Number:
  US09/997,515
• Publication Number:
  US 20030100303A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,245 Days
• Field of Search: 455/432.1, 455/432.2, 455/432.3, 455/439, 455/406, 455/414.2, 455/435.1, 455/410, 455/456.3, 455/433, 455/414.1, 455/418, 455/435, 370/310.2, 370/331, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 455/432.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/12 between location registers or mobility servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A distributed home location register (DHLR) (102-104) authorizes roaming services agreement electronically for a user (1) in a foreign network (120). A home network 100 has a network HLR 101 which records the roaming agreement and charges for billing user (1). A visitor location register (VLR) (122) then charges user (1) for services while in the foreign network (120) according to the roaming services agreement.

Claims

1. An arrangement for services in a foreign network by a user of a home network comprising:

the home network including;

a first network home location register (HLR) coupled to a communication system; and

a distributed home location register (DHLR) for storing a list of the services required by the user, said DHLR being directly coupled to the user via a mobile device;

the foreign network including;

a visitor location register (VLR) for determining an agreement for the services which are needed by the user in the foreign network; and

a second network HLR coupled to the communication system;

a mobile device of the user coupled to the foreign network for approving the agreement for the services; and

a communication network for coupling the DHLR and the mobile device to the foreign network.

2. The arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the DHLR is not located at a telecommunication services provider.

3. The arrangement as claimed in claim 2, wherein there is further included a plurality of users, each user of the plurality of users having a DHLR indicating which services are available to each user.

4. The arrangement as claimed in claim 3, wherein the first network HLR for a particular user includes a pointer to the DHLR for the particular user.

5. The arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the DHLR includes means for requesting approval of the agreement by the mobile device.

6. The arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the distributed home location register (DHLR) includes a computing device.

7. The arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication network includes an internet connection between the DHLR and the foreign network.

8. The arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication network includes a wireless connection between the DHLR and the foreign network.

9. The arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication network includes a wire line connection between the DHLR and the foreign network.