Systems and methods for opt-in and opt-out talk group management

• US 7,844,294 B1
• Filed: 02/15/2007
• Issued: 11/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nextel Communications (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Nextel Communications (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Choksi, Ojas, Manroa, Arun
• Primary Examiner(s): TRINH, TAN H
• Application Number:
  US11/706,219
• Time in Patent Office: 1,384 Days
• Field of Search: 455/518, 455/519, 455/515, 455/67, 455/11, 370/261, 370/270, 709/206, 709/204, 709/205, 709/9
• US Class Current: 455/519
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 Processing of subscriber group data

Abstract

Systems and methods for supporting group communications are provided. A group list management server (GLMS) stores communications group definitions in documents, such as extensible mark-up language (XML) documents. The communications group can include communication addresses for different types of communication applications, including electronic mail, voice telephone, data, instant messaging, voice dispatch, short messaging service (SMS), and multimedia service (MMS). Various methods for managing communications groups and features provided for communications groups are provided.

Claims

1. A method for creating a communications group, the method comprising the acts of:

receiving a request to create a communications group, the request identifying at least one user associated with at least one communication station;

determining that authorization from the at least one user is required before the at least one user is included in groups;

transmitting a notice of the request to the at least one communication station;

receiving a response from the at least one communication station; and

forming the communications group based on the request and the response, wherein the at least one user is included in the communications group only when the response includes authorization from the at least one user to be included in the communications group.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the act of:

determining whether the at least one communication station is available, wherein transmission of the notice of the request is deferred until the at least one communication station is available.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the response includes an extensible markup language (XML) document.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the XML document indicates that the user does not want to be part of the communications group.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the XML document indicates that the user wants to be part of the communications group.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the XML document indicates that the user wants to be part of all communications groups created by a creator of the communications group.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the response is an XML configuration access protocol (XCAP) PUT command.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the notice identifies a requestor of the communications group.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the notice identifies all members of the communications group.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the act of:

transmitting a message to a requestor of the communications group identifying a membership of the formed communications group.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the formed communications group includes a user with two different types of communication addresses.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the two different types of communications addresses are selected from the group consisting of an electronic mail address, telephone number, instant messaging identifier, dispatch station identifier, dispatch group identifier, short messaging service (SMS) identifier, and multimedia service (MMS) identifier.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one user requests notifications for being added to a communications group.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one user requests notifications using a session initiation protocol (SIP) Subscribe message.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is received by a group server from a user agent of a first communication station, and the response is received by the group server from a user agent of the at least one communication station.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the response is received by a policy service from a user agent of the at least one communication station.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the notice of the request is transmitted by a push proxy gateway as a push notification formatted according to Push Access Protocol (PAP).

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the response includes an extensible markup language (XML) document.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the response is received from a web portal.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the notice of the request is transmitted by an Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) compliant device management service formatted in accordance with SyncML.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the response includes an extensible markup language (XML) document.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the response is received from a web portal.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the notice of the request includes options related to the request.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising the act of:

outputting, by the at least one communication station, the notice and related options.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein a policy service controls the options included in the notice based on a stored policy.

26. A method for creating a communications group, the method comprising the acts of:

receiving, from a first user, a request for notifications of communications group events;

receiving, from a second user, a request to create a communications group that includes the first user;

transmitting a notice of the request to create the communications group to the first user;

receiving, from the first user, a response to the notice, wherein the response is a rejection of membership in the communications group;

determining whether the first user is authorized to reject membership in the communications group, and

forming the communications group based on the request to create the communications group and the received response to the notice, wherein the first user is included in the communications group when the first user is not authorized to reject membership in the communications group.

27. A method for creating a communications group, the method comprising the acts of:

receiving, from a first user, a request to create a communications group that includes a second user;

accessing a policy document for the second user;

determining that the policy document does not authorize membership in groups created by the first user; and

forming the communications group that includes at least the first and second users.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising the acts of:

receiving, from the first user, a request to change a membership status in the communications group; and

updating the communications group based on the requested change.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the request to change the membership status is a request to reject membership in the communications group.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the request to change the membership status is a request to suspend membership in the communications group.