System for providing alert-based services to mobile stations in a wireless communications network
First Claim
1. An apparatus for scheduling servicing of location requests by a position determining entity (PDE) and for providing triggers for firing alerts in a communications network adapted to provide alert based services for a plurality of mobile stations, the apparatus comprising:
- a) an input for receiving expiry times data indicative of a plurality of expiry times relating to respective location requests, the expiry times comprising at least one expected earliest future time at which at least one alert condition is capable of being met by a particular mobile station;
b) a scheduler for processing the expiry times data for determining an order for servicing the location requests by the PDE at least in part based on the expiry times of the location requests and a requirement to schedule a request to obtain updated location data about the particular mobile station in advance of the at least one expected earliest future time;
c) an output for interfacing with the PDE allowing the PDE to service the location requests according to the order determined by said scheduler; and
d) at least one engine for determining, on the basis of updated location data from the PDE about the particular mobile station, for which alert-based services, if any, at least one corresponding alert condition is met, and for generating a trigger to fire an alert associated with each alert-based service for which at least one corresponding alert condition has been met by the particular mobile station.
9 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
System for providing alert-based communication services for which corresponding alert conditions to be met by mobile stations are defined. The system includes an alert engine capable of firing alerts associated with the alert-based communication services if location data regarding the mobile stations is indicative of the mobile stations meeting the alert conditions corresponding to the alert-based communication services. A requirements engine is provided for determining an expected earliest future time at which at least one alert condition is capable of being met by a particular mobile station and outputting a data element indicative of a requirement to obtain updated location data about the particular mobile station in advance of the expected earliest future time. Also provided is a scheduler for receiving expiry times data indicative of a plurality of expiry times relating to respective location requests, processing the expiry times data for determining an order for servicing the location requests by positioning determining equipment (PDE) at least in part on a basis on the expiry times of the location requests and an output for interfacing with the PDE, allowing it to service the location requests according to the order determined.
-
Citations
53 Claims
-
1. An apparatus for scheduling servicing of location requests by a position determining entity (PDE) and for providing triggers for firing alerts in a communications network adapted to provide alert based services for a plurality of mobile stations, the apparatus comprising:
-
a) an input for receiving expiry times data indicative of a plurality of expiry times relating to respective location requests, the expiry times comprising at least one expected earliest future time at which at least one alert condition is capable of being met by a particular mobile station; b) a scheduler for processing the expiry times data for determining an order for servicing the location requests by the PDE at least in part based on the expiry times of the location requests and a requirement to schedule a request to obtain updated location data about the particular mobile station in advance of the at least one expected earliest future time; c) an output for interfacing with the PDE allowing the PDE to service the location requests according to the order determined by said scheduler; and d) at least one engine for determining, on the basis of updated location data from the PDE about the particular mobile station, for which alert-based services, if any, at least one corresponding alert condition is met, and for generating a trigger to fire an alert associated with each alert-based service for which at least one corresponding alert condition has been met by the particular mobile station. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A computer readable storage medium including a program element for execution by a processor to implement an apparatus for scheduling servicing of location requests by a position determining entity (PDE) and for triggering the firing of alerts in a communications network adapted to provide alert based services for a plurality of mobile stations, comprising:
-
a) a scheduling module for accepting as input expiry times data indicative of a plurality of expiry times comprising at least one expected earliest future time at which at least one alert condition is capable of being met by a particular mobile station relating to respective location requests for computing an order for servicing the location requests by the PDE at least in part based on the expiry times of the location requests and a requirement to schedule a request to obtain updated location data about the particular mobile station in advance of the at least one expected earliest future time; b) an output module for interfacing with the PDE allowing the PDE to service the location requests according to the order determined by said scheduler; and c) at least one module for determining, on the basis of updated location data from the PDE about the particular mobile station, for which alert-based services, if any, at least one corresponding alert condition is met, and for triggering the firing of an alert associated with each alert-based service for which at least one corresponding alert condition has been met by the particular mobile station. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
-
-
28. A method for scheduling servicing of location requests by a position determining entity (PDE) and for triggering the firing of alerts in a communications network adapted to provide alert based services for a plurality of mobile stations, comprising:
-
a) receiving expiry times data indicative of a plurality of expiry times relating to respective location requests, the expiry times comprising at least one expected earliest future time at which at least one alert condition is capable of being met by a particular mobile station; b) processing the expiry times data for determining an order for servicing the location requests by the position determination equipment at least in part based on the expiry times of the location requests and a requirement to schedule a request to obtain updated location data about the particular mobile station in advance of the at least one expected earliest future time; c) interfacing with the PDE for allowing the PDE to service the location requests according to the determining of the order for servicing the location requests; d) determining, on the basis of updated location data from the PDE about the particular mobile station, for which alert-based services, if any, at least one corresponding alert condition is met; and e) triggering the firing of an alert associated with each alert-based service for which at least one corresponding alert condition has been met by the particular mobile station.
-
-
29. An apparatus for scheduling servicing of location requests by a position determining entity (PDE) and for providing triggers for firing alerts in a communications network adapted to provide alert based services for a plurality of mobile stations, the apparatus comprising:
-
a) an input for receiving from an entity data elements comprising location request data elements associated with delayed-type location requests and including expiry time data, the data elements indicative of a requirement to schedule a request to obtain updated location data about a particular mobile station in advance of an expected earliest future time at which at least one alert condition is capable of being met by a particular mobile station; b) a scheduler for determining when location requests are to be serviced, the determining being such that the servicing of at least some delayed-type location requests is postponed artificially; c) an output for interfacing with the PDE allowing the PDE to service the location requests according to the determining of when location requests are to be serviced; and d) at least one engine for determining, on the basis of updated location data from the PDE about the particular mobile station, for which alert-based services, if any, at least one corresponding alert condition is met, and for generating a trigger to fire an alert associated with each alert-based service for which at least one corresponding alert condition has been met by the particular mobile station. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
-
-
37. A method for scheduling servicing of location requests by a position determining entity (PDE) and for providing triggers for firing alerts in a communications network adapted to provide alert based services for a plurality of mobile stations, the method comprising:
-
a) receiving from an entity data elements comprising location request data elements associated with delayed-type location requests and including expiry time data, the data elements indicative of a requirement to schedule a request to obtain updated location data about a particular mobile station in advance of an expected earliest future time at which at least one alert condition is capable of being met by a particular mobile station; b) determining when location requests are to be serviced, the determining being such that the servicing of at least some delayed-type location requests is postponed artificially; c) interfacing with the PDE allowing the PDE to service the location requests according to the determining when location requests are to be serviced; and d) determining, on the basis of updated location data from the PDE about the particular mobile station, for which alert-based services, if any, at least one corresponding alert condition is met; and e) providing a trigger to an alert-based application to fire an alert associated with each alert-based service for which at least one corresponding alert condition has been met by the particular mobile station. - View Dependent Claims (38)
-
-
39. A computer readable storage medium including a program element for execution by a processor to implement an apparatus for scheduling servicing of location requests by a position determining entity (PDE) and for triggering the firing of alerts in a communications network adapted to provide alert based services for a plurality of mobile stations, comprising:
-
a) a scheduling module for accepting from an entity as input data elements comprising location request data elements associated with delayed-type location requests and including expiry time data, the data elements indicative of a requirement to schedule a request to obtain updated location data about a particular mobile station in advance of an expected earliest future time at which at least one alert condition is capable of being met by a particular mobile station, said scheduling module being operative for determining when location requests are to be serviced, the determining being such that the servicing of at least some delayed-type location requests is postponed artificially; and b) an output module for interfacing with the PDE allowing the PDE to service the location requests according to the determining of when location requests are to be serviced; and c) at least one engine for determining, on the basis of updated location data from the PDE about the particular mobile station, for which alert-based services, if any, at least one corresponding alert condition is met, and for generating a trigger to fire an alert associated with each alert-based service for which at least one corresponding alert condition has been met by the particular mobile station. - View Dependent Claims (40)
-
-
41. An apparatus for scheduling servicing of location requests by a position determining entity (PDE) and for providing triggers for firing alerts in a communications network adapted to provide alert based services for a plurality of mobile stations, the apparatus comprising:
-
a) an input for receiving from an entity a plurality of data elements comprising location request data elements associated with delayed-type location requests and including expiry time data, the plurality of data elements indicative of a requirement to schedule a request to obtain updated location data about a particular mobile station in advance of an expected earliest future time at which at least one alert condition is capable of being met by a particular mobile station; b) a scheduler for; i) identifying among the delayed-type location requests, two or more delayed-type location requests that can be serviced by a common location query to the PDE; and ii) determining at least in part on the basis of the respective expiry times of the delayed-type location requests identified at (i) when to issue the common location query to the PDE; c) an output for issuing the common location query; and d) at least one engine for determining, on the basis of updated location data from the PDE about the particular mobile station, for which alert-based services, if any, at least one corresponding alert condition is met, and for generating a trigger to fire an alert associated with each alert-based service for which at least one corresponding alert condition has been met by the particular mobile station.
-
-
42. A method for scheduling servicing of location requests by a position determining entity (PDE) and for providing triggers for firing alerts in a communications network adapted to provide alert based services for a plurality of mobile stations, the method comprising:
-
i) receiving from an entity a plurality of data elements comprising location request data elements associated with delayed-type location requests and including expiry time data, the data elements indicative of a requirement to schedule a request to obtain updated location data about a particular mobile station in advance of an expected earliest future time at which at least one alert condition is capable of being met by a particular mobile station; ii) identifying among the delayed-type location requests, two or more delayed-type location requests that can be serviced by a common location query to the PDE; iii) determining at least in part on the basis of the respective expiry times of the delayed-type location requests identified at (ii) when to issue the common location query to the PDE; and iv) issuing the common location query; v) determining, on the basis of updated location data from the PDE about the particular mobile station, for which alert-based services, if any, at least one corresponding alert condition is met; and vi) triggering the firing of an alert associated with each alert-based service for which at least one corresponding alert condition has been met by the particular mobile station.
-
-
43. A computer readable storage medium including a program element for execution by a processor to implement an apparatus for scheduling servicing of location requests by a position determining entity (PDE) and for providing triggers for firing alerts in a communications network adapted to provide alert based services for a plurality of mobile stations, comprising:
-
a) a scheduling module for accepting from an entity a plurality of data elements comprising location request data elements associated with delayed-type location requests and including expiry time data, the data elements indicative of a requirement to schedule a request to obtain updated location data about a particular mobile station in advance of an expected earliest future time at which at least one alert condition is capable of being met by a particular mobile station, said scheduling module being operative for; i) identifying among the delayed-type location requests, two or more delayed-type location requests that can be serviced by a common location query to the PDE; and ii) determining at least in part on the basis of the respective expiry times of the delayed-type location requests identified at (i) when to issue the common location query to the PDE; b) an output module for issuing the common location query; and c) at least one engine for determining, on the basis of updated location data from the PDE about the particular mobile station, for which alert-based services, if any, at least one corresponding alert condition is met, and for generating a trigger to fire an alert associated with each alert-based service for which at least one corresponding alert condition has been met by the particular mobile station.
-
-
44. An apparatus for scheduling servicing of location requests by a position determining entity (PDE) and for providing triggers for firing alerts in a communications network adapted to provide alert based services for a plurality of mobile stations, the apparatus comprising:
-
a) input means for receiving expiry times data indicative of a plurality of expiry times relating to respective location requests, the expiry times comprising at least one expected earliest future time at which at least one alert condition is capable of being met by a particular mobile station; b) scheduler means for processing the expiry times data for determining an order for servicing the location requests by the PDE at least in part based on the expiry times of the location requests and a requirement to schedule a request to obtain updated location data about the particular mobile station in advance of the at least one expected earliest future time; c) output means for interfacing with the PDE allowing the PDE to service the location requests according to the order determined by said scheduler; and d) triggering means for determining, on the basis of updated location data from the PDE about the particular mobile station, for which alert-based services, if any, at least one corresponding alert condition is met, and for providing a trigger to an alert-based application to fire an alert associated with each alert-based service for which at least one corresponding alert condition has been met by the particular mobile station.
-
-
45. An apparatus for scheduling servicing of location requests by a position determining entity (PDE) and for providing triggers for firing alerts in a communications network adapted to provide alert based services for a plurality of mobile stations, the apparatus comprising:
-
a) input means for receiving from an entity data elements comprising location request data elements associated with delayed-type location requests and including expiry time data, the data elements indicative of a requirement to schedule a request to obtain updated location data about a particular mobile station in advance of an expected earliest future time at which at least one alert condition is capable of being met by a particular mobile station; b) scheduling means for determining when location requests are to be serviced, the determining being such that the servicing of at least some delayed-type location requests is postponed artificially; c) output means for interfacing with the PDE allowing the PDE to service the location requests according to the determining; and d) triggering means for determining, on the basis of updated location data from the PDE about the particular mobile station, for which alert-based services, if any, at least one corresponding alert condition is met, and for triggering the firing of an alert associated with each alert-based service for which at least one corresponding alert condition has been met by the particular mobile station.
-
-
46. An apparatus for scheduling servicing of location requests by a position determining entity (PDE) and for providing triggers for firing alerts in a communications network adapted to provide alert based services for a plurality of mobile stations, comprising:
-
a) input means for receiving from an entity a plurality of data elements comprising location request data elements associated with delayed-type location requests and including expiry time data, the data elements indicative of a requirement to schedule a request to obtain updated location data about a particular mobile station in advance of an expected earliest future time at which at least one alert condition is capable of being met by a particular mobile station; b) scheduling means for; i) identifying among the delayed-type location requests, two or more delayed-type location requests that can be serviced by a common location query to the PDE; and ii) determining at least in part on the basis of the respective expiry times of the delayed-type location requests identified at (i) when to issue the common location query to the PDE; and c) output means for issuing the common location query d) triggering means for determining, on the basis of updated location data from the PDE about the particular mobile station, for which alert-based services, if any, at least one corresponding alert condition is met, and for generating a trigger to fire an alert associated with each alert-based service for which at least one corresponding alert condition has been met by the particular mobile station.
-
-
47. A data processing device for use in a communications network adapted to provide alert-based services for which corresponding alert conditions to be met by mobile stations are defined, comprising:
-
an input capable of receiving updated location data about the mobile stations and capable of receiving an indication of at least one alert condition of an alert-based service for a particular mobile station; and a processing unit connected to the input, said processing unit being capable of; determining an expected earliest future time at which at least one alert condition is capable of being met by a particular mobile station; scheduling a request to obtain updated location data about the particular mobile station in advance of the expected earliest future time; determining, on the basis of the updated location data about the particular mobile station, for which alert-based services, if any, at least one corresponding alert condition is met by the particular mobile station; and providing a trigger to an application program to fire an alert associated with at least one alert-based service for which at least one corresponding alert condition has been met by the particular mobile station; a memory for storing data for access by the application program, comprising; a secondary memory for holding a plurality of data structures, the data structures being associated with respective non-overlapping time intervals, each of the data structures containing information relevant to a respective category of alert conditions that requires a current time to be included in the time interval associated with that data structure; and a primary memory for storing the one data structure associated with the time interval that includes the current time.
-
-
48. A method of creating a trigger for an application program being executed on a data processing device used in a communications network adapted to provide alert-based services for which corresponding alert conditions to be met by mobile stations are defined, each alert condition corresponding to an alert region, the method comprising:
-
defining a subdivision of the network into nodes; computing, for each node, the nearest alert region; merging together into a single cell for each alert region, those nodes having that alert region as the nearest alert region; maintaining a data structure that is indicative of the locations covered by each cell and the alert condition associated with that cell; receiving location data about a particular mobile station; determining an expected earliest future time at which the alert condition is capable of being met by the particular mobile station; scheduling a request to obtain updated location data about the particular mobile station in advance of the expected earliest future time; receiving updated location data about the particular mobile station, wherein at least a portion of the updated location data is received in advance of the expected earliest future time; determining, based on the updated location data about the particular mobile station, for which alert-based services at least one corresponding alert condition is met by the particular mobile station; and providing a trigger to the application program to fire an alert associated with each alert-based service for which at least one corresponding alert condition has been met by the particular mobile station. - View Dependent Claims (49)
-
-
50. A method of delivering an alert-based communications service relevant to a mobile station in a communications network, wherein the alert-based communications service is associated with an alert condition to be satisfied by the mobile station, comprising:
-
obtaining location data about the mobile station for a first time instant; determining an expected earliest future time at which the alert condition is capable of being met by the mobile station; scheduling a request to obtain updated location data about the mobile station in advance of the expected earliest future time; receiving updated location data about the mobile station, wherein at least a portion of the updated location data is received in advance of the expected earliest future time; predicting location data about the mobile station for a second time instant after the first time instant based on the updated location data about the mobile station; and if the mobile station is predicted to be within the alert region at the second time instant, triggering the firing of an alert at or after the second time instant. - View Dependent Claims (51, 52, 53)
-
Specification