Intermediary network system and method for facilitating message exchange between wireless networks

• US 8,045,567 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2005
• Issued: 10/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sybase 365 Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: Sybase 365 Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Tsai, Kirk, Zimmern, Christian, Lovell, Robert, Chava, Venkatesh (Ven)
• Primary Examiner(s): MATTIS, JASON E
• Application Number:
  US11/137,340
• Publication Number:
  US 20050215250A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,343 Days
• Field of Search: 370/352, 370/401, 370/466
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• 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 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/00 Communication routing or communication path finding
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

Network System and Method for facilitating message exchange between mobile subscribers belonging to the same or different public land mobile networks, possibly incorporating different standards. Message exchange between two subscribers of the same or different networks may involve one or more lookups on subscription data, zero or more message transformations, one or more routing decisions including application of costing functions, and, storage and propagation of the message in one or more Core or Intermediary networks. The messages may be of type, among others, SMS (Short Message Service), MMS (Multimedia Message Service), or EMAIL.

Claims

1. A method of resolving, on behalf of a first mobile telephone service provider, routing for a Short Message Service (SMS) message, the method being performed by a service network disposed, logically, between the first mobile telephone service provider and a second mobile telephone service provider and including at least one data center, wherein a destination of the message is based on a mobile telephone number, the method comprising:

determining if the telephone number is an international telephone number;

if the telephone number is an international telephone number;

obtaining a mobile country code;

determining whether the country associated with the mobile country code supports number portability and, if so, performing a routing information lookup to extract a destination carrier ID and roaming information, wherein the roaming information comprises information about a visited mobile network wherein the routing information lookup comprises a single query to obtain the destination carrier ID, and if not, obtaining a mobile network carrier identifier (ID) based on the telephone number;

if the telephone number is not an international telephone number;

obtaining the mobile network carrier ID based on at least one of (i) numbering plan area/exchange (NPA/NXX) of the telephone number or (ii) a local service management system number portability council (LSMS NPAC) database query;

obtaining a list of allowed routes for a destination carrier associated with the mobile network carrier ID;

resolving route addressing for the destination carrier;

obtaining real time route performance metrics; and

solving a cost function to identify an appropriate route for the message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of performing a routing information lookup comprises accessing an Signaling System 7 (SS7) Global Title Translation database.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of resolving route addressing comprises accessing information from a mobile network home location register (HLR).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining real time route performance metrics comprises determining capacity of routes.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the cost function applied is different for different carriers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the cost function takes into account quality of service.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing load balancing among a plurality of available routes.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of load balancing comprises effecting a round robin routine.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of load balancing comprises implementing random routing.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising delaying the delivery of the message consistent with a store and forward mechanism.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing an intermediary that communicates with a first and a second gateway, the intermediary being a business entity different from an entity that operates the first and second gateways; and

virtually representing first users that pass messages through the first gateway as entities having addresses that are compatible with a method of communication used by second users who receive messages via the second gateway.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of virtually representing comprises address mapping.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of virtually representing comprises domain mapping.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of virtually representing comprises effecting a virtual roaming paradigm.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of virtually representing comprises mapping a telephone number to an email address.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of virtually representing comprises mapping an email address to a telephone number.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of virtually representing comprises communication with an SS7 gateway.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein a user of the second gateway replies to a user of the first gateway using a virtual address represented in the intermediary.