Paging a mobile station individually and using broadcast pages

• US 8,190,177 B2
• Filed: 01/10/2008
• Issued: 05/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Willey, William Daniel, Cai, Zhijun
• Primary Examiner(s): ZEWDU, MELESS NMN
• Application Number:
  US11/972,510
• Publication Number:
  US 20090181700A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,601 Days
• Field of Search: 455/418, 455/422.1, 455/426.1, 455/458, 455/461, 455/466, 455/500, 455502-503, 455/550.1, 455/554.1, 455/556.2, 455560-561, 455/412.2, 455/420, 455515-521
• US Class Current: 455/458
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/02 Arrangements for increasing efficiency of notification or paging channel

Abstract

An apparatus and a method for facilitating paging of a mobile station that is capable of being paged either pursuant to an individually-directed page or pursuant to a broadcast page. The page that is generated is of bits that permit unambiguous determination by a mobile station when the mobile station receives an individually-directed page and when the mobile station receives a broadcast page. When bits that are to be used in a page are created at the network, a determination is made as to whether the bits correspond to the bits of a broadcast page. If the bits correspond, the bits of the generated bits are altered.

Claims

1. An apparatus for facilitating mobile-station paging upon at least a first paging channel, said apparatus including at least one hardware processor and comprising:

a bit sequence provider configured to provide a first group of bits;

an alterer configured to alter the first group of bits to form an altered group of bits if the first group of bits equals a reserved group of bits;

a determiner configured to determine whether the first group of bits equals the reserved group of bits;

a page message generator configured to generate a first page message that includes the altered group of bits, if formed, and that otherwise includes the first group of bits; and

wherein said determiner and said alterer are configured to iteratively make determinations and to form an altered group of bits until the altered group of bits no longer equals the reserved group of bits.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said alterer is configured to alter a bit of the first group of bits to form the altered group of bits.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said alterer is configured to alter a most significant bit of the first group of bits.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said alterer is configured to perform an exclusive OR operation upon the first group of bits.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said alterer is configured to perform the exclusive OR operation upon the first group of bits with a selected operator value.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said alterer is configured to rotate the first group by a selected number of bits.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the reserved group of bits comprises a plurality of reserved groups of bits.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said bit sequence provider comprises a hasher configured to hash a unique mobile station identifier into the first group formed of a subset of the unique mobile station identifier.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said hasher is further configured to hash the unique mobile station identifier into a second group of bits, the first group of bits and the second group of bits together comprising all bits of the unique mobile station identifier, and wherein said page message generator is further configured to generate a second page message that contains the second group of bits.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first group of bits comprises first multiple non-contiguous portions of a unique mobile station identifier.

11. A method for facilitating mobile-station paging upon a first paging channel in a radio communication system, said method performed by at least one hardware processor and comprising:

grouping a subset of unique mobile station identifier bits into a first group of bits;

determining whether the first group of bits equals a reserved group of bits;

altering the first group of bits to form an altered group of bits if the first group of bits equals the reserved group of bits;

generating a first page message that includes the altered group of bits, if formed, and that otherwise includes the first group of bits; and

wherein said determining and said altering are iteratively performed until the altered group of bits no longer equals the reserved group of bits.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said altering comprises altering a bit of the first group of bits.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein said altering comprises rotating the first group of bits.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein said altering comprises altering the first group of bits to altered bits that unambiguously identify a group address.

15. An apparatus for facilitating paging of a mobile station, said apparatus comprising:

a detector configured to detect a paging message sent on a first paging channel, the paging message comprising one of a first group of bits and an altered group of bits, the altered group of bits being the first group of bits altered in a selected way, after a determination is made that the first group of bits was equal to a reserved second group of bits that are reserved for broadcast on the first paging channel; and

a determiner configured to determine, based at least in part on the first group of bits, whether the paging message comprises a group identifier that identifies a mobile-station group that includes the mobile station and whether the paging message comprises a broadcast page.

16. A method for facilitating paging of a mobile terminal in a radio communication system, said method comprising:

detecting, at a detector, a paging message sent on a first paging channel, the paging message comprising one of a first group of bits and an altered group of bits, the altered group of bits being the first group of bits altered in a selected way, after a determination is made that the first group of bits was equal to a reserved second group of bits that are reserved for broadcast on the first paging channel; and

determining, based at least in part on the first group of bits whether the paging message comprises a group identifier that identifies a mobile-station group that includes the mobile station and whether the paging message comprises a broadcast page.