Remote interrogation and remote maintenance of a communications module

• US 8,392,544 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2003
• Issued: 03/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cinterion Wireless Modules GmbH (Thales SA)
• Original Assignee: Cinterion Wireless Modules GmbH (Thales SA)
• Inventors: Dehm, Christoph
• Primary Examiner(s): Shin, Kyung H
• Application Number:
  US10/568,987
• Publication Number:
  US 20080028056A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,485 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/224, 709/228
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/24 Transfer of terminal data

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a remote query and remote maintenance of a communications module. To this end, the invention provides a method and device is provided for querying data by means of a data call between a service facility and a communications module over a communications network. A data query of a first interface unit sent by a service facility and received via the communications network is forwarded to another interface unit of a communications module, where the data query is interpreted in the interface unit and the interpretation result is evaluated by an evaluation unit. Response data for the data query is, based on the interpretation result from the evaluation unit, sent via the first interface unit to the service facility.

Claims

1. A method for querying data using a data call between a service facility and a communications module (KM) over a communications network, comprising:

receiving a data query from the service facility via the communications network at a first interface unit (CSD) of the communications module (KM);

forwarding the data query from the first interface unit (CSD) of the communications module (KM) to a further interface unit (AT) of the communications module (KM);

interpreting the data query in the further interface unit (AT) to generate an interpretation of the data query;

sending the interpretation of the data query from the further interface unit (AT) to an evaluation unit (AE) of the communications module (KM);

evaluating the interpretation of the data query in the evaluation unit (AE); and

sending a response to the data query from the evaluation unit (AE) to the service facility via the first interface unit (CSD), the response based substantially on the evaluated interpretation of the data query.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the interpreting step comprises interpreting the data query into at least one control command by the further interface unit (AT) in preparation for the evaluating step.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising accepting a data call from the service facility by the communications module (KM) using an automatic call acceptance.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first interface unit (CSD) is connected to the further interface unit (AT) in the communications module (KM) via a serial crossover data link 22.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein a simulation device is used for the further interface unit (AT) in the communications module (KM).

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein a microcontroller is used as the evaluation unit (AE) in the communications module (KM).

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the communications module (KM) is a mobile radio telephone module for a cellular communications network.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the mobile radio telephone module used is selected from a group consisting of a time division multiple access (TDMA) module, a code division multiple access (CDMA) module and a Java-enabled module which can be implemented in a mobile radio telephone network.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the communications module (KM) is selected from a group consisting of an ISDN module, a DECT module, and an HSCSD module.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data queried is related to at least one of the location of the communications module (KM), the battery level, and the signal strength.