System and method of managing information distribution to mobile stations

• US 20030109272A1
• Filed: 12/06/2002
• Published: 06/12/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Mousseau, Gary P., Gilhuly, Barry J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,107,341 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/517
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• 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 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/12 Inter-network notification
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/22 Manipulation of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/00 Wireless network protocols or protocol adaptations to wireless operation

Abstract

A system for managing information distribution to a mobile station in communication with a wireless network includes a host service operable to receive a data item associated with the mobile station and determine whether a network resource is associated with the mobile station, and upon a negative determination is further operable to transmit an out-of-band message to the mobile station to instruct the mobile station to acquire the network resource.

Claims

1. A system for managing information distribution to a mobile station in communication with a wireless network, the system comprising:

a host service operable to receive a data item associated with the mobile station and determine whether a network resource is associated with the mobile station, and upon a negative determination is further operable to transmit an out-of-band message to the mobile station to instruct the mobile station to acquire the network resource.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the host service is further operable to transmit the data item to the mobile station upon receiving a confirmation message that the mobile station has acquired the network resource.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the out-of-band message is a Short Messaging Service (SMS) message.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the out-of-band message comprises a first instruction to cause the mobile station to acquire the network resource and a second instruction to cause the mobile station to transmit the confirmation message to the host service.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the out-of-band message comprises an instruction to cause the mobile station to acquire the network resource and data indicating whether the mobile station is required to transmit the confirmation message to the host service.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the wireless network is a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the network resource is a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the out-of-band message is a Short Messaging Service (SMS) message.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a network resource monitor in communication with the wireless network and the host service and operable to track a resource status of network resources associated with the mobile station and automatically transmit the resource status to the host service.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the out-of-band message comprises an instruction to cause the mobile station to acquire the network resource and data indicating whether the network resource monitor is in communication with the wireless network.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the host service is further operable to transmit the data item to the mobile station upon receiving a resource status from the network resource monitor indicating that the mobile station has acquired the network resource.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the network resource monitor comprises a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) monitor.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the network resource monitor comprises a PDP context monitor.

14. The system of claim 2, wherein the confirmation message is an HTTP communication.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the out-of-band message comprises a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated with the host service and an instruction to cause the mobile station to acquire the network resource.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the network resource is an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

17. A method of handling information distribution from a host service in communication with a computer network to a mobile station in communication with a wireless network, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a data item associated with the mobile station;

determining at the host service whether a network resource is associated with the mobile station;

upon a negative determination that a network resource is associated with the mobile station, transmitting an out-of-band message from the host service to the mobile station to instruct the mobile station to acquire the network resource; and

upon a positive determination that a network resource is associated with the mobile station, transmitting the data item to the mobile station.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of determining at the host service whether a network resource is associated with the mobile station comprises the steps of:

receiving a resource status indicating network resources associated with the mobile stations; and

determining from the resource status if the network resource is associated with the mobile station.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of transmitting an out-of-band message from the host service to the mobile station to instruct the mobile station to acquire the network resource comprises the steps of:

transmitting a first instruction to cause the mobile station to acquire the network resource; and

transmitting a second instruction to cause the mobile station to transmit a confirmation message to the host service upon acquiring the network resource.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of transmitting an out-of-band message from the host service to the mobile station to instruct the mobile station to acquire the network resource comprises the steps of:

transmitting an instruction to cause the mobile station to acquire the network resource; and

transmitting data indicating whether the mobile station is required to transmit a confirmation message that the mobile station has acquired the network resource to the host service.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the network resource is an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the network resource is a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context.

23. A system for managing information distribution between a host service in communication with a computer network and a mobile station in communication with a wireless network, the system comprising:

a mobile station comprising a processing subsystem, a communication subsystem, and a memory subsystem, the mobile station operable to receive an out-of-band network resource request over the communication subsystem and in response to the network resource request to obtain a network resource in the wireless network and transmit a confirmation message to the host service indicating the mobile station has acquired the network resource.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the network resource request comprises a first instruction to cause the mobile station to acquire the network resource and a second instruction to cause the mobile station to transmit the confirmation message to the host service.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising a network resource monitor in communication with the wireless network and the host service and operable to track a resource status of network resources associated with the mobile station and automatically transmit the resource status to the host service.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the out-of-band message comprises an instruction to cause the mobile station to acquire the network resource and data indicating whether a network resource monitor is in communication with the wireless network.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the network resource is an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the network resource is a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context.

29. The system of claim 25, wherein the network resource monitor comprises a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) monitor.

30. The system of claim 25, wherein the network resource monitor comprises a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context monitor.

31. The system of claim 24, wherein the mobile station is operable to retrieve a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated with the host service from the memory subsystem and transmit the confirmation message to the host service using an HTTP communication.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the mobile station is further operable to communicate bi-directionally with the host service using an HTTP communication.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the wireless network is a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the out-of-band message is a Short Messaging Service (SMS) message.

35. A system for managing information distribution between a computer network and mobile stations in communication with a wireless network, the system comprising:

one or more host services, each host service operable to receive data items associated with mobile stations and for each data item determine from a resource status of network resources associated with the mobile stations whether a network resource is associated with a mobile station, and upon a negative determination is further operable to transmit an out-of-band message to the mobile station to instruct the mobile station to acquire the network resource and transmit the data item to the mobile station upon receiving a confirmation message that the mobile station has acquired the network resource; and

a network resource monitor in communication with the wireless network and the one or more host services and operable to track the resource status of network resources associated with the mobile stations and automatically transmit the resource status to the one or more host services.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the network resource monitor is further operable to associate mobile stations with each of the one or more host services and transmit the resource status of the mobile stations to the associated one or more host services.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein the network resource monitor comprises a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) monitor.

38. The system of claim 35, wherein the network resource monitor comprises a PDP context monitor.

39. The system of claim 35, wherein the network resource comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

40. The system of claim 35, wherein the network resource comprises a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context.

41. The system of claim 35, wherein the out-of-band message is a Short Messaging Service (SMS) message.

42. The system of claim 35, wherein the out-of-band message comprises a first instruction to cause the mobile station to acquire the network resource and a second instruction to cause the mobile station to transmit the confirmation message to the host service.

43. The system of claim 35, wherein the out-of-band message comprises an instruction to cause the mobile station to acquire the network resource and data indicating whether the network resource monitor is in communication with the host service.

44. The system of claim 35, wherein the wireless network is a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network.

45. The system of claim 35, wherein each host service is further operable to transmit a table of associated mobile stations to the network resource monitor.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein the network resource monitor is further operable to transmit the resource status of the mobile stations to the associated one or more host services based on the tables of associated mobile stations received from the host services.