Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747 PCT/SE99/00962
-1-
HEADLINE HYPERLINK BROADCAST
SERVICE AND SYSTEM
BACKGROUND
The present invention relates generally to the provision of information
services in radiocommunication systems and, more particularly, to efficiently
broadcast information services in conjunction with existing radiocommunication
services and systems.
The growth of commercial radiocommunications has been dramatic over
the last fifteen years . Pagers and cellular phones, in particular, stand out
as
relatively common equipment in many urban settings. These two different types
of communication devices, and supporting systems, have evolved from different
fundamental purposes, i.e., pagers for traditionally providing one-way,
limited
information to one or more end users and cellular phones for traditionally
providing two-way voice communication service.
As time and technology progress, the traditional functional dividing lines
between these two different types of radiocommunication devices have blurred.
Pagers have acquired some of the functionality that was traditionally provided
by
cellular phones and vice-versa. For example, two-way pagers have been
developed which permit the pager user to transmit messages to the paging
system,
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747 PCT/SE99/00967
-2-
which messages can then be forwarded to other parties. Similarly, cellular
phones
have acquired the capability to transmit and receive short (e.g., on the order
of
160 alphanumeric character) text messages which can be output on the display
of a
cellular phone. This evolution in radiocommunication devices has led to the
development and marketing of a host of new information services.
For example, paging systems have been implemented which provide for the
broadcast of information services, e.g., stock quote information services, to
a
large number of subscribers that have pagers with displays. These pagers
periodically receive information over an air interface associated with a large
number of stocks or other financial instruments such as options, futures,
etc., and
display the current prices of these instruments so that a user can track his
or her
portfolio's performance.
Applicant anticipates that users of cellular phones would have interest in
the provision of similar information services in cellular networks. However,
cellular systems, unlike paging systems, have conventionally been designed
around the paradigm of (1) limited bandwidth due to a restriction on the
spectrum .
allocated by various governing bodies, e.g., the FCC, for cellular
applications and
(2) the notion that most of the limited bandwidth be reserved for point-to-
point
connections (e.g., voice connections) between the cellular phones and the
system,
with only a relatively small fraction being reserved for broadcast, i.e.,
point-to-
multipoint, transmissions from the system to the cellular phones operating in
the
system. Due to this latter feature of cellular systems in particular, system
designers are very careful regarding the amount of information transmitted on
the
available broadcast channels and the frequency with which this information is
repeated. Thus, the provision of broadcast information services to cellular
radiocommunication systems cannot readily be accomplished by the most
straightforward approach of simply broadcasting whatever information is
desired
for all subscribers to display on their cellular phones.
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747 PCT/SE99/00967
-3-
Consider, for example, a TDMA cellular radiotelephone system, wherein
each radio frequency is divided into a series of time slots, each of which
contains
a burst of information from a data source, e.g., a digitally encoded portion
of a
voice conversation. By time multiplexing bursts associated with different
sources,
more than one channel can be supported on each radio frequency. The time slots
are grouped into successive TDMA frames having a predetermined duration. The
number of time slots in each TDMA frame is related to the number of different
users that can simultaneously share the radio channel. If each slot in a TDMA
frame is assigned to a different user, the duration of a TDMA frame is the
minimum amount of time between successive time slots assigned to the same
user.
The successive time slots assigned to the same user, which are usually not
consecutive time slots on the radio carrier, constitute the user's digital
traffic
channel (DTC). As mentioned above, this is typically a point-to-point resource
and, in fact, most TDMA systems reserve the majority of the available radio
channels for use as DTCs to ensure a large traffic capacity. However, as
described in more detail below, digital control channels (DCCHs) are also
provided for communicating control signals and overhead information, including
a
mechanism for connecting to the radiocommunication system and being assigned a
DTC.
Similar types of resource allocations are found in other types of cellular
systems. For example, in code division multiple access (CDMA) systems,
channelization is performed by spreading data associated with a particular
connection using a unique spreading code. This code, as opposed to or in
conjunction with frequency and time differentiators, provides the receiver
with a
mechanism for extracting its intended data, i.e., by correlating the received
composite signal with the code assigned to its traffic channel. Like TDMA
systems, CDMA systems can also provide for broadcast control channels or other
overhead signalling channels by allocating known codes thereto. However, like
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747 PC'T/SE99/00967
-4-
TDMA systems, CDMA systems also tend to reserve more resources (e.g., codes
and power) for dedicated traffic channels than for broadcast information
channels.
Some broadcast information services exist today, although these existing
services are specialized services that are not integrated with traditional
cellular
voice communication systems and which have significant drawbacks associated
with such integration. For example, in the context of packet data services,
such as
CDPD which is deployed in the U.S. cellular spectrum, a service exists which
is
designed around an efficient encoding, reduced content WEB browser. Using this
service, the subscriber will, on a relatively small screen (e.g.,less than 10
rows of
text), be able to read a small amount of text which are presented in response
to
queries from the user, i.e., explicit system accesses. Each "page" presented
on
this screen may have contents that may be further selected.
For example, a displayed stock quote service page may contain a small list
of company names. If the user selects a particular company using the keypad, a
request is sent over the air using the CDPD service to a special server in the
network. The server sends a new page to the mobile with the requested
information. This CDPD service resembles the traditional, wire-based Internet
.V
web service, the difference being that the special server connected to the
CDPD
system uses a special language in order to very efficiently present a small
amount ..
of information to the user. The special server may extract text information
from a
traditional WEB page and strip away high bandwidth pictures, color etc. The
text
is then reformatted and re-encoded in a more bandwidth efficient manner than
the
HTML language used in describing the information in its original WEB page
form, prior to transmission to the remote unit.
This microbrowser concept has evolved from its original form used in
CDPD to what is referred to as the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). The
basic concept is, however, still the same. The WAP is designed to be air-
interface
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747 PCT/SE99/00967
-5-
independent (e.g. GSM, IS-136, CDPD etc.) and provides improved flexibility
and resource efficiency.
Another technique used in current wireless systems is to build a dedicated
system for information retrieval, e.g., the paging systems described above.
S Unlike cellular systems, in paging systems the basic(and perhaps the only)
service
provided is the information broadcast service. All of the available
information is
broadcast to the wireless devices as part of the broadcast service. There is
no
provision to request further information.
This latter paging system approach requires a significant rf bandwidth
since all the information has to be broadcasted or, alternatively and more
realistically, the amount of information that the user can access must be
limited.
The trade-off between the amount of data available to the subscriber (e.g.,
how
many stock symbols/prices are transmitted) and the time needed by the user to
acquire the full set of information (e.g., how long it takes for the user to
receive
and cycle through the predetermined number of stock symbolslprices) must be
made by the service provider. Moreover, all users get the same information,
there
is no means to tailor the information for particular users.
The former CDPD/WAP approach requires the user to make an initial
access to the system, i.e., a web query. The user must, similar to the
traditional
WEB usage, store "book-marks" of "pages" of interest. The user typically
initiates an access to a particular service e.g. go to a "bookmark". The
drawback
with this approach is that if there is a particular event happening, the user
gets no
information unless it polls the service, e.g., a news service.
In the traditional wire-based Internet WEB approach, the remedy to this
problem was to introduce a "push" service in which the network based service
transmits information to the user which typically is updated as the underlying
data
is changed. Stock quotes, news events, sports scores are typical applications
for
the push service. A small "banner" may be allocated to a PC screen which
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747 PCT/SE99/00967
-6-
constantly is updated with e.g. stock quotes. However, in these wire-based
push
services, the users must be logged-in to the system from the service server
point
of view, which uses system resources. Moreover, since these "push" services
are
wire-based, they typically transmit all available/desirable information
relating to
the indicated topics at once, which would require significant bandwidth in a
radiocommunication application.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide techniques and systems
which are able to provide broadcast information services within the
constraints of
existing cellular radiocommunication systems. In particular, it would be
desirable
to design broadcast information techniques and systems such that they
accommodate an end user's desire for a relatively large quantity of data that
may
need to be updated relatively frequently, while minimizing the usage of scarce
broadcast channel resources. Such a system should overcome the disadvantages
of
traditional paging systems regarding bandwidth utilization, while also not
requiring users to make specific system queries before receiving any
information.
SUMMARY
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide techniques which
support broadcast information services via radiocommunication systems using a
broadcast resource in an efficient manner. The present invention minimizes the
capacity of the broadcast resource that is consumed by the broadcast
information
service by initially broadcasting only a short headline or summary of a topic,
e.g.,
news is provided in the form of hypertext. The hypertext can be a link (i.e.,
a
URL address) to a WEB site or just a marker for the cellular system local
identifier that provides the server with information needed to locate and
retrieve
the full text associated with the headline.
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747 PCT/SE99100967
_'j_
If the user selects the headline, an automated request is generated in the
mobile station, using e.g. packet data services or a SMS service to request
the
full text for the subject selected. The request of the full contents can
contain a
destination address to which the server can send the detailed information,
which
destination could, for example, be the mobile station cellular identifier or
another
device, e.g. office e-mail address or fax number in a hotel. The destination
address can be specified as a raw address field plus an identifier type field
which
identifies the type associated with the raw address field, e.g. an e-mail
address, a
fax number, a mobile cellular identifier, etc.
By initially broadcasting only a headline or a summary of a subject, only a
small amount of scarce cellular broadcast bandwidth is needed, or
equivalently,
the time to acquire the subset of detailed information that a particular user
might
need is reduced to the extent it would be possible at all to send the detailed
information using a broadcast channel in a cellular radiocommunication system.
According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention, no
transmission by the mobile station is required to obtain the headline
information,
an access is made only if a user requests the detailed information. The
present
invention utilizes a combination of broadcast channels and point-to-point
channels
in order to make e~cient use of the frequency spectrum and provide an easy-to-
use and flexible service to the end-user.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The above objects and features of the present invention will be more
apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments with
reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Figure 1 illustrates a generalized view of a digital control channel (DCCH)
having time slots which are grouped into superframes;
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747
PC'f/SE99/00967
_g_
Figure 2 illustrates an exemplary radiotelephone system into which the
present invention may be implemented;
Figure 3 illustrates a hyperframe structure according which can be used to
implement the present invention;
Figure 4 illustrates the logical channels of the DCCH which can be used to
implement the present invention;
Figure 5 depicts an exemplary format for a broadcast headline hyperlinh;
and
Figure 6 shows a block diagram of a system architecture which can be used
to implement exemplary embodiments of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The following description is written in terms of a cellular radiotelephone
system, but it will be understood that Applicant's invention is not limited to
that
environment. Also, the following description is written in the context of IS-
136
compliant, TDMA cellular communication systems, but (as mentioned above)it
will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may
be
implemented in other digital communication applications including those which
are
designed in accordance with other standards, e.g., GSM or PDC, and those which
use CDMA as an access methodology, e.g., IS-95.
In particular, exemplary embodiments of the present invention describe
techniques and systems for providing broadcast information services which are
intended to minimize the usage of the relatively scarce broadcast resources
available in existing cellular radiocommunication systems. Accordingly, these
exemplary embodiments are described using the broadcast resources available in
IS-136, in particular the broadcast SMS channel (S-BCCH). Some of the details
associated with IS-136 systems generally and the broadcast SMS channel
specifically are described below, while others are omitted to avoid obscuring
the
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/b6747 PCT/SE99/00967
-9-
present invention. However, the interested reader is referred to U.S. Patent
No.
5,603,081 to Raith et al. and U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 081482,754
also
to Raith et al. for additional information pertaining to IS-136 related
systems
generally and broadcast SMS techniques specifically, respectively. The
disclosures of both the aforementioned U.S. Patent and U.S. Patent Application
are expressly incorporated here by reference.
Figure 1 shows a general example of a forward (or downlink) DCCH
configured as a succession of time slots l, 2, ... , N, ... included in the
consecutive time slots l, 2 ... sent on a carrier frequency. These DCCH slots
may be defined on a radio channel such as that specified by IS-136, and may
consist, as seen in Figure 1 for example, of every n-th slot in a series of
consecutive slots. Each DCCH slot has a duration that may or may not be 6.67
cosec, which is the length of a DTC slot according to the IS-136 standard.
As shown in Figure 1, the DCCH slots may be organized into superframes
(SF), and each superframe includes a number of logical channels that carry
different kinds of information. One or more DCCI~ slots may be allocated to
each
logical channel in the superframe. The exemplary downlink superframe in Figure
1 includes three logical channels: a broadcast control channel (BCCH)
including
six successive slots for overhead messages; a paging channel (PCH) including
one
slot for paging messages; and an access response channel (ARCH) including one
slot for channel assignment and other messages. The remaining time slots in
the
exemplary superframe of Figure 1 may be dedicated to other logical channels,
such as additional paging channels PCH or other channels. Since the number of
mobile stations is usually much greater than the number of slots in the
superframe,
each paging slot is used for paging several mobile stations that share some
unique
characteristic, e.g., the last digit of the MIN.
Figure 2 represents a block diagram of an exemplary cellular mobile
radiotelephone system, including an exemplary base station 110 and mobile
station
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747
-10-
PCT/SE99/00967
120. The base station includes a control and processing unit 130 which is
connected to the MSC 140 which in turn is connected to the PSTN (not shown).
General aspects of such cellular radiotelephone systems are known in the art,
as
described by U.S. Patent No. 5,175,867 to Wejke et al., entitled "Neighbor-
Assisted Handoff in a Cellular Communication System," and U.S. Patent
Application No. 07/967,027 entitled "Mufti-mode Signal Processing," which was
filed on October 27, 1992, both of which are incorporated in this application
by
reference.
The base station 1 IO handles a plurality of voice channels through a voice
channel transceiver 150, which is controlled by the control and processing
unit
130. Also, each base station includes a control channel transceiver 160, which
may be capable of handling more than one control channel. The control channel
transceiver 160 is controlled by the control and processing unit 130. The
control
channel transceiver 160 broadcasts control information over the control
channel of
the base station or cell to mobiles locked to that control channel. It will be
understood that the transceivers 150 and 160 can be implemented as a single
device, like the voice and control transceiver 170, for use with DCCHs and
DTCs
that share the same radio carrier frequency.
The mobile station 120 receives the information broadcast on a control
channel at its voice and control channel transceiver 170. Then, the processing
unit 175 evaluates the received control channel information, which includes
the
characteristics of cells that are candidates for the mobile station to lock on
to, and
determines on which cell the mobile should lock. Advantageously, the received
control channel information not only includes absolute information concerning
the '
cell with which it is associated, but also contains relative information
concerning
other cells proximate to the cell with which the control channel is
associated, as
described in U.S. Patent No. 5,353,332 to Raith et al., entitled "Method and
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747 PCT/SE99/00967
-11-
Apparatus for Communication Control in a Radiotelephone System," which is
incorporated in this application by reference.
The mobile station 120 also includes an input device 185, such as a
numeric keypad, which allows a user to interact with the mobile station. A
display device 190, such as an LCD screen, provides a visual display of
information to the user. The mobile station also includes memory 180.
In exemplary embodiments of Applicant's invention, the transmission of
broadcast information from base stations to mobile stations is structured into
successions of different kinds of logical frames. Figure 3 illustrates the
frame
~ structure of a forward (base station to mobile station) DCCH according to IS-
136
and shows two successive hyperframes (HF), each of which preferably comprises
a respective primary superframe (SF) and a respective secondary superframe. It
will be recognized, of course, that a hyperframe could include more than two
superframes.
Three successive superframes are illustrated in Figure 3, each comprising a
plurality of time slots that are organized as logical channels F-BCCH, E-BCCH,
S-BCCH, and SPACH that are described in more detail below. At this point, it
is
sufficient to note that each superframe in a forward DCCH includes a complete
set
of F-BCCH information (i.e., a set of Layer 3 messages), using as many slots
as
are necessary, and that each superframe begins with a F-BCCH slot. After the F-
BCCH slot or slots, the remaining slots in each superframe include one or more
(or no) slots for the E-BCCH, S-BCCH, and SPACH logical channels.
Referring to Figure 3, and more particularly to Figure 4, each superframe
of the downlink (forward) DCCH preferably comprises a broadcast control
channel BCCH, and a short-message-service/paging/access channel SPACH. The
BCCH comprises a fast BCCH (the F-BCCH shown in Figure 3); an extended
BCCH (the E-BCCH); and a short-message-service BCCH (the S-BCCH), some of
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747
-12-
PCT/SE99/00967
which are used, in general, to carry generic, system-related information from
the
base stations to the mobiles.
The F-BCCH logical channel carries time-critical system information, such
as the structure of the DCCH, other parameters that are essential for
accessing the
system, and an E-BCCH change flag which is described in more detail in U.S.
Patent Application No. 08/482,754, which is commonly assigned and incorporated
herein by reference; as noted above, a complete set of F-BCCH information is
sent in every superframe. The E-BCCH logical channel carries system
information that is less time-critical than the information sent on the F-
BCCH; a
complete set of E-BCCH information (i.e., a set of Layer 3 messages) may span
several superframes and need not be aligned to start in the first E-BCCH slot
of a
superframe. The S-BCCH logical channel carries short broadcast messages, such
as stock information, advertisements and other information of interest to
various
classes of mobile subscriber. According to exemplary embodiments of the
present
invention, this logical channel may be used to support two-tiered information
services, wherein headlines or summaries are broadcast continuously and more
detailed information can be broadcast upon demand.
An Exemplary Headline Hyperlinlc Service
According to the present invention short text descriptions, e.g., headlines,
summaries, subjects or the like, can he transmitted on the S-BCCH or a
subchannel thereof. Recognizing that broadcast resources on existing cellular
systems are scarce, Applicant foresees potential situations wherein the S-
BCCH,
or its counterparts) in other types of systems, has its bandwidth allocated
among
various broadcast information services, e.g., security quote services, sports
information services, etc. Different types of services can be e~ciently
transmitted
in different ways. For example, when the information associated with a
particular
service consists of a set of updateable values, e.g., securities, sports,
weather and
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747 PC'T/SE99/00967
-13-
travel, etc., the information can be channelized and encoded to optimize
bandwidth utilization as described in copending, U.S. Patent Application
Serial
No. to Applicant entitled "Channelization and Encoding for Text
Information Services Transmitted Via Radiocommunication Systems", filed on
July 10, 1998, the disclosure of which is incorporated here by reference.
However, some desirable information may not lend itself as readily to the
techniques described therein. For example, news services, which have headlines
and articles that may change completely on an hourly basis and have lengthy
detailed reports, are not as readily amenable to broadcasting via a series of
hierarchical channels.
The present invention provides techniques for addressing these types of.
broadcast information services. Initially, the system broadcasts a series of
short
messages which are received by the remote device and used as selectable
hyperlinks. These hyperlinks may be displayed on the remote device, e.g., a
mobile phone, a wireless PDA, etc. For example, consider a user that wants to
follow developments in the telecommunications world. The user may subscribe to
a broadcast information service that provides data regarding various topics,
including telecommunications and which transmits the following messages
(perhaps using some encoding)on an S-BCCH sub-channel, which messages (or
portions thereof) are subsequently displayed on the screen of a user's mobile
phone as follows:
ERICSSON BUYS MICROSOFT (link id.), LUCENT STOCK.
PLUNGE (link id), AT&T VENTURE (link id.), IS-136 IN CANADA (link id.),
As seen above, part of the message information broadcast on the S-BCCH
subchannel associated with this service is a brief text message description
that
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
' WO 99/66747
-14-
PCT/SE99/00967
informs the users of the contents of the available, more detailed information
(which information has not been broadcast), which brief text message portion
can
be displayed for selection. Another portion of the transmitted information can
be
a link identifier, which could, for example, be a valid World Wide Web address
(URL). The link identifier may or may not be displayed for selection. Thus,
alternatively, a displayed set of messages could read as:
~JCFNT STOCK PLUNGES AFTER ANNOUNCING PURCHASE OF
MOTOROLA WIRELESS SYSTEM DIVISION, ....etc.
In this latter example the Link identifier is not explicitly displayed and,
instead,
underlining is used to indicate, to the user, information associated with a
Link.
Thus, in this latter example, two links are identified for one subject. Of
course,
any visible indicator, e.g., highlighting, can be used. Alternatively, the
relationship between a hyperlink and the displayed text can be conveyed by
punctuation, e.g, selection of any text between commas will result in a single
I S hyperlink being activated. In any of these exemplary embodiments,
selection of a
display portion to activate a hyperlink can be accomplished in any desired
manner,
e.g., positioning a cursor under any letter in the phrase or, using a touch-
sensitive
screen, pointing to the desired link area.
In addition to the brief description and link identifier, the system may
broadcast an indicator of the size of the detailed information associated with
each
link identification. This will allow the user, or the mobile station, to
determine
how the detailed information associated with the link should be downloaded
based
on its size. For example, detailed information which is relatively small in
size
may use a lower bandwidth service, such as point-to-point SMS, whereas for a
larger data block associated with a link, a data service may be selected by
the user
or by the mobile station in a preprogrammed manner, e.g., wherein the user has
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747 PC'T/SE99/00967
-15-
preselected that data files of less than about lkByte be sent via point-to-
point
SMS while data files in excess of 1 kByte should be sent to his or her e-mail
address or be sent by setting up a circuit or packet data connection over the
radiocommunication system. The mobile station can automatically read the size
indicator associated with a link that is selected by a user to determine the
downlink mode of delivery for the detailed information that is identified by
the
hypertext link. Alternatively, the size identifier could be displayed with the
short
text description as:
ERICSSON BUYS MICROSOFT (22kB), LUCENT STOCK PLUNGE
(lOkB), AT&T VENTURE (45kB), IS-I36 IN CANADA (180kB), ...
The user may select one of the displayed hyperlinks, e. g. , by scrolling
through the
list with a cursor and depressing a select key when the cursor is underneath a
portion of the displayed hyperlink or simply by touching the hyperlink portion
of
the displayed message if a touch sensitive screen is used in the remote
device.
Then, the user might be prompted to select a delivery address for the detailed
information, e.g., from a list including his or her e-mail, a fax number, etc.
or to
input an address.
Further, the transmit format of the detailed data associated with the link
may be varied depending upon the output device that is associated with
downlink
delivery mode. For example, if the user or the mobile station selects an SMS
delivery mode, then a first lower bandwidth intensive set of information may
be
delivered. Alternatively, if an e-mail or fax delivery mode is selected, a
second
higher bandwidth set of information may be delivered. In this context,
consider
typical web sites which may be graphics/video intensive. If a user selects a
hyperlink associated with such a web site, then the graphics may be eliminated
and
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747
PCT/SE99/pp967
-16-
only the text sent if SMS delivery is selected, whereas all of the
graphics/video
may be delivered if a higher bandwidth service, e.g., e-mail, is selected.
Since the headlines are periodically broadcast by the system, a remote user
need not access the system, e.g., request a traffic channel, to read the
headlines.
S This avoids any utilization of the uplink control channel or packet data
channel
capacity for headline browsing. Moreover, users need not log-in to the service
server to obtain the headlines, which avoids demand on the radiocommunication
system resources. The users are instead activated for a set of headline
services
by, for example, receiving a corresponding set of encryption keys which may,
for
example, be sent over the air-interface or entered by the user by means of the
keypad. The encryption keys can be changed on a regular basis e.g. once per
month. In this way the service provider, which need not be the same as the
cellular operator, can make sure that only the paying customers obtain access
to
specific broadcast services. For further information regarding exemplary
techniques for controlling access to this type of broadcast service, the
interested
reader is direct to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No.
to Alex K. Raith, entitled "Broadcast Service Access Control", filed on July
10,
1998, the disclosure of which is incorporated here by reference. Delivery of
the
corresponding detailed information, after selection by the user of a
hyperlink, can .s
have an additional charge imposed by the service provider or be included for
free
as part of the subscription to the headline service.
As described, exemplary embodiments of the present invention overcome
deficiencies of the known systems by (1) providing summary information as a
broadcast service and (2) providing detailed information in response to a user
request. The set of headlines or subjects for broadcast may be grouped into
sets of
services which may be subscribed to on a pay-as-you go basis. For example, one
service provider could broadcast a series of news headlines on one S-BCCH
subchannel, while another service provider broadcasts travel advisory
headlines on
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747 PCT/SE99/00967
-17-
a second S-BCCH sub-channel. Only subscribed services are made available to
the mobile user, i.e., the mobile user may subscribe to one service and be
able to
read a corresponding broadcast sub-channel, but not others.
For the presentation to the user of the headlines, and in particular the
detailed information, the remote device may be equipped with a local short
range
communicator to a laptop or portable computer, e.g. an infrared or a local,
low
power wireless link. As mentioned above, the request for the detailed
information
may contain a destination address. The type of destination address may
implicitly
dictate the mechanism to be used by the system to send the detailed
information.
This mechanism could, as described above, be an SMS message, or a circuit
switched or packet data (e.g. CDPD or GPRS in the GSM system) connection.
Alternatively, the request for detailed information may explicitly request a
particular mechanism by which the detailed information should be sent. The
destination address can, of course, be the same as or different from the
address
associated with the requesting remote device. For example, the user may want
to
direct the detailed information as a fax to a hotel or as an e-mail to its
office e-
mail system rather than to his or her mobile phone, on which he or she
scrolled
through the headlines and selected a particular item for which to receive
detailed
information.
The user may set the remote device to wait for a specific indication, e.g,
special key series, by the user before issuing a request to the system for the
detailed information.
In addition to manual interaction with the broadcast service, automated
interaction may also occur. For example, the user may set a trigger to
specific
subjects, e.g. if a stock quote reaches a certain level. When the triggered
condition occurs, the remote device may be set to automatically request the
detailed information at a predetermined delivery address. When the detailed
information is available in the mobile or in a companion device, the user is
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747
-18-
PC'T/SE99/00967
alerted. Another exemplary trigger is the appearance of specific words) or
sets of
words in the broadcast headlines, e.g., ERICSSON. The remote device can
continuously, or on regular intervals, examine the broadcast headlines to
determine whether the trigger word is present. The remote device may alert the
user when a trigger event has occurred, thereby allowing the user to decide
whether detailed information should be requested, or may be set to
automatically
request the associated detailed information when it recognizes the keywords in
the
short text summaries or headlines.
Tn addition to automatically triggering hyperlinks based on predefined
words or phrases transmitted in the brief text descriptions on the broadcast
channel, category triggering may also be used. The broadcast information may
have, in addition to the text message, link identifier and possibly size of
the
associated detailed information, a category field. This exemplary format for a
broadcast headline hyperlink transmission is illustrated as Figure 5.
For example, a category field value of 001 might indicate that the
following text message, and associated detailed information, have been
categorized
as news, while a category field value of 002 might indicate that the following
text
message, and associated detailed information, relates to sports. This field
can also
be used for automatic hyperlink activation, e.g., for all headlines associated
with a ';
predetermined category value, the detailed information can be requested.
In addition to providing automatic hyperlink selection, requests for
additional information can be accumulated by the remote device prior to
sending a
request, e.g., on a control channel, for detailed information associated with
various hyperlinks. Of course, the remote device could also send requests as
hyperlinks are selected (either manually by the user or based upon some
preprogrammed triggering function as described above), however by gathering
several requests at once, it becomes possible to select several subjects
before
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747 PCT/SE99/00967
-19-
making a single access to the system, which in turn should reduce congestion
and
increase efficient bandwidth utilization.
Each broadcast headline and its associated link identification, may have a
number of detailed information files associated therewith. For example, a
service
broadcasting links associated with a newspaper may have various daily
articles,
etc. that are all available at a particular web site. In such a case,
according to
exemplary embodiments of the present invention, it is possible to reduce the
amount of information transmitted back on the uplink by a mobile station user
in
its request, when that user desires a number of detailed information files
from the
same source or location. This can be accomplished by providing local
identifier
numbers, instead of repeating complete link addresses, which can then be
transmitted as part of the request.
For example, if the hypertext link broadcast by the system provides local
numbers 1-6 and the mobile station returns the generic hypertext link address
as
IS its request with no local numbers, then the system can assume that the
mobile
station wants all six detailed information chunks. Alternatively, if the
mobile
station sends the generic hypertext link with local numbers one and two, then
the
system knows which two detailed information files are desired by the mobile
station without repeating the entire address associated with the website or
source.
Interpretation of the local numbers may be supported by the cellular switch
and
may require routing therethrough.
As mentioned above, the broadcast service provider and the cellular
network operator may be different entities and may have different equipment,
which equipment can be used in a variety of ways to provide broadcast
information services according to the present invention. Consider the
exemplary
system architecture illustrated in Figure 6. Therein, a service provider's
equipment 60 is linked via a communication network 62, e.g, the Internet, to a
radiocommunication network as represented by mobile switching center (MSC)
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747 PC'f/SE99/00967
-20-
64. The MSC 64 may have connected thereto (or integral therewith) a special
service server 66 for handling broadcast information services. The MSC 64 is
connection to a plurality of radio base stations (RBS) 68 only one of which is
illustrated in Figure 6 for simplicity. One or more radio base stations 68
support
radio communications with a remote device, e.g., mobile station 70.
According to one exemplary embodiment, the contents broadcast to support
a broadcast headline hyperlink service as described above are stored locally,
e. g,
on the service server 66. This information may be initially downloaded through
the Internet 62 from the service provider's equipment 60 when an agreement is
reached between the network operator and the service provider. In any event,
in
this case the service server 66 handles the provision of information to be
broadcast
by the RBS 68 on one or more broadcast resources, e.g., S-BCCH subchannels.
The service server 66 also processes requests for detailed information
transmitted
from the remote device 70. Since the service server 66 is, in this exemplary
embodiment, handling the entire exchange of information without interaction
with
the service provider's equipment 60, local numbers can be broadcast by the
system
and used in requests by the remote device.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the
information broadcast by the radiocommunication system is stored externally,
i.e.,
on the service provider's equipment 60. In this case, the service server 66
may
act as a translator which passes requests for information to the service
provider's
equipment 60. For example, the service server may store a map of link
identifiers
in its memory, each of which being assigned a different local number.. The
service server may then broadcast text message headlines and local numbers as
link identifiers. When a request for detailed information is returned, along
with a
local number, the service server 66 translates the local number into an
explicit link
identifier, which the service provider's equipment 60 will understand, and
forwards the request for detailed information. In this exemplary embodiment,
the
CA 02335706 2000-12-15
WO 99/66747 PCT/SE99/00967
-21-
service server 66 may also handle packaging and delivery of the detailed
information after it is delivered by the service provider's equipment 60
through
the communication network 62.
According to a third exemplary embodiment, the service server 66 can be
eliminated and the service provider's equipment can provide all of the desired
intelligence for packaging information to be broadcast on a particular
subchannel(s) and handling requests for detailed information. In this
exemplary
embodiment, the MSC 64 accepts headline information to be broadcast directly
from the service provider's equipment 60 and passes requests thereto. The
service
provider's equipment 60 may group information into categories as described
above.
While the present invention has been described with respect to a securities
quote service, one skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention would
equally apply to other such systems where information is broadcast to a user.
For
example, although the previous exemplary embodiments focus on the output of
the
headlines as short text messages on a display, those skilled in the art will
appreciate that they could be output as speech using an SMS-to-speech
converter.
Additionally, although it is desirable to provide selection capability for
additional
information, a read-only device could be used to read the broadcast headlines.
Moreover, the way in which logical channels are linked to existing channel
structures may be readily varied and adapted to different systems. Many
variants
and combinations of the techniques taught above may be devised by a person
skilled in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention
as
described by the following claims.
