Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REMOTELY
PROGRAMMING A WIRELESS TELEPHONE SET
Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to prog~n~l~ihlg of wireless
5 telephone sets and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for remotely
downloading Number Assignment Module (NAM) designation parameters into a
mobile telephone set.
Back~round of the Invention
The use of cellular mobile telecommunications has undergone
10 substantial growth over the past few years. Due to a growing cellular customers
base, cellular telephone service providers and cellular telephone service resellers are
faced with serving an increased number of new subscribers demanding diversified
cellular services. Also, a growing number of existing cellular subscribers tend to
switch back and forth between various service providers depending on the marketing
15 and sales incentives offered by any one of such providers to newly signed-up cellular
subscribers. The foregoing shifts and variations in customer - supplier and customer
- reseller relationships require progldm~ g, as well as reprogramming, of the
cellular telephone sets each time a customer subscriber desires a change.
Typically, cellular service providers require that any prospective
20 customer take the cellular telephone set, after purchasing it, to an authorized service
center for programming so that such telephone set becomes an authoriæd cellular
service user set. In the case of cellular service resellers, prospective subscribers are
often asked to send the telephone set, after purchasing it, to an authorized agent for
progr~mming In either case, the procedure is cumbersome and costly to the
25 customer, as well as to the provider or reseller, because delays are encountered prior
to the start of service. Therefore, there exists a need for a method and an apparatus
for programming wireless telephone sets in a manner that quickly, reliably and cost-
effectively provides telephone service to new or existing customers.
Summary of the Invention
The foregoing need is met in an illustrative embodiment wherein a
method for programming a wireless telephone set comprises the steps of establishing
a wireless bidirectional communication path between the wireless telephone set and
a distant control center; activating the wireless telephone set to receive signals from
the distant control center over the c~-mmllnication path; receiving, over the
35 communication path, a set of predetermined signals allocated to the wireless
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telephone set; and storing in the wireless telephone set the received signals.
In accordance with another embodiment, a remotely programmable
wireless telephone set comprises means for establishing a wireless bidirectionalvoice communication path between the wireless telephone set and a distant control
S center, actuating means for selectively enabling the wireless telephone set to receive
signals from the distant control center over the voice co~ ic~tion path; means for
receiving, over the voice communication path, a set of predetermined signals
allocated to the wireless telephone set; and means for storing in the wireless
telephone set the received signals.
In accordance with a further embodiment, a method for remotely
authorizing telecommunication service to a mobile telephone set from a control
center comprises the steps of establishing a wireless bidirectional voice
co""nllnication path between the control center and the mobile telephone set fortransmitting and receiving multifrequency tone signals therebetween over the voice
15 cnmmllnication path; receiving, at the control center, predetermined i(lentification
indicia associated with the mobile telephone set; and tr~nsmitting from the control
center, over the voice colllmunication path in response to the received identifi~tion
indicia, service authorization tone signals allocated to the mobile telephone set.
Upon receipt, at the mobile telephone set, of the service authorization tone signals,
20 digital representations of such tone signals are stored in a permanent memory within
the set.
In accordance with a particular illustrative embodiment of the invention,
a mobile telephone set for transmitting and receiving voice and tone signals over
co"~"~ ications channels comprises a radio transceiver; a tone signals receiver
25 connected to the radio transceiver; actuating means for selectively placing the mobile
telephone set in a program mode; means responsive to the actuating means for
enabling the tone signals receiver to receive, over the voice communication channel
and via the transceiver, tone signals representative of mobile service authorization
codes; and means for storing the received tone signals, thereby programming the
30 mobile telephone set with corresponding mobile service authorization codes. In a
preferred embodiment, the tone signal receiver includes a dual tone multifrequency
(DTMF) receiver, e.g. a touch-tone signaling receiver.
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Brief Description of the Drawin~
Further features and advantages of the present invention will become
a~par~nt from the following detailed description taken together with the drawings in
which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram representation of a wireless
telephone co"""~ ic~tion configuration in accordance with an embodiment of the
invention; and
FIG. 2 is a block diagram configuration of a wireless telephone set in
accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention.
10 Detailed Description
Shown in FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a wireless
cu"~",l,nication configuration which illustratively includes a telephone switching
office (TSO) 100 which is adapted to link a wireless telephone set 101 into a regional
or nationwide telephone network (not shown). A base station 102, coupled to the
15 TSO 100, via a bidirectional communication link 103, is arranged to be in radio
frequency co"~"lllnications with the wireless telephone set 101 via a radio frequency
antenna 104. Also shown in schematic form, is a co"".,llnications service provider
center 105 adapted to be coupled to the TSO 100 via another bidirectional link 106.
The service provider center 105 includes, inter alia, a telephone private branch20 exchange (PBX) 107, and a service attendant station 108 coupled to the PBX 107. It
is well within the spirit and scope of the present invention that the wireless telephone
set 101 may include a fixed wireless telephone station, a mobile/cellular telephone
set, or a cordless-type telephone set.
The principles and features of the present invention shall be hereafter
25 described in connection with FIG. 1 Upon the purchase or lease of the wireless
telephone set 101, a prospective subscriber would be assigned by the vendor or
lessor a valid wireless telephone number which typically would include an area or
regional code number followed by a station number. In order for the subscriber to be
able to use the wireless telephone set 101, a telephone service provider or reseller, of
30 the subscriber's choice, must authorize such use by prog~ g the set 101 so that
it is identifiable within the wireless telephone network as an authoriæd and
legitimate wireless service subscriber/user. The programming of the set 101 is
achieved by having the subscriber dial, out of the set 101, a predetermined service
center number to first establish a coll"llllnication path with the service provider
35 center 105 via the radio antenna 104 and base station 102, the bidirectional link 103,
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the TSO 100 and the other bidirectional link 106. Once the communir~tion path isestablished between the telephone set 101 and the service provider center 105, the
subscriber/user can verbally, or by means of the telephone set dial, convey to an
ollel~ol at the service attendant station 108 any requested subscriber-specific
5 information. In accordance with an illustrative embodiment, the telephone set 101 is
equipped with a program activating key 109 adapted to bridge an audio signal
receiver (not shown), which is located within the telephone set 101, onto the then
currently established communication path with the service center 105. In turn, the
operator at the attendant station 108 would bridge an audio signal transmitter located
10 at the center onto the communication path. The foregoing in effect couples the
tr~n~mitter at the center 105 with the telephone set signal receiver so that the service
Op~,ldlOl can remotely enter information directly into the set 101. As mentionedabove, the information intended to be entered and stored in the telephone set 101 is
specific to the subscriber owner or lessee. In the case of cellular mobile
15 communication services, such information is referred to as Number Assignment
Module (NAM) designation parameters. A sample of such NAM designations that
can be remotely downloaded into the telephone set 101 are listed in the following
table:
System Identification 00022
Telephone Number 2013866366
Access Overload Class 06
Group Identification 10
Initial Paging Channel 0334
Security Lock Code 6366
Local Use Flag
A/B System Selection
Min Mark Flag
The service operator at the station 108 can either use a telephone keypad
as means for generating and transmitting the above NAM designation parameters, or
30 alternatively can enter the above-listed information into a data termin~l, e.g. a
colllpul~;l, that is coupled to a signal transmitter, e.g. a DTMF generator. In the
above example, a total number of NAM characters to be tr~nsmitted includes 30
digits, with each digit having a value of 0 through 9. With the addition of an initial
character to denote the beginning of transmission (e.g. "*"), an ending character to
35 indicate the end of transmission (e.g. "#"), and, for example, a three-digit cyclic
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redundancy check (CRC) coding segment, the information is tr~n~mitted as follows:
*000222013866366061003346366111#BBB
wherein BBB is a CRC 8 checksum byte. Once the above information is received,
detected and stored in the telephone set 101, the latter is switched back into normal
5 (i.e., voice) telephone service operation at which point the subscriber user is
informed by the service operator that the telephone set 101 is fully programmed and
ready for use.
Referring now to FIG. 2, there is shown in functional block diagram
form, a wireless telephone 200 in accordance with a plerelled embodiment of the
10 invention. The wireless telephone 200 comprises a radio transceiver portion 201
which includes a radio frequency receiver/transmitter 202 coupled to an antenna 203
and adapted to receive and transmit signals from and to a base station, e.g. a mobile
cell site, or another wireless telephone. Coupled to the receiver/transmitter 202, via
a bidirectional message connecting lead 204, is a processor 205 capable of receiving
15 and processing system message-type signals. Also coupled to the
receiver/transmitter 202, via another bidirectional lead 206, is a processor 207adapted to process data signals as well as audio signals originating or received at the
wireless telephone 200. Audio and data signals present on lead 206 are those signals
intended for and derived from the antenna 203.
Within the radio transceiver 201, a controller 208 is coupled to the
message processor 205 and the audio processor 207, via a control bus 220, which is
also coupled to the receiver/tr~n~mitter 202. A voice handset interface circuit 209
interconnects the audio processor 207 and a telephone handset 210. In accordancewith one illustrative embodiment, interposed between the voice handset interface209 and the radio transceiver 201 is a mode switch 211, which in turn is coupled to a
signals receiver 212. The latter is coupled via lead 214, to the transceiver controller
208. During the remote programming, or NAM designation parameters
downloading, of the telephone set 200, the mode switch 211 diverts signals received
at the antenna 203 and present on output lead 213 of the audio processo} 207 to the
signals receiver 212. The signals receiver 212 may be selected among known
commercially available receivers, such as, for example, the Hitachi HD404678 4-bit
microprocessor with an integral DTMF receiver. In the case where the progl~mmillg
signals out of the audio processor 207 and present on lead 213 are in digital form, the
signals receiver 212 couples such digital signals to the controller 208 wherein an
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internal controller processing unit 215 directs such digital information for storage in
a memory circuit within the controller 208, such as, for example, permanent read-
only memory 216. Alternatively, if the programming information received at the
antenna 203 is in the form of a sequence of tone signals, the receiver 212 (which in
S such case would be a tone signals receiver) would connect such signals to an
analog-to-digital converter 217 located within the controller 208. The digital output
signals generated by the converter 217 would next be stored in the memory circuit
216 under the control of the processing unit 215.
Although the present invention has been described in connection with
10 particular embodiments thereof, additional embodiments, modifications and
applications which will be apparent to those skilled in the art are included within the
spirit and scope of the invention. For example, although the remotely pro~ m.llillg
of a wireless phone is described above with reference to touch tone-type signaling,
other signaling techniques and sequences, whether digitally encoded or not, may be
15 used to accomplish the remote downloading of NAM designation parameters.
