EP1033895A1 - Method for the transmission of data towards a mobile phone of a cellular network, and mobile telephone therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

The information transmission technique has a mobile telephone (30) which can receive calls from a cellular network (100) or from a broadcast network (104). The broadcast network provides information transmission when the mobile telephone is out of the cellular network coverage.

Description

A cellular telephone network, for example GSM, includes a plurality of base stations, each associated with a cell topographic. All of these cells define the geographic area of cellular network coverage, in which the mobile phones of this network can make or receive calls, or access cellular network services such as voicemail, messaging SMS (Short Message Service), etc.

From the outset, it will be noted that by "cellular telephone network", we mean designate both a network of cellular base stations and a network of terrestrial satellites.

Ideally, for a given territory, the cellular network should be covers the whole of this territory. In reality, the network coverage area cell generally includes "cover holes", in which mobile phones are outside the coverage area cellular and, therefore, out of range of the cellular network.

The present invention first aims to make the cell phone accessible even outside the cellular network coverage area.

To this end, the invention relates to a method of transmitting information to a mobile phone on a cellular network, associated with a network of broadcasting, in which information is transmitted to the telephone mobile through the broadcast network when the phone is out of range of the cellular network.

It will be noted that the method of the invention generally allows reach the mobile phone when it is out of range of the cellular network, because it is in a cover hole in the cellular network or the fact that he has switched off his cellular part.

Thanks to the combined operation of the cellular network and the broadcasting, with a wide coverage area, the cellular network can reach the mobile phone, inside and outside the area of cell coverage.

Beyond the problem of accessibility of the telephone, it is clear that that with the current development of mobile telephony, the networks cells are increasingly charged, even overloaded. The process of the invention also contributes to lightening the load on cellular networks.

In a particular embodiment, on the network side, a message containing the information to be transmitted and it is encapsulated in a transport envelope through the broadcasting network, before transmit to the phone through the broadcasting network, and, aside phone, we decapsulate the received message.

Advantageously, the telephone having access to a messaging service of the cellular network allowing it to receive format messages determined, on the network side, a message having said format is prepared in order to transmit it to the phone through the broadcasting network.

An existing messaging service of the cellular network is thus used, to transmit information to the mobile phone through the network of broadcasting.

In the event of an incoming call on the telephone, it can be transmitted to it, to through the broadcasting network, a received call indication, the number caller, a written message from the caller and / or a caller's voice message.

Advantageously, the telephone being arranged to operate in a cellular mode and in radio receiver mode, when the phone is outside the cellular network coverage area, we deactivate the cellular mode and the radio receiver mode is activated.

As you turn off your cell part outside the coverage area cell, the phone no longer tries to detect the cellular network and therefore saves its battery, while staying tuned any incoming information transmitted through the network of broadcasting.

The invention also relates to a mobile telephone for implementing of the above method, arranged to communicate over a network cellular, comprising means of radio reception of a network of broadcasting, characterized in that said radio reception means being arranged to receive information from the cellular network means are provided through the broadcasting network to decapsulate said information from a transport envelope through the broadcasting network.

• la figure 1 représente un schéma bloc fonctionnel du téléphone mobile, selon la forme de réalisation particulière et
• la figure 2 représente une pluralité de stations de base du réseau cellulaire du téléphone mobile et une pluralité de bornes d'un réseau associé de radiodiffusion.

The invention will be better understood using the following description of a particular embodiment of the method for transmitting information to a mobile telephone of a cellular network and of a particular embodiment of the associated mobile telephone, according to the invention, with reference to the attached drawing in which:

• FIG. 1 represents a functional block diagram of the mobile telephone, according to the particular embodiment and
• FIG. 2 represents a plurality of base stations of the cellular network of the mobile telephone and a plurality of terminals of an associated broadcasting network.

The mobile phone 30, shown in Figure 1, is arranged to communicate through a cell phone network 100, in this case GSM, comprising a plurality of base stations 105a-105e, associated each to a topographic cell, and a server 40, explained below. The set of topographic cells defines the coverage area 101 of the GSM 100 network. In operation, when it is in the area of cellular coverage 101, the mobile phone 30 is intended to pair with one of the base stations 105a-105e, in order to communicate through the cellular network 100.

Cellular coverage area 101 covers most of a territory given T, extending inside the periphery 102 represented in FIG. 2, and includes, on this territory T, "cover holes" 103a-103d, not covered by the GSM 100 network.

A broadcasting network 104, in this case RDS (Radio Data System - radio data system), is associated with cellular network 100 and covers here the entire territory T, in other words the coverage area 101 and the coverage holes 103a-103d of the cellular network 100. This RDS network 104 comprises a plurality of transmitting terminals 106a-106e, of RDS broadcasting, each associated with a base station 105a-105e of the cellular network 100 and located in the vicinity thereof. Each RDS terminal 105a (105b-105e) is intended to take over from base station 106a (106b-106e) with which it is associated, for the transmission of information to a mobile telephone in the cellular network 100, in the event that this phone is out of range of base station 106a (106b-106e) at which it was matched, as will be explained later.

The server 40 is intended to direct the calls, sent and received, by a mobile phone of cellular network 100 and to manage a service of voicemail, an SMS messaging service (Short Service Message - short message service) and an RDS broadcasting service.

The SMS service allows mobile phones in the cellular network 100, send and receive short messages, here written, in SMS format, that it will be called "SMS messages" thereafter.

• à enregistrer le numéro d'appel téléphonique de l'appelant;
• à aiguiller l'appel vers un répondeur / enregistreur destiné à diffuser une annonce d'invitation à laisser un message et, le cas échéant, à enregistrer un message vocal de l'appelant, et
• à transmettre au téléphone mobile un message d'indication d'appel reçu.

For the voice messaging service, the server 40 is intended, in the event of a call entering on a mobile telephone, in particular when the latter is out of range of the cellular network,

• recording the telephone number of the caller;
• to direct the call to an answering machine / recorder intended to broadcast an announcement to invite to leave a message and, if necessary, to record a voice message from the caller, and
• transmitting a received call indication message to the mobile telephone.

• un module pour préparer un message, en l'espèce un message SMS, contenant les informations à transmettre,
• un module pour encapsuler le message dans une enveloppe de transport à travers le réseau RDS 104 et
• un module pour émettre le message encapsulé vers un téléphone mobile du réseau cellulaire 100, à travers le réseau RDS 104, comme cela sera explicité dans la description du procédé.

The RDS broadcasting service allows mobile phones in the cellular network 100 to receive information through the broadcasting network. For this service, the server 40 is connected to the RDS broadcasting terminals 106a-106e and comprises

• a module for preparing a message, in this case an SMS message, containing the information to be transmitted,
• a module for encapsulating the message in a transport envelope through the RDS 104 network and
• a module for transmitting the encapsulated message to a mobile telephone of the cellular network 100, through the RDS network 104, as will be explained in the description of the method.

The mobile phone 30 has access to SMS messaging services, RDS voice and broadcast messaging. It includes a block GSM 1 radio transmission and reception, connected to a GSM radio antenna 2, a "vocodec" 3, a block 4 for detecting the cellular network 100, a block GSM 5, and a man-machine interface 6-12.

The detection block 4 is intended to detect the presence of the cellular network GSM 100, using radio signals received by radio block 1, in order to check if phone 30 is in the cell coverage area 101.

The man-machine interface includes a microphone 6, connected to a analog / digital converter (ADC) 7, a speaker 8, connected to a digital / analog converter (DAC) 9, an input keyboard 10, a display screen 11 and a "buzzer" 12 for emitting a beep, or signal sound.

The "vocodec" 3 is intended to encode and compress voice data to send, according to a compression rate compatible with the bit rates of data supported by the cellular network 100, and to decode and to decompress received voice data.

The GSM block 5 includes a GSM application allowing the telephone 30 to execute a GSM communication protocol and to control the operation in GSM cellular mode of the telephone 30.

The telephone 30 also includes an SMS block 16, connected to the GSM block 5, comprising a memory 13 of SMS messages, intended to be sent or previously received, as well as a preparation and issuance application of SMS messages and an application for receiving and editing, here by display on the screen 11 of SMS messages, respectively represented by modules 14 and 15.

The telephone 30 further comprises a tuner 18 for radio reception of the RDS 104 network, connected to a radio antenna 17, a decapsulation block 19 and a block 20 for controlling the operation of the telephone 30 in radio receiver mode, as will be explained in the description of the process. The decapsulation block 19 is connected to the tuner 18 and to the SMS block 16.

A mode selection block 21, connected to blocks 5 and 20, is intended for activate one of the two modes, cellular and radio receiver, and to deactivate the other mode, either automatically, under the control of the block detection 4, either under the control of a user by pressing a key mode selection of the input keyboard 10, this comprising a key to program either the automatic mode selection or the "manual" selection, in other words by the user. Deactivation of one modes, cellular and radio receiver, is to turn off, turn off the elements associated with this mode. So to turn off cell mode GSM, the radio block 1, the detection block 4, the "vocodec" 3 and the GSM 5 block and, to deactivate the radio receiver mode, the tuner 18, the decapsulation block 19 and the control block 20.

Finally, the telephone 30 includes a central control unit 22, in the species a microcontroller, to which all the elements of the phone 30 are linked, and intended to run the applications and control the telephone operation.

The method of transmitting information to the mobile telephone 30, when it is out of range of the cellular network 100, goes now be described.

We place ourselves in the following situation. The mobile phone 30, operating in cellular mode, is paired with a cellular base station 105a and moves on the territory T. It leaves momentarily the zone of coverage 101 of the cellular network 100, by entering a hole coverage 103a, and is then out of range of the cellular network 100.

The mobile telephone 30 being in manual mode selection, a user controls activation of radio receiver mode and deactivation of cell mode, by selecting the radio receiver mode using the mode selection key of the keyboard 10. The tuner 18 is then wedged automatically on the radio broadcast frequency of the closest RDS 106a broadcasting, i.e. that associated with last base station 105a to which the mobile telephone 30 was paired before leaving the cell coverage area 101.

In the case where the mobile telephone 30 is called, while it is in the cover hole 103a, the server 40 records the call number caller's telephone, and directs the call to the answering / recording machine which, if necessary, records a voice message from the caller.

Then the server 40 prepares an SMS message containing an indication received call, in this case the indication "a received call", to indicate the receiving a call, as well as the telephone number of the caller, encapsulates the SMS message in a transport envelope to through the RDS network 104, and finally transmits it to the mobile phone 30, at via the RDS 104 network. The SMS message is transmitted to the telephone mobile 30 via the RDS 106a broadcast terminal.

In the mobile telephone 30, the SMS message of call indication is received by the tuner 18 and then decapsulated from its transport envelope through the RDS 104 network by the decapsulation block 19. Under the command of the block 20, the SMS message of call indication is recorded in the SMS message memory 13 and displayed on the display screen 11 by the editing block 15. In addition, block 20 activates the buzzer 12 which emits a audible signal to warn the user of the reception of an SMS message.

If the telephone 30 is in automatic mode selection, when it leaves the cell coverage area 101, the selection block 21 activates radio receiver mode and deactivates cellular mode, under the control of the detection block 4 which no longer detects the GSM 100 network.

The user can then activate the cellular mode of the phone again 30, using the mode selection key, thereby waking up the detection 4, in order to check whether it has come out of the cover hole 103a and whether it found again in cell coverage area 101.

When the mobile phone 30 is in the coverage area cellular 101 and is paired with one of the base stations 105a, its user can select radio receiver mode, thereby activating the radio mode radio receiver and by deactivating cellular mode, using the mode selection of the input keyboard 10. Because the cell mode is disabled, phone 30 is out of range of cellular network 100 but can nevertheless receive information from the cellular network 100, at through the RDS 104 network, via the RDS broadcasting terminal 106a associated with the last base station 105a to which the telephone mobile 30 was paired before turning off cell mode, like previously explained.

As a variant, the mode selection block 21 is arranged, when the phone 30 is in automatic mode selection and the radio receiver is selected, to wake up block 4 of detection of the cellular network 100, at determined time intervals and for short periods, in order to check regularly and automatically if telephone 30 is in cell coverage area 101, and, the if necessary, order activation of cellular mode and deactivation radio receiver mode by mode selection block 21.

Cellular network 100 could transmit any other type of information to the mobile phone 30, through the broadcasting network 104, as for example, in the event of an incoming call, a message, written or voice, from of the appellant. We could thus transmit to mobile phone 30 the caller's voice message recorded by the answering machine / recorder of the waiter 40.

Instead of the RDS network, we could use the DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting), or any other network of broadcasting of this type.

Phone may have only one radio antenna connected to the radio reception block of the broadcasting network and to the transmission block and cellular radio reception, via a switch block intended to sort the signals received, according to their frequency, and to direct them to one of the two radio blocks, depending on whether they are signals from the broadcasting or cellular network signals.

Finally, we could consider that the phone works in both mode cellular and radio receiver mode.

We could also consider transmitting information to cellular network mobile phone, through the broadcast network, even when the phone is in the network coverage area cell, whether its cell part is turned on or off, for example to offload the overloaded cellular network.

Finally, in the above description, information is transmitted relating to a received call, through the broadcasting network. We could also consider transmitting to the mobile phone, across the network broadcasting, other types of information such as the time by example.

Claims (12)

Method of transmitting information to a mobile telephone (30) a cellular network (100), associated with a broadcasting network (104), in which information is transmitted to the telephone (30) through a broadcast network (104) when the telephone (30) is out of range of the cellular network (100). Method according to claim 1, in which, on the network side (101, 104), we prepare a message containing the information to be transmitted and we encapsulates it in a transport envelope through the network of broadcasting (104), before transmitting it to the telephone (30) through the broadcasting network (104), and, on the telephone side (30), message received. Method according to either of Claims 1 and 2, in which the telephone (30) having access to a cellular network messaging service (100) allowing to receive messages of a determined format, network side, we prepare a message in said format in order to transmit it to the telephone via the broadcasting network (104). Method according to one of Claims 1 to 3, in which, in the event of a call entering the telephone (30), a call indication is transmitted to the latter received over the broadcasting network (104). Method according to one of Claims 1 to 4, in which, in the event of a call entering on the telephone (30), the telephone number is transmitted to it the caller's telephone network (104). Method according to one of Claims 1 to 5, in which, in the event of a call entering the telephone (30), a written message from calling him through the broadcast network (104). Method according to one of Claims 1 to 6, in which, in the event of a call entering the telephone (30), a voice message is transmitted to it calling him through the broadcast network (104). Method according to one of claims 1 to 7, in which the telephone (30) being arranged to operate in a cellular mode and in a radio receiver mode, when the telephone (30) is outside the range coverage area (101) of the cellular network (100), the mode is deactivated cell and activate radio receiver mode. Mobile telephone for carrying out the method of claim 1, arranged to communicate through a cellular network (100), comprising means (18) for radio reception of a network of broadcasting (104), characterized in that said reception means radio (18) being arranged to receive information from the cellular network (100) transmitted through the broadcasting network (104), means (19) are provided for decapsulating said information from an envelope of transport through the broadcasting network (104). The telephone of claim 9, wherein, the mobile telephone being arranged to operate in cellular mode, to communicate to through the cellular network, and in radio receiver mode, to receive information transmitted through the broadcasting network it is expected activation / deactivation means intended to activate one of the two modes, cellular and radio receiver, and to deactivate the other mode. Telephone according to claim 10, wherein there are provided cellular network detection means arranged to control automatically activating the radio receiver mode and the deactivation of cellular mode, when the phone is out of range cellular network. Telephone according to one of claims 9 to 11, in which the telephone (30) having access to a cellular network messaging service (100) allowing it to receive messages, and comprising means (15) for editing said messages, means (20) are provided for control the editing by said editing means (15) of a received message by the radio reception means (18) of the broadcasting network (104).

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