Methods and apparatus for acknowledging a paging message via a cellular network control channel

In or for a cellular mobile radiotelephone system (CMR) for communicating with cellular radiotelephones, a paging acknowledgment system for communicating paging messages and acknowledgments to confirm reception of said paging messages, said paging acknowledgment system comprising:

• at least one paging terminal, responsive to said paging messages, for preparing data messages corresponding to said paging messages and transmitting said data messages via a radiopaging communications path;
• a plurality of remote communications devices for receiving said data messages via said radiopaging communications path, each of said data messages containing an address that uniquely identifies one of said remote communications devices, each of said remote communications device responsive to a selected one of said data messages containing its associated address for transmitting via a cellular network control channel of said CMR system an acknowledgment message that confirms reception of said selected data message, said acknowledgment message formatted as an identification signal transmitted by one of said cellular radiotelephones when said cellular radiotelephone identifies itself to said CMR system;
• at least one mobile switching center (MSC) for receiving said acknowledgment message via said cellular network control channel from each of said remote communications devices;
• and
• a data collection system for receiving said acknowledgment message from said MSC via a first communications link, said data collection operative to forward said acknowledgment message to said paging terminal,
• wherein said paging terminal is further operative to process said acknowledgment message and to determine whether said acknowledgment message corresponds to a particular one of said data messages.

In or for a cellular mobile radiotelephone system (CMR) for communicating with cellular radiotelephones, a paging acknowledgment system for communicating paging messages and acknowledgments to confirm reception of said paging messages, said paging acknowledgment system comprising:

• a data collection system, responsive to said paging messages, for preparing and transmitting data messages corresponding to said paging messages;
• at least one radiopaging terminal, responsive to said data messages, for transmitting said data messages via a radiopaging communications path;
• a plurality of remote communications devices for receiving said data messages via said radiopaging communications path, each of said data messages containing an address that uniquely identifies one of said remote communications devices, each of said remote communications device responsive to a selected one of said data messages containing its associated address for transmitting via a cellular network control channel of said CMR system an acknowledgement message that confirms reception of said selected data message, said acknowledgement message formatted as an identification signal transmitted by one of the cellular radiotelephones when said cellular radiotelephone identifies itself to said CMR system;
• and
• at least one mobile switching center (MSC) for receiving said acknowledgement message via said cellular network control channel from each of said remote communications devices, said MSC operative to transmit said acknowledgement message via a first communications link to said data collection system,
• wherein said data collection system, responsive to receiving said acknowledgement message from said MSC via said first communications link, processes said acknowledgement message to determine whether said acknowledgement message corresponds to a particular one of said data messages.

In or for a cellular mobile radiotelephone (CMR) system for communicating with celluar radiotelephones, a method for acknowledging reception of paging messages, each of said paging messages generated by a paging party for communication to a paged party, said method comprising the steps of:

• receiving one of said paging messages from said paging party;
• preparing a data message in response to receiving a particular one of said paging messages, said data message corresponding to said particular paging message;
• transmitting said data message via a radiopaging communications path;
• preparing an acknowledgment message, in response to receiving said data message via said radiopaging communications path, to confirm reception of said data message, said acknowledgment message formatted as an identification signal transmitted by one of said cellular radiotelephones when said cellular radiotelephone identifies itself to said CMR system;
• transmitting said acknowledgment message via a control channel of said CMR system to at least one mobile switching center (MSC);
• and
• processing said acknowledgment message to determine whether said acknowledgment message corresponds to said data message.