Call transfer within cellular communications system

A method of forwarding a plurality of incoming telephone calls to a sequence of C-numbers on a call-forwarding priority list for a mobile station within a conventional cellular radio communications system having a mobile switching center (MSC) in communication with a home location register (HLR) associated with said mobile station, said incoming telephone calls arriving with a time interval between calls that is less than the time required to retrieve one of said C-numbers from said HLR, said method comprising the steps of:

• storing in said HLR, a sequence of C-numbers to which each of said plurality of incoming telephone calls is to be forwarded in the event a call cannot be completed to said mobile station;
• transmitting a single transfer-to-number request message from said MSC to said HLR for each of said plurality of incoming telephone calls, said transfer-to-number including a unique call identification number;
• analyzing within said HLR, said transfer-to-number request messages and said call-forwarding priority list, to determine the C-number with the highest probability of completing each of said plurality of incoming telephone calls;
• transmitting from said HLR to said MSC, the C-number from said call-forwarding priority list with the highest probability of completing each of said plurality of incoming telephone calls in response to each of said request messages;
• and
• maintaining a record between said unique call identification number and said sequence of C-numbers to mark those certain ones of said sequence of C-numbers that have been transmitted for each one of said plurality of request messages and to identify those ones of said sequence of C-numbers which have not been transmitted and which are available for transmission in response to a subsequently received request message.

A system for forwarding a plurality of incoming telephone calls from a plurality of calling parties for a mobile station to a sequence of call-forwarding numbers within a conventional cellular radio telephone network, said incoming telephone calls arriving with a time interval between calls that is less than the time required to return one of said call forwarding numbers to one of said plurality of calling parties, said system comprising:

• a home location register (HLR) designated for said mobile station;
• means for storing said sequence of call-forwarding numbers in a database in said HLR;
• means for transmitting, for each of said plurality of incoming telephone calls from a plurality of calling parties, a corresponding request message to said HLR requesting a call-forwarding number from said sequence of call-forwarding numbers said request message including a unique call identification number;
• means for retrieving and forwarding a different one of said sequence of call-forwarding numbers for each one of said plurality of incoming telephone calls;
• and
• means for maintaining a record between said unique call identification number and said sequence of call forwarding numbers to mark those certain ones of said sequence of call-forwarding-numbers that have been retrieved for each one of said plurality of request messages and to identify those ones of said sequence of forward-to-numbers which have not been retrieved and which are available for retrieval in response to a subsequently received request message.

A system for forwarding a plurality of incoming telephone calls to a sequence of C-numbers on a call-forwarding priority list for a mobile station within a conventional cellular radio communications network having a mobile switching center (MSC) in communication with a home location register (HLR) associated with said mobile station, said incoming telephone calls arriving with a time interval between calls that is less than the time required to return one of said call forwarding numbers to one of said plurality of calling parties, said system comprising:

• means for storing in said HLR, a sequence of C-numbers to which each of said plurality of incoming telephone calls is to be forwarded in the event a call cannot be completed to said mobile station;
• means for transmitting a single transfer-to-number request message from said MSC to said HLR for each of said plurality of incoming telephone calls, said transfer-to-number request message containing a unique call identification number identifying said request message and said calling party on a per-call basis;
• means for analyzing within said HLR, said transfer-to-number request messages and said call-forwarding priority list, to determine the C-number with the highest probability of completing each of said plurality of incoming telephone calls;
• means for transmitting from said HLR to said MSC, the C-number from said call-forwarding priority list with the highest probability of completing each of said plurality of incoming telephone calls in response to each of said request messages;
• and
• means for maintaining a record between said unique call identification number and said sequence of C-numbers to mark those certain ones of said sequence of C-numbers that have been transmitted for each one of said plurality of request messages and to identify those ones of said sequence of C-numbers which have not been transmitted and which are available for transmission in response to a subsequently received request message.