Methods and apparatus for communicating data via a cellular mobile radiotelephone system

In or for a cellular mobile radiotelephone system (CMR) having an array of cells for communicating with cellular mobile radiotelephones within coverage areas of said array of cells, a paging acknowledgment system for communicating paging messages and acknowledgments to confirm reception of said paging messages, said paging acknowledgment system comprising:

• a communications system, 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 devices 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 to correspond to a call origination signal transmitted by one of the cellular mobile radiotelephones when said cellular mobile radiotelephone originates a cellular telephone call for communication via 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
• said communications system further operative to receive said acknowledgment message from said MSC via a first communications link and to process said acknowledgment message to determine whether said acknowledgment message corresponds to a particular one of said data messages;
• wherein said call origination signal comprises a mobile telephone number data field and an expandable electronic serial number (ESN) data field, thereby enabling the paging acknowledgment system to communicate acknowledgment messages comprising operation data of varying sizes.

In or for a cellular mobile radiotelephone (CMR) system for communicating with cellular mobile radiotelephones within coverage areas of said array of cells, a method for communicating data collected from a plurality of remote data sources, comprising the steps of:

• monitoring the operation of each of said remote data sources to obtain selected data;
• transmitting a data message containing said selected data via a cellular network control channel to a mobile switching center (MSC) of said CMR system, said data message formatted to correspond to a call origination signal transmitted by one of the cellular mobile radiotelephones when said cellular mobile radiotelephone originates a cellular telephone call to communicate via said CMR system, said call origination signal comprising a mobile telephone number data field and an expandable electronic serial number (ESN) data field, thereby enabling the transmission of data messages comprising selected data of varying sizes;
• and
• transmitting said data message from said MSC to a data collection system via a first communications link, said data collection system operative to collect said selected data in response to said data message, said data message comprising said selected data and a predetermined identifying characteristic that uniquely identifies a cellular communications device that transmits said data message to said MSC, said predetermined identifying characteristic corresponding to at least a portion of said mobile telephone number data field and said selected data corresponding to at least a portion of said expandable ESN data field.

In or for a cellular mobile radiotelephone (CMR) system for communicating with cellular mobile radiotelephones within coverage areas of said array of cells, a method for communicating acknowledgment messages to confirm 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 a particular one of said paging messages from said paging party;
• preparing a data message in response to receiving said particular paging message, 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 to correspond to a call origination signal transmitted by a cellular mobile radiotelephone when said cellular mobile radiotelephone originates a cellular telephone call to communicate via said CMR system, said acknowledgment message comprising an acknowledgment code, that uniquely identifies said corresponding paging message, and operation data supplied by said paged party and intended for communication to said paging party, said call origination signal comprising a mobile telephone number data field and an expandable electronic serial number (ESN) data field, thereby enabling the communication of acknowledgment messages comprising operation data of varying sizes, said acknowledgment code corresponding to at least a portion of said mobile telephone number data field and said operation data corresponding to at least a portion of said expandable ESN data field;
• transmitting said acknowledgment message via a cellular network control channel of said CMR system to a mobile switching center (MSC);
• and
• processing said acknowledgment message to determine whether one of said acknowledgment messages corresponds to said data message.