Method and apparatus for network-assisted automatic confirmation of short message service delivery
AssigneesCingular Wireless II, LLC, AT&T Corp.
InventorsSimon D. Byers, Nathan Hamilton, Shanmugavelayutham Muthukrishnan, James F. Parkyn
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a mobile communications network, a delivery acknowledgement receipt can be sent to indicate a SMS message is delivered. A system can be based on currently-existing protocols, such as described in the IS-136 standard. Existing network signals that acknowledge receipt of a message can be captured and utilized to notify the originator when the SMS message is delivered. A variety of other scenarios (e.g., unsuccessful delivery) can also be supported.
Claims20
A method of operating a short message service center comprising:
- receiving a short message service request from a sender;
- determining delivery acknowledgement preferences of the sender wherein the sender's preferences comprise an acknowledgement type, a location to send an acknowledgement, or an indication of message-by-message acknowledgment;
- transmitting through a wireless mobile network a short message to a wireless mobile unit in accordance with the short message service request;
- receiving a signal from the wireless mobile network acknowledging delivery of the short message to the wireless mobile unit;
- and
- transmitting a delivery acknowledgement in accordance with the delivery acknowledgement preferences of the sender;
- wherein the delivery acknowledgement preferences of the sender comprise at least:
- an encoding in a message received, or
- a database of delivery acknowledgement preferences.
A short message service center comprising:
- a first interface to a wireless mobile network;
- a second interface to an external short message entity;
- a central processing unit connected to the first and second interfaces for executing computer program instructions, the computer program instructions causing the central processing unit to perform the following:
- receiving a short message service request from a sender;
- determining delivery acknowledgement preferences of the sender wherein the sender's preference comprises an acknowledgement type, a location to send an acknowledgement, or an indication of message-by-message acknowledgment;
- transmitting through the wireless mobile network a short message to a wireless mobile unit in accordance with the short message service request;
- receiving a signal from the wireless mobile network acknowledging delivery of the short message to the wireless mobile unit;
- and
- transmitting through the external short message entity a delivery acknowledgement in accordance with the delivery acknowledgement preferences of the sender;
- wherein the delivery acknowledgement preferences of the sender comprise at least:
- an encoding in a message received, or
- a database of delivery acknowledgement preferences.
A wireless network node configured to communicate with at least one wireless mobile communication device, the wireless network node comprising:
- a processor configured to perform at least the following:
- receiving a short message service request from a sender;
- determining delivery acknowledgement preferences of the sender wherein the sender's preference comprises an acknowledgement type, a location to send an acknowledgement, or an indication of message-by-message acknowledgment;
- receiving an SMDPP acknowledgement message as a result of attempting communications with the wireless mobile communication device;
- and
- responsive to receiving the SMDPP acknowledgement message, transmitting a delivery acknowledgement receipt to the sender, according to the determined delivery acknowledgement preferences of the sender;
- wherein the delivery acknowledgement preferences of the sender comprise at least:
- an encoding in a message received, or
- a database of delivery acknowledgement preferences.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.