Paging system and its operating method

Abstract: An improved paging system has functions not only for detecting the omission of message reception but also for acquiring the unreceived message. When a normal paging request call from a public telephone network is made, the paging control unit adds to the value of a message counter (56) of the called subscriber's number and transmits an encoded paging signal which includes the value from the transmitter and further stores the message data in a storage unit (63) corresponding to the value of the counter of the called subscriber's number. A called pager detects the omission of message reception through the received message counter value by comparison with message counter value of the last message signal and displays a message indicating an omission as well as the value of an omitted message. A call can be made to request repeat transmission through a public telephone network, and when the message counter value is specified, the paging control unit retrieves the message data stored in the message data storage unit (63) corresponding to the specified value and transmits the data from the transmitter.

Description: The present invention relates generally to a paging system and its operating method, and more particularly to a paging system with message display. A paging system with a message display service comprises at least a paging control unit connected to a public telephone network, a transmitter connected to the paging control unit and a plurality of pagers for receiving the paging signal transmitted from the transmitter. When a paging request call originates through the public telephone network, the paging control unit accepts the incoming call along with the subscriber's number and message data, converts the incoming call into a paging signal including the address code of the pager and a message signal by referring to a subscriber file, which retains the corresponding relation between the subscriber's number and an address code for the pager, and transfers the converted paging signal to the transmitter. The transmitter transmits the paging signal in the form of radio waves. On the other hand, each pager is provided with a receiving circuit tuned for its specific address code selectively, a control unit to store a succeeding message signal in a storage unit, and a display means to display the message on a display unit (prior art document, Japanese Patent No. 64097/1988, discloses the constitution of a pager with a display function). Although such a paging system is quite effective, it is still somewhat inconvenient because it only affords one-way service. Pager carriers often worry that some messages might not be received. European Patent Application EP-A-0 325 839 describes a paging system in which a message number, which increments modulo-32, is transmitted as part of the message transmission. If a message is missed, then when the next message is received the display shows hyphen marks "--". The pager subscriber can at any time telephone in to request re-transmission of all messages transmitted in the previous twenty-four hours. If the missed message is received in a re-transmission, the proper message is then immediately displayed, in place of the hyphens. Canadian Patent Application CA-A-2 064 894 (published 17 January 1991; corresponding to WO91/01604 published 7 February 1991) describes another paging system in which a message number, which increments modulo-32, is transmitted as part of the message transmission. The message number is displayed on the pager. The pager subscriber determines from the message numbers if a message has been missed, and can telephone the central computer, giving the message number of the missed message, to cause the computer to play the missed message back to the subscriber via the telephone. The present invention is defined in the appended claims, to which reference should now be made. The invention will be described in detail by way of example, with reference to the drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the general structure of a paging system with message display; Fig. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating a paging system as an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 3 is a diagram illustrating specific signal formats of paging signals by way of example; Fig. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of a paging control unit 1; and Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of a pager 3. Referring to the accompanying drawings, a detailed description will now be given of an embodiment of the present invention. A paging system embodying the invention generally comprises, as shown in the Fig. 1, a paging control unit 53 which converts a subscriber's number and message data included in an incoming paging request call from the public telephone network 52 into a paging signal which includes the corresponding address code and a message signal by referring to a built-in subscriber file 51 which shows the relation between the subscriber's number and an address code for each pager; a transmitter 54 to transmit the paging signal, and a plurality of pagers 55 having a message-display function, each of which receives its own address code selectively, stores the message data in its storage unit 65, and displays the message data on its display unit 54. The paging control unit 53 further comprises message counters 56 for each subscriber, a counting means 57 to add "1" to the message count value for each call to a respective subscriber, and a paging signal generating means 58 to generate a paging signal which includes the updated message count value for transfer to the transmitter 54. Each pager 55 further comprises a judging means 59 to detect the omission of a reception by comparing the message count value with that of the last message signal, and a display means 60 to display a message indicating the omission of reception and its message count value when a missed reception is detected. In order to pick up an omitted message, the paging system comprises in the paging control unit 53 a judging means 62 to judge whether an incoming call is a normal paging request call or a call requesting a repeat transmission, storing means 63 to store message data of incoming calls in the message data storage unit 61 corresponding to the value of message counter 56, and generating means 64 to send a paging signal which includes the requested message count value and corresponding message data from the message data storage unit for the request of repeat transmission. Fig. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a first embodiment of a paging system to which a method of operation according to the present invention is applied. As shown in Fig. 2, a paging control unit 1 is connected to a public telephone network 4 and accepts a paging request call from a telephone 5. The paging control unit 1 includes an input unit 11 for controlling the connection with the public telephone network 4, a control unit 12 for controlling the whole system, an output unit 13 for producing a paging signal and connecting the paging signal to a transmitter 2, and a subscriber file 14. The subscriber file 14 stores all data that is required for each subscriber. For example, the subscriber number 14 - 0; a mark indicating registered/not registered 14 - 1, an address code 14 - 2 corresponding to the subscriber's number,and a message count 14 - 3 are each stored in respective areas of the subscriber file, and a message data storage unit 14 - 4 is used to store a plurality of message data. In this case, the message count 14 - 3 counts from 0 up to 9 and returns to 0, whereas the message data storage unit 14 - 4 has storage areas 14 - 40 to 14 - 49 for a maximum number of 10, each of which corresponds to a value of the message count 14 - 3. The transmitter 2 is used for transmitting paging signals transferred from the paging control unit 1 to a plurality of pagers 3 for receiving the paging signal transmitted from the transmitter. Each pager 3 comprises an antenna 31, a radio unit 32, a control unit 33, a message display unit 34, an address code storage unit 35, a message storage unit 36 having a plurality of storage areas 36 - 1 to 36 - 10 for storing a plurality of message data corresponding to the message count value 0 to 9, and an "alert" generator 37. A POCSAG signal is commonly used as the paging signal (see CCIR Recommendation No. 584) and is also employed in this embodiment. With respect to the message, 4-bit rule numeric data is employed and the first digit of a message signal (MSD-most significant digit) is used for the message count value. Fig. 3 shows an example of specific signal formats: Fig. 3(a) shows an address signal format, and Figs. 3(b) and 3(c) show message signal formats. Fig. 3(b) shows an example of a message signal format which includes the message count value at the first digit and message data in the remaining digits, whereas Fig. 3(c) shows an example of a message signal format for use successively when the message signal in the format of Fig. 3(b) is insufficient. Fig. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the paging control unit 1 and Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the pager. The operation of the embodiment will now be described with reference to these figures. The input unit 11 of the paging control unit 1 responds to incoming calls from any telephone (step 101), and, when a call is received, the paging control unit starts the process of accepting a subscriber's number (step 102). When the connection with the public telephone network 4 is a direct trunk line, multi-frequency signaling can be used for sending the subscriber's number. Upon reception of the subscriber's number by the input unit 11, the control unit 12 collates it with the subscriber file (step 103). If the subscriber's number is not registered (step 103), the control unit 12 causes the generation of an 'ineffective' tone in order to inform the caller that the call is an ineffective call (step 110) and then terminates the call operation (step 111). When the subscriber's number is verified as being registered (step 103), the control unit further checks whether the call is a call requesting a repeat transmission (step 104). A call requesting repeat transmission is a call from a pager subscriber or pager carrier (some one carrying a pager) who wants to pick up an unreceived message by means of a repeat transmission. In this embodiment, a dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signal from a push-button telephone is used to make calls requesting repeat transmission by dialing a predetermined code, for example "#*". Using a push-button telephone, a caller is allowed to send numeric data directly to make a normal paging request call. Moreover, dialing a prearranged code, for example "##", will terminate the dialing of message data. Assuming a caller makes a normal paging request call (the operation for a call requesting repeat transmission will be described later), the control unit 12 receives the message (step 105) and deems the reception is over when it receives the signal "##" (step 106). At the time the call is completed, the control unit 12 adds "1" to update the message count 14 - 3 corresponding to the called subscriber's number (step 107) and records the received message data in the storage area 14 - 4i corresponding to the value (i) of the message count 14 - 3 in the message data storage unit 14 - 4 of the called subscriber's number (step 108). The control unit 12 further sends the address code 14 - 2 registered at the subscriber's number file, the value of the message count 14 - 3 and the received message data in the storage area 14 - 4i to the output unit 13 (step 109). The output unit 13 transfers the data received from the control unit 12 as a paging signal to the transmitter 2, after encoding the address code for the format of Fig. 3(a) and the message count value and the message data for the formats of Fig. 3(b), 3(c). The transmitter 2 transmits the paging signal in the form of radio wave. The pager 3 receives the paging signal via the antenna 31 and the radio unit 32, and causes the control unit 33 to check whether the address code conforms to its own address code stored in the storage unit 35, that is, to detect whether the pager has been called (step 201). When the pager is called, the control unit 33 starts to receive the message signal following the address code (step 202) and stores the received data in the storage area 36 - 1 in the message data storage unit 36 as a message count value and message data (step 203). In this case, as message count value and message data have been stored in the message data storage unit 36 in the serial order of reception, the control unit 33 compares the message count value received this time with that of the last message signal in order to check whether there is a gap in the message count values (step 204). Incidentally, "0" is processed as a continuous number which follows "9" in the assignment of message count values. When no gap is found between the message counter values, the message data received this time is displayed in the message display unit 34 and the "alert" generator 37 is caused to send an "alert" signal indicating reception of a call (step 205). If, however, there is a gap in the message count values, the message display unit 34 is caused to generate a specific alert (step 206) and display a message to indicate the presence of an unreceived message along with the omitted message count value in addition to the message data received this time. With this operation, the pager carrier is informed of the presence of an unreceived message as well as the message count value. One method for storing the most recent message data at the top position of the storage area 36 - 1 is to transfer each message towards the storage area having the older storage area numbers successively one by one at each reception and erase the message in the storage area 36-10 at the following reception. Another method is to provide registers R1 to R10 for holding the addresses of storage areas 36 - 1 to 36 - 10, respectively, and to shift the contents of the register from R1 to R2, R2 to R3, ..., R9 to R10, at each reception, so that the most recent message is always stored in a storage area 36 - i designated by the contents i of the register R1. At the same time, the message in the storage area 36 - j designated by the contents j of the register R10 is successively erased. A description will now be given of the operation of picking up an unreceived message, that is, the operation for a call requesting repeat transmission. On confirming the presence of an unreceived message, a pager carrier dials his own subscriber's number through any telephone as in the case of a normal call. The paging control unit 1 performs processes up to Step 104 as for a normal paging request call. The pager carrier dials "#*" from the push-button telephone to signal a request for repeat transmission, and the control unit 12 of the paging control unit 1 judges the call to be a call requesting repeat transmission (step 104) and anticipates the reception of one digit representing the message count value of the missed call instead of message data (step 112). When the pager carrier accordingly dials the message count value of the unreceived message displayed on the pager 3 through the push-button telephone, the paging control unit 1 receives it and the control unit 12 regards the acceptance of the message count value as the termination of the call requesting repeat transmission (step 113) and sends to the output unit 13 the address code 14 - 2 registered at the called subscriber's file, the message count value, and the message data stored in the storage unit 14 - 4 (Step 114). The output unit 13 transfers the data received from the control unit 12 as a paging signal to the transmitter 2 by encoding the address code for the format of Fig. 3(a), the message count value, and the message data as a message signal for the formats of Fig. 3(b), 3(c). The transmitter 2 transmits the paging signal in the form of a radio wave. As a result, the unreceived message is displayed on the message display unit 34 of the pager of the pager carrier who has made the call requesting repeat transmission. In other words, the operation of the pager 3 proceeds as normal from step 204 to step 206 in Fig. 5 and the unreceived message is displayed at step 206. Although a message indicating omission is also displayed on the same display, the pager carrier can determine that the displayed message is the one he requested. While the invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment, the scope of the invention is not limited to the particular form set forth, but, on the contrary, can include such alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims: A method of operating a paging system, which is composed of a paging control unit, a transmitter, and a plurality of pagers, the method comprising the steps of: at the paging control unit, receiving an incoming call through a public telephone network, determining whether the incoming call is a normal call requesting paging service or a call from a pager user requesting a repeated transmission and, if the call is a normal call requesting paging service: converting the incoming call into a paging signal and storing it, the incoming call including the called subscriber's number and message data; allocating to each paging signal to a given subscriber an updated message count value which is individually associated with that subscriber; and transmitting the paging signal via the transmitter, the paging signal including the address code of the pager, a message signal, and the message count value; and at each pager having a message display function, receiving a paging signal for that pager; storing the message signal and the message count value in a storage unit; displaying the message on a display unit; and comparing the message count value of the received paging signal with that for the last received paging signal, and, when the difference between them is two or more, alerting the user of the pager that a message is missing and of the message count value of the missing message; and, if the incoming call is a call from a pager user requesting a repeated transmission: at the paging control unit, determining from the incoming call the message count value of the missing message to be repeated; retrieving the stored paging signal for that subscriber for that message count value only; and transferring the retrieved paging signal for that message count value only to the transmitter for re-transmission. A paging system comprising a paging control unit (1) for converting an incoming paging request call which is received from a public telephone network (4), the paging request including a called subscriber's number and message data, the control unit converting the paging request call into a paging signal and storing it, and the paging signal including an address code (14-2) for the called subscriber's pager and a message signal (14-4); a transmitter (2) for transmitting the paging signal; and a plurality of pagers (3) each having a message display and provided with means (32) for selectively receiving the respective address code, a pager control unit (33) for storing the message data in its storage unit, and a display unit (34) to display the message data; and in which the paging control unit (1) comprises means for determining whether the incoming call is a normal call requesting paging service or a call from a pager user requesting a repeated transmission, and means operative if the call is a normal call requesting paging service and comprising: message counters (57) for giving each paging signal for each subscriber's number a message count value (14-3), means for updating the message count value for each called subscriber's number for each incoming paging request, a message data storage unit (61) including storage means for storing received message data for each subscriber with the associated message count value, and means (58) for generating a paging signal which includes the address code for the called subscriber's pager, the message signal, and the message count value, for transfer to the transmitter; and in which the pager comprises determining means for determining whether the messages are received in order by comparing the message count value of a received message signal with the message count value of the last received message signal, and display means for displaying a message indicating the non-reception of a message along with its message count value when a message is determined to have been omitted; and the paging unit further including means operative if the incoming call is a call from a pager user requesting a repeated transmission and comprising: means for determining from the incoming call the message count value of the missing message to be repeated; means for retrieving the stored paging signal (14-4)for that message count value only for that subscriber; and means for transferring the retrieved paging signal for that message count value only to the transmitter for re-transmission.

Inventors: DAWKINS DEREK, ICHIKAWA YOSHIO, DAWKINS, DEREK, ICHIKAWA, YOSHIO, Dawkins, Derek, c/o NEC Corporation, Ichikawa, Yoshio, c/o NEC Corporation
Applicants: NIPPON ELECTRIC CO, NEC CORPORATION
Application year: 1992
Main classification: H04Q7
IPC codes: G08B3, H04W88, H04W84