METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR THE CONTROL OF VOTING BY TELEPHONE

Abstract: Method for controlling telephonic voting in a digital mobile communication network (2) comprising one or more mobile stations (1<1>, 1<2>, ...1<n>) in which method telephonic voting performed using mobile stations (1<1>, 1<2>, ...1<n>) is controlled. According to the invention, using a polling server (3), a certain proportion of the mobile stations (1<1>, 1<2>, ...1<n>) at a time is authorised to send a vote; a voting authorisation is transmitted over a control channel (5) to the authorised mobile stations, and using a voting application (1<1>, 1<2>, ...1<n>), the control channel (5) is monitored and a vote is sent after the authorisation has been received. The invention allows staggered sending of votes in a telephonic poll so as to avoid overloading the network.

Description: METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR THE CONTROL OF VOTING BY TELEPHONE FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention concerns a method for controlling telephonic voting as defined in the preamble of claim 1 for and to a system for controlling telephonic voting as defined in the preamble of claim 6. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Traditionally, a problem with voting by telephone is congestion of the network. When the telephone numbers used to receive the votes are announced in a radio or television broadcast, the result is generally that a large number of people try to call those numbers at the same time, thus overloading the network. The only solution to this problem so far has been to design the programmes so that the phone calls are not received all at the same time but as a steadier load. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to disclose a new type of method and system to eliminate the drawbacks described above. A specific object of the present invention is to disclose a method and system which can be used * to stagger the sending of votes in telephonic voting carried out using mobile stations so as to avoid over- loading the network. As for the features characteristic of the invention, reference is made to the claims. In the system of the invention for controlling telephonic voting in a digital mobile communica- tion network comprising one or more mobile stations, telephonic voting carried out using mobile stations is controlled. According to the invention, the system comprises a polling server, which is used to perform calculations regarding the reliability of the voting, on the basis of which a certain proportion of the mo- bile stations is authorised at a time to send votes. The reliability of the voting and the proportion of mobile stations authorised are defined statistically. If during a first round e.g. every hundredth mobile station number is authorised to send a vote and only 100 votes are received, then in the next round e.g. every tenth mobile station is authorised to send a vote, which means that another 1000 votes are likely to be received. When about 2000 votes or 20% of the total number has been received, the voting result is statistically true with an accuracy of 0.1 - 0.5 %. Further, according to the invention, the system comprises a control channel which is used to transmit a voting authorisation from a polling server to mobile stations to be authorised to send a vote. The system of the invention further comprises a voting application which is used to monitor messages transmitted in the control channel and to send a vote after the authorisation has been received. The voting application is implemented in conjunction with the mobile stations. As compared with prior art, the present invention has the advantage that it makes it possible to stagger the sending of votes in telephonic polling via mobile stations. This obviates network overloading. The voting result can be predicted, and the poll is statistically fully reliable even if only e.g. ten percent of the votes are really sent to the polling server and the rest is not sent at all. The voting can be controlled and limited to a very narrow range of time, but even so there may be a large number of voters because the control of the service is with the polling server. In an embodiment of the invention, the control channel is a Cell Broadcast channel. In an embodiment of the invention, the voting authorisation is given using a predetermined protocol. In an embodiment of the invention, the vote is a SMS, USSD or other corresponding message (Short Message Service, SMS; Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, USSD) . In an embodiment of the invention, the mobile communication network is a GSM network or some other corresponding digital mobile communication network. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In the following, the invention will be de- scribed by the aid of a few examples of its embodiments with reference to the attached drawing, which presents an embodiment of the system of the invention. According to the invention, a polling server 3, e.g. a work station computer, is connected to the GSM network 2. In addition, the polling server 3 is connected to a cell broadcast centre (CBC) 4. At first, using the polling server, e.g. every hundredth user is authorised to send a vote to the polling server. The vote can be sent from mobile stations l 1 , l 2 ,...l n e.g. in the form of an SMS short message, a USSD message or as some other type of data. The authority is given using a predetermined protocol, and the authorisation is transmitted using a predetermined CB channel 5 used as a control channel by the cell broadcast centre 4. Using voting applications l 1 , l 2 ,...l n implemented in conjunction with GSM telephones l 1 , l 2 ,...l n , the CB channel 5 in question is monitored to get any messages transmitted in it, which makes it possible to send the vote only after the authorisation has been received. The polling server 3 controls the CB channel 5 and makes calculations to determine the reliability of the poll. If the first round yields only a hundred votes, then for the next round e.g. every tenth mobile station is authorised to send a vote, which is likely to result in a thousand more votes received. The mo- bile stations to be authorised can be selected e.g. on the basis of a range of numbers or a user group. Authorisations to vote are granted until all votes have been gathered. When about 2000 votes or 20% of the total number has been received, the result of the poll is statistically true with an accuracy of 0.1 - 0.5 %. Thus, an accurate forecast is obtained soon after the beginning of the polling. The invention is not restricted to the examples of its embodiments described above, but many variations are possible within the scope of the inventive idea defined in the claims.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. Method for controlling telephonic voting in a digital mobile communication network (2) comprising one or more mobile stations (l 1 , l ,...l n ), in which method telephonic voting performed using mobile stations (l 1 , l 2 , ... l n ) is controlled, charac t e ri s ed in that calculations are made by means of a polling server (3) to determine the statistical reliability of the voting, based on which a certain proportion of the mobile stations (l 1 , l 2 , ... , l n ) at a time is authorised to send a vote; voting authorisation is transmitted over a control channel (5) to the authorised mobile stations, and using a voting application (l 1 , l 2 , ... , l n ) , the control channel (5) is monitored and a vote is sent after the authorisation has been received. 2. Method as defined in claim 1, char acteri sed in that the control channel (5) is a Cell Broadcast channel. 3. Method as defined in claim 1 or 2, charac t eri sed in that the voting authorisation is given using a predetermined protocol. 4. Method as defined in any one of the pre- ceding claims 1 - 3, charact eri sed in that the vote is an SMS, USSD or corresponding message. 5. Method as defined in any one of the preceding claims 1 - 4, charact eri s ed in that the mobile communication network (2) is a GSM network or equivalent. 6. System for controlling telephonic voting in a digital mobile communication network (2) comprising one or more mobile stations (l 1 , l 2 ,...l n ), in which system telephonic voting performed using mobile stations (l 1 , l 2 , ... l n ) is controlled, charac t eri sed in that the system comprises a polling server (3) , which is used for making calculations regarding the statistical reliability of the voting, based on which a certain proportion of the mobile stations (I 1 , l 2 , ... , l n ) at a time is authorised to send a vote; the system comprises a control channel (5) , which is used for transmitting a voting authorisation to the authorised mobile stations; and the system comprises a voting application (l 1 , l 2 , ... , l n ) by means of which the control channel (5) is monitored and a vote is sent after the authorisation has been received. 7. System as defined in claim 6, char ac t eri sed in that the control channel (5) is a Cell Broadcast channel. 8. System as defined in claim 6 or 7, charact eri sed in that a predetermined protocol is used for giving the voting authorisation. 9. System as defined in any one of the pre- ceding claims 6 - 8, charac t eri sed in that the vote is an SMS, USSD or corresponding message. 10. System as defined in any one of the preceding claims 6 - 9, charac t eri sed in that the mobile communication network (2) is a GSM network or equivalent.

Inventors: LAHTINEN PASI, LAHTINEN, PASI
Applicants: LAHTINEN PASI, SONERA OYJ, LAHTINEN, PASI
Application year: 1999
Main classification: H04M3
IPC codes: G07C13, H04M3