Abstract:
A method and apparatus for processing messages relate to controlling, filtering and directing SMS—(short message service) and corresponding messages. In a user-specific way. According to the method and apparatus, SMS—(short message service) messages and/or MMS—(multimedia messaging service) messages are processed in a gateway and the invention comprises the steps of classifying the messages, based on their characteristics and processing the classified messages based on processing code that takes the classification into account. The step of processing the classified messages comprises directing the messages further according to the processing instructions.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]    This application is a section 371 of International Application PCT/FI02/00733, filed 13 SEP. 2002 and published 27 MAR. 2003 in the English language as WO 03/26331-A1. The international application claims priority from Finnish application 20011813, filed 14 SEP. 2001, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. 
     
    
     
       TECHNICAL FIELD  
         [0002]    The invention concerns controlling, filtering and directing SMS (short message service) and corresponding messages. In particular, the invention concerns processing the messages in a user-specific way.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    The SMS is a service for sending messages. These messages have only limited size, which is up to 160 characters in point-to-point-type connections and at most 93 characters in broadcasting-type connections. One character is an ASCII-format character that includes 7 bits. The SMS-messages can be transmitted between digital devices operating in various cellular radio networks such as GSM (Global System for Mobile Telecommunications), PCS (Personal Communications Service) and PCN (Personal Communications Network).  
           [0004]    The SMS can be used to transmit many kinds of data. Typical examples are text, logos and ringing tones. An SMS-message can be a picture or even a moving picture. Also OTA (over the air) applications can be sent over SMS, and WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) data can be browsed by SMS. Due to the limited size of the messages, some systems use several messages to transmit a single entity, for example an email, to the mobile device.  
           [0005]    A route of an SMS-message is described, referring to FIG. 1. There are mobile stations (MS)  101  under base stations (BS) that belong to certain radio access networks (RAN)  102 . When a mobile station  101  wants to send an SMS-message, the message is transmitted through the radio access network (RAN)  102  to a mobile switching centre (MSC)  103 . The mobile switching centre (MSC)  103  is coupled to a visitor location register (VLR)  103   a  that knows which mobile stations are on its coverage area at the moment. There is also a home location register (HLR)  103   b , which holds the present location information of mobile stations on the area of several mobile switching centres. From the mobile switching centre (MSC)  103 , the message is transmitted through a gateway mobile switching centre (GMSC)  104  to an SMS centre  105  (SMSC). If the receiving device of the message is under some other mobile switching centre (MSC) according to the location information of the HLR, the route of the message is directed through that other MSC and gateway to another SMS centre. So all sent messages originated from MS  101  end up in some SMS centre  105 , which transmits them further or may hold them for a predetermined time, if the receiving device cannot be reached at the moment.  
           [0006]    The MS  101  informs the network about its own availability to accept messages. The SMS centre  105  starts a message transmission based on this information. First message is transmitted through gateway mobile switching centre (GMSC)  104 , which gets the present location information of the receiving MS  101  from the HLR  103   b . HLR  103   b  knows under which MSC the receiving device is and the message is transmitted to that MSC  103 . The MSC  103  gets the present location information of the receiving MS  101  from the VLR  103   a . VLR  103   a  knows under which radio access network the receiving device is and the message is transmitted to the radio access network (RAN)  102 , which directs the message to the receiving MS  101 .  
           [0007]    Besides the aforementioned GMSC  104 , there are also parallel SMS-gateways (SMSG)  106 , which typically connect service providers (SP)  107  to the SMS centre  105  (SMSC). There may also be more than one SMS centres. Since there are many SMS centre-protocols, SMS-gateways  106  typically support many of these protocols. SMS services  107  are typically servers in the net and these servers respond to the queries according to the pre-set rules or varying conditions. One example is a weather service, which answers to the query “temperature Helsinki” submitted as an SMS-message. The weather service replies by sending an answer message to the sender. The answer in this case includes the current temperature in Helsinki.  
           [0008]    There are many standardized protocols of how to connect the Internet services to the SMS-gateways. In addition there are many non-standard protocols. For the providers of the SMS-services, this is a major difficulty. The SMS-gateways are used to overcome this problem and to interconnect several SMS-services into the several SMS centres.  
           [0009]    The SMS-messages have variable delays, limited size, low rate and low priority because the signalling channels are used for transmitting the messages. A paging channel (PCH) is used for SMS broadcasting. Paging channel (PCH) is one of the GSM common control channels (CCCH). Despite these limitations, SMS-messages are commonly used.  
           [0010]    Messages are transmitted within the same cell or to anyone with a roaming service capability. Messages may be sent from one digital phone to another or from a web site equipped with a PC link.  
           [0011]    SMS does not require a receiving mobile phone to be active or within range at the moment. The sent message will be held for a number of days in an SMS-centre, until the receiving mobile phone is active and within range. If the receiving device cannot be reached within a predetermined time, the message will be destroyed.  
           [0012]    Typically SMS-messages are used to give a mobile device user some information or notification. Most commonly, an SMS-message notifies a mobile device owner that he or she has received a voicemail message. SMS-messages can also inform salesperson of an inquiry and contact data relating to a call. A doctor or a nurse can be notified with an SMS message if there is a patient with a problem requiring immediate care. A service person may get the time and the place of his/her next call and a driver may get the address of the next pickup through SMS-messaging. Also SMS is already used for direct marketing and entertainment, such as SMS-games.  
           [0013]    The technology of SMS-messaging is evolving and the knowledge of SMS based systems is increasing rapidly. It is already possible to deliver binary formatted applications in the messages. There are also free SMS-message submission applications available in the Internet. This eases the submission of all kinds of SMS-messages. So SMS is widely used and new targets of usage are evoked continuously. As the technology improves, more and more usage areas are covered. This unavoidably leads to the situation, in which users will receive unpleasant messages. These unpleasant, unwanted messages may be sent intentionally or unintentionally.  
           [0014]    SMS messages may be disturbing since the resources in terms of receiving capacity are limited. There is a maximum limit for the number of storable SMS-messages in each device. If the amount of received messages becomes large, some low importance messages, for example advertisement, fill the storage space. Also, depending on each user and their personal opinions, the content of a message may be intruding. Malfunctioning service software may submit unintended messages. For example receiving same message number of times can be annoying, especially when the message is received on inappropriate time.  
           [0015]    Disturbing messages can also be sent intentionally. For example someone may intrude to a system of a wireless SMS-message provider and submit disturbing messages to the customers of that service. If there are too many messages arriving to one device with limited resources, all excess messages stay in the pool of the SMS-centre of the SMS-gateway. As soon as user deletes messages from his/her device, new messages are loaded from the pool of the SMS-centre. It is also possible to submit disturbing over the air (OTA) applications to SIM (subscriber identity module) cards of mobile devices.  
           [0016]    Clearly disturbing are the virus-messages. Just as computers have their own anti-virus software, also with other devices virus-messages should be handled carefully. These messages should, after identification, be removed from the message streams. Further some alarm system should be activated.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0017]    The objective of the present invention is to process SMS- and corresponding messages. The further objective of the present invention is to identify and control SMS- and corresponding messages in specific manner.  
           [0018]    The objectives of the present invention are achieved by allowing certain parties to define the importance of different messages and by defining instructions for processing the messages according to their importance.  
           [0019]    In the following descriptions messages are commonly called SMS-messages for clarification. Also gateways, message centres and other affiliated means, methods and components are described as part of an SMS-messaging system. It is obvious that the described embodiments of the present invention are applicable also for other kind of messages, especially for MMS (multimedia messaging service)-messages.  
           [0020]    To make the controlling, filtering and directing of SMS-messages possible, messages must be classified. The classification can be done by the user or by some administrator and it is done for example on a web site, which is attached to the SMS-gateway. According to an advantageous embodiment of the present invention, the classification and processing rules are defined with a special programming tool generated for this purpose. According to another embodiment, the known programming tools, like editors, and techniques can be used to produce the classification and processing rules. So it is assumed, that user has his/her own user tool and some connection to an SMS-gateway through a network. The actual programming tool is typically situated in an SMS-gateway or in a code server of the administrator.  
           [0021]    The classification is based on some characteristics of messages. The classification can be based for example on sender, length, date, time, price or number of messages. Also a location of a sender can be the criterion of the classification. The classification can also be based on content of the message, which can be traced by comparing for example matching words or bit patterns. The type of the message is, as well, one possible basis for the classification. The message can be plain text, sound, picture, data accepted by MMS (multimedia messaging service), some OTA (on the air) application or any combination of mentioned.  
           [0022]    The classification affects the routing of the SMS-message. According to the prior art, all messages were transmitted directly to the mobile device. According to the present invention, one can transmit directly to the mobile device for example those messages, which are classified important and urgent. Important, but not urgent messages can be directed to a user&#39;s mailbox. And finally unimportant or completely filtered messages can be viewed through the Internet or the service can only send a summary of the filtered messages by an email to the user&#39;s mailbox. The present invention allows also the recording of the whole messaging. The receiving device of the user will be available to accept important messages, since disturbing messages will not overload the device.  
           [0023]    In the following description of the various embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration various embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized, and structural and functional modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0024]    [0024]FIG. 1 illustrates typical routes of an SMS-message according to the prior art,  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 2 illustrates a route of an SMS-message between a mobile terminal and a service provider according to one advantageous embodiment of the present invention,  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 3 illustrates the apparatus used for an advantageous embodiment of the present invention,  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 4 a  illustrates the internal messages exchanged during SMS-message submission according to one advantageous embodiment of the present invention,  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 4 b  illustrates the processing step according to one advantageous embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 illustrates processing of a message according to one advantageous embodiment of the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0029]    A simplified block diagram of an advantageous embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 2. The messaging centre, used in the method according to the present invention, can be, for example, the SMS centre  202  as illustrated in FIG. 2. The service provider  205  is connected to the SMS centre  202  through an SMS-gateway  203 . The messaging gateway  203  used can be for example the First Hop Message Gateway (FHMG), which is illustrated on the priority date of this application at the site http://www.firsthop.com. The mobile terminal  201  is connected to the SMS centre  202  in some known way, for example like that illustrated in detail in the prior art FIG. 1. In this application, all kinds of gateways that fall within the scope of the present invention are generally called “SMS-gateways.” 
         [0030]    According to the prior art an SMS-gateway  203  typically directs messages to a predefined network or receiver, depending on formerly defined instructions. According to an advantageous embodiment of the present invention, the SMS-message is processed in an SMS-gateway  203  according to instructions  204  defined by one or more authorized party  204   a . This author  204   a  maintaining the processing instructions  204  can be, for example, a user, operator or some representative of a user group or a company. These processing instructions  204  may include for example new routing for some kind of messages, blocking of numbers or saving of certain messages.  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 3 illustrates the SMS-gateway in more detail. The SMS-message  301  comes in to the SMS-gateway  302 . In the SMS-gateway  302  the incoming message  301  first goes to an analyzer  3021 , which analyses the message  301  in predetermined way. This analyzing is based on certain characteristics or properties of the incoming message  301 , for example based on the phone number. If there are defined some processing codes for the incoming message  301 , the analyzer  3021  identifies the message and informs the code memory  3022 , which transmits certain valid instructions to the processor  3023  and to the router  3024 . Based on code memory&#39;s  3022  instructions, the processor  3023  processes the incoming message  301 . For the pertinent redirecting of the message  301 , the SMS-gateway includes a router  3024 , which transmits the SMS-message out  303  from the SMS-gateway, towards its destination.  
         [0032]    A number of SMS-gateways can be interconnected, for example through the Internet, forming large SMS-gateway-networks. Messages may be delivered to other messaging gateways or to some other SMS-gateway  304 , as illustrated in FIG. 3. The message can be redirected for example to another service provider or mobile terminal; to other SMS-gateway or SMS-centre; to other access gateways or messaging systems. The receiver can be defined in a specified address-field, from which a router  3024  knows, where to transmit the message. If the message is to be treated as an email, the SMS-gateway should be connected to some server using, for example SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) or some other email protocol. The SMS-message may also be deleted  305  or stored in some storage server  306  for the future use. From the storage server  306 , the messages may be transmitted, for example towards the MS, through some adequate gateway  304 , for example after a predetermined time. Also the stored messages, or the announcement thereof, may be transmitted to a user&#39;s computer  307 .  
         [0033]    The user&#39;s computer  307 , illustrated in FIG. 3, may as well be some other author&#39;s computer or terminal. The codes, according to an advantageous embodiment of the present inventions are maintained through this terminal. In order to edit and define the instructions and codes, there also must be some network interface  308 , which is attached to the code memory  3022  and to the analyzer  3021 . The attachment to the analyzer  3021  may be implemented straight from the network interfaces  308  or the connection may be implemented through the code memory  3022 , as illustrated in FIG. 3. Further there is illustrated a user tool  309 , which makes it possible and easy to generate the processing code. Advantageously with a user tool  309  the user can establish a connection with some programming tool, which can be for example a special programming tool generated for this purpose or some known programming tool. This programming tool is typically situated in an SMS-gateway or in some code server of an administrator, such as an operator. With this programming tool, a user can define for example number groups, from which the messages should not be directed to the phone and other numbers, which should receive a response, or type of messages, which should be destroyed, or a particular length of messages, which should be saved to some other device.  
         [0034]    The system administrator is capable of programming his/her own code and some other author may be able to program his. Every authorized party has a programming tool or a user tool  309 , which can establish a connection to a programming tool, to define one&#39;s own application code. According to an advantageous embodiment of the present invention, the user tool  309  is simply some typical network browser and the connection to the programming tool is established through the Internet. Typically programming tool is used through a browser. The browser used can be wireless or wired. The user interface can be, for example, a web site. The user tool is preferably implemented so that it produces automatically bug free code.  
         [0035]    The actual payload of an SMS-message, the user data, can be either in textual or in binary format. Although SMS-messages have a maximum length, the size of this user data is not limited. The SMS centre splits the messages and submits them in pieces. Some mobile terminals support this feature and concatenate the pieces of a message automatically.  
         [0036]    Also the general processing of a message is implemented in a gateway. According to an advantageous embodiment of the present inventions the processing of a message is done based on the rules given through certain programming logics. According to this embodiment, programmable codes may be either static or dynamic. Before contemplating these codes in detail, let&#39;s consider a situation in which a service provider wants to send a message to the mobile terminal, which is illustrated in FIG. 4 a.    
         [0037]    The service provider sends a _“submit”_ message to the SMS-gateway  401 . This message  401  is a request to submit. Also the actual messages are encoded in one submit message and further it includes the instructions for transmitting the message. There is no upper limit for the length of the message processed in an SMS-gateway. SMS-gateway sends an acknowledgment back to the service provider  402 . This acknowledgment includes a unique identification number of the message. After receiving the initial message from the service provider, the SMS-gateway processes  403  the message. This processing advantageously includes the use of predetermined codes according to an advantageous embodiment of the present invention. This processing step  403  is described further, with reference to the accompanying FIG. 4 b , later in this application.  
         [0038]    After the message is processed  403 , in FIG. 4 a , SMS-gateway sends the message to the SMS centre  404 . The SMS centre forwards the message to the mobile terminal  405  in some known prior art way. The SMS centre may also send an acknowledgment to the SMS-gateway  406 , which forwards the acknowledgment to the service provider  407 . This acknowledgment informs about a successful or an unsuccessful transmission of a message to the SMS centre  404 . This acknowledgment is sent only if requested in the initial submit message in step  401 . This optional acknowledgment is illustrated in FIG. 4 a  by dashed lines as is also the other optional information, which is a delivery status  408 ,  409 ,  410 . The SMS centre gets the delivery status from the mobile terminal  408 . The received delivery status is sent by the SMS centre to the SMS-gateway  409 , which forwards it to the service provider  410 . From the delivery status, the service provider knows whether the mobile terminal received the message. This delivery status can also be requested later, for example after a requested submission of scheduled messages, the service provider can query the submission status of the messages by sending a status-report-request to the SMS-gateway. The aforementioned two optional information messages are not supported by all SMS centres.  
         [0039]    The processing step  403  in FIG. 4 a  is illustrated in more detail in FIG. 4 b . According to an advantageous embodiment of the present invention, there are predetermined codes  4002 , which determine how the messages  4001  are to be processed. These codes may be for example pure assembler, compiled code or a code may be compiled after it has been loaded from the database. Also the codes may be some interpretable code, like Java or some scripting language. It is not essential for the present invention, which known source code is used. These application codes are run and the messages  4001  will be processed according to transactions defined by a code  4002 . In these codes there is determined some way to classify messages. Based on that classification, the message will be processed, for example rejected or deleted  4003 , altered  4004 , directed to other media than the original receiver, e.g. an email  4005  or a web site  4006  or even to other SMS-gateway, saved to a database  4007 , responded to according to certain logic or left untouched and directed to the target device  4008 . It is also possible to store only the statistical information about the message  4009  or the message may be stored for a later transmission to certain terminal  4010  or service.  
         [0040]    According to the present invention the codes, or in other words, the classifying and processing rules for the messages, can be maintained by different authors. For example the operator may want to control all the messages in the system or just some kind of messages or some phone numbers. Advantageously, the mentioned operator specific code will filter all universally harmful messages, for example the known virus messages. All identified harmful messages are destroyed and only the operator gets a notification about all messages deleted from the system. The operator may also want to keep track of some messages or users, since in several countries operators are obliged to provide authorities with a possibility for tracking of the traffic of certain users. This action is called a legal interception. Also the operator can have a chargeable service, where a customer can, for example with a web-based tool attached to an SMS-gateway, configure his own data and limits. Also there can be some company code maintained by a user&#39;s employer. The company code can be used for example to add some text, logos or contact information to the messages to be sent to certain receivers. According to one advantageous embodiment of the present invention, the company code is attached to a company&#39;s billing system for example so, that processing is based on prepaid bills and based on prepayments, the messages are sent to the primary destination or redirected. This kind of embodiment can allow the customers and the employees to make queries about the bills, their amounts, dates and so on.  
         [0041]    According to one advantageous embodiment, the codes concern a specific user group. One example of this is an athletic group, members of which want to receive results from some automatic service immediately.  
         [0042]    In the phone number specific, personal application codes there is typically a number based classification. The messages originating from certain numbers are either wanted or unwanted and redirected according to that. This code may change often and rapidly depending on temporary circumstances.  
         [0043]    Typically the route of messages directed to the phone goes through codes of operator, company, user group and finally personal. Messages originating from the phone may for example go through a user group code and a user&#39;s company code. So the codes used are not necessarily the same in both directions. Codes used may be for example downloaded from the database.  
         [0044]    In FIG. 5 there is illustrated one exemplary embodiment of processing the messages. The code illustrated in FIG. 5 is bi-directional, so all messages originating from the mobile device or heading to the mobile device are processed in an SMS-gateway according to this code. So the message  501  arrives from the mobile device or from the SMS-centre to the SMS-gateway. First under consideration is the phone number, from which the message  501  is sent. If number is a user&#39;s own number  502 , next the date  503  is checked. If the date does not match to the predetermined one, the message is sent to the original receiver in usual way  510 . If it is found out for example that the month of the date is December,; Christmas greetings are added to the outgoing message, before it is transmitted to the receiver  510 . Also in this step of this embodiment, it is advantageous to confirm that there is sufficient space in the message. This space checking is not illustrated in FIG. 5. If the number of the sender was not this user&#39;s phone number, this message is coming to this user. Next, a list of numbers is checked  505  and if the match is found, the message is transmitted to the web site of the user  509 . If the incoming message is not coming from the numbers that user wants to redirect to the web site, the next thing is to find out the type of the message  506 . If the message is a picture or includes a picture  506 , the message is transmitted to the web site  509 . If the searched for picture format is not found, next the length of the message is under consideration  507 . Further, if the length  507  exceeds some predetermined value, some bit pattern  508  is looked for. This is done to direct all long messages  507  including a certain predetermined bit pattern  508  to the web site  509 . Otherwise the message is transmitted normally to the receiver device  510 .  
         [0045]    As an example of the use of one advantageous embodiment of the present invention let&#39;s consider a travelling salesman, who wants to receive messages from his support organization during a business trip. On the other hand, he does not want advertisements to load up his mobile device, but he might want to browse them later on a better time. According to one advantageous embodiment of the present invention, the salesman configures, at the service web site, the settings as follows: messages from the support organization origin numbers and home numbers are directed straight, untouched to his mobile device and messages originating from other numbers he directs to his email. Afterwards, the salesman can log in to his web site and see all the messages transmitted to him during the trip.  
         [0046]    One advantageous embodiment of the present invention is to configure an automatic answer to messages originating from certain numbers. There is a programming logic in the system, which may be used to develop applications conserving state for different numbers. An automatic answer can be used for example to make a messaging home page, which responds to the first coming message in some predetermined way, for example “I am on the airplane.” The second message originating from the same number can be responded to with, for example, “I am still on the airplane.” So in this embodiment of the present invention, the numbers, from which the messages originate, are identified and taken into account. The account configuration can be made through the Internet or through an interface of a mobile device, like SMS or WAP (Wireless Application Protocol).  
         [0047]    Another advantageous embodiment of the present invention is bi-directional, which means that the system is symmetric: messages originating from the service provider go through the same applications as messages originating from the user. This enables blocking off some undesired SMS-services. It can be determined that some numbers will not be reached at all, so connecting a line between two numbers is prevented. For example, parents might want to define, which SMS-services their children are allowed to use. This is typically implemented so that at first there is a limitation related to the phone bill and secondly parents allow their children to spend for example 10 FIM per week for certain predetermined SMS based services, such as games. Also company might want to hinder usage of some services, or apply some other limitations to employees&#39; phones. Usually, a user&#39;s telephone number or email address acts as an address of an SMS-message and is transmitted to the service provider. Sometimes users want to remain anonymous to the service, so transmission of user related data should be prevented. However the service needs a way to identify the user in a unique manner to receive requests and to send SMS-messages back to the requester. The identification of the user is also needed when the service includes charging the customer. If the SMS centre wants to provide anonymity for the users of the mobile terminals, it may transmit only an alphanumeric identifier to the service provider. This identifier is not related in any way to any user specific data. According to one advantageous embodiment of the present invention, a component, that can randomize the numbers, is included in a message gateway. Every installation of a message gateway has a unique secret key that is set by the owner of the installation. The secret key is used as obfuscator to the phone numbers and it should change periodically. The advantageous embodiment is implemented by a random number, which is generated from the system&#39;s own random sources. In order to achieve full anonymity, phone numbers are obfuscated with a two-way function, where the input consists of the phone number and a secret key. This function can consist of any symmetric key encryption/decryption algorithm.  
         [0048]    If the service needs to identify the same user throughout long intervals of time, the secret key cannot be changed for those services. This is the case for example, when the user has to register onto the service and is identified by the phone number. A further benefit of this embodiment of the anonymous service is that it makes impossible for the services to create user databases and sell them to third party service providers.