Abstract:
A paging system in which a subscriber&#39;s telephone number is used as the PIN number to identify the subscriber&#39;s pager. When a caller places a call to the paging system, the caller enters the telephone number of the subscriber when prompted for a PIN. The paging system performs a database lookup to determine the address of the pager associated with the entered PIN. Alternatively, the entered PIN itself could be used as the address of the pager. Upon identification of the address of the pager, the paging system transmits a message including the address of the pager via radio transmission.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to wireless paging systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for sending a paging message to a subscriber&#39;s paging device using a telephone number of a telephone associated with the subscriber. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Paging systems are well known and widespread. Currently, when a subscriber subscribes to a paging service, the subscriber is assigned a personal identification number (PIN). The PIN number is used by people sending paging messages to identify the subscriber to whom the message is to be sent. 
     For example, a typical paging scenario would be as follows. A caller dials a subscriber&#39;s office telephone number: 987-654-3210 and is connected to the subscriber&#39;s voicemail because the subscriber is out of the office. The voicemail will typically contain a message such as: 
     I am currently unavailable to take your call. You may page me by dialing 1-800-123-4567 and then entering my PIN number 3947329. 1    
       1  The use of telephone numbers and PIN numbers herein is for example purposes only and not intended to represent actual telephone numbers or PIN numbers.  
     The caller then dials the paging system telephone number (1-800-123-4567), enters the subscriber&#39;s PIN (3947329) and then enters the message to be sent. The message is typically a numeric message entered using the keys of the callers telephone thus sending DTMF tones to the paging system. Thus, in the typical example, after calling the subscriber&#39;s office telephone number and being connected to voice mail, the caller must then remember both the paging system telephone number and the subscriber&#39;s PIN number. Often, while listening to a subscriber&#39;s voice mail greeting, a caller will write down the paging system telephone number and the PIN number. However, if the subscriber speaks quickly during the voice mail greeting, the caller may miss the PIN number or record it incorrectly. The caller is then forced to place another call to the subscriber&#39;s office telephone for the sole purpose of obtaining the correct PIN number. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In accordance with the invention, a subscriber&#39;s telephone number is used as the subscriber&#39;s pager PIN number in a paging system. As a result, a caller to the subscriber&#39;s telephone number who reaches the subscriber&#39;s voice mail can page the subscriber by only recording the telephone number of the paging system, because the caller already knows the subscriber&#39;s telephone number. This simplifies the paging of a subscriber after a caller reaches the subscriber&#39;s voice mail. 
     In accordance with one aspect of the invention, upon receipt of the subscriber&#39;s telephone number as the PIN number, the paging terminal will access a database to determine the address of the subscriber&#39;s pager. The paging terminal will use this retrieved address to send the paging message. 
     In accordance with an alternate embodiment, the subscriber&#39;s telephone number could be the actual address of the subscriber&#39;s pager. In this embodiment, upon receipt of the subscribers telephone number as the PIN number, the paging terminal will use that telephone number as the address to send the paging message. 
     These and other advantages of the invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by reference to the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a telecommunication network in which the present invention may be implemented; 
     FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a paging terminal; 
     FIG. 3 shows the format of a message sent by the paging terminal; and 
     FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a wireless pager. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a telecommunication network in which the present invention may be implemented. Such a telecommunication network is well known in the art and as such, will only be described in enough detail for an explanation of the present invention. Telephone  102  is connected to central office (CO)  104  and telephone  108  is connected to central office  110 . As is well known, a central office is a switching system that terminates local telephone loops and connects the local telephone loops to each other and to trunks which connect to other telecommunication switches, such as interexchange carrier (IXC) switch  106 . An interexchange carrier switch is a switching system that is part of a long distance network for providing telecommunication services between local exchanges. Interexchange carrier switch  106  is connected to paging terminal  112 . Paging terminal  112  is connected to antennas  114 ,  116 ,  118  which transmit radio signals to wireless paging devices, such as pager  120 . 
     When a caller using telephone  102  wishes to communicated with a called party at telephone  108 , the following scenario is typical. For purposes of this description, assume that the called party associated with telephone  108  is a subscriber to a paging service and that the subscriber uses pager  120 . The caller at telephone  102  will dial the telephone number associated with telephone  108  in order to communicate with the subscriber. The CO  104  receives the dialed digits and routes the call to IXC  106 , which in turn routes the call to CO  110 . Upon receipt of the call, CO  110  rings telephone  108 . Assuming that the subscriber is not present to answer telephone  108 , the calling party will typically be connected to a voice mail system. Such a voice mail system may be a stand alone answering machine connected to telephone  108 , a voice mail system implemented in a private branch exchange (PBX) located at the customer premises, a voice mail service associated with CO  110 , or any other type of voice mail system. Alternatively, instead of a voice mail system, the calling party could be connected to a messaging system which will play a message to the calling party, but does not provide the ability for the calling party to leave a message for the subscriber. Such voice mail and messaging systems are well known in the art and the type of voice mail or messaging system is not pertinent to the description of the present invention. Upon being connected to the voice mail or messaging system, the caller will hear a greeting. A typical greeting which would be appropriate for use in conjunction with the present invention would be as follows: 
     I am currently unavailable to take your call. You may page me by dialing 1-800-123-4567 and then entering my telephone number as the PIN number. 
     This message differs from the prior art example message discussed in the background section in that when the caller hears this message, the caller does not have to remember a separate PIN number. Instead, in accordance with the invention, the PIN number assigned to the subscriber is the telephone number of telephone  108 , which telephone number was just dialed by the caller, and therefore known by the caller. 
     Upon receipt of the message, the caller at telephone  102  dials the paging system telephone number. Upon receipt of the dialed digits, the CO  104  routes the call to IXC  106 , which further routes the call to paging terminal  112 . Paging terminal  112  is shown in further detail in FIG.  2 . Controller  202  determines that a call has been received and the microprocessor  204  generates a prompt (e.g. a tone or synthesized voice) indicating that the caller should enter a PIN number. The caller at telephone  102  enters a PIN number, typically through the use of the telephone  102  keypad, thus generating DTMF tones which can be interpreted as digits by the processor  204 . In accordance with the invention, the PIN number entered by the caller is the telephone number of the subscriber&#39;s telephone  108 . Upon receipt of the PIN, the processor  204  will generate another prompt indicating that the caller should enter a message to be sent to the pager. This message is also typically entered using the telephone  102  keypad. 
     Upon receipt of the PIN and message, the processor will perform a database  206  lookup to determine the address of the pager  102  associated with the entered PIN number. As will be described in further detail below, every pager has a unique address so that it may receive and display only messages addressed to it. The database  206  stores a lookup table associating PIN numbers with pager addresses. Although database  206  is shown as part of the paging terminal  112 , in an alternate embodiment, the database  206  could be stored in the telecommunication network external to the paging terminal, in which case the paging terminal would send a request message to the database to retrieve the information from the lookup table. 
     In accordance with an alternate embodiment of the invention, the PIN number entered by the caller could be the address of the pager. In such a case, there is no need for a database lookup because when the caller enters the PIN number the paging terminal  112  will know the address of the pager. 
     At this point, the paging terminal  112  knows the address of the pager  120  and the message to be sent. The processor  204  sends the information to message encoder  208  which generates the actual message to be transmitted by the paging system. A typical message  300  is shown in FIG.  3  and includes a preamble and synchronization portion  302 , an address portion  304 , and a data portion  306 . The message  300  is provided to transmitter  210  which generates a radio signal and sends the radio signal to antennas  114 ,  116  and  118  for over the air broadcasting. Such transmitted signal will be received by pager  120 . 
     Pager  120  is shown in further detail in FIG.  4 . The pager  120  receives the radio signals with antenna  402  and receiver  404 . Upon receipt, the processor  408  determines whether the address in address portion  304  of received message  300  matches the address of the pager  120  which is stored in ROM  412 . If the addresses match, then pager  120  recognizes that the message is intended for the pager and the pager notifies the subscriber that a message has arrived. This may be accomplished, for example, by generating an audio indication (e.g. a tone) using speaker  414 , or any other known technique. The data portion  306  of the received message  300  is then displayed in display device  406 , which may be for example an LCD display. The received message  300  may also be stored in RAM  410  for later retrieval. 
     Thus in accordance with the invention, a message may be sent to a subscriber&#39;s pager by accessing a paging system and by identifying the subscriber&#39;s pager using a telephone number of a telephone associated with the subscriber. Since the caller will typically initially attempt to reach the subscriber by dialing the subscriber&#39;s telephone number, the use of that telephone number as the PIN is advantageous because it is already known by the caller. This obviates the need for the caller to remember a different PIN number for the subscriber&#39;s pager. In the advantageous embodiment described herein, the telephone number used as the pager PIN is the telephone number of a landline telephone associated with the subscriber. Alternatively, the telephone number used as the pager PIN could be the telephone number of a wireless telephone associated with the subscriber. 
     It is noted that in order to implement the present invention in a nationwide paging system, the telephone number which is used as the PIN in accordance with the invention should include the three digit area code in order to uniquely identify a pager anywhere within the nationwide paging system. Similarly, to implement the invention in an international paging system, the telephone number which is used as the PIN should include the country code in order to uniquely identify the pager. 
     The foregoing Detailed Description is to be understood as being in every respect illustrative and exemplary, but not restrictive, and the scope of the invention disclosed herein is not to be determined from the Detailed Description, but rather from the claims as interpreted according to the full breadth permitted by the patent laws. It is to be understood that the embodiments shown and described herein are only illustrative of the principles of the present invention and that various modifications may be implemented by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. For example, the invention could be implemented in conjunction with a wireless telecommunication network, in which case telephones  102  and  108  could be wireless cellular telephones, and CO&#39;s  104  and  110  could be mobile switching centers. In such an embodiment, the telephones would communicate with the mobile switching centers via radio base stations. The architecture and functioning of wireless telecommunication networks is well known in the art.