Method and system for broadcasting large short messages

Claim 1

A method for broadcasting short messages to selected groups of mobile subscribers within a cellular radio system comprising: organizing the message to be broadcast into a broadcast protocol having a recipient group address, message identification indicia and message contents; separating said message to be broadcast into a plurality of separate segments; sending said message from a message center to a mobile switching center (MSC) of the system associated with a geographic part of the BC-SMS message broadcast group address; broadcasting, separately, each segment of said organized message along with ordinary PBC messages on a shared broadcast resource of the cellular system, said shared broadcast resource comprising the paging channel of selected radio base stations within the cellular system in the geographic area within which members of the selected groups of mobile stations are believed to be present; and receiving and recognizing said organized broadcast message at the selected groups of subscriber stations within a portion of the cellular system.

Claim 2

A method for broadcasting short messages to selected groups of mobile subscribers within a cellular radio system comprising: organizing the message to be broadcast into a broadcast protocol having a recipient group address, message identification indicia and message contents; separating said message to be broadcast into a plurality of separate segments; sending said message from a message center to a mobile switching center (MSC) of the system associated with a geographic part of the BC-SMS message broadcast group address; broadcasting, separately, each segment of said organized message along with ordinary PBC messages on a shared broadcast resource of the cellular system, said shared broadcast resource comprising the paging channel of selected radio base stations within the cellular system in the geographic area within which members of the selected groups of mobile stations are believed to be present; and receiving and recognizing said organized broadcast message at the selected groups of subscriber stations within a portion of the cellular system.

Claim 11

A method for broadcasting short messages to selected groups of mobile subscribers within a cellular radio system comprising: composing a short message to be broadcast (BC-SMS) at a message source, said BC-SMS having a broadcast group address comprising a geographical part identifying the geographical region of the cellular system to which the message is directed and a function group part identifying the particular selected groups of mobile subscriber stations to which the BC-SMS is to be delivered; forwarding the BC-SMS message from the message originator to a message center within the cellular system; determining that the size of the BC-SMS message to be broadcast is greater than a predetermined number of octets, separating the BC-SMS message to be broadcast into a plurality of separate segments, each segment to be separately broadcast as a paging message on a radio base station of said system; formatting a sequence of paging messages (PBC) each having the following parts: a broadcast group address identifying the mobile subscribers for which the message is intended; a message ID number identifying the message within the system; a message segment number for each of the separate segments into which the message is separated, identifying each particular segment of the message to be broadcast on each paging message; and the message contents of the message segment to be broadcast; sending the from the message center to the mobile switching center (MSC) of the system associated with the geographic part of the BC-SMS message broadcast group address; and sequentially broadcasting said PBC messages carrying said BC-SMS message from a radio base station within said cellular system along with ordinary PBC messages in accordance with a priority determined to ensure that the paging functionality of said system is not seriously adversely affected.

Claim 12

A method for broadcasting short messages to selected groups of mobile subscribers within a cellular radio system comprising: composing a short message to be broadcast (BC-SMS) at a message source, said BC-SMS having a broadcast group address comprising a geographical part identifying the geographical region of the cellular system to which the message is directed and a function group part identifying the particular selected groups of mobile subscriber stations to which the BC-SMS is to be delivered; forwarding the BC-SMS message from the message originator to a message center within the cellular system; determining that the size of the BC-SMS message to be broadcast is greater than a predetermined number of octets, separating the BC-SMS message to be broadcast into a plurality of separate segments, each segment to be separately broadcast as a paging message on a radio base station of said system; formatting a sequence of paging messages (PBC) each having the following parts: a broadcast group address identifying the mobile subscribers for which the message is intended; a message ID number identifying the message within the system; a message segment number for each of the separate segments into which the message is separated, identifying each particular segment of the message to be broadcast on each paging message; and the message contents of the message segment to be broadcast; sending the from the message center to the mobile switching center (MSC) of the system associated with the geographic part of the BC-SMS message broadcast group address; and sequentially broadcasting said PBC messages carrying said BC-SMS message from a radio base station within said cellular system along with ordinary PBC messages in accordance with a priority determined to ensure that the paging functionality of said system is not seriously adversely affected.

Claim 13

A system for broadcasting short messages to selected groups of mobile subscribers within a cellular radio system comprising: means for organizing the message to be broadcast into a broadcast protocol having a recipient group address, message identification indicia and message contents; means for separating said message to be broadcast into a plurality of separate segments; means for sending said message from a message center to a mobile switching center (MSC) of the system associated with a geographic part of the BC-SMS message broadcast group address; means for broadcasting, separately, each segment of said organized message along with ordinary PBC messages on a shared broadcast resource of the cellular system, said shared broadcast resource comprising the paging channel of selected radio base stations within the cellular system in the geographic area within which members of the selected groups of mobile stations are believed to be present; and means for receiving and recognizing said organized broadcast message at the selected groups of subscriber stations within a portion of the cellular system.

Claim 14

A system for broadcasting short messages to selected groups of mobile subscribers within a cellular radio system comprising: means for organizing the message to be broadcast into a broadcast protocol having a recipient group address, message identification indicia and message contents; means for separating said message to be broadcast into a plurality of separate segments; means for sending said message from a message center to a mobile switching center (MSC) of the system associated with a geographic part of the BC-SMS message broadcast group address; means for broadcasting, separately, each segment of said organized message along with ordinary PBC messages on a shared broadcast resource of the cellular system, said shared broadcast resource comprising the paging channel of selected radio base stations within the cellular system in the geographic area within which members of the selected groups of mobile stations are believed to be present; and means for receiving and recognizing said organized broadcast message at the selected groups of subscriber stations within a portion of the cellular system.

Claim 23

A system for broadcasting short messages to selected groups of mobile subscribers within a cellular radio system comprising: means for composing a short message to be broadcast (BC-SMS) at a message source, said BC-SMS having a broadcast group address comprising a geographical part identifying the geographical region of the cellular system to which the message is directed and a function group part identifying the particular selected groups of mobile subscriber stations to which the BC-SMS is to be delivered; means for forwarding the BC-SMS message from the message originator to a message center within the cellular system; means for determining that the size of the BC-SMS message to be broadcast is greater than a predetermined number of octets; means for separating the BC-SMS message to be broadcast into a plurality of separate segments, each segment to be separately broadcast as a paging message on a radio base station of said system; means for formatting a sequence of paging messages (PBC) each having the following parts: a broadcast group address identifying the mobile subscribers for which the message is intended; a message ID number identifying the message within the system; a message segment number for each of the separate segments into which the message is separated, identifying each particular segment of the message to be broadcast on each paging message; and the message contents of the message segment to be broadcast; means for sending the from the message center to the mobile switching center (MSC) of the system associated with the geographic part of the BC-SMS message broadcast group address; and means for sequentially broadcasting said PBC messages carrying said BC-SMS message from a radio base station within said cellular system along with ordinary PBC messages in accordance with a priority determined to ensure that the paging functionality of said system is not seriously adversely affected.

Claim 24

A system for broadcasting short messages to selected groups of mobile subscribers within a cellular radio system comprising: means for composing a short message to be broadcast (BC-SMS) at a message source, said BC-SMS having a broadcast group address comprising a geographical part identifying the geographical region of the cellular system to which the message is directed and a function group part identifying the particular selected groups of mobile subscriber stations to which the BC-SMS is to be delivered; means for forwarding the BC-SMS message from the message originator to a message center within the cellular system; means for determining that the size of the BC-SMS message to be broadcast is greater than a predetermined number of octets; means for separating the BC-SMS message to be broadcast into a plurality of separate segments, each segment to be separately broadcast as a paging message on a radio base station of said system; means for formatting a sequence of paging messages (PBC) each having the following parts: a broadcast group address identifying the mobile subscribers for which the message is intended; a message ID number identifying the message within the system; a message segment number for each of the separate segments into which the message is separated, identifying each particular segment of the message to be broadcast on each paging message; and the message contents of the message segment to be broadcast; means for sending the from the message center to the mobile switching center (MSC) of the system associated with the geographic part of the BC-SMS message broadcast group address; and means for sequentially broadcasting said PBC messages carrying said BC-SMS message from a radio base station within said cellular system along with ordinary PBC messages in accordance with a priority determined to ensure that the paging functionality of said system is not seriously adversely affected.