Routing of a short message originated by a mobile device

The present invention generally relates to mobile communication, and more specifically to a system and a method for routing a short message originated by a wireless mobile communication device to a relevant local destination based upon characteristics of the short message.

In today's wireless mobile communication systems, a user of a mobile wireless communication device can often communicate by sending a Short Message through the Short Message Service (“SMS”). When the user sends a SMS message, it is usually routed to the user's home network SMS Service Center (“SMS-SC”). For example, if the user's home network were in New York, N.Y., his SMS messages would be routed to his home network SMS-SC in New York, N.Y. even when he sends an SMS message while is roaming in London, England, and is out of his home network. For most applications, routing SMS messages to the user's home network SMS-SC presents no problem, but there are certain situations, such an SMS message requesting emergency assistance, where it would be preferable for the SMS message to be sent to an SMS-SC in the currently visited network and its content sent on an entity providing local emergency assistance. Presently, to provide local emergency assistance to the user, it would be necessary for a receiving Short Message Entity (“SME”) in the user's home network to provide the details of the emergency SMS message to a local SME in the currently visited network where the user requires the emergency assistance. Such mechanisms can be quite complex and costly, and may well introduce delays and ineffective assistance.

FIG. 1 is an exemplary environment in which a wireless communication system in accordance with at least one of the preferred embodiments may be practiced;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating a process of routing a short message originated by a visiting mobile device to a local short message service center in a wireless communication network in accordance with at least one of the preferred embodiments;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary block diagram of a wireless communication network configured to route a short message to a local destination in accordance with at least one of the preferred embodiments;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating a process of routing a short message originated by a mobile device to a local short message service center by the mobile device in accordance with at least one of the preferred embodiments; and

FIG. 5 is an exemplary block diagram of a wireless mobile communication device configured to route a short message to a local destination in accordance with at least one of the preferred embodiments.

When a wireless communication network receives a short message from a visiting wireless mobile communication device (“mobile device”) having a specific message destination such as an emergency center including police, fire station, and hospital, through the Short Message Service (“SMS”), the wireless communication network compares the message destination with a list of predefined short message destinations, and, if there is a match, routes the short message to a local SMS Service Center (“SMS-SC”) instead of routing the SMS short message to the mobile device's home network SMS-SC. The wireless communication system may also send the short message to a local destination corresponding to the original message destination. Alternatively, the mobile device may receive the list of predefined short message destinations upon registering in a non-home network, and may use the list to replace the user-entered message destination with a corresponding local destination.

FIG. 1 is an exemplary environment 100 in which a wireless communication system in accordance with at least one of the preferred embodiments may be practiced. In this example, a mobile device 102 is registered in a non-home wireless communication network (“local network”) 104 , which has a local SMS-SC 106 . Normally, an SMS message transmitted by the mobile device 102 will reach its home SMS-SC 108 associated with its home network 110 through the local wireless communication network 104 and a communication network 112 such as a traditional land-line communication network or wide area network 112 . However, for a certain type of SMS messages, such as an SMS message requesting emergency assistance, the SMS message transmitted from the mobile device 102 is routed to the local SMS-SC 106 in the local network 104 , and the content of the SMS message is sent on an entity providing local emergency assistance.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary flowchart 200 illustrating a process of routing a short message originated by a visiting mobile device 102 to local short message service center 106 in the local network 104 in accordance with at least one of the preferred embodiments. In block 202 , the local network 104 receives an SMS message having a message destination from the mobile device 102 . The message destination is the address of the intended recipient which the user of the mobile device 102 inserts, known as the Transport Protocol Destination Address (“TP-DA”). In the case of an emergency short message this TP-DA will be a short code such as 911, 112, 999, or any predefined code known to indicate that the short message concerns an emergency situation. The local network 104 has a list of predefined short message destinations, which is used to route the SMS message from the mobile device 102 to an appropriate local destination. The predefined short message destinations may be a plurality of emergency center destinations such as, but no limited to police, fire department, hospital, 911, 112, 999, or any other destinations associated with emergency centers. Each emergency center destination may have a corresponding short message destination for a locally located emergency center. Although the mobile device 102 automatically inserts the routing information, i.e. the address of the home SMS-SC, the local network 104 evaluates the TP-DA and routes the short message to an appropriate SC. In block 204 , the local network 104 compares the message destination, or TP-DA, with the list of predefined short message destinations. If a match is found in block 204 , the local network 104 route the SMS message from the mobile device 102 to a local destination corresponding to the matching predefined short message destination of the list of predefined short message destinations in block 206 . The local destination may be a local SMS-SC 106 or a locally located emergency center. The local network 104 may route the SMS message a local destination in various ways including: replacing the original message destination with the local destination and transmitting the short message to the local destination; forwarding the short message to the local destination; and generating a new short message having the local destination, appending the original short message to the new short message, and transmitting the new short message having the appended short message to the local destination.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary block diagram 300 of the local network 104 configured to route a short message to a local destination in accordance with at least one of the preferred embodiments. The local network 104 has a short message receiver 302 configured to receive a short message having a message destination from a locally registered mobile device such as the mobile device 102 . The local network 104 has a memory device 304 , which is configured to store the previously described list of predefined short message destinations. A message destination evaluator 306 is coupled to both the short message receiver 302 and the memory 304 , and is configured to match the message destination with a predefined short message destination of the list of predefined short message destinations in the memory 304 . A message destination re-director 308 is couple to the message destination evaluator 306 , and is configured to re-direct the short message to a local destination corresponding to the matching predefined short message destination of the list of predefined short message destinations. The message destination re-director 308 may be further configured to replace the message destination with the local destination. A short message transmitter 310 is coupled to the message destination re-director 308 and is configured to transmit the short message to the local destination such as the local SMS-SC 106 . The short message transmitter 310 may be further configured to forward the short message to the local destination. The local network 104 may also have a message generator 312 coupled to the message destination re-director 308 and the short message transmitter 310 , and configured to generate a new short message having the local destination and to append the short message to the new short message.

Alternatively, the mobile device 102 may direct the SMS message to an appropriate local destination such as the local SMS-SC 106 . FIG. 4 is an exemplary flowchart 400 illustrating a process of routing the SMS message originated by the mobile device 102 to the local SMS-SC 106 by the mobile device 102 in accordance with at least one of the preferred embodiments. In block 402 , the mobile device 102 receives the list of predefined short message destinations, which has been described previously. The mobile device 102 may receive the list of predefined short message destinations upon registering in a non-home network of the mobile device 102 such as the local network 104 . In block 404 , the mobile device 102 generate an SMS message having a message destination, and compares the message destination with the list of predefined short message destinations in block 406 . If the message destination matches a predefined short message destination of the list of predefined short message destinations, the mobile device 102 transmits the SMS message to a local destination corresponding to the matching predefined short message destination of the list of predefined short message destinations in block 408 . The mobile device 102 may transmit the SMS message to the local destination by replacing the original message destination with the local destination corresponding to the matching predefined short message destination of the local list of predefined local destination.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary block diagram 500 of the mobile device 102 configured to route a short message to the local SMS-SC 106 in accordance with at least one of the preferred embodiments. The mobile device 102 has a receiver 502 , which is configured to receive the list of predefined short message destinations previously described, from the local network 104 , and has a memory device 504 coupled to the receiver 502 , which is configured to store the list of predefined short message destinations. The receiver 502 may be configured to receive the list of predefined short message destinations only after the mobile device 102 registers in a non-home network such as the local network 104 . The mobile device 102 also has a short message generator 506 , which is configured to generate a short message having a message destination. A destination comparator 508 is coupled to the memory device 504 and the short message generator 506 , and is configured to match the message destination with a predefined short message destination of the list of predefined short message destinations stored in the memory device 504 . A transmitter 510 is coupled to the destination comparator 508 , and is configured to transmit the short message to a local destination corresponding to the matching predefined short message destination of the list of predefined short message destinations. The destination comparator 508 may be further configured to replace the message destination with the local destination corresponding to the matching predefined short message destination of the local list of predefined local destination.

While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, it is to be understood that the invention is not so limited. Numerous modifications, changes, variations, substitutions and equivalents will occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.