CN1980410A - Communication system and method for realizing short message leading - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a short message forwarding method for a communication system, the communication system includes a plurality of communication terminals, the types of the plurality of communication terminals may be the same or different, and the plurality of communication terminals can transmit short messages to each other , the method includes: receiving a short message sent from a first communication terminal of a communication system to a second communication terminal, the first communication terminal has a first number, and the second communication terminal has a second number; Query the forwarding information of the second communication terminal to determine whether it has set up short message forwarding; when it is determined that the second communication terminal has set up short message forwarding, use the forwarding number in the forwarding information The second number is replaced; the short message is forwarded by performing a secondary routing query on the forwarded-to number.

Description

Communication system and method for realizing short message forwarding

technical field

The present invention generally relates to the communication field, and more specifically, the present invention relates to a solution for short message forwarding in a communication system.

Background technique

Many communication systems such as PLMN, PSTN, and PHS support short messages now. For users with multiple terminals, they can decide which network to use to send short messages according to preferences, convenience and price factors, but because the existing systems usually do not Short message forwarding is supported, so users need to carry multiple terminals to receive all short messages instantly, which brings great inconvenience to users.

In addition, with the rise of instant messaging (IM) software, the demand for intercommunication of short messages and instant messages is becoming stronger and stronger. For example, when the user is online on the Internet, it is generally desired to receive and send short messages through the PC. The prior art does not provide for forwarding short messages sent to the user's mobile phone to a web-based client or allowing the user to forward from a web-based client to a web-based client. Means of text messaging.

Chinese Patent Application No. 200410024859.2 "A System and Method for Realizing Short Message Forwarding and Receiving" (published on February 23, 2005, hereinafter referred to as "reference 1") provides a method for realizing short message forwarding. It sets the short message receiving number for the user, and the user can bind the designated short message terminal phone number with the receiving number, realizing the forwarding of the received short message. This implementation method is similar to the telephone "one number" method. The user needs to apply for a short message receiving number different from the phone number. The short message sender must send a short message to this number before it can be forwarded to the designated terminal. That is to say, this invention can not utilize the existing telephone number of the user to realize forwarding.

Chinese Patent Application No. 01111099.6 "A Method for Realizing Short Message Service on Mobile Intelligent Network" (published on November 13, 2002, hereinafter referred to as "Reference 2") adopts an intelligent network to realize short message forwarding. The existing short message service is a supplementary service, and this application transfers the short message service to the intelligent network, that is, all short messages are triggered from the SSF (T-MSC) to the SCF, and the SCF completes the business logic and replaces it with the forwarding destination number The original destination number is transferred to the terminal or short message center designated by the user. However, this intelligent network implementation requires additional equipment and CAP (Capability Application Part) signaling interaction, resulting in increased signaling overhead.

Therefore, a new method capable of realizing short message forwarding is needed.

Contents of the invention

Considering the above problems, the communication system and method of the present invention are proposed, which can conveniently forward short messages to various locations, such as forwarding to other communication terminals or network-based instant messaging software.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a short message forwarding method for a communication system is provided, the communication system includes a plurality of communication terminals, and the method includes:

receiving a short message sent from a first communication terminal to a second communication terminal, the first communication terminal has a first number, and the second communication terminal has a second number;

Determine whether short message forwarding is set by querying the forwarding information of the second communication terminal from the HLR;

When it is determined that the second communication terminal has set short message forwarding, replacing the second number with the forwarding number in the forwarding information;

The short message is forwarded by performing a secondary routing query on the forwarded-to number.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a communication system for short message forwarding is provided, the communication system comprising:

Multiple communication terminals;

HLR for storing forwarding information about the communication terminal; and

The part for short message forwarding further includes:

A short message receiving device, configured to receive a short message sent from a first communication terminal to a second communication terminal, the first communication terminal has a first number, and the second communication terminal has a second number;

Inquiring means, coupled with the HLR, used to determine whether the second communication terminal has set short message forwarding by inquiring from the HLR, and after the replacement means replaces the second number with the forwarded-to number, forward Transfer number for secondary routing query;

The replacing means is used to replace the second number with the forwarding number when the querying means determines that the second user has set up short message forwarding;

The forwarding device is used for forwarding the short message in response to the route inquired by the inquiring device for the forwarded-to number.

In the communication system and method according to the first and second aspects of the present invention, it involves the situation that the user (second user) who has set the forwarding of the short message receives the short message.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a short message forwarding method for a communication system, the communication system comprising a plurality of communication terminals, wherein the user of the first communication terminal has IM software downloaded from a service provider, and A short message addressed to the first communication terminal has been forwarded to the IM software, which results in generation of a forward-to-number comprising an identifier identifying the first communication terminal and a service provider access number, the method comprising:

The user of the first communication terminal sends a short message to at least one second communication terminal through IM software;

The service provider server sends the short message to the short message gateway via the Internet/intranet short message gateway;

The short message gateway forwards the short message to the at least one second communication terminal.

In the method according to the third aspect of the present invention, it involves the situation that the short message is sent from the user (the first user) who has set the forwarding of the short message through the instant messaging software.

In the communication system, the components most related to short message receiving and sending are the short message center and the short message gateway. According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the present invention mainly relates to the improvement of the short message gateway. However, in the current communication system, the short message center and the short message gateway can be separated or integrated, so the system and method of the present invention are not limited to the short message center or the short message gateway.

In the present invention, the user can specify the destination number of short message forwarding for a specific terminal, so that all short messages sent to this terminal can be forwarded to another terminal that supports short messages or instant messages. When the short message center queries the destination routing information of the HLR short message, the routing information fed back by the HLR includes the short message forwarding number set by the user, and the short message center replaces the original destination number with the forwarding number, and searches for the route twice according to the new destination number .

The forwarding function of the short message proposed by the invention can forward the short message to the IM software of Internet/enterprise intranet or other communication systems.

The present invention is combined with IM software, for example, after the user registers to the IM server, the short message can be forwarded to the IM; after being offline, all the IM messages can be forwarded to the short message, which provides a unified message for the user and facilitates the use of the user .

The invention enables the IM software-based short message input service provided by the operator to interoperate with the mobile short message, which brings the benefits for the user: the user can forward the short message to the Internet/intranet-based On the client side of the computer, the mobile phone number can be used to send and receive short messages on the computer, and the computer network resources and various input software on the computer are used to facilitate the user's short message input method and speed. According to the present invention, the IM software can be personal IM software usually based on the Internet, or enterprise-level IM software based on the enterprise intranet.

Realizing the intercommunication between Internet/enterprise network applications and 3G can significantly increase the application volume of short messages. And, as described later, after SMS forwarding is used, there is no SP access number before the source and destination numbers, which meets the user's behavioral needs and improves service usage.

In addition, under the condition that PHS and fixed network support HLR and MAP signaling is used for communication between the exchange and HLR, PHS and fixed network short messages can also use the present invention to support short message forwarding.

Therefore, the present invention enables mutual forwarding of short messages between systems such as PHS, Jiajiayi and 3G by increasing the short message forwarding function, and enables users to forward short messages to applications based on the network. On the one hand, users can forward the text messages of Jiajiayi or PHS to 3G mobile phones, which can solve the problem of not being able to see the text messages of Jiajiayi or PHS when they are not at home or on business trips. On the other hand, set PHS, Jiajiayi and 3G SMS forwarding to the application based on the Internet. When the user is online, he can receive SMS through the client software, and use the numbers of PHS, Jiajiayi and 3G Terminal to send SMS. The problem that it is inconvenient for users to input Chinese characters by using a mobile phone is solved.

According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, for the situation that short message is forwarded to IM software, can be by short message center, short message gateway, Internet/intranet short message gateway or Internet/ Multiple components such as the intranet server remove the IM software service provider access number (SP access number) in the forwarding number, so that both the sender and receiver of the short message use the phone number without the SP access number prefix.

In this way, since the source and destination numbers of the user sending and receiving short messages on the network have no access number prefix, it is convenient for the user to communicate with the surrounding network with a unique E.164 number, which facilitates the use of the user.

From the perspective of user experience, the solution of the present invention and reference 2 is consistent in perception, that is, the user does not need to apply for a separate SMS receiving number for SMS forwarding, but can directly use the original phone number. However, the present invention is different from Reference 2 in implementation. The present invention makes slight changes to the existing short message gateway process, and adds short message forwarding information in the HLR, so that the forwarding function can be completed without adding smart devices like reference 2, avoiding the realization of intelligent network The method needs to increase equipment and increase the shortcomings of CAP signaling interaction.

As the profits of network operations decrease year by year, more and more operators are gradually changing from network providers to comprehensive service providers that can provide multiple services, that is, operators gradually provide some services provided by the original SP. The invention caters to this trend, and enables operators to bring advantages that SP cannot provide to users through low-cost transformation of the network, thereby increasing the income of operators by using some new value-added services of the network.

Description of drawings

The above advantages and other advantages of the present invention will be further understood by reading the detailed description of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the attached picture:

FIG. 1A shows a schematic structural diagram of a traditional communication system for short message delivery;

FIG. 1B shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication system for short message forwarding according to the present invention;

Fig. 2 is the work flow that the communication system according to the present invention executes;

Fig. 3 shows a flow chart of the process of receiving short messages by communication terminals that forward short messages to other communication terminal numbers.

Fig. 4 shows a flow chart of IM software service registration.

Fig. 5 is a flow chart of the process of forwarding the short message to the communication terminal of the Internet IM software to receive the short message through the IM software.

Fig. 6 shows the flowchart of the process of forwarding the short message to the communication terminal of the Internet IM software to send the short message through the IM software.

Fig. 7 shows that in order to implement the present invention, it is necessary to modify the traditional internal process when SMS-GMSC processes SendRoutingInfoForShortMsg.

Detailed ways

As previously mentioned, according to the present invention, assuming that the user has a plurality of communication terminals that support short messages (for example, Jiajiayi phone, PHS, Shenzhouxing mobile phone and GSM mobile phone), then the user can send the short messages sent to these terminals It can be forwarded to one of the terminals (for example, GSM mobile phone), and can also be forwarded to IM software, so as to provide convenience for users to send and receive short messages.

FIG. 1A is a schematic structural diagram of a traditional communication system 100 for short message delivery. The communication system 100 in FIG. 1A includes a short message center (also called "short message service center") 110, a short message gateway (also called "short message service gateway") 120, and exemplary terminals A and B.

In the communication system 100 , the short message center 110 is responsible for storing and forwarding short messages between the short message entities and terminals, for example, receiving short messages sent from terminal A to terminal B and forwarding them to the short message gateway 120 . The short message gateway 120 is used for sending and receiving short messages between various networks, and it is coupled with the HLR, and is used to query the route for the short message from terminal A from the HLR, so that the communication system 100 sends the short message according to the route of the query to Terminal B.

Although FIG. 1A shows a situation where the short message center 110 and the short message gateway 120 are separated, in the existing communication system, the short message center 110 and the short message gateway 120 can be separated or integrated.

Fig. 1B shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication system 100' for short message forwarding according to the present invention.

The communication system 100' includes a part for short message forwarding, HLR, and exemplary terminal A and terminal B, and the part for short message forwarding includes a short message receiving device 131, an inquiry device 132, and a replacement device 133 , the forwarding means 134 and the inquiry means 132 are coupled to the HLR of the communication system.

According to the communication system 100' of the present invention, there is no requirement on the type of terminal A and terminal B, they can be the same type of terminal (for example, both are PHS or both are Shenzhouxing mobile phones), and they can also be different types of terminals (for example, terminal A is Jiajiayi, terminal B is GSM mobile phone, etc.), as long as they all support short messages.

Here, it is assumed that the user of terminal A is user A, the terminal number is number A, the user of terminal B is user B, and the terminal number is number B; user B may have set the short message forwarding request for terminal B to the In the HLR, and its forwarding number is number F.

When user A uses terminal A to send a short message to terminal B, the short message receiving means 131 is used to receive the short message from terminal A and forward the short message to the query means 132 .

The query device 132 can have two functions, one is to determine whether the terminal B has set short message forwarding by querying the HLR, and the other is to forward the short message of the terminal B when it is determined to The forwarding-to number for secondary routing.

Therefore, according to a preferred implementation manner of the present invention, the query device 132 can be further divided into a first query device 135 and a second query device 136, as shown in the dashed box in FIG. 1B . The first query means 135 is used to query the HLR to determine whether the terminal B has set short message forwarding, and the second query means 136 is used to forward the short message of the terminal B when it is determined that the short message of the terminal B is to be forwarded. The forwarding number of terminal B performs secondary routing.

The replacing means 133 is configured to replace the number B with the forwarding-to number F of the terminal B when it is determined that the terminal B has set short message forwarding.

The forwarding means 134 is used for forwarding the short message according to the result of the secondary routing performed by the querying means 132 on the forwarded-to number.

Since the short message center and the short message gateway can be separated or integrated, the part and its devices for forwarding the short message in the communication system 100' are not limited to being in the short message center or in the short message gateway.

It should be understood that, for ease of illustration, only components related to the present invention in the communication system are shown in FIG. 1B , while other irrelevant components (such as base stations, RNC, etc.) A system can include any number of users as the capacity of the system allows.

The workflow performed by the communication system 100' of FIG. 1B will be described below with reference to FIG. 2 . As shown in FIG. 2 , the process starts at step 200 and then enters step 210 . In step 210 , the receiving unit 131 receives the short message sent from the number A to the number B, and sends the short message to the query unit 132 .

In step 220, in response to receiving the short message from the receiving device 131, the inquiring means 132 conducts a routing inquiry to the HLR to determine whether the number B is set to forward short messages.

In response to the inquiry result of the inquiry means 132 indicating that number B has SMS forwarding set, in step 230, the replacement means 133 replaces the number B with the forwarding number F of terminal B.

Next, in step 240, in response to completing the replacement operation, the inquiry means 132 performs secondary routing on the replaced forwarding-to-number F.

Then, in step 250, the forwarding means 134 forwards the short message according to the route queried by the querying means 132 for the forwarded-to number F.

Subsequently, the process ends in step 260 .

The general block diagram and flowchart according to the present invention are described above. As mentioned above, the present invention relates to the situation where a communication terminal forwards its short message to other communication terminals or to IM software, so the application of the present invention may involve the following four specific situations:

1. forward the short message to the communication terminal of other communication terminals to send the short message,

2. forward the short message to the communication terminal of other communication terminals to receive the short message,

3. Forward the short message to the communication terminal of the IM software to send the short message through the IM software,

4. The communication terminal forwarding the short message to the IM software receives the short message through the IM software.

As for the first case above, it is the same as the traditional short message transmission process, and is not a concern of the present invention, but the second to fourth cases all involve the improvement of the present invention, which will be explained one by one below.

Forward short messages to other communication terminals for communication terminals to receive short messages

Here, it is still assumed that the user of terminal A is user A, the terminal number is number A, the user of terminal B is user B, and the terminal number is number B; user B may have set the request record of forwarding short messages for terminal B to the HLR to forward its short message to another communication terminal F1 with the number F1.

The terminal A, terminal B and terminal F1 can be terminals of the same type (for example, all are PHS or all are GSM mobile phones), and can also be terminals of different types (for example, terminal A is Jiajiayi, terminal B is GSM The mobile phone and the terminal F1 are PHS, etc.), as long as the terminals A, B, and F1 all support short messages.

In this case, user A uses terminal A to send a short message to terminal B, and the executed process is shown in FIG. 3 . The process starts in step 300 and proceeds to step 310 .

In step 310 , the short message center receives the short message sent from terminal A to terminal B and forwards it to the inquiry device 132 .

In step 320, the inquiry means 132 determines whether terminal B has set short message forwarding through signaling with the HLR.

As is well known, the HLR is mainly used to store personal profile information about the user (eg, the user's identity, subscribed services, etc.). In the present invention, information such as whether short message forwarding is set can also be recorded in the HLR so as to carry out routing inquiry. For the short message forwarding service, the HLR can store (but not limited to) the following information: forwarding flag, forwarding condition and forwarding number.

The forwarding flag bit is used to identify whether a certain communication terminal has set short message forwarding. For example, binary "0" can be used to indicate that forwarding is not set, and binary "1" can be used to indicate that forwarding is set.

Forwarding conditions may include (but not limited to) unconditional forwarding and unreachable forwarding. "Forwarding unconditionally" may refer to forwarding the short message under any circumstances. "Forwarding unreachable" may be, for example, forwarding short messages only when the user turns off the phone.

Depending on the forwarding destination, the forwarding number can have different forms. For forwarding short messages to another communication terminal (that is, the situation in Figure 3), the forwarding number is the number of the other communication terminal (number F1 in Figure 3), but for forwarding short messages to IM software, and the forwarding number is the number indicating that the communication terminal is bound to the IM software (as detailed below).

In step 320, in order to find the short message forwarding information of terminal B, the inquiring device sends the MAP_SEND_ROUTING_INFO_FOR_SM signaling to the HLR when inquiring about the routing information, and the HLR response signaling MAP_SEND_ROUTING_INFO_FOR_SM_ACK adds parameters about the short message forwarding, as shown in the table 1 in italics:

MAP-SEND-ROUTING-INFO-FOR-SM

parameter name ask instruct response confirm Invoke Id M M(=) M(=) M(=) MSISDN M M(=) SM-RP-PRI M M(=) Service Center Address M M(=)  SM-RP-MTI C C(=)  SM-RP-SMEA C C(=) GPRS Support Indicator C C(=) IMSI C C(=) Network Node Number C C(=) LMSI C C(=) GPRS Node Indicator C C(=) Additional Number C C(=) User error C C(=) Provider error O forwarding number C C(=)   Forward flag C C(=) Forward condition C C(=)

Table 1

In Table 1, the italic part indicates the parameters added for the SMS forwarding service in the HLR response signaling, and the rest are conventional parameters. The letter M indicates the mandatory parameters in the signaling, and the letter C indicates the parameters selected according to the conditions. "=" indicates that the value in the response signaling is equal to the value in the request signaling.

In the case that terminal B has set short message forwarding, the response signaling of the HLR will reflect this situation through corresponding parameters.

In step 330, after receiving the response signaling MAP_SEND_ROUTING_INFO_FOR_SM_ACK from HLR, the inquiring device judges whether terminal B has set the forwarding flag, if the judgment of this step is "yes" (that is, for example, the forwarding flag is set to "1") ), then it shows that short message forwarding has been set, and the process enters step 340.

In step 340, it is further judged whether the forwarding condition of terminal B is satisfied.

If the judgment in step 340 is "Yes", that is, the forwarding condition is satisfied, then the process enters step 350, and the number B of terminal B is replaced with the forwarding number F1 to perform secondary routing on the forwarding number F1.

Subsequently, in step 360, the short message is forwarded according to the routing result for the forwarding number F1. The process ends in step 380 .

If the judgment in step 330 is "No", that is, terminal B has not set short message forwarding, then in step 370, the short message is forwarded to terminal B in a conventional manner.

If the judgment in step 340 is "No", that is, the short message forwarding condition is not satisfied, for example, when user B has set "forwarding when power off", and the user just turns on the power, then in step 370, the short message will be forwarded in a conventional manner. The short message is sent to terminal B. Then, likewise in step 380, the process ends.

Forward the short message to the communication terminal of the IM software to receive and send the short message

With the continuous improvement of users' requirements for the portability of mobile terminals, people's pursuit of miniaturization of mobile terminals is endless. On the one hand, it is convenient for users to carry mobile terminals, but on the other hand, it also brings inconvenience Certain difficulties, such as the keyboard being too small to type text messages.

In addition, if the user's mobile terminal cannot be turned on because, for example, the battery is exhausted, it cannot receive or send short messages.

In the case of the above examples, it would be a good choice if the short messages can be received and sent through the computer network. Therefore, the present invention provides a means for users to receive and send short messages through computer networks, especially through IM software.

In order to use the present invention, the user needs to first register the IM software from a specific service provider (SP), obtain an identifier (IM identifier for short) for identifying the user in the IM software, and make the terminal (for example, a mobile phone) The number is bound to this identifier. The IM software that is used for the present invention can comprise the IM software based on Internet and the IM software based on enterprise network, such as QQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, IBM Lotus Sametime, AOL AIM enterprise gateway, Jabber Messenger etc. However, for ease of illustration, the principle of the present invention will be described below mainly by taking Internet-based IM software as an example.

Business Registration Process

Fig. 4 shows a flow chart of registering an IM software service (that is, binding a terminal number and an IM identifier). The process starts in step 400 and proceeds to step 410 . In step 410, the user who wishes to forward the short message downloads the network-based short message input client software from the service provider, for example, the user downloads software such as MSN Messenger through the computer network. Subsequently, in step 420, the user registers his terminal number (for example, mobile phone number 13900000001) into the software through the downloaded software. Next, in step 430, the user forwards the request for call forwarding to the short message center (SMC) through the mobile phone, and then in step 440, the short message center notifies the HLR of the request. The process shown in FIG. 4 ends in step 450 .

It should be noted that the request sent by the user in step 430 needs to include a forwarding number, and the forwarding number at this time is composed of a combination of the SP access number and the identifier of the user who needs to be forwarded. The SP access number is used to identify the corresponding service provider, and the user identifier can be an identifier that can uniquely identify the user such as the user's mobile phone number, MSN ID, QQ ID, etc. In addition, the request may also include forwarding conditions, and the forwarding conditions may include, for example, forwarding when power off, unconditional forwarding, and the like.

The communication terminal that forwards the short message to the IM software receives the short message through the IM software

It is still assumed that the user of terminal A is user A, and the terminal number is number A, and the user of terminal B is user B, and the terminal number is number B; user B may have already recorded the request for setting short message forwarding for terminal B to HLR In order to forward its short message to IM software such as MSN.

The terminals A and B can be the same type of terminal (for example, both are PHS or all are GSM mobile phones), and can also be different types of terminals (for example, terminal A is Jiajiayi, and terminal B is GSM mobile phone).

This process is shown in Figure 5. Steps 500-540 of this process are similar to steps 300-340 shown in FIG. 3, and thus will not be described in detail.

Next, in step 550, the short message center replaces the number B of terminal B with the forward-to-number, and performs secondary routing on the forward-to-number. When performing secondary routing, the inquiring device 132 sends the MAP_SEND_ROUTING_INFO_FOR_SM signaling again to inquire about the route of the forwarded-to number.

It should be pointed out that the forward-to-number in Figure 5 is different from the forward-to-number in Figure 3 . Since Fig. 5 forwards the short message to the IM software, the forwarding number is the number that indicates that the communication terminal that forwards the short message is bound to the IM software, for example, it can be the access number+terminal B of the IM software service provider The number B of the IM software, or it can be the access number of the IM software service provider + the identifier of user B in the IM software (which has been bound with the number B).

In step 560, the short message gateway routes the short message to the Internet short message gateway according to the service provider access number in the forwarding number according to the inquired route, so as to be forwarded to the corresponding service provider server by the Internet short message gateway.

Next, in step 570, the SP server removes the access number prefix (that is, the access number of the IM software service provider) in the forward-to-number, and forwards the short message to the corresponding client software. The process then ends in step 590 .

Note that in step 570 of FIG. 5, the Internet server removes the SP access number prefix, but this operation can also be performed by the short message center or short message gateway before, which is also obvious to those skilled in the art. In addition, the specific manner of removing the prefix is not a concern of the present invention, so it will not be described in detail here.

Forward the short message to the communication terminal of the IM software to send the short message through the IM software

The operations involved in this process are shown in Figure 6. The process starts at step 600 and proceeds to step 610 . In step 610, the user who transfers the short message to the IM software edits and sends the short message through the IM software (for example, MSN), thereby sending the short message to the SP server.

Next, in step 620, the SP server forwards the short message to the Internet short message gateway. Then, in step 630, the short message gateway forwards the short message to the short message center. Next, in step 640, the short message center sends the short message to the destination number. The process ends in step 650 .

When a user who has set up SMS forwarding uses a mobile phone number to send a text message through IM software, his mobile phone number may be prefixed with an SP identification number, and the prefix number can be removed by the SP server, or removed by the SMS center or SMS gateway, thereby The user who receives the short message only sees the mobile phone number of the user who sent the short message.

Above, the embodiment of the present invention is mainly described by taking Internet-based IM software (such as MSN) as an example, but the present invention is also applicable to enterprise network-based IM software, which is obvious to those skilled in the art.

By using the flow process of the present invention, the short message source number sent by the Internet/intranet user can be consistent with the communication terminal number (such as a mobile phone number), and the short message sent to the mobile phone is received at the client based on the Internet/intranet, Thereby, the defects of the existing solutions on the market are avoided.

Signaling process

When using the communication system and method of the present invention, it is necessary to modify the internal process of processing SendRoutingInfoForShortMsg of the short message gateway SMS-GMSC.

The traditional flow of this process can be found in 3GPP TS 29002-3k0, Section 23.3.4, Procedures in the gateway MSC, Figure 23.3/7 (sheet 1 of 6): Procedure MT_SM_GMSC), here shown in Figures 7 and 7A.

In order to realize the system and method of the present invention, a process represented by A surrounded by a solid circle is added to the flow chart in FIG. 7A , and the process A is shown in FIG. 7B . The signaling shown in FIG. 7B is similar to the process described above with reference to FIG. 3 , so it will not be described in detail, and only the operations performed at the two nodes 71 and 72 will be described here.

As for the "continue" node 71, it can be seen from the signaling process of Figure 7B that it indicates the operation that should be performed when it is judged that it is not necessary to forward the short message, that is, send the short message according to the conventional signaling shown in Figure 7A message without performing SMS forwarding.

For node 72, it indicates the operation that should be performed when it is judged that short message forwarding is required, so at node 72, the "NULL" box at the beginning of Figure 7 should be returned to continue the secondary routing operation.

The present invention is also applicable to roaming situations. For users who have set SMS forwarding, even if they are roaming in the network of other operators, they can still set/cancel the forwarding function. If the forwarding destination terminal roams to other networks that do not support SMS forwarding, the short message can still be received because the short message is stored and forwarded by the short message center/short message gateway where the communication terminal belongs; When the terminal sending the short message belongs to the network that does not support short message forwarding, the short message center forwards it to the short message gateway between operators, and the short message gateway forwards it to the home short message center, and the home short message center checks whether the destination The number is set to forward short messages, so users can receive short messages at any place and through any terminal.

In the present invention, the communication terminal can be any terminal supporting short message service, including but not limited to mobile phone, personal handset (PHS), palm terminal, fixed-line phone supporting short message, etc. Applicable communication systems include But not limited to GSM, various variants of CDMA (WCDMA, TD-SCDMA and cdma2000, etc.), PHS, Jiajiayi, etc.

In addition, the above description only refers to the situation of forwarding the short message to one forwarding number, but the present invention can also be applied to the situation of forwarding the short message to multiple forwarding numbers, for example forwarding to another communication number at the same time The terminal and the IM software can be easily understood by those skilled in the art.

Those skilled in the art will realize that embodiments of the present invention may be provided in the form of a method, system or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware. A typical combination of hardware and software can be a general-purpose computer system with a computer program that, when loaded and executed, controls the computer system so that the methods described above can be performed.

Although the present invention has been described above based on preferred embodiments, these descriptions are for illustrative purposes only and should not be construed as limiting the present invention in any way. Various modifications and improvements to the present invention will occur to those skilled in the art, but these modifications and improvements are included within the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims (18)

1. A short message forwarding method for communication system, said communication system comprising a plurality of communication terminals, said method comprising: receiving a short message sent from a first communication terminal to a second communication terminal, the first communication terminal has a first number, and the second communication terminal has a second number; Determine whether short message forwarding is set by querying the forwarding information of the second communication terminal from the HLR; When it is determined that the second communication terminal has set short message forwarding, replacing the second number with the forwarding number in the forwarding information; The short message is forwarded by performing a secondary routing query on the forwarded-to number. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein: The forwarding information includes a forwarding number, and the forwarding number may be: a) the number of another communication terminal, and/or b) when the second communication terminal forwards the short message to the IM software, it indicates that the second The number bound to the communication terminal and the IM software. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein, when the second communication terminal forwards the short message to the IM software, the forwarding number includes the IM software service provider access number and the second number, or includes the IM The access number of the software service provider and the identifier related to the second communication terminal in the IM software. 4. The method according to any one of claims 1-3, the step of determining whether short message forwarding is set by querying the forwarding information of the second communication terminal from the HLR also includes: Query whether the second communication terminal has set a short message forwarding sign in the HLR; 5. The method according to any one of claims 1-4, the step of determining whether short message forwarding is set by querying the forwarding information of the second communication terminal from the HLR also includes: Query whether the second communication terminal has set a short message forwarding flag in the HLR; and Inquiring in the HLR whether the second communication terminal satisfies the forwarding condition. 6. The method according to any preceding claim, when the second communication terminal forwards the short message to the IM software, the steps of determining and forwarding include: Replace the second number with the forwarding number for secondary routing; Send the short message to the Internet short message gateway; Send the short message to the service provider server through the service provider access number in the forwarding number; The service provider server removes the service provider access number in the forwarding number; The short message is displayed in the IM software. 7. The method according to claim 6, the step of removing the service provider access number from the forwarding-to number by the service provider server can also be previously performed by the short message gateway and/or the short message center. 8. The method according to any one of claims 2-7, wherein the IM software is Internet-based and/or Intranet-based IM software. 9. A communication system for short message forwarding, the communication system comprising: Multiple communication terminals; HLR for storing forwarding information about the communication terminal; and The device for forwarding short messages further includes: A short message receiving device, configured to receive a short message sent from a first communication terminal to a second communication terminal, the first communication terminal has a first number, and the second communication terminal has a second number; Inquiring means, coupled with the HLR, used to determine whether the second communication terminal has set short message forwarding by inquiring from the HLR, and after the replacement means replaces the second number with the forwarded-to number, forward Transfer number for secondary routing query; The replacing means is used to replace the second number with the forwarding number when the querying means determines that the second user has set up short message forwarding; The forwarding device is used for forwarding the short message in response to the route inquired by the inquiring device for the forwarded-to number. 10. The communication system according to claim 9, wherein the forwarding information includes a forwarding number, and the forwarding number can be: a) the number of another communication terminal, and/or b) the number before the short message is sent by the communication terminal When switching to the IM software, it indicates the number bound to the communication terminal and the IM software. 11. The communication system according to claim 10, wherein, when the communication terminal forwards the short message to the IM software, the forwarding number includes the IM software service provider access number and the number of the communication terminal, or It includes the access number of the IM software service provider and the identifier related to the communication terminal in the IM software. 12. The communication system according to any one of claims 9-11, wherein said querying means further comprises a first querying means for querying whether said second communication terminal has set a short message forwarding flag in the HLR And/or used to inquire whether the second communication terminal satisfies the forwarding condition in the HLR. 13. The communication system according to any one of claims 9-12, when the second communication terminal forwards the short message to the IM software, the communication system further comprises: The Internet short message gateway is used to receive short messages from the short message gateway, and forward the short messages according to the service provider access number in the forwarding number; The service provider server associated with the service provider access number in the forwarding number is used for receiving the short message from the Internet short message gateway and removing the service provider access number from the short message forwarding number. 14. The communication system according to any one of claims 9-13, wherein the IM software is Internet-based and/or intranet-based instant messaging software. 15. A device for forwarding short messages in a communication system, said communication system comprising a plurality of communication terminals, and including an HLR for storing forwarding information about the communication terminals, said device for forwarding short messages The device further includes: a short message receiving device, configured to receive a short message sent from the first communication terminal to the second communication terminal; Inquiring means, coupled with the HLR, used to determine whether the second communication terminal has set short message forwarding by inquiring from the HLR, and after the replacement means replaces the second number with the forwarded-to number, forward Transfer number for secondary routing query; The replacing means is used to replace the second number with the forwarding number when the querying means determines that the second communication terminal has set short message forwarding; The forwarding device is used for forwarding the short message in response to the route inquired by the inquiring device for the forwarded-to number. 16. A short message forwarding method for a communication system, said communication system comprising a plurality of communication terminals, wherein a user of a first communication terminal has IM software downloaded from a service provider, and has sent a short message to said first A short message of a communication terminal is forwarded to the IM software, which results in generating a forward-to-number including an identifier identifying the first communication terminal and a service provider access number, the method comprising: The user of the first communication terminal sends a short message to at least one second communication terminal through IM software; The service provider server sends the short message to the short message gateway via the Internet/intranet short message gateway; The short message gateway forwards the short message to the at least one second communication terminal. 17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the step of the service provider server sending the short message to the short message center via the short message gateway further comprises removing the service number in the forwarding number by the service provider server Steps for Provider Access Number. 18. The method according to claim 16, wherein the step of forwarding the short message to the at least one second communication terminal by the short message gateway further comprises removing the forwarding-to-number by the short message gateway/short message center Steps for Service Provider Access Number in .

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