Method and system for SMS/MMS messaging to a connected device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9307371-B2
Application number	US-1626008-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 18, 2008
Priority date	Jan 18, 2008
Publication date	Apr 5, 2016
Grant date	Apr 5, 2016

Abstract

The method and system for SMS/MMS messaging to a connected device may be realized as a system comprising at least one server module. The at least one server module may be adapted to receive from a connected device an outbound messaging message through a packet-based network. The at least one server module may also be adapted to send the outbound messaging message to an external messaging network. The connected device may be communicatively coupled to the packet-based network. The outbound messaging message may be associated with a user account. The user account may be associated with a telephone number.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
at least one server to:
receive, from a connected device and via a packet-based network, an outbound messaging message;
identify a contact identifier in the outbound messaging message;
replace the contact identifier with a telephone number in the outbound messaging message based on a user account associated with the outbound messaging message;
query at least one routing database to identify a network address of a recipient gateway associated with the telephone number,
the recipient gateway being at least one of a Short Message Service (SMS) gateway or a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) gateway; and

send, via an external messaging network, the outbound messaging message to the recipient gateway by using the network address,
the connected device being communicatively coupled to the packet-based network.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the connected device is one of a land-based telephony device, a VoIP telephony device, or a network connected digital device.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one server is further to:
receive, from the external messaging network, an inbound messaging message; and
send the inbound messaging message to the connected device through the packet-based network.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the outbound messaging message is one of a Short Message Service (SMS) message or a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) message.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one server is further to:
manage the outbound messaging message.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one server is further to:
store the outbound messaging message in an outbox of the user account.

7. The system of claim 3 , wherein the at least one server is further adapted to:
manage the inbound messaging message in an inbox.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the inbox is managed for the user account.

9. The system of claim 8 ,
wherein a contact list is maintained for the user account, and
wherein the contact list includes the contact identifier.

10. The system of claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one server comprises a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server communicatively coupled to the external messaging network, and
wherein the SMTP server is to:
receive an inbound messaging message from the external messaging network over a SMTP connection.

11. A system comprising:
at least one server to:
receive, from an external messaging network, an inbound messaging message;
identify an originating telephone number in the inbound messaging message;
determine that the originating telephone number is associated with a contact identifier in a contact list;
replace the telephone number with the contact identifier in the inbound messaging message based on determining that the telephone number is associated with the contact identifier;
send the inbound messaging message to a connected device through a packet-based network,
the connected device being communicatively coupled to the packet-based network;

receive, from the connected device, an outbound messaging message through the packet-based network;
query at least one routing database to identify a network address of a recipient gateway associated with a recipient telephone number,
the recipient telephone number being associated with the outbound messaging message, and
the recipient gateway being at least one of a Short Message Service (SMS) gateway or a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) gateway; and

send the outbound messaging message to the external messaging network using the network address.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the connected device is one of a land-based telephony device, a VoIP telephony device, or a network connected digital device.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one server is further to:
manage the inbound messaging message in an inbox of a user account.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one server is further to:
store the outbound messaging message in an outbox of a user account.

15. A method comprising:
receiving, by a first gateway server, an inbound message from an external network;
forwarding, by the first gateway server and via a packet-based network, the inbound message to a connected device communicatively coupled to the packet-based network;
receiving, by the first gateway server and from the connected device, an outbound messaging message via the packet-based network;
identifying, by the first gateway server, a contact identifier in the outbound messaging message;
replacing, by the first gateway server, the contact identifier with a telephone number in the outbound messaging message based on a user account associated with the outbound messaging message;
querying, by the first gateway server, at least one routing database to identify a network address of a second gateway server associated with the telephone number,
the second gateway server being at least one of a Short Message Service (SMS) gateway or a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) gateway; and

sending, by the first gateway server, the outbound messaging message to the external messaging network using the network address.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the connected device is one of a land-based telephony device, a VoIP telephony device, or a network connected digital device.

17. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
storing the inbound message in an inbox of the user account,
wherein forwarding the inbound messaging message comprises:
sending a notice about the inbound message to the connected device;
receiving a request to retrieve the inbound message;
querying the inbox of the user account for the inbound message; and
providing the inbound message to the connected device.

18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising;
mapping the telephone number to a name in a contact list of the user account, the name being the contact identifier.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:
one or more instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
receive an outbound message from a connected device via a packet-based network,
the connected device being communicatively coupled to the packet-based network;

identify a contact identifier in the outbound messaging message;
replace the contact identifier with a telephone number in the outbound messaging message based on a user account associated with the outbound messaging message;
query at least one routing database to identify a network address of a recipient gateway associated with the telephone number,
the recipient gateway being at least one of a Short Message Service (SMS) gateway or a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) gateway; and

forward the outbound message to an external network using the network address.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the connected device is one of a land-based telephony device, a VoIP telephony device, or a network connected digital device.

21. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the contact identifier is a name in a contact list of the user account.

22. A method comprising:
receiving, by a first gateway server, an inbound message from an external network;
identifying, by the first gateway server, an originating telephone number in the inbound message;
determining, by the first gateway se

Assignees

• Sureka Ashutosh K
• Naggar Michael J
• Evans Scott A
• Kalia Puneet
• Liu Wei X
• Gogineni Gangadhar Rao
• Charania Rahim
• Patel Shuchi R
• Verizon Patent & Licensing Inc

Inventors

• Sureka Ashutosh K
• Naggar Michael J
• Evans Scott A
• Kalia Puneet
• Liu Wei X
• Gogineni Gangadhar Rao
• Charania Rahim
• Patel Shuchi R

Classifications

• H04W4/14 Primary

  Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD] · CPC title