Wireless Digital Personal Communications System Having Voice/Data/Image Two-Way Calling and Intercell Hand-Off Provided Through Distributed Logic Resident in Portable Handset Terminals, Fixed Terminals, Radio Cell Base Stations and Switched Telephone Network

Abstract

A wireless digital personal communications system (or PCS) having a plurality of radio cell base stations, fixed terminals, and portable handset terminals, each having a predetermined radio cell coverage area. The wireless PCS has a full digital network interface. The personal communications system facilitates the interconnection and switching of PCS call traffic through the digital network interface and the public switched telephone network, or any switched network. The personal communications system has voice/data/image (or any combination thereof) and incoming and outgoing calling capability. The PCS is fully operational and compatible with any and all modulation approaches selected for wireless communications. The intercell protocol hand-off being provided through distributed logic which is implemented in software that is resident in the intelligent portable handset terminals, in the intelligent fixed terminals, in the intelligent base stations, and in the public switched telephone network (or any switched network). Alternative embodiments of the present invention include a wireless digital personal communications system having authentication means for authenticating a remote device; a wireless digital personal communications system having a combination of authentication means for authenticating a remote device and security means for securing signal and message content between an intelligent base station and a remote device, the security means including a predetermined encryption and decryption technique; a wireless digital personal communications system having dynamic zone grouping of portable handset terminals or fixed terminals; and a wireless digital personal communications system having call forwarding for unanswered calls.

1 .- 95 . (canceled) 
     
     
         96 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, at a radio cell base station of a wireless digital personal communications system from a communication terminal, a first encrypted communication message including at least one of voice, data, and image information; and   in response to receiving the first encrypted communication message, sending first signaling information from the radio cell base station to a device of a public switched telephone network via a digital network interface of the radio cell base station.   
     
     
         97 . The method of  claim 96 , wherein the digital network interface comprises an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) interface. 
     
     
         98 . The method of  claim 96 , further comprising controlling the first signaling information sent from the communication terminal to the device of the public switched telephone network using dynamic zone grouping. 
     
     
         99 . The method of  claim 96 , further comprising authenticating the communication terminal before sending the first signaling information. 
     
     
         100 . The method of  claim 96 , further comprising:
 receiving, at the radio cell base station, second signaling information from the device of the public switched telephone network via the digital network interface; and   in response to the second signaling information, sending a second communication message to the communication terminal from the radio cell base station.   
     
     
         101 . The method of  claim 100 , further comprising converting the second signaling information from a first format to a second format to generate the second communication message. 
     
     
         102 . The method of  claim 100 , further comprising encrypting the second communication message at the radio cell base station before sending the second communication message to the communication terminal. 
     
     
         103 . The method of  claim 96 , wherein the communication terminal comprises a portable handset terminal. 
     
     
         104 . The method of  claim 103 , wherein the radio cell base station is associated with a first coverage area and a second radio cell base station is associated with a second coverage area, and wherein, in response to the portable handset terminal moving to a location within the second coverage area, the method further comprises:
 determining, using software distributed on at least the radio cell base station and the portable handset terminal, to hand off the portable handset terminal to the second radio base station; and   sending a hand off message from the radio cell base station to a switching center via the digital interface, wherein, in response to the hand off message, the switching center allocates a bridge to switch communications between the portable handset terminal, the radio cell base station, and the second radio cell base station using the digital interface.   
     
     
         105 . The method of  claim 104 , further comprising sending an update message using a transaction application protocol to update a distributed location registration database to include location information of the portable handset terminal. 
     
     
         106 . A wireless digital personal communications system, comprising:
 a radio cell base station, comprising:
 a radio interface to receive, from a communication terminal, a communication message including at least one of voice, data, and image information, wherein the communication message is encrypted by the communication terminal; and 
 a digital network interface configured to send signaling information from the radio cell base station to a device of a public switched telephone network, in response to receiving the communication message. 
   
     
     
         107 . The system of  claim 106 , further comprising software at the radio cell base station that is executable to cause the radio cell base station to send update messages to a service control point data base via the digital network interface using a transaction application protocol. 
     
     
         108 . The system of  claim 107 , wherein the update messages include information to update a features profile associated with the communication terminal. 
     
     
         109 . The system of  claim 107 , wherein the update messages include information to update a user profile of a user associated with the communication terminal. 
     
     
         110 . The system of  claim 107 , wherein the update messages include information to update location registry information associated with the communication terminal. 
     
     
         111 . The system of  claim 106 , further comprising software at the radio cell base station that is executable to cause the radio cell base station to assign a communications channel from a plurality of available communications channels to the communication terminal within a coverage area of the radio cell base station. 
     
     
         112 . The system of  claim 106 , further comprising software at the radio cell base station that is executable to cause the radio cell base station to group the communication terminal and one or more other communication terminals into predetermined zone configurations that are changeable over the air. 
     
     
         113 . The system of  claim 106 , wherein further comprising software at the radio cell base station that is executable to cause the radio cell base station to forward an unanswered call to the communication terminal to a predetermined location. 
     
     
         114 . A communication terminal, comprising:
 a radio interface; and   software that is executable to cause the communication terminal to:
 scan voice communication channels of a radio cell base station; 
 perform a comparison of signal quality of the voice communication channels; 
 select a communication channel based on the comparison; and 
 register the communication terminal with the radio cell base station via the selected communication channel. 
   
     
     
         115 . The communication terminal of  claim 114 , further comprising software that is executable by the communication terminal to cause the communication terminal to seek and determine an intercell hand-off from the radio cell base station to a second radio cell base station.