A system and method of automatically transferring a call between telephones based on the distance between the two telephones is provided. First the proximity of a first telephone to a second telephone is determined. If the proximity is within a predetermined limit or threshold, calls directed to the first telephone are transferred to the second telephone. Security of the transfer may be ensured to prevent fraudulent use of the subscription of either telephone. Procedures are provided which permit any the above-mentioned steps to be performed either at the level of the individual telephones involved in the transfer, or by an element of the network, such as an MSC or HLR.
Systems and methods are provided to facilitate efficient routing of unlicensed mobile access (UMA) communications. In one implementation, a method of providing a communication link between a first mobile station and a second mobile station through a customer premises equipment (CPE) device includes intercepting a call setup request provided by the first mobile station and received at a security gateway of the CPE device. An address associated with the second mobile station may be extracted from the call setup request and the address may be compared with a plurality of records maintained by the CPE device. A call setup request may be forwarded to the second mobile station if the address corresponds to at least one of the records. The first and second mobile stations may be in communication with the CPE device over a wireless local access network (WLAN) in accordance with an unlicensed mobile communication standard.
A system and method for managing content between different client devices in various domains (such as vehicle, home, and person). The system and method include receiving an input from a user on the first client device to pause the content. After receiving the input, the first client device determines whether the first client device is connected to a wireless communication system. If the first client device is connected to the wireless communication system, the first client device sends a data message to the second client device through a host system. In one embodiment, the second client device will then store the content in the second client device after receiving the data message to permit the user to resume playback of the content on the second client device. In another embodiment, the host system will store the content itself or access the content from a content provider and transfer the content directly to the second device with a data message that indicates the paused location of the content.
A distributed software system provides functionality for users to cluster together various types of computing devices (PCs, mobile phones, PDAs, set top boxes, IP appliances, etc.) and associated service resources (landline telephone, mobile telephone, long distance service, VoIP, instant messaging, etc.) to form a service cluster, and to effectively bind the service cluster to a common user identity. The software system enables each service resource that is natively available to a device in the cluster to be accessed and used by the other devices in the cluster. For example, in one embodiment, a call placed to any device in the cluster can be routed to and answered on any other device in the cluster, transparently to the caller. A cluster owner can also grant permissions to other users to use particular service resources available to the cluster. Routing of calls is handled efficiently using a distributed hash table system.
In accordance with the principles of the present invention utilizing the BLUETOOTH specification Cordless Telephony profile, incoming calls to a cell phone including a Gateway role can be routed to another piconet device (e.g., another cell phone including a Terminal role. Two cell phones with BLUETOOTH capability each include the Cordless Telephony Profile. The cell phone receiving the call acts as a PSTN cordless telephone Gateway cell phone via the cellular network, while the other cell phone acts as a cordless telephone Terminal cell phone. The cordless telephone Terminal cell phone then acts as an extension to the Gateway cell phone allowing both calls to the Gateway cell phone to be answered at the Terminal cell phone, and even allowing calls by the Gateway cell phone to be originated by the Terminal cell phone. Moreover, the present invention includes the ability for any one of a number of authorized Terminal devices (e.g., Terminal cell phone) to answer an incoming call to a Gateway cell phone `on the fly` after hearing the ringing at the Gateway cell phone.
A mobile station monitors received signal strength from a base transceiver station, either directly or by monitoring or some other measure of received signal quality, such as the ratio E.sub.c/I.sub.o in a CDMA network. When the signal strength drops below a threshold, the mobile station is programmed to automatically send a feature code to the wireless network to activate unconditional call forwarding to a previously programmed directory number. When the mobile station re-enters the service network, i.e., the signal strength improves to an acceptable level or goes above the threshold, the mobile station automatically sends a feature code to turn off the unconditional call forwarding. Thereafter, incoming phone calls are directed to the mobile station.
