Message transmission system, a method of operating the message

Abstract

A message transmission system, such as a paging system, provides message compression through the use of corresponding memories or memory areas in a primary station and a secondary station storing identically the most frequently used n items of numeric only or alpha-numeric data. The contents of the memories are updated dynamically to reflect changes in the most frequently used items by the primary station examining messages to be sent to a particular secondary station to see if an item is being used more frequently than one of those stored, in which case the primary station initiates a reprogramming message which is sent to the secondary station. In response to receipt of the reprogramming message, the particular secondary station updates its memory and acknowledges to the primary station that it has done so, and upon receipt of the acknowledgement, the primary station correspondingly updates its memory. The message compression technique may also be applied to frequently used phrases and also to complex graphical data which it is more efficient to store in the primary and secondary stations and to transmit a memory location indicator.