Telecommunications system and method providing generic...

Details Telecommunications system and method providing generic... Telecommunications system and method providing generic...

1999-10-19

2002-08-06

Tieu, Binh (Department: 2643)

Telephonic communications

With usage measurement

Call charge metering or monitoring

C379S201020, C379S221020, C379S221080, C370S355000, C370S401000, C370S402000, C370S422000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06430276

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FILED OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to telecommunications and more particularly to a system and method for accessing different network access servers through a telecommunications system comprising a bearer network, service switching points and a service control subsystem. The network access servers may provide access to one or more intranet/extranet/internet networks and may be under the control of the same or different service providers, generically referred to below as “access service providers” (ASPs). An access service provider ASP may provide services additional to simple network access such as chat rooms, bulletin boards etc; in the present specification the term “ISP” is used to mean an access service provider providing internet access, whether or not additional services are also provided.
BACKGROUND ART
The explosive growth of the internet has lead to some arduous coexistence between two different worlds and services: a traditional world of telecommunication services coexisting with a new emergent world of information services.
The world of telecommunication services is that of the telecommunications operators, such as those running the traditional Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN) and the more recent Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMN). The last decade or so has seen important developments in traditional PSTNs including the introduction of the fully digital networks (particularly Integrated Service Data Network—ISDN) and the emergence of new services and intelligence in the telecommunications. Examples of such services are the 800 number and call forwarding. The architecture of a modern PSTN is depicted in FIG.
1
. Customer Premise equipments (CPE)
10
such as standard telephones or more recently ISDN terminals are connected to the network by dedicated transmission links, typically to a Local Exchange. An Exchange is often referred to as a Switching Point or SP. Each local SP is connected to a trunk Exchange that is also connected to other exchanges or SPs so as to form an inter-exchange network.
Generally speaking, the control function of the PSTN uses now a separate Common Channel Signalling network (CCS) based on the CCITT No 7 protocol suite. In
FIG. 1
, the signalling network is represented by reference number
16
. When the Customer Premise Equipment CPE is a dumb telephone, the signalling at the access network may still be in-band signalling while in the case of a modern ISDN terminal, even at the level of the access network the signalling is conveyed through a path (D-channel) that is separate from the voice path constituted by the B-channels.
More recently, more intelligence has been introduced in the control or signalling function of the PSTN, and some SPs were replaced by more powerful and sophisticated Service Switching Points (SSP)
12
allowing new Intelligent Network (IN) Services. With respect to
FIG. 1
again, a SSP
12
is arranged to suspend call processing at defined points-in-call upon particular criteria being met, and to generally delegate the continuation of the processing of the call to a Service Control Point (SCP)
13
, generally remote, which forms a part of a Service Control Subsystem
15
.
More particularly, when the SSP
12
receives a call, it examines trigger conditions as well as user information to ascertain whether the call requires a service to be provided in addition to the normal routing function. If a service is to be provided, the considered SSP messages the SCP
13
a request for that service. The Service Control Point may be associated with a Service Data Function (SDF)
14
permitting the use of subscriber information.
Typical examples of such higher level services are the above mentioned call forwarding services or still the 800 number services. The PSTN may be further enhanced by the use of Intelligent Peripherals (IP) which provides additional communication with the end-user, by means of voice announcements for instance. Service control functionality and IP functionality may also be combined in Service Nodes.
The above-described model for the provision of IN services in a PSTN can also be mapped onto PLMNs (Public Land Mobile Networks) such as GSM and other mobile networks. Control signalling in the case of a mobile subscriber is more complex because in addition to all the usual signalling requirements, there is also a need to establish where a call to a mobile subscriber should be routed; however, this is not a very different problem from a number of called-party IN services in the PSTN. Thus in GSM, the service data function (SDF) is largely located in a system named a Home Location Register (HLR) and the service control function in a system named a Visitor Location Register (VLR) that is generally associated on a one-to-one basis with each SSP (which in GSM terminology is called a Mobile Switching Centre, MSC).
Because subscribers are mobile, the subscriber profile is transported from the HLR to whichever VLR happens to be functionally closest to be mobile subscriber, and from there the VLR operates the (fixed) service using the subscriber profile and interacts with the SSP. The HLR and VLR thus constitute a service control subsystem similar to an SCP or Adjunct with their associated databases.
It is, of course, also possible to provide IN services in private telephone systems and, in this case, the service control function and service data function are generally either integrated into a PABX (Private Automatic Branch Exchange) or provided by a local computer. The service control subsystem, whilst present, may thus not be a physically distinct from the PABX.
In the following, the terms ‘bearer network’, ‘service switching points’ and ‘service control subsystem’ will be used to refer not only to the respective elements of a PTSN but also unless the context demands otherwise to refer to the equivalent elements in a PLMN and other types of telephone networks.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,350 assigned to Advantis describes one example of an IN service, in this case relating to the routing of calls to a call center or similar resources. More particularly, the SCF of a PSTN queries a routing processor of the subscriber (e. g. call center) network to be told the number to which a call should be routed to access a particular resource (any PSTN termination, including ACD, IVR, modems and individual stations). The routing processor effects routing control in dependence on the identity of the caller (doing a lookup in a customer database) and “capacity percentages” representing a proportion of all calls for a desired resource that can be handled as indicated by feedback from the resource.
EP-A-0 654 930 (AT&T) entitled “Network-accessible Intelligent Telephone Service” describes another example of an IN service, in this case for providing a user with a common way of accessing a variety of services from different telephone networks. More particularly, a central database is provided for holding user-related data (including service profile data for a number of services), this database being accessible (via SS7 links) from any of a plurality of telephone networks. When needed, service details are passed to regional processing nodes which then deliver services as required in the language specified. The service details delivered to such nodes may include the name and numbers of the user's top called-numbers list which are then announced to the user to enable the latter to select a desired number to be called.
Although the architecture of the recent telecommunication networks have reached a high degree of sophistication, as shown in FIG.
1
and from the preceding example, the possibilities opened up by interaction with the new—and explosive—world of Information services are still being explored. The information services world covers all the electronic information distribution services that are made possible by the recent development and success of the Internet-based global applications, the best example of which being certainly the World Wide Web (WWW). In the perspective of Internet, anyone may become an inf

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