Telephonic communications – Special services – Service trigger
Reexamination Certificate
2001-08-28
2004-12-21
Deane, Jr., William J. (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Special services
Service trigger
C379S207100, C379S214010, C379S221080
Reexamination Certificate
active
06834101
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to communications systems and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for providing call retry and/or call waiting services.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Calls to busy telephone numbers are normally not billed. Accordingly, from the telephone company perspective, calls to busy telephone numbers represent an unprofitable and therefore undesirable service which they are required to provide. From the telephone company's perspective, increased rates of successful call completion can have a direct impact on profitability.
From a calling party's perspective uncompleted calls to busy telephone numbers are also undesirable since the call must be repeated if the calling party is to ultimately reach the called party. In order to help a calling party, some private branch exchange (PBX) equipment has been implemented which includes an automatic repeat call feature. This feature allows a calling party to have the PBX repeatedly place a call to a telephone number entered by the calling party, at periodic intervals, until the called line is no longer busy and the call is answered.
While such repeated automated dialing can be useful to the calling party, such an approach to a call retry service requires special hardware at the caller's premises. In addition the PBX based call retry service has the disadvantage of producing numerous calls which must be handled by the public telephone network but which can not be billed for since they are not successfully completed to the called party's line.
Various premium services, e.g., call waiting services, have been offered to telephone service subscriber's to allow them to interrupt an ongoing call and accept a call. This allows at least some calls, which would otherwise not be completed due to a busy line condition, to be completed successfully.
With call waiting services, the telephone switch which services the called party usually generates a call waiting tone in response to an incoming call directed to a busy line with call waiting service. In response to the call waiting tone, the called party can put the existing call on hold by performing a hook flash operation, i.e., briefly depressing and then releasing the phone hook. In response to this hook flash, the calling party is connected to the called party while the previous caller is placed on hold.
In order to give the called party the opportunity to make an educated decision as to whether or not to interrupt an ongoing call for an incoming call, in one premium call waiting service known as Talking Call Waiting, an audio version of the name of the calling party is played to the called party after the call waiting tone. The name played to the called party is obtained using ANI techniques.
Unfortunately existing call waiting services are limited to providing the called party the opportunity to take or reject a call while on an existing call. It would be nice if the called party, e.g., the call waiting service subscriber, could have a larger range of call disposition options, e.g., it would be desirable for the called party to have the option of asking the calling party to wait until the existing call is completed or to send the incoming call to a voice mail system, e.g., answering machine.
Significantly, there is currently no network based way to have a calling party wait for an extended period of time for a called party to hang up, and then have the calling party automatically connected to the called party.
In order to provide enhanced telephone services, many telephone companies now implement a telephone communications network as an Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) which has made it easier to provide a wide array of previously unavailable telephone services. In an AIN system, telephone central offices each include one or more switches, each of which serves as a signal switching point (SSP). Each SSP can detect one of a number of call processing events identified as AIN “triggers” or events. An SSP which detects a trigger suspends processing of the call which activated the trigger, compiles a call data message and forwards that message via a common channel interoffice signaling (CCIS), utilizing the Signal System 7(SS-7) protocol, link to a database system, such as a Service Control Point (SCP). The SCP may be implemented as part of an integrated service control point (ISCP). If needed, the SCP can instruct the central office SSP at which the AIN trigger was activated to obtain and forward additional information, e.g., information relating to the call. For example, AIN supports a Monitor_for_Change message which can be sent to an SSP. In response to the Monitor_for Change message, the SSP checks on the status of the line associated with the message and reports that line status back to the SCP.
The SCP accesses stored call processing information or records (CPRs) to generate from the data received from the SSP one or more control messages. The call control messages are used to instruct the central office on how to process the call which activated the AIN trigger. As part of the call control message, an ISCP can instruct the central office to send the call to an outside resource, such as an intelligent peripheral (IP) using a send to outside resource (STOR) instruction. IPs are frequently coupled to SSPs to provide message announcement capabilities, voice recognition capabilities and other functionality which is not normally provided by the central office. Control messages are normally communicated from the SCP to the SSP handling the call via a CCIS/SS-7 link. The SSP will complete the call which originally activated the AIN trigger in accordance with the instructions received in the control message received from the SCP.
Given that telephone companies have made significant investments in implementing AIN, they are constantly looking for new services, which can be offered using AIN capabilities, e.g., services for which they can charge customers or which reduce the costs associated with servicing existing customers.
To facilitate telephone system and computer system interaction, a TAPI (telephone application programming interface) has begun to be supported by Microsoft Corporation and other computer software providers. TAPI is intended for use by computer systems and other electronic devices which are coupled to a telephone device thereby allowing the attached electronic device and/or computer to receive signals communicated over a telephone line and to send signals from the attached device and/or computer to the attached telephone device. TAPI signaling can be used to communicate text information to a TAPI device, e.g., during an ongoing telephone call.
In view of the above discussion, it should be apparent that it would be desirable if the telephone network could offer a network based, as opposed to customer premise, e.g., PBX, based call retry service. Improved call waiting services which offer a called party multiple call disposition options are also desirable. The combination of a call waiting service with a call retry service whereby a caller to a busy line could be asked to hold while the called party completes an existing call is particularly desirable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to methods and apparatus for providing call retry and/or call waiting services using AIN functionality including, e.g., AIN Monitor_For_Change functionality.
AIN Monitor_For_Change functionality allows a service control point (SCP) to request and obtain line status information from a telephone switch. In accordance with the present invention, an AIN based call retry service is provided using Monitor_For_Change functionality.
In one exemplary embodiment of the retry service, an AIN trigger, e.g., TAT trigger, is used to invoke SCP control when a call is received. The SCP instructs the telephone switch (SSP) at which the trigger was activated to try and complete the call to the called party and to notify the SCP of the results of the call completion attempt. If the call can not be completed because t
Deane, Jr. William J.
Straub & Pokotylo
Suchtya, Esq. Leonard C.
Verizon Services Corp.
Wall, Esq. Joel
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