Telephonic communications – Telephone line or system combined with diverse electrical... – Having transmission of a digital message signal over a...
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-22
2001-05-08
Chan, Wing F. (Department: 2743)
Telephonic communications
Telephone line or system combined with diverse electrical...
Having transmission of a digital message signal over a...
C379S142030
Reexamination Certificate
active
06229883
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for providing caller ID services in an Internet telephony system, and more particularly to a system for providing caller ID services in an Internet telephony system which is organized by a telephone exchange and an Internet service provider's server on the side of a caller, the same on the side of a callee, and the Internet connecting between the caller-side server and the caller-side server.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there has been a growing interest in telecommunications services using the Internet as a medium for real-time voice communication, since this technology promises a great reduction in the costs of long-distance telephone communications, including international calls. While several types of Internet-based telephony systems are available today, the following discussion will focus on a system having a specific structure shown in FIG.
12
.
FIG. 12
is a total block diagram of a conventional system for Internet telephony services. In this system, two groups of subscriber terminals can communicate with each other, through their respective local telephone exchange systems (or local switches) and appropriate servers deployed by an Internet service provider (ISP). More specifically, the left-hand side of
FIG. 12
shows the caller-side subsystem including a caller's telephone terminal
101
, a telephone exchange
102
, and an Internet service provider's server (hereafter, “ISP server” or “server”)
103
. Likewise, the right-hand side shows the callee-side subsystem including a callee's telephone terminal
107
, a telephone exchange
106
, and an ISP server
105
. The Internet
104
is used for long distance transmission between the two servers
103
and
105
. Telecommunications systems of this kind are expected to find widespread market acceptance, since they extend the benefits of Internet telephony to the users of plain old subscriber equipment.
FIG. 13
is a sequence diagram showing a procedure of connection establishment in the Internet telephony system of FIG.
12
. Specifically, it depicts a situation where the telephone terminal
101
is attempting a call to the telephone terminal
107
. The following paragraphs will explain the steps of this procedure, with reference to the sequence numbers (S
101
-S
107
) shown in FIG.
12
.
The calling subscriber, or the caller, first dials the phone number of the server
103
, which makes the telephone exchange
102
establish a connection path from his/her telephone terminal
101
to the server
103
(Step S
101
). To ensure that the caller is an authorized user of the Internet telephony service, the server
103
executes an authentication process, requesting the caller to enter his/her service account number and registered password (Step S
102
).
When the caller's authenticity is confirmed, the caller sends the callee's phone number (i.e., the number assigned to the telephone terminal
107
) from the telephone terminal
101
to the server
103
(Step S
103
). In response to this, the server
103
searches for a telephone exchange that is linked to the callee's telephone terminal
107
, and if a relevant telephone exchange is found, it further searches for an ISP server that is linked to that telephone exchange. In the present example, the server
103
identifies the server
105
as appropriate. The server
103
then sends a call reception request to the server
105
via the Internet
104
(Step S
104
). This call reception request contains the phone number of the callee.
Upon receipt of the request, the callee-side server
105
dials the phone number of the callee's telephone terminal
107
, thereby establishing a connection path to the telephone terminal
107
(Step S
105
). When the connection between the two telephone terminals
101
and
107
is established, the system notifies the caller that he/she can now talk to the callee, through a voice guidance function or some other appropriate means (Step S
106
). The telephone terminals
101
and
107
start to communicate with each other over the Internet
104
(Step S
107
). During this session, the voice data is compressed by a codec for signal transmission with a reduced bandwidth usage.
Incidentally, conventional public switched telephone networks provide a service feature known as a “caller identification (ID)” service, which permits the recipient of an incoming call to determine, even before answering, the phone number from which the incoming call is being placed. To implement this feature, the caller-side local switch transmits, when processing a call request, the caller's phone number to the callee-side local switch through an inter-office trunk line (H
2
). The local switch on the callee's side delivers the received phone number information to the called subscriber. This caller ID service can be used in various applications, including such a service that tracks and locates a malicious caller who is threatening a subscriber.
However, the users of Internet telephony services cannot enjoy the above benefits of caller ID services. Because of the presence of the Internet
104
as an intermediate transmission medium between the telephone exchanges
102
and
106
, an attempt of the callee-side telephone exchange
106
to identify the caller would end up with the phone number of the server
105
, instead of that of the telephone terminal
101
, which is what the telephone exchange
106
is really looking for.
As clarified above, the conventional Internet telephony systems are unable to provide users with caller ID services.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Taking the above into consideration, an object of the present invention is to provide a system for delivering a caller's phone number to an intended callee in an Internet telephony system.
To accomplish the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a system for delivering a caller's phone number in an Internet telephony system. This system comprises: a caller-side local switch which is linked to a caller; a caller-side Internet service provider (ISP) server which is linked to the caller-side local switch; a callee-side local switch which is linked to a callee; a callee-side ISP server which is linked to the callee-side local switch; Internet which links between the caller-side ISP server and the callee-side ISP server; a first control channel which links between the caller-side ISP server and the caller-side local switch; a second control channel which links between the callee-side ISP server and the callee-side local switch; a first transmission unit, disposed in the caller-side local switch, for transmitting the caller's phone number to the caller-side ISP server through the first control channel; a second transmission unit, disposed in the caller-side ISP server, for receiving the caller's phone number from the first transmission unit and for transmitting the received caller's phone number to the callee-side ISP server over the Internet; and a caller number acquisition unit, disposed in the callee-side local switch, for acquiring the caller's phone number from the callee-side ISP server by using the second control channel.
Furthermore, to accomplish the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided another system for transmitting a caller's phone number in an Internet telephony system. This system comprises: a caller-side local switch which is linked to a caller; a caller-side Internet service provider (ISP) server which is linked to the caller-side local switch; a callee-side local switch which is linked to a callee; a callee-side ISP server which is linked to the callee-side local switch; Internet which links between the caller-side ISP server and the callee-side ISP server; a first control channel which links between the caller-side ISP server and the caller-side local switch; a second control channel which links between the callee-side ISP server and the callee-side local switch;
Kakizaki Naoyuki
Sato Katsuhisa
Chan Wing F.
Fujitsu Limited
Helfgott & Karas P.C.
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