Telephonic communications – Special services – Call diversion
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-26
2001-10-23
Matar, Ahmad (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Special services
Call diversion
C379S211010, C379S207100, C379S219000, C370S902000, C370S902000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06307929
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates in general to telecommunication systems and services, and more particularly, to an apparatus, method and system for providing conditional answering in a multiple leg telecommunication session.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
With the advent of increasingly sophisticated telecommunication services, various services and systems are currently available that provide a called party with information pertaining to an incoming call, prior to answering, resulting in a call screening capability. This call screening capability may be limited, however, due to the types of information typically provided. For example, a calling party number and calling party name service (commonly referred to as “caller ID”) displays the directory number of the telephone originating the call, but does not provide any information concerning how the call was routed or what the called party directory number may have been.
Additional types of information for provision to a called party may be particularly useful for new forms of telecommunication services. One such new telecommunication service allows a single call, incoming to a telecommunication switch, to branch into multiple, independent outgoing calls (or legs) to different called parties, during the same period of time. Once such proposed service is included in the ANSI-41 specification promulgated by the American National Standards Institute for wireless telecommunication, such as cellular communication, and is referred to as “flexible alerting”. In a multiple outgoing call leg service such as flexible alerting, an incoming call to a primary (or “pilot”) directory number is branched into multiple outgoing call legs to secondary directory numbers (which were previously specified as part of a flexible alerting group associated with the primary directory number). The ANSI-41 flexible alerting specification, however, does not include any specific directions or guidelines for types of information to be provided to called parties in such independent, concurrent outgoing multiple leg calls.
The use of these multiple outgoing call leg telecommunication services, such as “flexible alerting”, raise new issues for the provision of information to called parties. With such flexible alerting, there is a loss of a 1:1 correlation between the directory number dialed and the directory number alerted. For instance, any given telephone (i.e., directory number) may receive calls through multiple paths, such as calls made directly to its directory number (directly dialed), and calls made indirectly, through the flexible alerting group (primary directory number dialed, with subsequent routing to that given directory number). As a consequence, in screening incoming calls, a called party may want to know if his or her telephone was alerted directly, by a direct call to their directory number, or indirectly, through membership in any number of flexible alerting groups.
The provision of additional information to the called party, such as routing information or information pertaining to the purpose of the call, is significant for other purposes as well. For example, in a multiple leg telecommunication session, additional information may allow an alerted party to refrain from answering a call, allowing other, more appropriate members of a flexible alerting group to answer the call, such as those with particular language capabilities or familiarity with specified subjects.
As a consequence, a need remains for an apparatus, method and system both provide a called party with additional information for call screening, and to allow a called party to conditionally answer an incoming call to receive the additional information. Such additional information should include call routing information, call purpose information, or other types of information designated by the consumer. Such conditional answering should also provide an alerted party with the ability to conditionally answer an incoming call, without releasing or dropping other outgoing call legs while the alerted party is receiving the additional information. In addition, such an apparatus, method and system should also be user friendly, user transparent, and capable of implementation in existing telecommunication equipment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A system, apparatus and method provide conditional answering by a called party in multiple leg telecommunication sessions, such as in a flexible alerting service. The various embodiments of the present invention both allow a called party to conditionally answer an incoming call and provide a called party with additional types of information, enabling a significant level of call screening. In the preferred embodiment, the additional, called party information includes call routing information, call purpose information, and other types of information designated by the consumer.
The preferred system embodiment includes a home location register (HLR) coupled to a mobile switching center (MSC). In the preferred system embodiment, a MSC receives an incoming call leg designating a primary directory number (“DN”). A subscriber or other user of flexible alerting (or other multi-leg communication services) typically predefines a group of other directory numbers, referred to herein as secondary DNs, which are to be associated with the primary DN, such that when a call is placed to the primary DN, all of the secondary DNs are alerted. Such a list or grouping may be referred to as a flexible alerting group, or more broadly as an alerting group. In general, the incoming call to the primary DN is then processed and routed by a MSC, which then directs the incoming call to the multiple different mobile or wireline secondary DNs of the user's predefined alerting group, creating multiple different outgoing communication legs to these differing and independent directory numbers.
More specifically, in the preferred embodiment, when a MSC receives an incoming call leg to the primary DN, it requests call treatment instructions from the HLR, typically utilizing a location request. In accordance with the present invention, the HLR then directs the MSC to obtain “called party information” from the calling party. Typically, the MSC may provide the calling party with a menu of options, such as language selections, and choices of different kinds of products or services. In addition, the MSC may request the name of the calling party and the purpose of the call. This information may be transmitted to the HLR, while some of the information (such as the calling party name and purpose of the call) may be stored for re-transmission to a called party. Based upon this information, the HLR may select a subset of secondary DNs from the alerting group, such as those secondary DNs corresponding to called parties with fluency in a particular language or who support particular services or products. The HLR then provides the MSC with a listing of the secondary DNs to which outgoing call legs are to be routed, and the MSC then processes and generates outgoing call legs to these secondary DNs.
The MSC further provides conditional answering of these outgoing call legs. Such a conditional answering may be configured in a variety of ways, such as by entry of a predetermined code by a called (alerted) party, such as *SEND or *TALK, or simply by going off hook. When an outgoing call leg is conditionally answered, the MSC provides the called party information on the conditionally answered outgoing call leg, but does not then connect the conditionally answered outgoing call leg to the incoming call leg to form a communication session. The called party of the conditionally answered outgoing call leg may then utilize the called party information as desired, such as to screen the call, and may then unconditionally answer, hold or release the outgoing call leg. Other outgoing call legs continue to be alerted and may also be conditionally answered, with the provision of called party information, or may remain unanswered, or may be unconditionally answered. Whichever outgoing call leg is firs
Baiyor Robert John
Earl Deborah Thomas
Smith, Jr. Harold Robert
Strom Thomas Dale
Gamburd Nancy R.
Knowlin Thjuan P.
Lucent Technologies - Inc.
Matar Ahmad
LandOfFree
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