Telephonic communications – With usage measurement – Call charge metering or monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-28
2002-04-16
Kuntz, Curtis (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
With usage measurement
Call charge metering or monitoring
C379S114030, C379S114100, C379S114120, C379S221020
Reexamination Certificate
active
06373929
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of telecommunication network control.
2. Description of the Background Art
Many locally managed telecommunication systems, such as PBXs, employ “least cost routing” software to reduce telecommunication costs. The system's manager arranges with more than one interexchange carrier to carry the system's traffic from the local exchange to which it is connected to other exchanges. The manager keeps track of each carrier's charges and populates the routing table in the “least cost routing” software. The charges may be the regularly tariffed charges of the subscriber's primary carrier or contracted charges offered by an alternate carrier for a bulk discount or for discounting traffic during a specific time period during the day. The “least cost routing” software will examine each call attempt and automatically decide which carrier is the best economic choice for that call. If the call attempt fails, the software usually defaults the call attempt to the subscriber's primary carrier.
Telecommunication carriers regularly enter into wholesale contractual arrangements with other carriers to use part or all of such other carriers' telecommunications networks, for example, to complete calls to geographic regions the first carrier does not serve or to provide additional capacity on routes, or portions of routes, for which the first carrier may have little or no available capacity on its own network facilities at that time.
Recently a great deal of competition has developed between telecommunication carriers. This has been stimulated by both regulatory and technological changes. As telecommunication becomes more of a commodity it would be of great benefit to consumers to stimulate this competition and facilitate both a carrier's and a consumer's ability to make economic choices between telecommunication carriers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Provision of telecommunication services is presently dominated by fixed contractual relationships, between service providers on a wholesale basis and between users and service providers on a retail basis. However, because of technological and regulatory changes, telecommunication service is becoming more of a commodity, with competition between service providers for traffic. The herein disclosed invention stimulates this competition and facilitates a service provider's and a consumer's ability to make economic choices between competing telecommunication carriers. In this method and system, telecommunication switches route calls in accordance with economic incentives (e.g., least cost routing) resulting from a bidding process between participating telecommunication carriers (Carriers), administered by a bidding service provider through operation of a central processor, a computer referred to as a bidding moderator (Moderator).
In this arrangement, each of the Carriers transmits to the Moderator the rate it is willing to charge (or other economic incentive it is willing to offer) for service between two specific switching points on one or more telecommunications networks, at some particular time. This “bid” rate may be for a route or a route segment. For purposes of differentiating in this document between a route and route segment, a “route” is service from the “originating switching point,” i.e., the switching point on a telecommunications network that serves as the most immediate switching interface between the calling party and that telecommunications network (e.g., a local exchange switch or equivalent local switching node, whether hardware or software-defined, providing access to that network), to the “terminating switching point,” i.e., the switching point on a telecommunications network (which may, but need not be, owned or operated by the same carrier who owns or operates the originating switching point) that serves as the most immediate switching interface between the called party and that telecommunications network (e.g., a local exchange switch or equivalent local switching node, whether hardware or software-defined, providing access to that network). A “route segment” is any and all of the following: (i) service from an originating switching point on a telecommunications network to an “intermediate switching point” on the same or different telecommunications networks, such “intermediate switching points” being all switching points on one or more telecommunications networks that do not serve as the most immediate switching interface between the calling party and a telecommunications network or the most immediate switching interface between the called party and a telecommunications network, but do serve as switching points elsewhere in the telecommunications network or networks over which a call attempt may be routed (e.g., a tandem switch, a high-speed router or some other hardware or software-defined intermediate switching node on a telecommunications network); (ii) service from one intermediate switching point on a telecommunications network to another intermediate switching point on the same or different telecommunications networks; and (iii) service from an intermediate switching point on a telecommunications network to a terminating switching point on the same or different telecommunications networks. An originating switching point and terminating switching point may also be referred to in this application as an “originating switch” or a “terminating switch”, respectively, when describing the network switching infrastructure of a local telecommunications service provider.
Carriers may submit bids for routes or route segments to the Moderator for different types of telecommunications networks (e.g., circuit-switched, frame relay, asynchronous transfer mode, packet data networks such as the Internet, etc., whether using electronic, photonic or other technology) and for different classes or qualities of telecommunications service provided by such networks (e.g., transmission of voice, data, video, etc.). Access to such telecommunications networks or facilities by end users or by other telecommunications carriers or service providers may be, for example, via the public switched telephone network, dedicated facilities, private lines, wireless facilities, fiber optic facilities, coaxial cable, electric utility power lines, Ethernet or other local area network (LAN), metropolitan area network (MAN) or wide area network (WAN) connections.
The bid rate may be lower than that Carrier's established rate for any of several reasons (e.g., the Carrier has excess capacity on a particular route or route segment at that time). The Carrier may, for example, also decide for capacity or competitive reasons to place the same bid (i) on all traffic having the same originating switching point (e.g., an NPA-NXX) independent of terminating switching point or independent of which intermediate switching points such traffic may pass through, or (ii) on all traffic having the same terminating switching point independent of originating switching point or independent of which intermediate switching points such traffic may pass through. The Carrier may change its bids as often as it likes during the day as traffic patterns change. The Moderator collects this bid information from all the Carriers, sorts it among switching points, and may further process this bid information, for example, to select Carriers for particular routes or route segments or for individual call attempts. This carrier selection information may include, for example, a prioritization of the Carrier selection in accordance with Carriers' bids for each route or route segment or the designation of a selected Carrier and, perhaps, a default Carrier. The Moderator then transmits selected portions of this information to each appropriate subscribing switch location and to participating Carriers' network management centers. Each subscribing switching point (a “Subscriber”) gets the rate information and/or carrier selection information from the Moderator for all “poin
Coyle William F.
Johnson Jack J.
Barnie Rexford N.
Friedman Allen N.
Kuntz Curtis
McCarter & English L.L.P.
Summit Telecom, Inc.
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