Call waiting in call setup

Details Call waiting in call setup Call waiting in call setup

1999-09-29

2001-03-27

Hong, Harry S. (Department: 2742)

Telephonic communications

Special services

Call waiting

C379S093350, C370S524000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06208728

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to such call waiting in call setup which is started by subscriber A when the line of subscriber B is busy.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1
in the enclosed drawing shows call setup signalling in an analog telephone network. Subscriber A who is making the call (the calling subscriber) expresses his wish to start the call e.g. by lifting the receiver of his terminal equipment and by entering the telephone number of the other party of the call, that is, subscriber B (the called subscriber). The exchange of subscriber A hereby sends a Setup message (messages
11
and
12
) to the exchange of subscriber B over the network in order to announce the incoming call. In the network this message is called an Initial Address Message (IAM).
When subscriber B's terminal equipment alerts, an Alerting message
13
is sent to the network which announces the alerting function. The Alerting message
14
is relayed to the exchange of subscriber A from which the sound of the alerting function is relayed further to subscriber A. If subscriber B is already busy with another call when the new call arrives, the new call will bring about a call waiting signal sound in the ongoing call, if subscriber B has activated the call waiting function. When subscriber B answers the incorming call, a Setup_complete message
15
will be sent to the network and a Setup complete message
16
further to the exchange of subscriber A to indicate setup of the connection. The exchange of subscriber A acknowledges the setup of subscriber B's connection with a Setup_complete message
17
.
The acknowledgement is relayed further to subscriber B's exchange with a Setup_complete message
18
.
FIG. 2
in the enclosed drawing correspondingly shows call setup signalling in an ISDN network, when there are three pieces of terminal equipment TE
1
, TE
2
and TE
3
in the extension of subscriber B. Subscriber A who starts the call sends a Setup message
21
to the exchange of subscriber A which will send a starting message over the network to the exchange of subscriber B. The exchange of subscriber B sends a Setup message
22
to subscriber B's all terminal equipment. In the example shown in
FIG. 2
, subscriber B's terminal equipment TE
3
is busy and the call waiting function is not activated therein, so terminal equipment TE
3
sends a Release complete message
23
to the network to indicate non-acceptance of the call setup. Terminal equipment TE
1
and TE
2
send Alerting messages
24
and
25
to the network to indicate alerting of the terminal equipment. If terminal equipment TE
1
and TE
2
are also busy when the new call arrives, then call waiting will be performed on the line, provided that the call waiting function has been activated for the two terminal equipment. To indicate the alerting/call waiting in subscriber B's terminal equipment an Alerting message
26
is sent to subscriber A, whereby subscriber A will hear the outgoing sound (alerting sound) of the ring. In the example shown in
FIG. 2
, terminal equipment TEI answers the incoming call and sends a Connect message
27
to the network.
The call waiting function ends at the same time. Information on subscriber B's answering is relayed further to subscriber A in the Connect message
28
. The exchange of subscriber A acknowledges the setup of subscriber B's connection with Connect_acknowledge messages
29
and
30
.
It is a problem with known call setups that when subscriber B's line is busy, subscriber A may perform call waiting only if subscriber B has activated the call waiting function. When subscriber B has activated the call waiting function, the call waiting is similar for all incoming calls irrespectively of the urgency of the call. Subscriber A may express the urgency of his matter only by waiting with the call waiting function on until subscriber B picks up the incoming call.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
It is a purpose of the present invention to allow call waiting started by subscriber A and especially establishment of the priority of an incoming call and announcement of the same to subscriber B.
These objectives are achieved with such a method of call waiting in call setup according to the invention wherein the calling subscriber starts setup of the call to the called subscriber. In the call setup the called subscriber's line is busy and in the method of call waiting a call setup message is sent to the called subscriber. The method according to the invention is characterised in that such a call waiting setting is set therein for the call to be set up with which the call waiting is activated, and a call priority value is set therein which indicates the urgency of the call, and in connection with the call setup the said call waiting setting and the said priority value are relayed to the called subscriber.
The invention is based on the idea of relaying to subscriber B the identifier of the call waiting started by subscriber A and the priority value indicating the urgency of the call, based on which call waiting is performed on subscriber B's line when this is busy and the priority of the incoming call is announced to subscriber B when subscriber B has not set any barring of performance of the call waiting started by subscriber A.
It is an advantage of this kind of call waiting method that subscriber A may start the call waiting even if subscriber B has not activated the call waiting function.
It is another advantage of the call waiting method according to the invention that subscriber B will get to know the urgency of the matter in the caller's mind and can make a decision on acceptance of the call based on this information.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4942601 (1990-07-01), Park
patent: 4947421 (1990-08-01), Toy et al.
patent: 5636269 (1997-06-01), Eisdorfer
patent: 0 692 901 (1996-01-01), None
patent: 2 313 735 (1997-12-01), None
patent: 97/01917 (1997-01-01), None

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