Multiplex communications – Pathfinding or routing – Combined circuit switching and packet switching
Reexamination Certificate
1997-04-16
2001-03-06
Olms, Douglas (Department: 2661)
Multiplex communications
Pathfinding or routing
Combined circuit switching and packet switching
C370S356000, C370S401000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06198738
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to arrangements for permitting calls between customers connected to the public switched telephone network and customers connected to a packetized data network. It also relates to improved communications among customers of the packetized data network.
Problem
The provision of telephone service, using widespread data networks such as the Internet, has become increasingly popular because of the low charges encountered by users of the Internet. Because the Internet provides communications between customers located far apart without charging heavy toll charges and because the Internet carries any type of packetized data, it has become increasingly apparent that the Internet can be used for transporting packetized voice signals. Effectively, the Internet is likely to become a competitive toll carrier for voice and data communications. While many different data networks can provide these services, the Internet is the network most broadly available, so that this application uses the Internet as the preferred embodiment.
The Internet provides excellent facilities for receiving datagrams from originating terminals and transmitting datagrams to terminating customers on the basis of the Internet name of the terminator terminals. The packets destined for a terminal are routed on Internet based on an Internet Protocol Address (IPA). For those terminals which ordinarily do not disconnect, for example, servers, or those terminals who only use a fixed IPA, a translation between the hostname and the IPA is provided by a Domain Name System (DNS). This Domain Name System uses a set of protocols and databases to provide the hostname-to-IPA translation. The DNS provides a hierarchical name space management to meet the need of fast-growing Internet services. DNS servers have pointers to other DNS servers for the case wherein their local DNS knowledge is insufficient. The DNS has an architecture for maintaining a relatively static database.
For most of the present applications of Internet, the terminating terminal is a server, whose IPA is readily accessible. Certain servers, such as E-mail servers, typically do not move and have an IPA that is permanent and provided via a translation from a DNS Server.
For the case of user terminals which move from place to place and which inform the network of their presence by the act of registration, or which use a commonly used protocol wherein they are assigned a temporary IPA (TIPA) each time they register even if they don't move, a Dynamic Directory Service (DDS) is used to provide this translation; in the Internet, a User Location Service (ULS) is one such service. For terminals served by a ULS server, when a terminal moves from one port to another, it may no longer be served by the same ULS server. The ULS may maintain dynamic information about users and the applications they run. While there is an IPA entry for each ULS server in the DNS, no individual dynamic user information is maintained in the DNS for users who are assigned a TIPA whenever they register. The users are dynamically bound to a specific ULS Server, and, importantly, there is no arrangement of identifying the ULS server that individual users are currently registered with.
Accordingly, a first problem of the prior art is that there is no satisfactory arrangement for completing Internet type calls between two customers when the called party has a temporary IPA, unless both are served by the same ULS server, because there is no satisfactory arrangement for identifying the ULS server that a terminating terminal is currently registered in for the purpose of obtaining the temporary IPA of that terminal.
A further problem is encountered in processing calls from a station connected to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) to a terminal connected to a data network such as the Internet. Broadly speaking, such calls can be completed by connecting the PSTN station to a PSTN terminal of a gateway and, in the Internet, connecting an Internet terminal of the gateway to the terminating Internet terminal. The gateway is provided with a vocoder for each conversation supported by the gateway, to translate between voice signals from/to the PSTN station and packetized voice signals to/from the Internet terminal. In the case of Internet customers who receive a TIPA each time they register, whose TIPA must be obtained in order to complete the call, and who wish to be directly accessible from a PSTN telephone without requiring a preliminary telephone call, the same problem is encountered, i.e., the inability to obtain the TIPA assigned to an Internet terminal. Note that in order to minimize access charges for the calling PSTN customer, it is desirable that the PSTN customer access the closest gateway, which has access to multiple DDS or ULS servers owned by multiple service providers. Accordingly, a problem of the prior art is that there is no satisfactory arrangement for completing calls between a caller connected to the PSTN and an Internet or similar network station which has a temporary address such as a TIPA.
Solution
The above problems are solved and an advance is made over the prior art in accordance with our invention, wherein each service provider is equipped with at least one packet phone register (PPR), in the case of Internet, an Internet phone register (IPR). This phone register is a database for identifying the DDS server or ULS server that contains the data for translating between the identity of the called customer and that called customer's temporary address or TIPA. The phone register thus controls access to the DDS or ULS databases. Advantageously, the phone register permits the data network to obtain the TIPA or equivalent of any packet network station. Advantageously, this allows the service provider to screen requests for DDS or ULS data in the PPR or IPR, in order to limit access for customers who should not receive telephone service.
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Chang Young-fu
Kozik John Paul
Lee Chinmei Chen
Lucent Technologies - Inc.
Olms Douglas
Ulrich Werner
Vanderpuye Ken
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