Establishing and managing communications over...

Details Establishing and managing communications over... Establishing and managing communications over...

2000-11-27

2003-03-18

Kuntz, Curtis (Department: 2643)

Telephonic communications

With usage measurement

Call charge metering or monitoring

C379S114060, C379S114100, C379S114110, C379S114120

Reexamination Certificate

active

06535592

ABSTRACT:

The present invention relates generally to telecommunications, and more specifically, to a method and system of establishing and managing telecommunications over telecommunication networks by providing and enforcing a warranty for communications failing to meet parameters agreed to by the entities involved in the communication.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
For many decades, telecommunication networks were designed to carry human voices and some data signals, such as Morse Code, in audio bands. However, in the last few decades, telecommunications have been moving into higher bandwidths, using digital signals in order to increase the capacity of physical infrastructures and reducing the cost of supplying telecommunication services. While a copper wire pair in a traditional telephone system carried a single analog voice signal, dozens of voice signals can now be digitized, multiplexed, and transmitted at higher frequencies over the same copper wire pair.
Telecommunication Service Providers now use various transmission means including analog, digital and compressed digital methods, over a variety of media, including hard wire, wireless, fiber optic and satellite transmission means. Data transmission methods and protocols now include Internet Protocol (IP), asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), frame relay, and digital telephony. The networks of these Service Providers are generally interconnected with those of others to form larger, heterogeneous networks.
Currently, two networks dominate telecommunications: conventional telephone networks (public switched telephone networks or PSTNs) with their almost universal physical infrastructure; and the Internet, which has grown tremendously over the last decade and continues to grow.
Telecommunication systems, such as those for telephony and the Internet, are composed of terminal equipment such as telephones or personal computers; an access network such as a telephony local loop or a radio link, switches or routers; and a backbone network such as the PSTN or an intercity data network. One design challenge is that the needs of users at the terminals are very varied, but the backbone networks must handle highly standardized loads in order to operate reliably and efficiently.
FIG. 1
is an example of a prior art telephony system
10
. System
10
includes a plurality of switches
12
controlled by large computer programs in switch controllers
14
. Switches
12
are interconnected with one another by trunks
16
which carry the actual communication signals and can consist of a variety of physical media, such as optical fiber and coaxial cables. Switch controllers
14
are also interconnected, generally by means of signaling lines
18
rather than over communication trunks
16
.
Telephony systems
10
also generally include computing means to implement such features as conference calling
20
, voice mail
22
and toll services
24
. Telephony features, such as call forwarding, may be implemented by adding code to the programs running the switches
12
or by adding specialized hardware to the telephony system
10
. The features available to particular users are defined in databases accessed by software on switch
12
, and adding a new type of feature may involve changing these databases together with the software on each switch
12
that uses them, and may also involve purchasing and installing new types of hardware in the system.
FIG. 2
is an example of a prior art Internet communications system
30
. The Internet
32
itself is represented by a number of routers
34
interconnected by an Internet backbone
36
network designed for high-speed transport of large amounts of data. User's computers
38
may access the Internet in a number of manners including modulating and demodulating data over a telephone line using audio frequencies. Such dial up access requires a modem
40
and connection to the Public Switched Telephone Network
42
, which in turn connects to the Internet
32
via a point of presence
44
including a complementary modem
40
and an access controller
46
. Another manner of access is the use of broadband modems
50
which modulate and demodulate data onto high frequencies which pass over CATV networks
52
, or the like, which are connected to the Internet via a controller
54
.
Part of the access network in these systems is usually a set of computer systems
39
at the edge of the backbone network
36
which perform functions such as authentication of users and control of the load that they place on the backbone network
36
. Communications between users' computers
38
and the rest of the network
30
are standardized by means of defined communication protocols.
Communications over the Internet can be accomplished via various protocols and over a variety of physical transfer media. A protocol is a set of conventions or rules that govern transfer of data between hardware devices. The simplest protocols define only a hardware configuration while more complex protocols define timing, data formats, packet construction and interpretation, error detection and correction techniques and software structures.
The Internet is a connectionless network service, in that a single communication may be broken up into a multitude of data packets that follow different paths between the same source and destination. Traditional telephony, in contrast, reserves resources to establish a single dedicated path for a communication that all of the data in the communication follows.
The Internet employs the Internet Protocol (IP) and the key advantages of IP are that it allows a large network to function robustly and that it offers a standardized means by which applications software can use that network. While it offers a number of advantages, actual performance is based on performance levels which are not consistent or absolutely guaranteed and which can, at best, only be statistically estimated.
Networks for telephony and data transmission have developed separately, but the economic rationale for having distinct physical networks is disappearing and the technologies are converging. They appear to be converging on a model closer to that for data than that for telephony, partly because of the greater generality of data networks. The dominant data network is currently the Internet but there is a fundamental difference between these two networks. Conventional telephone systems generally take a “first-come-first-served” approach when there is contention for network resources, denying services to subsequent callers if sufficient resources are not available and this process is known as “call admission”. The Internet however, is packet based and has traditionally offered “best effort” service without making any attempt to prioritize traffic. That is, the Internet will accept all traffic, and the flow-through rate will vary with the demands the parties place on the resources available. This difference in operating philosophy makes it difficult to offer traditional services over a converging network.
As well, because the requirements for voice and data transmission can be quite different, it is difficult to optimize for provision of both on a common network. Voice communication, for example, produces a relatively steady stream of data at a relatively low data rate, and rapid delivery is more important than accuracy (i.e. a low end to end latency is more important than a small percentage of dropped packets). In contrast, data applications such as Web browsing or ftp file transfers generally produce bursts of data that are required to be delivered accurately, but for which an end to end latency of a second or two or more may be considered acceptable.
This problem is aggravated by the demand for new services such as video telephony, Internet games, video on demand, Internet audio, streaming audio or video, remote collaborative work or telemedicine, which require differing levels of quality and degrees of bandwidth. Clearly, the network must be able to allocate and control the quality and quantity of bandwidth in order to use its resources efficiently and

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