Telephonic communications – Special services
Reexamination Certificate
1997-06-09
2004-04-20
Lao, Sue (Department: 2126)
Telephonic communications
Special services
Reexamination Certificate
active
06724875
ABSTRACT:
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telecommunications network and a platform which controls the telecommunications network by managing call processing within the telecommunications network and handling other functions such as the assignment of resources, signalling and switching.
2. Discussion of Background Information
Over the years, telecommunications networks have vastly improved in their ability to enable network users to receive what is termed “personalized services.” These services are personalized in that they are oriented toward the user/subscriber instead of the network in general; that is, the user can decide which network service or services he or she wishes to subscribe to, as opposed to the user getting, and paying for, all services that the network provides.
One type of network that is particularly well suited for the provision of personalized services is the intelligent network. Intelligent networks centralize service-related intelligence in special nodes located in the telecommunications network. The intelligent network is well suited for telecommunications systems providing personalized services since it allows the setting up and management of network services that require sizable data and call handling resources.
An article by Sadaba (Telefonica de Espana) entitled “Personal Communications in the Intelligent Network,” British Telecommunications Engineering, Vol. 9, August, 1990, pages 80-83, notes the importance of intelligent networks with respect to personalized services. The article generally describes (at pages 82-83) the concept of intelligent networks, and notes that intelligent networks treat all calls individually, dependent upon several parameters and variables. The article further explains that several entities are involved in the control of a call, and that switching functions are clearly separated from the control functions. The article states that separation of the switching functions from the control functions allows the resulting network to be more flexible in the way that it handles telecommunications functions, such as numbering, charging, routing, subscriber location, network management and service creation. Accordingly, intelligent networks have been deemed important in providing for flexibility in network management, service creation, and provisioning in telecommunications networks. Intelligent networks have been embodied in various forms, including well-known versions such as IN/1, IN/2 and IN/1+, as well as the advanced intelligent network (AIN) releases. A particular AIN architecture is described by Roger K. Berman and John H. Brewster in an article entitled “Perspectives on the AIN Architecture,” IEEE Communications magazine, February 1992, pages 27-32. In that article, a particular AIN release 1 architecture is described at pages 28 and 29. The physical systems and interfaces included in the AIN architecture are shown in
FIG. 1
of the article.
The article further discloses, in an appendix at page 31, more detailed information about an AIN release 1 call model. The AIN release 1 call model is described as comprising two components, including a basic call model (BCM) and a connection view (CV). The BCM provides a generic model of current call processing for basic two-party calls and describes when in call processing AIN switch capabilities can be utilized. The CV describes how service logic of a stored program control can access the AIN switch capabilities to influence call processing and the switch. The CV provides a generic view of call processing resources in the AIN switch to the SCP/adjunct, which view is independent of the switch vendor implementation, representing the essential characteristics of call processing resources needed by service logic, and hides the critical details of technical complexities of the resources from the service logic.
While the specifics of the AIN release 1 architecture allow for a certain amount of flexibility in the use of different switches, e.g., by hiding the physical details and technical complexities of the resources from the service logic, the AIN architecture is limited in many respects. Particularly, there is some room for improvement in the ability of a network platform to provide a wide range of personalized services, change the resources used by the platform, quickly create and deliver services, and provide OAM&P capabilities.
3. Definitions
The following terms are defined in order to provide a better understanding of the present invention as described herein.
Aggregate resource capability:
A resource capability that represents more than one basic capability.
Alarm factors:
The input states associated with a managed object which caused the object's summary state to take on its current value. If all problems listed in the alarm states are resolved, the managed object's summary state will return to CLEAR.
Application layer:
The application layer comprises all classes whose objects generically participate in call processing, including, e.g., the leg, session, event manager, event handler and application components.
Application component:
A basic unit of service function. Services are built using application components.
Basic capability:
Fundamental units of equipment functionality. A basic capability cannot be decomposed into other capabilities. Some examples of basic capabilities could be playing tones, and recognizing DTMF digits.
Call processing stack:
A hierarchy of objects that interact with each other to implement call processing. From bottom to top for a given active call, the stack comprises one or more logical resources, one or more channels, one or more virtual terminals, one or more legs, a session, and at the top of the hierarchy, a set of event managers, event handlers and application components that are utilized to execute various service logic units (service program).
Call processing virtual machine:
The software environment within which the flexible platform services run, consisting of generic call components and application components.
Capability:
A capability is any function that a piece of equipment can perform. Some example capabilities are playing tones, making voice calls and playing announcements.
Channel:
An object in the call processing stack that manages a path resource and a set of logical resources (which may be empty) associated with that path resource. A channel may also keep track of basic capabilities and resource capabilities supported by the resources that it is managing.
Event handler:
An object that appears in the event manager of a session. Each event handler waits for a particular event to occur, where the event is of a certain type and has a particular reference channel and reference leg. If an event occurs with respect to reference channel and reference leg, the event handler starts execution of the specified service logic unit assigned to it.
Event manager:
An object in (or associated with) a session that contains event handlers for that session. It may be arranged as an array, indexed by event type, of event handler lists.
Generic call components:
Software objects, comprising, e.g., sessions, legs, VTs (virtual terminals), channels and VUs (virtual users), that are used to represent the dynamic states of calls, and other information including how many calls are involved, what resources are being used, and so on.
Input state:
The set of states which serve as the input to one or more functions used to calculate the output states of a managed object. These states are communicated to the objects via the state distributor.
Intermediate model domain:
Managed object representation of objects existing in the real-time domain (RTD) and logical groupings of those objects.
Leg:
The application layer object that represents a party to a call. The leg manages both information about a single party in a call and the VT (virtual terminal) object associated with that party's call. The leg may also perform other functions.
Link layer:
The software in the platform host that manages the communications
Adams Thomas L.
Chorley Will R.
Cunetto Philip C.
Doherty James M.
LeMay John E.
Greenblum & Bernstein P.L.C.
Lao Sue
SBC Technology Resources Inc.
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