Multiplex communications – Communication techniques for information carried in plural... – Combining or distributing information via time channels
Reexamination Certificate
1997-10-21
2001-02-20
Vu, Huy D. (Department: 2663)
Multiplex communications
Communication techniques for information carried in plural...
Combining or distributing information via time channels
C379S088190
Reexamination Certificate
active
06192057
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to a method and a device for controlling telecommunication connections via digital switching networks, in particular for telephone connections between participants of a telephone network like the integrated-services digital network (ISDN).
2. Prior Art
A frequently observed scenario of telecommunication via switching networks is that a caller is connected to an answering machine, although he intended to talk directly to a human individual. So the caller hangs up and pays for a not desired telephone connection. Currently every time telephone participants talk to an answering machine they have to pay telephone charges and waste time.
Another typical scenario in the field of telephone communication is where a node is shared by more than one individual and that a caller wants to talk to a definite person who currently is not present. Thus, another person will take the call, accordingly causing costs and time.
A first prior art approach for preventing non-desired telephone calls is an automatic telephone answering machine, disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication JP 60-229561, assigned to NEC Corporation and entitled “Automatic Telephone Answering Device”. Its purpose is that the answering device automatically calls a called subscriber only when a calling subscriber voices a specific word, but does not answer to a silent telephone call. Proposed is a responding message sender controlled by the output of a voice detector which detects the specific speech of the calling subscriber and sends out a control signal to a speech answering circuit and a calling circuit. Both circuits are activated and the speech answering device sends out an answer message to the calling subscriber and also transmits a tone to let the subscriber know of the incoming call.
A second known approach, a responder absence indicating system for telephone sets, is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication JP 59-122066, assigned to NEC Corporation and entitled “Display System for Absence of Responsor from Telephone Set”. Proposed is to store an absent status by identifying a dial number of a registered absent status. The objective is to allow an originating subscriber to confirm absence of a responsor by storing presence or absence of the responsor regarding every telephone set. It is particularly proposed to discriminate and display a dial number for absence registration from a telephone set. A controller receives a dial number of a telephone set and sends it to a discriminating circuit which discriminated the number to store the absence state in the address of said telephone set. When a second telephone set originates to the first telephone set, a tone is sent out and the absence of the responsor from the first telephone set is confirmed.
There exist further approaches which let a called subscriber know who calls, to identify a caller before answering. In a respective system disclosed in Japanese Patent JP 1243757, assigned to Toshiba KK, the ISDN subaddress information is utilized for that purpose.
A similar approach for identifying a calling terminal is subject matter of European Patent Application 0 680 239, assigned to Nippon Telegraph and Sharp KK. There, a connecting facility connects calls from an identified calling terminal to a private ISDN terminal. A switching system has an identifier unit which identifies the calling terminal of an incoming call by a calling number and a subaddress in a call-setting message. Finally, an approach for improving communication effectiveness and efficiency by excluding unnecessary connections of terminals is disclosed in Japanese Patent JP 7123170, assigned to Nippon Telegraph, where an incoming call from a terminal to another terminal, which are interconnected via ISDN, is notified to a user through a display unit. An address circuit hereby sends a predefined specific code to a substitute address information element at the time of transmission of the call. An address checking circuit checks whether the address is available in the incoming call signal. If the address is not available in the calling signal, a control circuit identifies it as standard communication mode and notifies this to the user through the display unit.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The known approaches do not solve the problem underlying the present invention, namely to provide a method to avoid being connected to an answering machine when a participant only wants to talk to a human at the other side, or to a definite person, respectively.
The invention solves the above problem by interchanging participant information between the calling device and the called device, before setting up the connection. That information can be utilized to inform the caller about the device type at the called side or to inform the called side about the desired individual which the caller wants to talk with. Hereby, the caller or the called individual, respectively, can decide to accept a connection or not to accept.
A first application scenario is a situation where a human caller wants to get a telephone connection to another human participant, wherein an answering device is provided on the called side, too. A second scenario is a situation where a human caller wants to talk with a definite person and wants to avoid costs for a connection with an undesired person. For instance, he wants to talk with a person which is not present where typically another person receives the call instead of the intended person.
The proposed function is different from known approaches insofar as it does not provide an indication of the calling number to the called participant. In contrast to those approaches, according to the concept of the invention, the calling participant provided specific information about the desired called participant. It is further emphasized that the present invention is applicable to common telephone calls, telephone and video conferences, including device—device connections, human—human connections, and mixed connections between devices and human participants.
By use of, for instance, a different alerting tone or a display message, a caller can be informed that e.g. an answering machine is active at the called participant's side. This information can be provided by the answering machine and transmitted via the known ISDN ALERT message. The ISDN ALERT message is part of the actual ISDN protocol definition.
Thus, the proposed method saves caller's time and money and thereupon increases network performance by reducing the amount of unintended connections and keeping the network free for other intended connections.
An information that an answering machine is active under a called telephone number is not known in current switching networks. For that reason, the called device, e.g. the answering machine itself, has to notify its device type to the calling device, e.g. a telephone. Exchange of such information before setup of an operable connection is already supported in digital switching networks like ISDN, in contrast to analog switching networks. For instance, in ISDN a called device sends an ALERTING message to a switching center, before accepting the connection. The switching center forwards a part of that message to the calling device which includes the so-called USER—USER Information Element (UUIE). The USER—USER information element is a block of information comprising information about the users. It may be included in known ISDN messages, like in the ISDN SETUP message or the ISDN ALERT message. In said UUIE, an information like “UNDER THE CALLED NUMBER AN ANSWERING MACHINE IS BECOMING ACTIVE” can be coded. In an analogous manner, other information about end devices can be coded, like about Telefax or Personal Computers.
The UUIE is transmitted by the ISDN network transparently to the calling device and thus can be presented to the calling participant (person) via a display device. Alternatively, a different dial tone can be generated by the calling device to inform the participant about the answering machine. Hereby, the calling parti
Dueck Gunter
Fleckenstein Karl
Holey Thomas
Korevaar Peter
Mähler Martin
Cockburn Joscelyn G.
International Business Machines - Corporation
Kwoh Jasper
Vu Huy D.
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