Multiplex communications – Pathfinding or routing – Combined circuit switching and packet switching
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-11
2003-03-18
Hsu, Alpus H. (Department: 2665)
Multiplex communications
Pathfinding or routing
Combined circuit switching and packet switching
C370S401000, C379S088170, C379S093070, C379S093240, C709S203000, C709S218000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06535506
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to data, communications terminals and networks, switched telephone networks, initiating communications connectivity on a switched network in response to hyperlink supplied data retrieved from a packet data network, and more particularly to the system and methodology for establishing and enabling the use of such networks.
BACKGROUND ART
Telephone marketing and sales systems have been used by merchants for years to remotely accept orders from consumers without requiring a trip to a retail establishment. Merchants have traditionally advertised their products for sale to the public using print, radio and television media frequently including a telephone number for consumers to call to obtain further information and place orders for their products. Sales representatives at a centralized merchant sales facility answer the customer calls, answer questions and place orders for products.
Typically a merchant telephone sales facility includes sales representative stations. Such stations are each equipped with computer terminals for accessing product database and ordering systems. Each station further has a telephone. Incoming telephone calls from customers, placed using telephones at the customer premises, are carried by a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to the merchant telephone sales facility. Here the incoming lines are terminated at an automatic call distributor (ACD). The ACD monitors the sales representative stations for availability and activity, and routes the incoming calls to the telephone of the appropriate available sales representative. The ACD may include other functionality, such as receipt and display on the appropriate telephone of the telephone number of the calling party, using calling number identification (CID) data supplied by the PSTN.
Upon acceptance of an incoming telephone call, a sales representative solicits information from the calling party to determine the nature of the call, e.g., the product of interest to the caller, the type of information being sought, etc. The sales representative may also use the CID information to access any records about that customer that may be stored on a product database and ordering system. The ACD may further include a voice response unit (VRU) to automatically solicit preliminary information from customers, record the responses, route the call to an appropriate sales representative, and display or playback any recorded responses.
A disadvantage of such a prior art telephone marketing method is that there is no automatic way for the sales representative to know what materials prompted the customer to place the call or what information has been reviewed by the customer immediately prior to the call. Further, the sales representative must convey all information to the caller orally or by mailing or faxing information, such as graphic literature. Because the caller may not obtain sufficient or satisfactory types of information orally, and because of the delays and inability to interactively access the customer's needs if information is sent via mail or facsimile, the customer's product evaluation and selection process may be compromised and/or sales may be lost.
In addition to conventional print, radio and television advertising, merchants are increasingly making information available, and accepting orders over electronic data links. Using a home computer, a potential customer may access a merchant's electronic catalog system, obtain product information, and may place orders. While some merchants maintain dedicated computers called “servers” to provide dedicated dialup service over the PSTN, an increasing number of businesses are accessible over the Internet. In particular, the graphics capabilities and hot links (also referred to as hot spots, hyperlinks, and hypertext) supported by hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) of the Worldwide Web (WWW) sites of the Internet, have resulted in many merchants offering their own home pages advertising their products and services.
A “client” or potential customer can access the WWW of the Internet using a home, desktop, or personal computer (PC), running web browser software such as Netscape or Internet Explorer. The client personal computer, or the like, running the browser software, has communications interfacing means for connecting to and communicating with remote servers or web sites on the Internet, conventionally via a client server. The browser software displays textual and graphical information retrieved from the web on a video display or monitor. Digital audio information is conventionally played either through speakers internal to the PC or auxiliary external speakers. Control of and data entry into the PC is provided by a keyboard and graphical input device, i.e., mouse. In particular, the user moves a cursor displayed on the monitor to designate a desired portion of the display.
The browser software provides a tool for the user to navigate the web and other types of Internet sites (e.g., FTP file transfer protocol and Gopher sites), without having to know the lengthy uniform resource locator (URL) addresses of the sites to be accessed. Instead of entering the URL, the user employs the mouse to click on a highlighted portion of text (known as “hypertext”) or graphics (together known as “hyperlinks”), to retrieve associated information. The browser interprets the hypertext formatted as hypertext markup language (HTML) and transmitted using hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). If the hypertext points to an information source outside of the current hypertext page, it initiates a service request to the URL associated with the selected hypertext. Thus, each page of information in HTML format includes not only text and graphics, but the embedded addresses of sites having related information.
Most Internet applications, including HTTP, follow a client server model. One computer system, called the server, runs the hypertext database part of the application. The server is provided by a merchant or other information source maintaining a home page on the web. Other computers, called clients, request services from the server, usually in the form of information requests. On a UNIX system the server part of the application normally runs in the background and is called a “daemon,” pronounced “demon.” Servers are identified by the type of service involved. Therefore, a system running the HTTP server daemon is called an HTTP server. A given computer system can have multiple servers running simultaneously. Thus, a single server might simultaneously function as an HTTP server, an FTP server, and a LAN (local area network) server, as well as several other types of servers.
A transaction is initiated when the HTTP client requests a service or resource from the server. The client software uses a Unique Resource Identifier (URI) to determine where the desired resource resides on the Internet. A URI is either a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or Uniform Resource Name (URN.) An URL specifies the actual location of the resource, while an URN identifies the place where the resource is located and must be translated into a an URL. In current practice URLs are always used for HTTP applications.
An HTTP server exists for the purpose of sending objects to a requester using the HTTP protocol. One such object is a Home Page. A Home Page is simply a document that has been composed or “markedup” using HTML.
A typical request-response scenario might proceed as follows. A user on a Microsoft Windows equipped operating system (OS) may be executing a Web Browser such as Netscape. The user clicks on a hot spot within the document that contains an URL. The browser recognizes the tag as identifying an URL, encapsulates it within an HTTP wrapper and passes it to the OS TCP stack, which includes code to handle the data. The OS then initiates a connection with the server's host system. Once the OS and the host system establish communication, the OS ships the request to the host. This request is passed through the various protocol layers to the HTTP
Angel German
Narain Alfredo Jose
Wilson Michael Anthony
Click Interconnect, Inc.
Hsu Alpus H.
LandOfFree
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