Telephonic communications – With usage measurement – Call traffic recording or monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-22
2001-03-27
Nguyen, Duc (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
With usage measurement
Call traffic recording or monitoring
C379S111000, C379S114030, C379S134000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06208721
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to the network management of telephone systems, and more particularly to the identification and characterization of calling parties who have had at least one failed call attempt to a specified called party destination over a particular interval of time.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In a large-scale public communications network, a calling party may not always be successful in connecting to a desired called party destination. Connection failures can be attributed to many causes, including the unavailability of the called party and the possibility of network blockages and other call-affecting network failures at many points across the network. The impact of these failed calls can be significant.
For example, direct marketers, in particular, generate substantial revenues from buyers who call in response to advertisements placed in wide-reaching media such as TV and radio, the Internet, and newspapers. The direct marketers often provide 800 numbers in their advertisements to encourage buyer response by telephone. Broadly placed direct marketing advertisements can generate high levels of potential buyer demand across a wide geographic area. This demand can result in high associated 800 service call volumes, which can exceed network capacities, and thereby lead to heightened incidences of network blockage and call failure. The resulting failed calls can represent a significant loss in potential buyers and in potential revenues for the direct marketers.
Some information about the call attempts made by these otherwise lost buyers is currently available. For example, caller identification data can be captured by a local exchange carrier (LEC), and forwarded to other LECs and interexchange carriers (IXCs) in the calling chain (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No.5,530,741, issued to Rubin on Jun. 25, 1996). And network management systems supporting individual network operators are capable of tracking call attempt failures in association with caller identification data (see, e.g., 5ESS Input/Output Messages, Manual No. 235-600-700/750, Issue 15.01C, Lucent Technologies Inc., Mar. 1998, describing an MDII message used, among other things, to report call attempt failure information to local and centralized network maintenance consoles where 5ESS switch performance is monitored). However, while some of the required information components exist, no single, integrated mechanism has heretofore been developed to collect failed call attempt information in a reliable, integrated fashion from the multiple exchange carriers that collectively provide, for example, 800 service to prospective buyers in a direct marketing environment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Called party access to information about failed call attempts is significantly enhanced in an unsuccessful caller identification system that uses standard caller identification information as a basis for comparing call attempt data retrieved from a variety of sources. Specifically, call failure records routinely tracked by the IXCs and LECs (using systems such as Lucent Technologies' NETMINDER with network trouble patterning features) are compared with call completion data (tracked by sophisticated call center systems such as Lucent Technologies' DEFINITY Enterprise Communications Server—Automatic Call Distributor Platform).
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the unsuccessful caller identification system comprises a call attempt collector and a call attempt analyzer that are interconnected to telecommunications network facilities for one or more IXC's and LEC's. The system further comprises a method by which the call attempt collector and the call attempt analyzer, respectively, retrieve call attempt data via the network and examine the retrieved information to identify calling parties who were unsuccessful in reaching one or more specified called destinations. The system provides a way for users to specify its parameters of operation, and a way for users to retrieve and display the results of its analyses.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4408100 (1983-10-01), Pritz et al.
patent: 4788718 (1988-11-01), McNabb et al.
patent: 4924491 (1990-05-01), Compton et al.
patent: 5509055 (1996-04-01), Ehrlich et al.
patent: 5859903 (1999-01-01), Lee
patent: 5999604 (1999-12-01), Walter
Patent No. 5,311,574, filed on Oct. 23, 1991 and issued on May 10, 1994 to Konstantin Livanos. Class: 379/88.
Patent No. 5,530,741, filed on Nov. 23, 1993 and issued on Jun. 25, 1996 to Robert M. Rubin. Class: 379/142.
Feinberg Brion Noah
Welch Carol H.
Bean T. J.
Lucent Technologies - Inc.
Luludis F.
Nguyen Duc
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