Telephonic communications – Plural exchange network or interconnection – Interexchange signalling
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-01
2003-05-06
Tieu, Benny Q. (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Plural exchange network or interconnection
Interexchange signalling
C379S221090, C379S219000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06560327
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to telecommunications networks and more particularly to methods and systems for using a mediated service logic to provide telecommunications services.
2. Description of Related Art
Recent advances in telecommunications technology have allowed a wide array of special telecommunication services to be made available to subscribers. Examples of such services include abbreviated dialing, which allows a subscriber to reach a party by dialing less than the entire telephone number of that party, call forwarding, in which calls directed to the subscriber may be forwarded to another line, terminating call screening, which allows the subscriber to specify certain times during which incoming calls are to be rejected, and originating call screening, in which calls to certain telephone numbers are barred. In general, special telecommunications services (“services”) encompass those call features that do more than simply place or terminate telephone calls as dialed.
To enable such services, telecommunications networks typically carry “signals,” as well as the voice or data comprising the conversation between the calling party and the called party. These signals monitor the status of the lines, indicate the arrival of incoming calls, and carry the information needed to route the voice or other data through the network. At one time, these signals were inband, i.e., the signals were transmitted through the same circuits as used for voice transmission. However, most telecommunications networks now use out-of-band signaling, i.e., the signals are transmitted over a signaling network separate from the circuit-switched network that carries voice and data. Thus, signals carried on the separate signaling network are used to control the switches in the circuit-switched network to set up and tear down the circuit between the calling party and called party. Currently, Signaling System
7
(“SS
7
”)is the most commonly used signaling'system.
In previous decades, the switches themselves provided the special telecommunications services. However, the switches had to have a great deal of “intelligence” built into them to accomplish this. In particular, a typical switch included a database of control information and call processing logic, in addition to switching capabilities. This approach was unwieldy because a telecommunications provider needed to update the software and databases on all of its many switches in order to update services or add new services throughout its telecommunications network. To complicate matters, the software needed to program switches from different vendors often differed greatly.
To overcome these limitations, most telecommunications networks in the Unites States have adopted the advanced intelligent network (“AIN”) approach. The advent of AIN has improved matters in two ways. First, most of the control information and call processing logic resides in a central network location, the service control point (“SCP”), instead of in the multitude of switches. Second, AIN provides a set of standardized messages between the switches and the SCP to allow for a variety of services. These standards are embodied in Bellcore's AIN Release 0.1 and AIN Release 0.2.
The benefit of having the call control functions in a centralized SCP is that changes made at the SCP will apply to a large number of switches. This makes changing services and adding new services much easier and reduces the problem of differences in switches from different vendors. Moreover, the centralization at the SCP and the standardized message set allows an SCP to control a large number of switches, which are referred to as service switching points (“SSPs”) in AIN parlance, even those from different vendors. Indeed, in the AIN approach, the switches can be quite generic but still able to provide a variety of services. This is because, instead of the SSPs themselves having the necessary call processing logic, the SSPs signal the SCP for guidance at predefined “trigger points” in the call processing. The signal from the SSP passes a set of relevant parameters, in a predefined format, to the SCP. Such parameters can include the calling party's telephone number and the called party's telephone number, for example. In SS
7
, this signal is coded as a Transaction Capabilities Application Part (“TCAP”) query message. When the SCP receives the TCAP query, it executes the appropriate service logic and consults the appropriate databases to obtain the information and instructions needed to provide the intelligent network service. The SCP then sends a message, typically a TCAP response message, to the SSP instructing it how to complete the call to provide the service.
Because of the large number of SSPs and other network elements connected to the signaling network, the signaling network typically includes one or more signal transfer points (“STPs”) that route the signals through the signaling network. Thus, the signals between SSPs and other SSPs or the SCP are often routed through one or more STPs.
An illustrative part of a typical AIN network
10
is shown in FIG.
1
. In
FIG. 1
, the circuit-switched pathways that carry voice and data are represented by solid lines, and signaling pathways and other logical connections are represented by dashed lines. In network
10
, a first station
12
is connected to the public switched telephone network (“PSTN”)
14
via a first SSP
16
, and a second station
18
is connected to PSTN
14
via a second SSP
20
. Stations
12
and
18
may be telephones, fax machines, modems, or other such devices. SSPs
16
and
20
are connected to each other and to an SCP
22
by a signaling network that includes a first STP
24
and a second STP
26
. SCP
22
is provided with a service management system (“SMS”)
28
that allows for the provision and modification of the information and service logic residing in SCP
22
. SMS
28
typically includes a user interface, the service creation environment (“SCE”)
30
, which may be accessed by a computer terminal
32
. In this way, a user at terminal
32
is able to access, create, and modify the service logic and other information in SMS
28
and then download it to SCP
22
.
As a simple illustration of the operation of network
10
, consider the case where the user of station
12
subscribes to an abbreviated dialing service. To call station
18
, the user of station
12
dials less than the complete telephone number of station
18
. The collection of the abbreviated telephone number by SSP
16
serves as a trigger point indicating a need for AIN services. SSP
16
thus sends a TCAP query, which includes the dialed digits and the number of calling station
12
as parameters, to SCP
22
via STP
24
. The service logic of SCP
22
first verifies that the customer corresponding to station
12
subscribes to the abbreviated dialing service. SCP
22
then retrieves the complete telephone number of station
18
and passes it as a parameter in a TCAP response message to SSP
16
. From this information, SSP
16
is able to signal to SSP
20
, via STPs
24
and
26
, to attempt to set up a circuit-switched voice path from station
12
to station
18
through PSTN
14
.
Note that AIN services can also be invoked when an SSP attempts to complete a call, such as when SSP
16
attempts to complete a call from station
18
to station
12
. An example is when the user of station
12
subscribes to a terminating call screening service. In this case, when SSP
16
receives a termination attempt, i.e., an attempt to complete a call from station
18
to station
12
, it sends a TCAP query to SCP
22
containing the telephone number of station
12
as a parameter. SCP
22
determines that calling station
12
subscribes to a terminating call screening service and, based on the time of day or other circumstances, determines whether or not the call should be allowed to go through to station
12
. SCP
22
then sends a TCAP response message to SSP
16
with appropriate parame
Ball Harley R.
Funk Steven J.
Robb Kevin D.
Sprint Spectrum L.P.
Tieu Benny Q.
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