Telephonic communications – Special services – Call waiting
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-19
2001-10-23
Hong, Harry S. (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Special services
Call waiting
C379S093010, C379S142060, C370S259000, C370S352000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06307930
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to methods for allowing an individual who is using two or more phone lines in a bonding scheme for data transmission to be able to accept incoming and make outgoing calls without disconnecting the entire data transmission. The present invention allows the individual to add and release phone lines from the data transmission as necessary to use the phone lines for incoming and outgoing calls.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As the popularity level and the amount of content on the Internet has grown so has the demand for greater bandwidth for the home user. Since conventional analog modems have nearly reached their physical limitations, other transmission methods, such as Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), and cable modems have begun to emerge as alternatives with greater bandwidth than a single analog modem. However, due to the significantly higher costs and limited availability of these options, analog modem manufacturers and Internet Service Providers (ISP) have started employing bonding schemes, in which two or more analog modems are used over a corresponding number of analog phone lines to multiply the bandwidth for a single network connection. This results in a significant increase in bandwidth at a relatively low cost to the consumer and ISP.
An example of a known configuration for a bonding scheme is shown in FIG.
1
. Computer terminal
101
connects through the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
102
to an ISP
103
using bonded phone lines
104
and
105
. Phones
106
and
107
at the same facility as the computer terminal also use lines
104
and
105
to make voice and or fax calls.
Protocols for implementing these bonding schemes already exist. Specifically, Bandwidth Allocation Control Protocol (BACP) and Multichannel Protocol Plus (MP+) manage the links, in this case phone lines, which make up the network connection and allow for individual links to be added and dropped as needed without affecting the other links.
A problem with these bonding schemes is that the use of the additional phone lines for data transmission prevents voice or fax calls from being placed or received on those lines. When computer
101
is using lines
104
and
105
for data transmission, phones
106
and
107
can neither make nor receive calls.
A technology known as “Shotgun” used by Diamond Multimedia allows a user to manually add and release the second phone line of the bonded pair. This manual operation is accomplished at the computer terminal with which the bonding scheme is being used. “Shotgun” also allows incoming calls on lines equipped with call waiting technology. When a call waiting signal is transmitted from the PSTN on the second phone line of the bonded pair, that line is automatically released from the bonding scheme so that the call may ring through while the data transmission continues on the first line. However, this approach has several shortcomings in that it does not allow an individual to choose to ignore an incoming call, it requires that call waiting service be subscribed to on the phone line to service incoming calls, and to make an outgoing call it requires an individual to manually release the second voice line at the computer terminal.
Technology already exists to intercept incoming calls on a phone line that an individual is using for a data connection, to notify the individual that there is an incoming call, and to allow the individual to elect how to handle the call. This technology is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,805,587, CALL NOTIFICATION FEATURE FOR A TELEPHONE LINE CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET, issued Sep. 8, 1998. This approach has shortcomings in that it does not allow an individual to maintain separate voice and data connections, nor does it allow an individual to make outgoing calls.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention allows a plurality of phone lines to be used in a bonding scheme, for example for data transmission, while retaining the ability to make or receive calls on any one or more of those lines without the need to terminate the data transmission on all of the lines.
In the present invention when a phone line is being used for data transmission as part of a bonding scheme and an individual desires to make a phone call on that line, the computer involved in the data transmission detects a signal from the phone that the individual wants to use for the call indicating that the line is needed for an outgoing call. The computer then takes appropriate steps to: reroute all of the data transmission to the one or more other phone lines being used in the bonding scheme; terminate all transmissions on the phone line to be used for the outgoing call; and disconnect from that phone line thus allowing the individual to use it for outgoing calls. The computer may also periodically check to see if the phone line is still being used for outgoing calls and when such use ceases the computer may once again use that line for data transmission. This method only requires that the individual's computer be configured to detect a signal from the phone that the line is needed for outgoing calls, no configuration of the infrastructure of the PSTN is required.
In order to receive incoming calls on a phone line being used in a bonding scheme, an individual must subscribe to a service provided by the telephone carrier. In this service, when a line is in use any incoming calls are redirected to a server on the Internet. This server contacts the computer involved in the bonding scheme via the Internet, alerting the user that there is an incoming call or automatically releasing the line for the incoming call if the user has previously configured the service to do so. The computer can then release one of the lines just as for outgoing calls, and the incoming call can be connected through on the released line. As with the method for outgoing calls the computer may periodically check the line and resume using it for data transmission once the call has ended.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5805587 (1998-09-01), Norris
patent: 5809128 (1998-09-01), McMullin
patent: 6078581 (2000-06-01), Shtivelman et al.
patent: 6144644 (2000-11-01), Bajzath et al.
Shotgun Technology Q&A, Diamond Multimedia; http://www.diamondmm.com/shotgun/q&a.html, Oct. 2, 1998.
What makes Shotgun Technology Unique?, Diamond Multimedia; http://www.diamondmm.com/shotgun/manual.html, Oct. 2, 1998.
Bonded Analog Modems—More Bandwidth Using Standard Analog Lines, Steve Clark, Boardwatch Magazine, Jan. 1998; http://www.boardwatch.com/mag/98/jan/bwm84.html, Oct. 2, 1998.
AT&T Corp.
Hong Harry S.
Knowlin Thjuan P.
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