Telephonic communications – Special services – Service profile
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-20
2002-11-05
Hong, Harry S. (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Special services
Service profile
C379S009010, C379S242000, C379S269000, C707S793000, C709S241000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06477245
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims priority of European Patent Application No.98460040.3, which was filed on Sep. 25, 1998.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The field of the invention is that of telephone systems. The invention can be applied especially to the management of private and/or public telephone automatic branch exchanges. More specifically, the invention relates to a method for the management of a telephone automatic branch exchange, an external management device as well as a corresponding branch exchange.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In general, a private automatic branch exchange manages a plurality of objects, geographically distributed within the premises of a firm. Examples of such objects are, for example, voice message mailboxes, telephone sets and answering machines. Each object is characterized by at last one parameter. The manager defines the parameter or parameters of at least certain of the objects and/or he loads and/or saves and/or modifies these parameters. The modification may be used to update the configuration or eradicate the bugs from the configuration of an automatic branch exchange. Configuration bugs of this kind may be the cause of relatively serious malfunctioning that could lead to a dysfunctioning or even the blocking of the automatic branch exchange.
Hereinafter in the present patent document, the term “management” of a telephone branch exchange refers in particular to the following four series of functions:
the functions of loading the configuration in an automatic branch exchange;
the functions of saving the configuration of an automatic branch exchange;
the functions of updating the configuration of an automatic branch exchange;
the functions of remote maintenance of the configuration of an automatic branch exchange.
Hereinafter in the description, the term “manager” will designate a human operator performing at least certain of the above-mentioned functions of management.
There are several distinct known ways of managing an automatic branch exchange. Thus, a first known solution for loading the configuration into an automatic branch exchange, known as the “videotex” (registered mark) system, enables the connection of a Minitel (registered mark) terminal to an automatic branch exchange through a serial link by means of a modem,
According to this first approach, a manager types out a textual configuration command on a keyboard of the Minitel (registered mark) and sends this command to the automatic branch exchange to be configured. The textual message is received and then interpreted by the automatic branch exchange to define or modify at least one parameter of an object managed by the automatic branch exchange.
However this first solution is not advantageous.
First of all, it makes it necessary to type the textual commands one by one. Thus, if the manager has to define a large number of parameters, this means that he has to type a corresponding number of commands. The first solution therefore is very cumbersome to implement.
Then, the first solution does not enable the transmission of commands except in one direction, namely from the Minitel to the configuration server of the automatic branch exchange. In other words, it is not possible to retrieve the configuration commands sent to the automatic branch exchange.
Furthermore, since it is not possible to retrieve the transmitted configuration commands, the first solution prevents the remote maintenance of the configuration of an automatic branch exchange, or makes it difficult to carry out this remote maintenance,
Finally, the first approach dictates a permanent connection with the concerned telephone automatic branch exchange.
A second known method of loading a configuration into an automatic branch exchange implements a protocol called a “simple network management protocol” on a computer that is connected to an automatic branch exchange to a series link by means of a modem. This protocol is presented for example in the published document RFC 1157 by J. Case, M. Fedor, M, Schoffstall and J. Davin, May 1990.
According to this second approach, a manager has two commands for the remote management of an automatic branch exchange by means of a computer. A first command enables the retrieval of a parameter of an, object and a second command enables this parameter to be modified.
This second approach has several drawbacks.
Indeed, if the manager wishes to modify a large number of parameters, the second approach makes it necessary to perform a large number of processing operations since two operations have to be performed to modify only one parameter. The second approach is therefore cumbersome.
Furthermore, it is impossible for the manager to retrieve all the configuration commands of the automatic branch exchange.
Finally, the second approach requires a permanent connection between the computer and the automatic branch exchange, and this involves major connection costs.
There is also a third known approach providing means for the consultation of the data elements pertaining to the configuration of an automatic branch exchange connected to an automatic branch exchange (locally or at a distance) through a series link by means of a modem.
According to this third approach, a manager may consult raw configuration data of the automatic branch exchange in blocks and therefore memorize raw data of this kind in the form of blocks. The manager can then modify the raw data after having carried out an interpretation of said data.
This third approach also has many drawbacks.
First of all, the manager is obliged to know the memory organization of the data elements in order to access the different parameters before modifying them as the case may be. Such an obligation to know requires the manager to perform a not negligible and even substantial job of analysis and interpretation on the recovered raw data Errors may be inserted following a wrong interpretation and/or modification by the manager. Now, the impact of such errors may give rise to major or even catastrophic malfunctioning for the users of the automatic branch exchange. In certain extreme cases, these errors may lead to a paralysis of the entire system.
Furthermore, it may happen that the manager can modify retrieved raw data only in data blocks. Consequently, the manager can work only on data blocks. This increases his workload since he must interpret an entire block of raw data before being able, if necessary, to modify some of it. Any modification therefore represents an operation that is cumbersome and difficult to implement.
Finally, he must know the exact memory location since the organization of the data blocks must be followed precisely. Indeed, the organization of the raw data, as regards their memory addresses, should not vary in order to avoid any configuration bug.
The three current approaches require substantial time of connection with the automatic branch exchange in order to transfer commands and/or data from or to the automatic branch exchange.
It is impossible to configure an automatic branch exchange off-line,
Furthermore, these approaches do not enable a simple, low-cost implementation of the configuration of an automatic branch exchange without the interpretation of the operation of the automatic branch exchange. Again, it is not possible to preserve the parameters of the current configuration of an automatic branch exchange before updating it, for example in order to install a new version of a configuration program on the automatic branch exchange.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is designed especially to overcome these different drawbacks of the prior art. More specifically, one of the goals of the present invention is to provide a method for the management of a telephone automatic branch exchange and a corresponding external management device used to assemble and simplify all the management functions of an automatic branch exchange and to make their uses faster and more flexible.
Another goal of the invention is to provide a method of this kind and a device of this kind used to display at least one
Chevet Jean-Luc
Tatin Christophe
Avaya Technology Corp.
Hong Harry S.
LandOfFree
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