Telephonic communications – Plural exchange network or interconnection – With interexchange network routing
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-15
2004-06-01
Bui, Bing (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Plural exchange network or interconnection
With interexchange network routing
C379S091010, C379S142050, C379S211010, C379S211020, C379S221130
Reexamination Certificate
active
06744874
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method of communication system and related devices. More specifically, it relates to a method of universal communication and related devices for the exchange of voice, data, and business transactions.
A commonly used communication system is the telephone system. Although the telephone system was initially intended for voice communication, today it is used for communication in a variety of media, such as fax document and digital data. Actually the sending or receiving device is not necessarily a traditional phone, and it can be a fax machine, or a computer, or some other device. The connection can be optical fiber or wireless, instead of the traditional metal wires. Computer controlled Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) is gradually added to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Such functions as caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, voice mail, auto attendant, and interactive voice response are available.
Cellular phones provide an even more convenient tool for mobile communication. However, there are a few limitations on the use of cellular phones. At certain locations the radio frequency communication may be blocked. At certain environment the radio frequency communication may cause interference to other equipment. The voice quality and reliability still need improvement to reach the level available from a fixed line connection. There are also some health concerns about frequent exposure to radio.
The telephone numbering system currently used is mostly a physical location oriented system. For example, the standard format for telephone numbers in the United States is NPA-XX-)XXXX. The first three digitals specify the area code, the next three digitals the local exchange, and the last four digitals the specific subscriber line in the local exchange. A few exceptions include the N11 format for special services (411 for directory assistance and 911 for emergencies) and the 800 toll-free numbers. The location-oriented numbering system was a natural choice for the automation of the telephone exchange system, but it poses limitations today with the increasing communication demand. For example, when people change their offices, they have to either change their phone numbers or wait for the rearrangement of connections. With the development of more and more communication devices, it is troublesome to keep track of all the phone numbers. Moreover, when we want to call somebody, we need to try these numbers and hopefully one of them will get us to the receiver. There will be also a shortage of available phone numbers. There is a need for a people-oriented communication system.
There are several existing and proposed methods to overcome some of the limitations of the location-oriented system. For example, call forwarding is available to redirect phone calls to a new location. Several schemes are proposed to provide local phone number portability (U.S. Pat. No. 562,568, 5,717,748, 5,717,749, 5,867,570, 5,910,981, 5,949,865, 5,960,340, and 5,966,435). U.S. Pat. No. 5,982,870 by Pershan et al. proposed a multiple redirection design in an Advanced Intelligent Network platform. Some programs in the telephone industry, such as the “Follow Me” service offered by AT&T (See U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,340 by Fuentes), permit an individual be reached at a single subscriber number for all the telephone calls. All these schemes provide certain people-oriented functions at the receiving side. At the calling side the present communication system is basically location-oriented. The “caller ID” offered by the industry is actually a “caller location ID”. For example, when a man calls his wife from his office, the caller ID is the office telephone number with the company name. Later he calls his wife at a public pay phone, the caller ID is the pay phone number with no meaningful name. Then he calls his wife from a bar and the caller ID will be the telephone number of the bar with perhaps the name of the bar owner. In situations where people share a telephone, it is difficult, if not impossible, to tell who is who at both the receiving side and the calling side.
Voice telephone communication is the major contributor to communication traffic due to its characteristic of direct interaction between people. People use telephone to interact with one another. Conversation is one of the basic interactions between people and that is why voice communication constitutes a major part of telecommunication. Another area of people interaction is business transactions. Although the telephone network is used by point-of-sale transaction systems for communication with the central database, the transaction process is carried out mostly by card-form media. A people-oriented communication system will incorporate this important area of communication.
In addition, people's communication needs become more and more versatile with the development of technology. The telephone network is no longer limited to voice communication. It also provides services such as internet, business transactions, and multimedia communication. This will present challenges to the telephone network in all its elements: station apparatus, transmission, switching, and signaling. An effective communication system will depend on the performance of the individual elements and more importantly on how they work together as a system to provide a variety of services to its users.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of universal communication, comprising: (1) Assigning user phone numbers, which represent users and are independent of physical phone numbers; (2) User verification and user signature service; (3) Dynamic binding of a user phone number to a physical phone number by a database.
A user phone number is a phone number representing a particular user, which can be used to uniquely identify an individual or organization. A physical phone number is a phone number corresponding to a particular physical location or physical device. A physical phone number can be used directly by the switch system to connect to a telephone or other communication device. For example, a user phone number is assigned to John Doe, the numbers of his office telephone, home telephone, fax machine, and mobile phone are physical phone numbers. Here the user phone number is preferably in the format of numerical numbers, but it can also be alphabetical text and other characters. The physical phone number is not restricted to telephone communication and it is used to mean other addresses to physical communication devices.
The separation of the user phone number from the physical phone number will provide flexibility and scalability of the telephone network. From a functional point of view, the user phone number is people oriented and the physical phone number is location oriented. One user phone number can be related to a number of physical phone numbers of the particular user. Therefore, the system is ready for the increase in communication devices. The user phone number will be primarily used in people-oriented services, while the physical phone number will be primarily used in the efficient switching of the network. The numbering system for the user phone number adopts the existing format, thus providing back compatibility and a common interface in the telephone network. This allows the independent development in different areas of the network system. Implementation of new technology can be isolated at a chosen level and the modification is transparent to users in both the new system and old system. The combination of the two phone numbers then provides flexibility in the design of systems and services.
The user verification and signature service are two essential aspects of the proposed universal communication system. As a result of separation of the user phone number and the physical phone number, it is necessary to verify the identification of a user for billing and other functions. Digital signature will provide a method of transaction verification. Althou
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