Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Remote data accessing – Using interconnected networks
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-14
2004-05-18
Burgess, Glenton B. (Department: 2153)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Remote data accessing
Using interconnected networks
C709S223000, C709S227000, C709S228000, C715S252000, C715S252000, C715S252000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06738803
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to web browser control of audio operations for voice enabled web applications within a hypertext markup language (HTML) and hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) framework.
2. Description of the Related Art
The evolution of the public switched telephone network has resulted in a variety of voice applications and services that can be provided to individual subscribers and business subscribers. Such services include voice messaging systems that enable landline or wireless subscribers to record, playback, and forward voice mail messages. However, the ability to provide enhanced services to subscribers of the public switched telephone network is directly affected by the limitations of the public switched telephone network. In particular, the public switched telephone network operates according to a protocol that is specifically designed for the transport of voice signals; hence any modifications necessary to provide enhanced services can only be done by switch vendors that have sufficient know-how of the existing public switched telephone network infrastructure.
FIG. 1
is a diagram illustrating the existing public switched telephone network. As shown in
FIG. 1
, the public switched telephone network
10
includes a wireline subnetwork
12
, a wireless subnetwork
14
, and a time division multiplexed (TDM) backbone subnetwork
16
configured for transporting voice data and other data between user devices
18
according to the existing public switched telephone network protocols. The subnetwork
16
, for example, includes interexchange trunks for transporting voice data between interexchange carriers and/or local exchange carriers.
As shown in
FIG. 1
, the wireline subnetwork
12
includes telephony application servers
20
configured for providing voice applications
22
such as subscriber profile management, voice mail, call forwarding, etc. for the user devices
18
a
,
18
b
, and
18
c
coupled to the wireline subnetwork
12
. As recognized in the art, the telephony application servers
20
include advanced intelligent network (AIN) components such as services control point (SCP) directories and service nodes (SN) configured for controlling the telephony applications
22
. The wireline subnetwork
12
also includes telephony access services
24
configured for providing the user devices
18
a
,
18
b
, and
18
c
access to the wireline subnetwork using, for example, analog twisted pair connections or ISDN connections to a central office. The user devices
18
a
,
18
b
, and
18
c
, illustrated as a cordless telephone
18
a
, a fax machine
18
b
having a connected telephone, and an analog telephone
18
c
, are referred to herein as “skinny clients”, defined as devices that are able to interface with a user to provide voice and/or data services (e.g., via a modem) but cannot perform any control of the application
22
or the protocol used to interface with the wireline subnetwork
12
.
The wireless subnetwork includes wireless application servers
26
, and wireless access services
28
for providing wireless voice and data services to the wireless user devices
18
d
,
18
e
, and
18
f
. The wireless user devices
18
d
,
18
e
, and
18
f
, illustrated as a cellular telephone (e.g., AMPS, TDMA, or CDMA)
18
d
, a handheld computing device (e.g., a 3-Com Palm Computing or Windows CE-based handheld device)
18
e
, and a pager
18
f
, interact with the wireless application
30
based on respective wireless protocols controlled by the wireless access services
28
. The wireless application servers
26
control wireless services such as home location register (HLR) management, and service node (SN) telephony applications. “Tiny clients” are distinguishable from skinny clients in that the tiny clients tend to have even less functionality in providing input and output interaction with a user, and may not be able to send or receive audio signals such as voice signals at all. Examples of tiny clients include wireless user devices
18
d
,
18
e
, and
18
f
, as well as function-specific terminal devices. Note that tiny clients tend to be one-way (receive-only or transmit-only) devices.
In both cases, however, both skinny clients and tiny clients have no control of the respective applications
22
and
30
that are running within the respective networks. Rather, the applications
22
and
30
are executed exclusively by the servers
20
and
26
. Moreover, both skinny clients and tiny clients have no control of the access protocol used to access the respective subnetworks
12
and
14
; hence, the skinny clients and tiny clients are currently incapable of initiating access to another network using an alternative protocol, for example Internet protocol (IP). Consequently, the skinny clients and tiny clients rely exclusively on the service nodes of the servers
20
and
26
to provide the voice application services programmed in the applications
22
and
30
, respectively. Although this exclusive control of the applications
22
and
30
by the servers
20
and
26
is advantageous in maintaining control over quality of service and reliability requirements, the applications
22
and
30
can only be developed and maintained by programmers having sufficient know-how of the public switched telephone network infrastructure. As a result, programmers familiar with open standards such as IP are unable to provide contributions in enhancing the applications
22
and
30
due to the limitations of the public switched telephone network paradigm.
FIG. 2
is a diagram illustrating the web client-server paradigm of an open standards-based IP network
40
, such as the World Wide Web, the Internet, or a corporate intranet. The IP network
40
provides client-server type application services for clients
42
a
and
42
b
by enabling the clients
42
to request application services from remote servers using standardized protocols, for example hypertext transport protocol (HTTP). For example, the client
42
a
is a stand-alone personal computer or workstation that has its own application
44
for providing its own application services. The client
42
a
can access a remote web application server
46
that executes a different set of application services
48
via an IP-based packet switched network
50
using either remote access services
52
or local area network access services
54
, if available. Similarly, the client
42
b
having only a browser
56
can also enjoy the services of the applications
44
and
48
by accessing the respective computers
42
a
and
46
.
The clients
42
a
and
42
b
, referred to herein as “fat clients” and “thin clients”, respectively, have the distinct advantage that they can initiate requests using IP protocol to any connected web server
46
to execute part or most of the applications
48
on behalf of the clients. An example of a fat client
42
a
is an e-mail application on a PC that knows how to run the application
44
and knows how to run the IP protocols to communicate directly with the messaging server via the packet switched network
50
. An example of a thin client
42
b
is a PC that has a web browser; in this case, the web browser
56
can use IP protocols such as HTTP to receive and display web pages generated according to hypertext markup language (HTML) from server locations based on uniform resource locators (URLs) input by the user of the PC.
Hence, the web server paradigm enables the clients
42
to access any web server on the IP network
40
. Moreover, the use of open protocols such as HTTP and HTML enable any client
42
, regardless of its configuration, to access an HTML web page from a server that has no knowledge of the configuration of the requesting client; if the HTML web page received by the client includes information such as a specific HTML tag that is not recognizable by the browser
56
, the browser
56
can merely ignore the unrecognized HTML tag.
Efforts at extending the voice applications
22
and
30
from the public switched telephone network to the IP n
Danner Ryan Alan
Dodrill Lewis Dean
Geen David William
Joshi Satish
Martin Steven J.
Burgess Glenton B.
Choudhary Anita
Cisco Technology Inc.
Turkevich Leon R.
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