Public telephone network, intelligent network, and internet...

Details Public telephone network, intelligent network, and internet... Public telephone network, intelligent network, and internet...

1999-06-17

2003-08-26

Coulter, Kenneth R. (Department: 2141)

Multiplex communications

Communication techniques for information carried in plural...

Adaptive

C709S230000, C709S232000, C709S236000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06611533

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to telecommunications and networking, and more particularly to an apparatus, system, and related methods for interworking services between public telephone networks, Intelligent Networks, and Internet Protocol (IP) networks.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Telecommunications originated over a century ago using traditional landline based telephony technology. Over time, standards, protocols, and topologies were developed and optimized to provide telephony services. More recently, wireless telephony was developed as an alternative means of telecommunications. Wireless telephony evolved with its own separate and distinct standards, protocols, and topologies optimized for the mobile telephony environment. The SS7 (Signaling System 7) network was developed to provide digital out-of-band signaling channels for both the landline and wireless telephone networks. The modern public telephone network (PTN) leverages SS7 capabilities to establish telephone call connections and provide advanced services, such as 800 or toll free, calling card, Intelligent Network services, Call Back, Calling Name Delivery, Local Number Portability and wireless roaming services. Further, new architectures and interfaces have been developed recently that permit further integration and cooperation between landline and wireless telephony networks. It has been proven advantageous to share resources and provide PTN services more generically, without being concerned whether the telephone terminals involved in the communication are landline or wireless.
Recently, the IP network (including the public Internet) developed in parallel with the converging landline and wireless telephony infrastructures. While the function of the PTN network was primarily to provide end to end connections between telephone service subscribers, IP networks were developed to interconnect and leverage the information and processing capabilities of millions of networked computers. Given the substantially more complex purpose of the IP network, it evolved as a separate network infrastructure with distinct protocols optimized for the functions to be provided.
Over time, the functions provided by the PTN network have become increasingly more sophisticated. Therefore, it is not surprising that cooperation between the IP network and PTN network is desired, and in some instances, required. For example, it would be advantageous to provide services to the PTN network from the vast resources resident on the IP network. In this regard, one early application used the IP network to setup a connection and establish a voice telephone call. The IP telephone call can be originated from any telephone terminal, such as a conventional telephone terminal or an appropriately equipped computer connected to the IP network, and placed to another telephone terminal, such as any other conventional telephone terminal or another appropriately equipped computer connected to the IP network. While this capability is useful, the IP telephone calls are only capable of establishing an end to end connection across the IP network. As such, no other services or applications can cross the IP network and PTN network border, although the need for doing so persists.
The IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) is an open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. The actual technical work of the IETF is done in its working groups, which are organized by topic into several areas (e.g., routing, transport, security, etc.). Much of the work is handled via email mailing lists and electronic document submissions. Proposals are discussed, evolved, and implemented if advantageous. Proposals have been submitted attempting to converge the capabilities of the IP networks and telecommunication networks. In services interworking for IP telephone calls, one submitted proposal suggests encapsulating the SS7 protocol stack from the link layer to the above layers, including the MTP level 2 and level 3 layers, the SCCP layer, and the TCAP layer. Another proposal suggests encapsulating the SCCP layer and the above layers in the SS7 protocol stack. However, neither proposal properly addresses differences in the addressing and routing functions as implemented in the IP networks and the PTN networks. In addition, neither proposal defines a convergent protocol between these diverse networks. At best, these proposals might ultimately provide transport on the IP network between two PTN networks.
However, in order to effectively converge and leverage these distinct networks, true interworking is required. Interworking is defined as transporting a message between a first network entity executing a software application program in a first network domain and a second network entity executing a software application program in a second network domain. In other words, interworking refers to exchanging messages between software application programs executing in different network domains. The above proposals fail to provide exchanges of PTN messages, such as TCAP (Transaction Capabilities Application Part) messages, between entities in different networking domains, such as the IP network and the PTN network. Accordingly, a TCAP application executing in IP network and a TCAP application executing in a telecommunication network cannot exchange TCAP messages, cannot exchange telephony services, and cannot interwork effectively. As such, a need exists for a fully functional interworking solution between the IP network and the PTN network to preserve the transparency of TCAP messaging in the PTN networks while the TCAP messages are routed to or from IP networks. Were this solution achieved, telephony based services could be provided from the public telephone network, the IP network, or both, as desired. A number of other advantages would also likely emerge from fully functional interworking between the IP network and the public PTN telephone network, as was observed from the convergence of the landline and wireless network infrastructures.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an apparatus, system, and method for interworking services between the IP network and the public telephone network, including the Intelligent Network and wireless networks. As such, the present invention addresses at least some of the above needs while providing some advantages. According to the present invention, conventional TCAP messages from the public telephone network can be exchanged with encapsulated TCAP messages in the IP network. Software application programs executing in network nodes disposed in the IP network and in the public telephone network can thereby cooperatively process information and exchange services therebetween. Existing services can be provided to telephony services subscribers, while new services could be developed by leveraging the processing capability of network nodes in the IP network, according to the present invention.
In one embodiment, the present invention provides an apparatus for selectively interworking a public telephone network and an IP network comprising a first interface, a second interface, and a processor. Since the public telephone network transmits and receives a TCAP message in a first format and the IP network transmits and receives a second type of message in a second format, interworking is required. The first interface is used for communicating with the public telephone network, and is adapted to exchange TCAP messages in the first format with the public telephone network. Analogously, the second interface is used for communicating with the IP network, and is adapted to exchange the second type of messages in the second format with the IP network. The processor is operably connected to at least one of said first interface and said second interface. Further, the processor is adapted for translating the TCAP message received in the first format from the public telephone network, encapsulating

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