Telephonic communications – Centralized switching system – Identification
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-01
2001-11-20
Hong, Harry S. (Department: 2742)
Telephonic communications
Centralized switching system
Identification
C379S032050, C379S221090, C379S221100, C379S265010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06320955
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to telecommunication systems and methods which perform call tracing on telephonic calls.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The world-wide increase in telecommunications has created a need for faster communications and easier access to the systems that enable the telecommunications. Because of this global expansion, it is often difficult to establish and maintain a connection with a telecommunication system. For some services, a called telephonic number may selectively be associated with many terminating lines or physical terminations. Therefore, for these services there is a need to be able to quickly identify a terminating line that serviced a telephonic terminating device that is not working properly or is detective.
In existing telecommunication systems, a call trace identifies the calling party of a telephonic call. After a called party receives a harassing telephonic call, the called party must disconnect the telephonic call and receive a dial tone to be able to activate a call trace. Then the called party activates the call trace by dialing an activation code such as *77. After dialing the code, a call record containing the calling party, called party and time of day is printed on a security channel of the telephonic switching system that serves the called party.
Disadvantageously, existing call tracing techniques do not permit the calling party to originate a call trace. This is needed when the called number is associated with a multitude of terminating lines. For example, the terminating lines could be multi-line hunt groups or automatic call distributors. Thus, the calling party is unable to determine the terminating line of a telephonic call. In turn, errors in telecommunication systems are undetected and are not promptly fixed. Because errors are not detected, there is a decrease in the response time for access to the telecommunication system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above problems are solved in the present invention by a call trace originating from a telephonic calling device to identify call terminating lines thus reducing response times for repairing problems and to allow easier access to telecommunication systems. The call trace is established from the telephonic calling device after completion of the telephonic call to a telephonic terminating device with a service problem. The present invention extends the use of call tracing by generating a report that specifies the terminating line of the telephonic call to identify terminating lines that are malfunctioning.
After a telephonic call has been disconnected, in response to a call trace request from the telephonic calling device a call trace is established to determine the terminating line of the telephonic call. After the terminating line of the telephonic call is determined, a call trace record is generated from a terminating call record. Importantly, the call trace record indicates the terminating line that connected the telephonic call from the telephonic calling device to the telephonic terminating device. The call trace record is transmitted to a call trace record database.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5268958 (1993-12-01), Nakano
patent: 5333183 (1994-07-01), Herbert
patent: 5537470 (1996-07-01), Lee
patent: 5703943 (1997-12-01), Otto
Hong Harry S.
Lucent Technologies - Inc.
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