Routing T-37 E-mail over an H 323 (VOIP) network

Details Routing T-37 E-mail over an H 323 (VOIP) network Routing T-37 E-mail over an H 323 (VOIP) network

2000-08-10

2004-05-11

Coulter, Kenneth R. (Department: 2141)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput

Computer conferencing

Demand based messaging

C709S245000, C379S093240, C358S402000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06735617

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to transmission of facsimile copies of documents over the Internet.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Computer networks, and the Internet in particular, have become increasingly important for the storage, retrieval and communication of documents and other material. Among other things, the Internet may permit the inexpensive transmittal of large quantities of data, between locations that may be thousands of miles apart, in a very short period of time.
The availability of the Internet as an inexpensive and rapid tool for transmitting large quantities of data has led to interest in its adaptation to the communication of varieties of data that traditionally have been sent over other networks. Thus, for example, there is interest in using the Internet to transmit telephone conversations in lieu of the use of conventional telephone lines, or to transmit other communications that in the past may have utilized telephone lines, such as facsimile transmissions.
In using the Internet to transmit telephone conversations or facsimile transmissions, it may be desirable to use the Internet only for a portion of the communication, such as the “long distance” or middle portion of the communication, while the user who has initiated the communication, and/or the recipient of the communication, use their telephone (or facsimile machine) and their telephone line, rather than an Internet connection, to actually send or receive the transmission.
In order to permit this combination of telephone and Internet in communications, a number of protocols have been developed. Thus, for example, an H 323 protocol may be used to permit the transmission of voice over the Internet Protocol (“IP”) network. The result is referred to as the Voice Over IP (“VOIP”) or H 323 network. Insofar as a facsimile transmission conventionally may be made between two telephones, such a transmission may be sent using the VOIP network and the associated H 323 protocol.
However, a T 37 protocol also may be used to permit the transmission of facsimiles over the IP network.
The system of transmitting a facsimile over the IP network using the T 37 protocol proceeds by treating the facsimile as a TIF image, and sending it over the IP network as if it were an attachment to an E-mail message. To deliver the facsimile over a telephone line (or a wireless or other telephone connection) to a recipient, it may be converted to a facsimile image suitable for telephone transmission. The use of the T 37 protocol, for example, may permit a sender to originate a facsimile transmission directly from his computer, without the use of a facsimile machine, and thus without the use of a conventional telephone line connection.
Presently, a VOIP network under the H 323 protocol may utilize Gateways and Gatekeepers to manage the interaction between the telephone and IP systems. Thus, referring to
FIG. 1
, a process
10
to make a VOIP telephone call may begin with a caller
20
utilizing a conventional telephone to connect over a conventional telephone network
30
into an Inbound Gateway. (It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that in place of using a conventional telephone and connecting over a conventional land-line telephone network, the call may begin through the use of a cellular or other telephone connecting over a wireless network. Hereafter, references to conventional telephone networks will be understood to encompass cellular or other wireless systems, and references to conventional telephones will be understood to refer to other types of telephones such as cellular telephones.)
The Inbound Gateway
40
is an entrance point to the IP network
50
. In connecting into the Gateway the caller may provide a telephone number to which it is desired to place the telephone call. The Inbound Gateway
40
in turn may make an inquiry
60
to a Gatekeeper
70
, which maintains a lookup table relating telephone numbers to Gateways.
Depending upon a variety of factors, the lookup table may maintain Gateway addresses, and may be searched, for the specific telephone number being called, for the area code/local exchange of the number being called, or for the area code alone. A given telephone number, area code/exchange combination, or area code, may be associated with more than one Gateway. The look up table (which may be referred to as an H 323 Zone table) may maintain data about Gateway utilization, in order to facilitate the choice of a Gateway with a lowest utilization in a given Zone. In any event, however, an object of the lookup may be to find a Gateway close to the recipient, so that the telephone call may be routed over the Internet to that Gateway, and returned to the conventional telephone network, at a location close to the recipient such that telephone network charges for the telephone call are minimized.
FIG. 2
illustrates a Gatekeeper lookup table
210
which may be used with the Gatekeeper
70
in
FIG. 1
to maintain data by Zone
220
, maintain Gateway addresses
230
for each Zone, and maintain data with respect to Gateway utilization
240
.
Returning to
FIG. 1
, once a most appropriate Outbound Gateway
90
near the recipient is selected, from among a set of possible Gateways
80
,
90
,
100
, the telephone call may be completed by establishing a telephone link over a conventional telephone network
110
between the Outbound Gateway
90
selected and the recipient
120
. The telephone call then may be transmitted: (1) as a conventional telephone call over the conventional telephone network
30
between the caller
20
and the first (Inbound) Gateway
40
; (2) as packets over the IP network
50
between the first (Inbound) Gateway
40
and the second (Outbound) Gateway
90
; and (3) as a conventional telephone call over the conventional telephone network
110
between the second (Outbound) Gateway
90
and the recipient
120
.
In this process, the Gateways
40
,
90
may be thought of as knowing the Internet Protocol (IP) and in effect merging the conventional telephone network
30
,
110
with the Internet
50
, while the Gatekeeper
70
keeps track of relationships between IP addresses and telephone numbers and in effect translates between the two.
Conceptually, this may be illustrated by means of a simple example as illustrated in
FIG. 3
, for which a lookup table
410
is illustrated in FIG.
4
.
Referring to
FIG. 4
, the example comprises a world composed of two zones, Boston and Los Angeles, in which each zone is defined by one area code
420
, and each zone or area code has only one Gateway
430
.
Referring now to
FIG. 3
, when it is desired to place a VOIP telephone call from Boston to Los Angeles, a process
310
might begin with a telephone call being initiated by a Boston caller
320
. This call could be to a telephone number which connected the caller to a Boston Gateway
330
. That Gateway then could send an inquiry to a Gatekeeper
340
. The Gatekeeper then could look in a two-row H 323 Zone Table as illustrated in
FIG. 4
containing zone “617” and an associated IP address (in this example, “a.b.c.d”) for the Boston Gateway in one row, and zone “213” and an associated IP address (in this example, “e.f.g.h”) for a Los Angeles Gateway in the second row. Returning now to
FIG. 3
, the “213” row could be chosen
350
. The Gatekeeper then could communicate the IP address e.f.g.h of the Los Angeles Gateway to the Boston Gateway
360
. Information about the telephone call could be sent in the form of packets from the Boston Gateway over the Internet to the IP address of the Los Angeles Gateway
370
. Finally the telephone call could be completed over a conventional telephone network between the Los Angeles Gateway and a telephone belonging to a recipient of the telephone call
380
, and the two persons could talk
390
, with the telephone call proceeding as illustrated in
FIG. 1
over the conventional telephone network
30
between the caller
20
and the Boston Gateway
40
, as packets over the IP network
50
between the Boston Gateway
40
and the Los Angeles Gateway
90

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