Telephonic communications – With usage measurement – Call traffic recording or monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-15
2002-05-21
Nguyen, Duc (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
With usage measurement
Call traffic recording or monitoring
C379S133000, C379S268000, C379S269000, C379S279000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06393114
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to switching equipment for setting up a telephone connection between at least two telephone subscribers which can be employed both in a public exchange, wherein inter-exchange lines for connection to the public telephone network are connected in addition to local subscribers, and in a private telephone private branch exchange.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As known, such switching equipment is utilized for setting up a telephone connection between two pieces of telephone terminal equipment or, respectively, between terminal equipment and an exchange line connected to the switching equipment. The switching equipment, thereby, particularly serves to select and to switch the corresponding connecting path. As a result of a connection setup, voice information or data are exchanged or, respectively, transmitted between the corresponding subscribers via the switching equipment. The transmission of this voice information is, thereby, usually subject to a charge; i.e., the subscribers must pay fees to the operator of the switching equipment as well as to the operator of the telephone network connected thereto for the duration of the setup and maintenance of the connection. These charges are generally born by the calling party.
In addition to the actual connection setup for the purpose of a transmission of voice information, modern exchanges offer further services that can be used by the subscribers connected thereto subject to a charge. One of these additional services, for example, is being informed of the telephone number of the calling party. In this way, the called party or, respectively, the recipient is informed of the telephone number of the calling party during the setup of the telephone connection wherein, for example, such number is displayed on a display of his telephone set. The called party [sic] can, thus, identify the calling party before accepting the call. It is known to connect an incoming call through to a busy subscriber who is already speaking to another subscriber. This procedure is generally referred to as “call waiting,” wherein the called party is informed of the arrival of a new call by, for example, an acoustic signal with which the telephone number of the calling party can be output. The called party can, thus, decide whether he wishes to end the existing connection and accept the newly arriving call. It is likewise possible to switch between the two connections. Given digital telephone networks such as, for example, the ISDN, these services already have been largely realized.
For making use of such a service, as a result whereof further information is transmitted via the switching equipment or, respectively, this connecting path in addition to the voice information, a lump-sum, for example a basic monthly fee, is usually charged. Such change is typically independent of the duration of the connection setup.
Such switching equipment includes a central or coordination processor that controls the transmission of the voice and auxiliary information between two subscribers or, respectively, between a subscriber and a public exchange line. Further, the switching equipment includes a plurality of exchange units to which a plurality of subscribers (i.e., terminal equipment) or, respectively, a plurality of the inter-exchange lines are respectively connected. Each of these exchange units thus serves for the administration of that information which refers to the subscribers respectively connected thereto. The exchange units include separate transmission units for the voice and auxiliary information. Whereas the central processor coordinates the individual exchange units, each exchange unit has an exchange processor means (referred to below simply as exchange processor) that is provided for the control of the corresponding exchange unit and, in particular, coordinates the transmission of the voice or, respectively, additional information within an exchange unit.
For example, the transmission of the telephone number of the calling party thereby occurs as follows: an arriving call is communicated to the central processor via the corresponding exchange assembly or, respectively, exchange unit to which the calling party also is connected, whereby the telephone number of the calling party is communicated to the central processor. On the basis of the destination telephone number selected by the calling party, the central processor identifies the corresponding, called subscriber and selects that exchange unit that is responsible for the called subscriber. The exchange processor present in the exchange unit accesses a list in which a note as to whether the individual subscriber is technologically ready for the reception and the display of telephone numbers, and is also authorized to do so (for example, by paying a monthly lump-sum fee), is entered for every subscriber connected to this exchange unit. In this way, the exchange unit checks whether the telephone number of the calling party can be transmitted to the called subscriber. The result of this check is communicated from the exchange processor of the transmission unit to the central processor. As a rule, each exchange unit may include one or more transmission units for the transmission of telephone numbers. When the result of the check by the exchange unit in view of the reception authorization of the telephone number of a calling party was positive, the central processor selects one of the transmission units and informs this transmission unit of the telephone number of the calling party so that the selected transmission unit can send the telephone number to the requested subscriber.
Since the exchange processor provided in each exchange unit also serves for the control or, respectively, coordination of the transmission of voice information via the corresponding exchange unit, it can be seen that an additional load on the exchange processor of the corresponding exchange unit is produced by offering the possibility of transmitting further auxiliary information such as, for example, the telephone number of a calling party, in addition to the voice information. Since each exchange processor serves for the setup or, respectively, cleardown of the individual connections, the load on the exchange processor increases given shorter connection durations. In particular, the duration of the occupancy of a transmission unit within an exchange unit provided for the transmission of the telephone number is relatively short and amounts, for example, to less than three seconds, so that the corresponding transmission unit, after receiving the request for transmission of the telephone number, converts this request into a corresponding signal to the desired subscriber within three seconds. Due to this short occupancy duration of the transmission units provided for the transmission of the telephone numbers, an intense usage of this performance feature can arise, so that an overload of the exchange processor can occur. An overload of the exchange processor, however, is at the expense of the actual switching technology, i.e. of the connection setup for voice information, since an exchange unit, given an overload of the corresponding exchange processor, must react with self-limitation, i.e. rejects new occupancy requests, so that the actual switching technology, i.e. the connection serving for the actual transmission of voice information, can be displaced due to an intense utilization of the possibility of telephone number transmission. Since, given an overload, the corresponding exchange unit rejects a certain percentage (for example, between 25 and 100%) of the newly arriving occupancy requests dependent on the degree of overload, these calls are lost. Operators thus also lose the charges that would otherwise have arisen given these calls.
The present invention is therefore based on the object of fashioning a switching equipment according to the preamble of claim
1
such that an intense utilization of the transmission possibility of additional inf
Gasthaus Elisabeth
Hanselka Peter
Bell Boyd & Lloyd LLC
Nguyen Duc
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
LandOfFree
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