Telephonic communications – Multi-line or key substation system with selective switching... – Line status indication or call alerting
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-23
2001-07-17
Kuntz, Curtis (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
Multi-line or key substation system with selective switching...
Line status indication or call alerting
C379S165000, C379S171000, C379S173000, C379S177000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06263063
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to the field of communications, and more particularly, to the selective connection of a plurality of calls from a telephone network to a plurality of devices of a called party in accordance with that party's preferences, in addition to provisioning extra lines on demand for use by that party.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telephone system subscribers that have a single telephone line connection are often in a situation where they are on the phone with a first party when another call from a second party is received. If call waiting is available, the subscriber may choose to engage with one of the two parties and place the other party on hold. The subscriber is forced to select one of the two parties even when the second party desires to converse with someone other than the subscriber or is an incoming facsimile directed to a facsimile machine. Therefore, there is a need for new technology to resolve the above problems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention provides a network interface device (NID) that selectively connects a plurality of calls from a single telephone line of a communication network to a plurality of devices. A mux-demux device multiplexes calls received from the communication network and transmits multiplexed calls to the NID and the NID demultiplexes the calls received from the mux-demux device and forwards the demultiplexed calls to the devices. The NID multiplexes communication signals corresponding to the calls received from the devices onto the single telephone line and the mux-demux device demultiplexes the multiplexed communication signals and forwards the demultiplexed communication signals to the communication network.
When the calls are received, the NID retrieves a profile from a database and connects the calls to one or more of the devices based on the profile. The devices are connected to the NID either via a star configuration where each of the devices has a unique line, via tap configuration where all the devices tap off a single line, or a combination of both. In the star configuration, the NID switches calls to the corresponding devices; for the single line tap configuration, the NID sets up channels on the single line and forwards calls to the devices via uniquely assigned channels; for the hybrid situation, the NID performs a combination of switching and channel assignment techniques. Thus, the NID supports multiple simultaneous calls to the devices via the single telephone line.
The invention also provides an NID that dynamically provisions extra lines over a single telephone line of a communications network to a plurality of devices. The NID multiplexes the additional calls over the single telephone line to the mux-demux device where the calls are demultiplexed, sent to the communication network and routed to respective locations.
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Bansal Pradeep K.
Begeja Lee
AT&T Corp.
Barnie Rexford N
Kuntz Curtis
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