Telephonic communications – Diagnostic testing – malfunction indication – or electrical... – Testing of subscriber loop or terminal
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-27
2001-03-13
Nguyen, Duc (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
Diagnostic testing, malfunction indication, or electrical...
Testing of subscriber loop or terminal
C379S029010, C379S032010, C379S257000, C379S277000, C379S381000, C379S386000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06201854
ABSTRACT:
FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a testing system and a method for telephone number verification/identification in a local telephony network, and in particular, to a testing system and method which is substantially automatic and yet which is also flexible and reliable, and which permits verification and/or identification of telephone numbers while updating database information or while maintaining the database for local telephony network.
Telephone number verification and/or identification is a well known process. Currently available equipment relies upon the caller identification process. This process is a service according to which a telephone central office switch sends digital information about the incoming telephone call to the party being called. This digital information includes the telephone number of the party originating the telephone call. The caller identification testing and transmitting feature is provided by most, but not all, telephone central office switches. Telephone products with caller identification require special hardware, firmware and software to adapt the products to the relevant physical and data-link layers. ISDN lines and interfaces are equipped with this capability, for example.
In order to perform the verification and/or identification for updating or maintaining the database, for example, special test equipment must be connected parallel to the tested telephone line, which is usually a “live” or fully connected and functioning, telephone line. Telephone number verification/identification by using the caller identification feature usually involves initiating a telephone call from the tested line, if possible, to a known and dedicated telephone and telephone line. The special test equipment then intercepts the digital information, including the telephone number of the tested line.
Unfortunately, this method has a number of limitations. For example, the testing equipment cannot initiate a telephone call from the tested telephone line if the tested line is busy. Similarly, the testing process cannot be performed if the user is dialing the telephone or otherwise interfering with the process. For telephone lines which only permit incoming telephone calls, no telephone call can be initiated in order to perform the test. The special test equipment cannot initiate a telephone call while being connected to the lines which are connected to non-direct lines (ISDN and PCM lines, for example). In addition, some telephone central office switches do not have the caller identification feature which enables the process to be performed.
Even when the caller identification process can be performed for testing of the telephone line, this process has the drawback of requiring at least seven to eight seconds to perform, which is the combination of the time required to dial the telephone number on the tested line and to receive the caller identification information at the party receiving the telephone call.
A preferable method and testing system for automatic telephone verification and/or identification would use standard features of any digital or analog telecommunications switch, and would not have the drawbacks of the known caller identification process. Unfortunately, such a testing system and method are not currently available.
Therefore, there is an unmet need for, and it would be highly useful to have, a testing system and a method for performing telephone verification and/or identification with standard features of any digital telecommunications switch, which does not have the limitations of the currently known process, and which is reliable and efficient.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is of a testing environment and a method for telephone number identification and/or verification. The testing environment and method of the present invention analyzes incoming analog signals of a telephone call being made to the tested line as the receiving party from the central office switch. These incoming analog signals preferably include ring signal, waiting call tone and voice signals. The incoming analog signals are analyzed and processed by the testing unit according to the present invention in order to identify and/or verify the telephone number. Thus, the testing environment and method of the present invention has the advantage of being able to automatically analyze analog signals received from the tested line as the receiving party, rather than requiring the tested telephone line to initiate the telephone call for testing purposes.
According to the present invention, there is provided a method for identifying and/or verifying a telephone number associated with a tested telephone line, the method comprising the steps of: (a) connecting to the tested telephone line; (b) dialing the telephone number associated with the tested telephone line; (c) analyzing a received tone received from the tested telephone line; and (d) if the received tone is a ringing type signal, verifying the telephone number.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a testing environment for identifying and verifying a telephone number associated with a tested telephone line, the testing environment comprising: (a) a central office switch for transmitting analog signals to the tested telephone line; (b) a tap for connecting to the tested telephone line for receiving analog signals from the tested telephone line; (c) a sensing unit for sensing the analog signals to obtain sensed signals; (d) an A/D conversion and processing unit for converting the sensed signals to digital data; and (e) a MMI and processing unit for determining if the digital data features a ringing type signal, such that if the digital data features the ringing type signal, the telephone number is verified.
Hereinafter, the term “man-machine interface and processing unit” refers to a particular computer hardware system or to a particular software operating system. Examples of such hardware systems include, but are not limited to, personal computers (PC), palmtop computers, handheld and portable computers, Macintosh™ computers, mainframes, minicomputers and workstations. Examples of such software operating systems include, but are not limited to, UNIX, VMS, Linux, MacOS™, DOS, one of the Windows™ operating systems by Microsoft Inc. (Seattle, Wash., USA), including Windows NT™, Windows 3.x™ (in which “x” is a version number, such as “Windows 3.1™”), Windows CE™, Windows95™, and Windows98™, as well as any suitable operating system for embedded units or palmtop/handheld type portable computers.
For the present invention, a software application could be written in substantially any suitable programming language, which could easily be selected by one of ordinary skill in the art. The programming language chosen should be compatible with the man-machine interface and processing unit according to which the software application is executed. Examples of suitable programming languages include, but are not limited to, C, C++ and Java.
In addition, the present invention could be implemented as software, firmware or hardware, or as a combination thereof. For any of these implementations, the functional steps performed by the method could be described as a plurality of instructions performed by a data processor.
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Avitsur Yair
Yahav Yosef
Friedman Mark M.
Nguyen Duc
Y.P. Unitesters Ltd.
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