Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Message storage or retrieval
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-23
2002-05-14
Maung, Nay (Department: 2681)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Message storage or retrieval
C455S560000, C379S088120, C379S068000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06389276
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to switched communications networks providing voice mail services, more particularly to a system and method for notifying mobile wireless subscribers of voice mail messages stored on separate voice mail systems of public or private telephone networks.
2. Background Art
Voice mail has become commonplace not only in business usage but also on an individual telephone service subscriber basis through service from a central office. A voice mail system is a specialized computer that stores messages in digital form on a disk. The voice is generally digitized, usually at a much slower rate than the 64 Kb/s signal the central office uses in its switching network. The digitized voice is compressed and stored on a hard disk that maintains the voice mail operating system, system prompts, and greetings, and the messages themselves. A processor controls the compressing, storing, retrieving, forwarding and purging of files. A comprehensive review of exemplary voice mail systems and voice messaging systems is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,631,948 to Bartholomew et al., the disclosure of which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference. While these systems effectively meet the general needs for messaging services, options for notification to subscribers of their waiting messages are not always adequate.
FIG. 1
is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary voice mail implementing communication system, corresponding to
FIG. 5
of the above-incorporated Bartholomew et al. patent. As shown in
FIG. 1
, at least one switching system
10
is connected to a centralized message service voice mail
20
. The switching system
10
may be a local or “end office” type telephone central office switch, such as a 1AESS or 5ESS switch sold by American Telephone and Telegraph.
Structurally, the switching system
10
is a standard central office telephone switch. Each subscriber has at least one piece of customer premises equipment, illustrated as telephone station sets
31
to
33
. Local telephone lines
35
to
37
serve as communication links between each of the telephone station sets
31
to
33
and the end office switching system
10
.
The centralized message service or voice mail system in
FIG. 1
comprises voice messaging equipment such as a voice mail system
20
. Although referred to as “voice” messaging equipment, equipment
20
may have the capability of storing messages of a variety of different types as well as voice messages. Message service systems having the capability to store messages in a variety of audible, data and image formats are known, see e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,110 to Jones et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,926 to Misholi and U.S. Pat. No. 4,652,700 to Matthews et al.
The illustrated voice mail system
20
includes a digital switching system (DSS)
21
, a master control unit (MCU)
23
, a number of voice processing units (VPU's)
25
and a master interface unit (MIU) or concentrator
27
. The master control unit (MCU)
23
of the voice mail system
20
is a personal computer type device programmed to control overall operations of the system
20
.
An ETHERNET (IEEE 802.3) type digital network
29
carries data signals between the MCU
23
and the voice processing units
25
, as well as between the various voice processing units
25
. The system
20
further includes T1 type digitized audio links
28
between the DSS switch
21
and each of the voice processing units
25
.
The voice mail system
20
connects to the switching system
10
via a number of simplified message desk interface (SMDI) type data lines
41
that connect between one or more data units (not shown) in the end office switching system
10
and the MIU
27
. The MIU
27
is a data concentrator which effectively provides a single connection of as many as thirty-two SMDI lines into the MCU
23
of the voice mail system.
The voice mail system
20
also connects to the end office switching system
10
via a number of voice lines
43
which form a multi-line hunt group (MLHG) between the switching system
10
and the DSS switch
21
, each carrying
24
voice channels in digital time division multiplexed format.
When the end office switching system
10
forwards a call to the voice mail system
20
, the switching system
10
will also provide various forwarding data relating to the forwarded call via one of the SMDI links
41
and the MIU
27
, for example which line of the multi-line hunt group
43
that the new call will come in on, the called telephone number and the telephone number of the caller (i.e., calling party). The master control unit
23
uses the multi-line hunt group line information and the subscriber's directory number to internally route the forwarded call though DSS switch
21
and one of the internal T1 links
28
to an available voice processing unit
25
and identifies the relevant subscriber to that voice processing unit via the Ethernet
25
.
Hence, the voice mail messaging system
20
is configured for receiving forwarded telephone calls for a called party (e.g., subscriber
31
) having subscriber profile information stored in the end office switching system
10
. Hence, upon detecting a no answer/busy condition on the corresponding line
37
, the end office switching system can forward the incoming call to the MLHG
43
and supply the appropriate information associated with the called party across the SMDI link
41
to internally route the forwarded call to the assigned voice processing unit
25
and to identify the relevant subscriber to the voice processing unit
25
.
Each time that the voice mail system
20
stores a new message in a particular subscriber's mailbox, the system
20
will provide a message waiting indication to the end office switching system
10
via the MIU
27
and one of the SMDI links
41
. In response to the message waiting signal, the end office switching system
10
sets an appropriate flag in its internal memory associated with that subscriber's line. If the flag is already set, e.g. due to recording of an earlier message, the switching system
10
essentially ignores the latest signal and maintains the on state of the message waiting flag. Subsequently, when someone returns to the subscriber's premises and attempts to initiate a call, the end office switching system
10
will provide a distinctive dial tone, typically an interrupted or “stutter” dial tone, to signify that the subscriber's mailbox contains a new message. The end office switching system
20
may provide a variety of other message waiting indicators, such as a short ring when a person hangs up the telephone to terminate a call at the subscriber's premises.
Similar types of voice messaging systems are found in private networks, such as corporate networks having a private branch exchange. In such instances, a private branch exchange (PBX) processes an incoming call by ringing a telephone having a prescribed extension. If the PBX detects a no answer/busy condition at the extension, the PBX transfers the incoming call to a voice mail platform along with the called party information, enabling the voice mail platform to play a personalized announcement for recording a message.
Once the message is recorded, the voice mail platform sends a message waiting indicator to the PBX specifying the extension has a message. Depending upon the implementation, the PBX will notify the subscriber at the extension of the existence of a message by setting a visual message waiting indicator on the telephone at the subscriber's premises, for example an LED or a flashing LCD symbol, or by generating an audible message waiting indicator such as an interrupted or “stutter” dial tone output by the headset upon detecting an off-hook condition on the extension.
Hence, both public and private telephone networks provide a message waiting indicator at the customer premises corresponding to the dialed number served by the voice mail system. The message waiting indicator may be either a visual indicator physically located
Brilla Bernard P.
Hoffman Ted L.
Bell Atlantic Mobile
Craver Charles
Maung Nay
McDermott & Will & Emery
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