Telephonic communications – Telephone line or system combined with diverse electrical... – Remote control
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-19
2001-09-04
Woo, Stella (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
Telephone line or system combined with diverse electrical...
Remote control
C379S093140
Reexamination Certificate
active
06285747
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a telecommunications apparatus with a plurality of telephone terminal devices and a telephone exchange unit for control of the telephone communications between the telephone terminal devices and between the telephone terminal devices and a fixed telecommunications fixed network, in which the telephone terminal devices are operable by a connected computer. It also relates to a method of telecommunications between the telephone terminal devices and between the fixed telecommunications network and the telephone terminal devices.
Telecommunications systems, which have their own central exchange unit, to which a plurality of telephone terminal devices are connected, are increasingly connected in fixed telecommunications networks. The telephone exchange unit controls the connection of incoming calls with the desired telephone terminal devices and the connection of the telephone terminal devices with each other. The telephone terminal devices communicate with the telephone exchange unit by means of a telephone channel. There is a frequently occurring requirement that the telephone terminal device should not be operated separately, especially when data is input to a computer and, if necessary, output from the computer during a telephone contact, for example as is the case with telephonic information services or telephonic customer contacts.
In this situation it is appropriate to perform certain operations of the telephone terminal device themselves by means of the computer, for example the relaying of an incoming call, the making of a conference connection, the turning on of a speaker device. For this purpose it is known to provide the telephone terminal device with a computer interface, in order to be able to transmit operating signals that are analyzed by the microprocessor of the telephone terminal device to the telephone terminal device by means of the computer.
Conventionally besides the telephone terminal devices computers also are connected to the telephone exchange unit. For this purpose a suitable bus, which is called a CTI link (CTI=computer telephone interface), exists. A communication between the computer and the telephone exchange unit occurs in a data channel thus formed, for example in order to perform a fax operation from the computer and to immediately undertake an information exchange by means of data via the telephone exchange unit. Basically it is conceivable, to permit performance of control functions directly by the telephone exchange unit by means of the computer which is connected via the data channel with the telephone exchange unit, which would otherwise be performed by manual operation of the telephone terminal device. This has the disadvantage that the microprocessor of the concerned telephone terminal device being controlled receives no information regarding the change of the configuration of the telephone exchange unit because of the control signals from the computer, so that the changed configuration is detected in the connected telephone terminal device as interference and can lead to an interruption of the connection.
The remote operation of a telephone terminal device by means of a computer can thus take place in the known telecommunications arrangements only when the computer is directly connected to the telephone terminal device. This known arrangement has the disadvantage that a special connection must be made and that the telephone terminal unit is only operated in an imperfect manner during remote control operation. For example, an operating signal can only be provided in a display of a telephone terminal device in manual operation, but in the remote control operation by means of a computer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide as complete a remote control operation of a telephone terminal device as during manual operation of that telephone terminal device in as simple a manner as possible by means of a remotely connected computer.
It is also an object of the invention to provide an improved method of telecommunications between telephone terminal devices themselves and between a computer associated with a fixed telecommunications network and the telephone terminal devices, whereby the telephone terminal devices are fully controllable by the computer without additional connection efforts and expenses.
This object is attained according to the invention in a telephone communications apparatus of the above-described kind in which the computer generating the operating signals for the telephone terminal device is connected with the telephone exchange unit by means of a data link, the telephone exchange unit is equipped so that it converts the operating signals input to a data channel of the data link for transmission into a telephone channel leading to the telephone terminal device and the telephone terminal devices are designed so that they are controllable by the operating signals transmitted over the telephone channel.
According to the present invention the conventional bus present in conventional telephone communication apparatus for connection of computers to the telephone exchange unit (CTI link) is used in order to also transmit the operating signals to the telephone exchange unit (on the B channel). The telephone exchange unit only converts or translates the received operating signals for transmission on the telephone channel (B channel) and transmits the converted operating signals unchanged to the telephone terminal device. Thus the telephone terminal devices receive their operating signals by means of the telephone channel, so that display-capable telephone terminal devices also have a continuously correct display signal during control by computer. The invention provides the additional advantage that during remote control operation by the computer the telephone terminal unit is in a state which corresponds to that during manual operation, so that during an exchange process a mixed operation between remote control and manual operation can take place.
In the telephone exchange unit only transmission of the operating signals to the telephone terminal device occurs. The exchange-controlled information transmission between the telephone terminal devices and the telephone exchange unit is the same as that in manual operation. The otherwise required additional hardware, for example in the form of connecting cables, is eliminated by the use of the CTI link and the operation by the telephone terminal device itself based on the operating signals received by the telephone terminal device from the telephone exchange unit.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5764757 (1998-06-01), Christinger
patent: 5809127 (1998-06-01), Ostrcil
patent: 195 42 122 A1 (1996-05-01), None
Schneegans, M.:CTI Goes Web, In Net, vol. 5, 1998, pp. 30-32.
Robert & Bosch GmbH
Striker Michael J.
Woo Stella
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