Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Zoned or cellular telephone system
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-07
2004-11-16
Kincaid, Lester G. (Department: 2686)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Zoned or cellular telephone system
C455S435100, C370S329000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06819925
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to telecommunications systems, and more particularly to telecommunications systems having facilities for call, session, and/or transaction processing using subscriber or line characteristics stored in a location remote from the switching facility handling the call.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In recent years, telecommunications users have become both highly sophisticated service consumers and highly mobile. As a result, users desire the ability to take their telecommunications services with them wherever they go, and they desire that the user interface by which they access their services remain consistent at all times and in all locations.
In the years between the adoption of automated telephone switching and the wide application of stored-program telephone switching systems, telephone users within broad geographic regions experienced an extremely consistent user interface. Within the United States, for example, the procedures for making and receiving calls were consistent, so a person using a telephone away from home could expect to use the telephone in the same way, and could expect the telephone and telephone system to behave in the same ways, as at home. Telephone calling features were typically limited to placing calls by dialing a directory number and receiving calls by lifting the receiver when the telephone rang. Features which are now popular, such as “Call Waiting”, “Call Forwarding”, “Three-Way Calling”, “Caller-ID”, and the like, were not available.
At the same time, users understood that their telephone subscriptions (including any features and billing arrangements) were associated with their telephone “line” at a fixed location and did not expect access to that line or subscription when traveling. If access to telephone service was required while traveling, the traveler could use a pay telephone or could arrange with a host or hotel to make and receive calls using the host's or hotel's subscribed telephone service.
As telecommunications users have gained mobility and sophistication, users have desired that their subscribed telecommunications services be available wherever they may be located. Conventional public wireless telecommunications systems, including cellular and PCS wireless systems in North America and GSM wireless systems in Europe, have provided a partial but unsatisfactory solution. Conventional public wireless systems are not well integrated with private business communications systems, so that a user generally cannot use a public wireless terminal make and receive calls in the context of the private system. Such calls generally appear to originate from or terminate on the external public network. In addition, a wireless subscriber may carry a wireless terminal which can access services in a wide variety of locations, but access to service often depends on whether the subscriber's “home” telecommunications service provider directly serves the traveling subscriber's location, or whether the home provider has made a service arrangement with another provider that directly serves the location. Further, even when service providers offer network services that are marketed and billed consistently over wide geographic areas and for which no special charge is made for use away from a home system, the services are not necessarily provided by a homogeneous network infrastructure. Thus service and feature availability, and the user interface required to access these features, may differ from what is available to or experienced by the user when at the home or business location. Moreover, the “roaming” features of wireless telecommunications systems have generally been limited to wireless services, which historically have not enjoyed the variety, scope, reliability, and bandwidth of modern land-line telecommunications services.
Historically, switched telecommunications systems, including both land-line and wireless systems, have associated information defining the services, features, billing treatment, and the like, which will be provided to a user, with a user's telephone “line” or “subscription.” Land-line systems generally have permitted a user to access services via the line solely at the customer premises at which the line is terminated (with the possible exceptions of call-forwarding and arrangements to bill to the user's own service calls made via a different line). Accordingly, the canonical information defining a user's service or subscription has conventionally been stored in a database that resides on the telephone switching system that serves the user's line, and is associated with that line. When calls are made to or from the user's line, the switching system typically may consult the database to determine the services, features, and billing treatment to be provided on that line and processes the calls accordingly. However, these services, features, and billing treatment have not necessarily been portable from one switching system type to another, and even if a second switching system type superficially supports the features and services of a first, interactions between the features and services may vary greatly.
Wireless telecommunications systems also historically have defined a user's service, feature, and billing treatment using database entries associated with a user's subscription or line. Although wireless systems do not provide a physical line or port with which the user's subscription is continually associated, the subscription (including services, features, and billing treatment) may be conceptually associated with a unique directory number or subscriber identifier and treated as a telephone line in a manner analogous to that of land-line systems. Conventional wireless systems typically store the database entries defining a user's subscription in a switching system or a Home Location Register (HLR) associated with the user's home wireless network. When a user accesses services remotely, some of the subscription information may be exported to the telecommunications switching system or a Visitor Location Register (VLR) serving the user's location and may then be used to process and bill calls.
Although the aforementioned wireless systems provide users some capabilities to access services remotely, they are incomplete and unsatisfactory. First, the remote access capabilities of wireless systems have not, as yet, been extended to land-line systems. In particular, land-line systems do not provide means for a user to identify herself or himself (or the associated subscription) to a remote telecommunications system and request that all services and features to which the user subscribes on a home system be delivered via the remote system.
Second, even in the wireless domain, services, features, and the user interface provided to a user at the remote location may vary significantly from those provided when the user is served by the home system. Variations in access to service, user interface, and feature availability and performance arise from a number of factors. Telecommunications switching equipment is produced by several different vendors, and although most equipment used in public networks provides a consistent set of basic services, the capabilities for advanced features and services, and the implementation of such features and services, varies among vendors and particular equipment models. Moreover, there are many telecommunications service providers and telecommunications regulatory authorities, each of which may specify aspects of features, services, and user interface, which aspects may vary according to their marketing plans, customer requirements, or the desires of their regulatory constituency. A feature or service, and the associated user interface, furnished by a particular telecommunications service provider, in a particular location, using particular equipment and operating software, may be identical, subtly different, profoundly different, or entirely unavailable from a different provider, or in a different loca
Garland Stuart Mandel
Russ Lila Elizabeth
Kincaid Lester G.
Lucent Technologies - Inc.
Ly Nghi H.
Santema Steven R.
LandOfFree
Telecommunications call processing using externally-assigned... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Telecommunications call processing using externally-assigned..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Telecommunications call processing using externally-assigned... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3284316