Telephone doubler arrangement

Details Telephone doubler arrangement Telephone doubler arrangement

1997-06-04

2001-11-20

Harrison, Jessica J. (Department: 3713)

Multiplex communications

Pathfinding or routing

Combined circuit switching and packet switching

C379S088100

Reexamination Certificate

active

06320857

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to telecommunication in general and to voice communication over the Internet in particular.
BACKGROUND
The TCP/IP protocol, sometimes referred to as the ‘Internet protocol’, was developed as a standard protocol to allow different types of computers to exchange electronic mail and other files over a network. The network using this protocol is known as the ‘Internet’ and has grown from its beginning when it linked military and educational sites in the USA to become world- wide.
A new IEEE standard referred to as isoEthernet allows up to 96 two way voice channels to be present on a standard 10BaseT Ethernet network without affecting any of the normal ethernet traffic. The isoEthernet technology keeps packet data and realtime information separated so voice and video are unaffected by data traffic and vice versa.
The use of Internet for telephony is known and requires a sound card mounted in a PC (personal computer), a microphone and a pair of speakers connected to the sound card, and a telephony application (software) that recognizes the sound card. Bidirectional voice communication is possible between two telephony applications.
The use of a LAN for telephony is known and requires a telephony application running under WINDOWS on a PC which is connected to a LAN (Local Area Network) or an ATM-LAN (Asynchronous Transfer Mode). The user can make and receive telephone calls to/from another PC or the public ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) or mobile networks. Access between a private LAN and a public telephony network is provided by a gateway.
RELATED TECHNIQUE
When a computer is connected to the Internet via a modem and a subscriber line of the PSTN, it is not possible to place outgoing calls or to take incoming calls on the line to which the modem is connected.
This situation is also present when Internet is used for telephony using the above described known technique with a PC connected to the Internet via a modem, a PC mounted sound card and a telephony application. The Internet user's ordinary home telephone is blocked. An incoming call meets a busy tone and no outgoing call can be placed.
A caller that dials, in the PSTN or the ISDN, the telephone number associated with the modem line on which an Internet session is taking place will hear a busy tone. Conversely, it is not possible to place outgoing phone calls on a line to which a modem is connected when the modem is engaged in an ongoing Internet session.
Typically an Internet session is started by having the computer dial the telephone number to an Internet gate way. A PPP (point-to-point protocol) connection or a SLIP (serial line Internet protocol) connection is established between the computer's modem and the Internet gateway when the Internet gateway answers the call. The telephone line is used for this connection. A person operating the computer starts an Internet session by running an Internet application such as NETSCAPE. A session may comprise sending e-mail, downloading a file, participate in a discussion by exchanging information in writing, ‘surfing on the net’ and many other activities. During a session digital data is exchanged over the line using the standard TCP/IP protocol (transmission control protocol and Internet protocol). Information is exchanged between the computer and the Internet in form of packets.
In a household an ongoing Internet session presents a problem. Members of the family cannot place outgoing calls when the line is occupied by the computer engaged in the Internet session. During an Internet session the line will be marked as occupied when there is an incoming call to the family.
An obvious solution to the above problem is to provide a separate telephone line for the computer. In view of the subscription costs for a line this solution is less feasible.
Japan Patent Abstract JP-7-170 288 (U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 5,604,737) relates to a communication system comprising a local area network (LAN) and a communication server connected to the LAN and to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) over an access line to a central office. The communication server allows establishment of telephone calls between communication terminals on the LAN and between communication terminals connected to the LAN and telephones in the PSTN or in a local telephone network connected to the communication server.
In the LAN each communication terminal is identified by a unique statically determined adress. To handle telephone calls a communication terminal is also associated with a telephone number. This association is a static relation, stored in the communication server. The telephone numbers of the communication terminals connected to the LAN are in the PSTN statically attributed to the communication server, which acts as a Private Branch Exchange (PBX), forwarding incoming calls to the communication terminal associated with the called extension number of an incoming call.
The present invention differs from the Japanese Patent Abstract in that the present invention does not use a LAN but a dialed up connection. The telephony server is located at the modem pool and not at the user. Temporary relations are used, both as regards the relation telephone number/IP adress as well as the telephone number relation established while a call forwarding service is active.
SUMMARY
One object of the present invention is to provide a method allowing a subscriber, engaged in an ongoing Internet session over an IP (Internet Protocol) link that uses a telephone line, to place an outgoing call over the telephone line without disrupting the Internet session.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method allowing a subscriber, engaged in an ongoing Internet session over an IP link that uses a telephone line, to take an incoming call that as destination has the telephone number associated with the occupied line without disrupting the Internet session.
Still another object of the invention is to afford a mobile Internet user access to the user's own home telephone. In particular the user shall be able to place and to take calls from/to the home telephone while engaged in an Internet session over a line of another telephone. In other words the user shall be able to start an Internet session from any selected telephone in the telephone network and to be able to take calls, which as destination has the telephone number of the user's home telephone, while engaged in an Internet session on the telephone line of said selected telephone, thus enabling placed calls to be charged to the user's own subscription.
The method in accordance with the invention is to redirect, also referred to as call forwarding or call transfer, a call to a subscriber engaged in an Internet session, to a telephony server connected to the Internet gateway. In the telephony server the speech of the calling party is compressed and packetized. From the telephony server an IP link is established to the user via the Internet gateway. Over this IP link compressed and packetized speech is transferred.
In accordance with the invention the telephony application, running on the PC having the IP session, in collaboration with the telephony server activates and deactivates the call forwarding service.
As mentioned above the telephone number to which incoming calls to a subscriber engaged in an Internet session are forwarded to the telephony server.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention the user, when accessing the telephony server, is subjected to an authentication process the purpose of which is to verify the identity of a user. An authorized user is allowed to activate call forwarding a non-authorized user not. An authorized user will have calls, which are directed to the user's home telephone number, forwarded to the current location at which the user is having the Internet session. In this manner the user is given mobility.
A further advantage achieved by the present invention is that the telephony service

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