Telephonic communications – With check operated control – Other than coin
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-18
2001-07-17
Kuntz, Curtis (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
With check operated control
Other than coin
C379S112030, C379S115030, C379S229000, C707S793000, C709S202000, C340S870030
Reexamination Certificate
active
06263060
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the field of electronic transaction processing, and more specifically to the field of real time transaction processing for pre-paid calling card accounts.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Real time transaction processing networks are generally comprised of two major components: transaction entry terminals (such as clients in a client-server computer network) and transaction management databases (servers). Transaction networks utilize different kinds of terminals and databases for different industries, such as banking and telecommunications. However, unlike the world's financial systems, no industry-wide standards have been adopted for inter-operability in the calling card industry.
Available calling card transaction networks use telephones connected to voice processing systems as terminals, wherein the voice processing system prompts for an account or PIN number (with an optional password). Large databases for transaction management are used to validate the account and prevent simultaneous use. Typically, the PIN or account numbers are either randomly assigned, or are picked by the consumer. Often the PIN number contains some portion of an existing telephone number. However, since there is no widely accepted standard for assigning account and PIN numbers, integrating various calling card networks to inter-operate has proven extremely difficult for the telecommunications industry.
With the advent of pre-paid telephone calling card services, database servers have been adapted to manage an active balance, with provisions to prevent the account balance from accruing a negative balance. Since pre-paid vouchers are typically sold at retailers and then discarded, the number of active accounts can number in the hundreds of millions. Extremely large, real time data processing and management requirements therefore provide an additional concern for the pre-paid market. Due to limitations of database technology very often multiple databases are required to manage the transaction volume, leading to inter-operability and data accuracy problems. There is therefore a need for expansion of the available database technology to accommodate growing transaction and data volume in the calling card and related industries.
The present invention is intended to address the shortcomings of the available transaction processing capabilities for Pre-Paid Calling Card (PPCC) networks, but is applicable to all transaction processing networks. Two particular shortcomings of available PPCC networks addressed by the present invention include: 1) the terminals' ability to determine and contact a database server for authorization/debit/credit of a specific account is not easily altered or updated; and 2) the terminals' ability to be made aware of and contact new database servers for expansion is not easily changed. This second shortcoming stems from two particular features of available transaction processing systems: first, the lack of dynamic redistribution of existing account data creates the need for downtime; and second, a knowledge of database specifics schemas) is required to interact with each database.
While the above issues are problematic for the all traditional transaction processing networks, they are especially difficult to overcome in PPCC networks because of the real-time aspects of the balance management requirements. Thus, it is nearly impossible to restructure a PPCC database off-line, and then post transactions to catch up to real time as is the practice in “post-pay” or legacy-based financial accounting situations.
Glossary
The following definitions and acronyms will assist the reader in comprehending the enclosed description of the present invention:
DTL
Dynamic Transportable Logic;
IE
Information Element;
IEC
Information Element Collection;
IP
Internet Protocol;
SS7
Signaling System Seven;
OLTP
On-Line Transaction Processing;
Fragment
A “sub-section” of a database;
Host
A single computing element;
Cluster
A group of computing elements;
Network
A group of clusters. comprising an entire operating network.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To address the shortcomings of the available art, the present invention provides a dynamic transaction network having a management station, a terminal, and a database. In response to a transaction request from a caller, the terminal accesses information stored in the database via transportable logic. The transportable logic derives the location of relevant information in the database array from input characteristic(s) of the transaction request. The transportable logic stored in the terminal is updated with transportable logic stored in the management station if the terminal determines that there is a difference between its transportable logic and the management station's transportable logic. Some differences may include a change in the number of databases on the network, a change in the number of terminals on the network, or a change in the location of the information stored on the database.
A first advantage of the present invention is the distribution of dynamic transportable logic (“DTL”), enabling terminal equipment to contact a large, distributed, and heterogeneous array of data servers, utilizing only information available at a terminal.
Another advantage of the present invention is the provision of a mechanism for updating DTL such that the topology of a transaction network can change “on the fly” in a manner based only upon information available at a terminal.
Still other advantages of the present invention include: the provision of multiple DTL types, in a manner based upon a physical aspect of the terminal in use (such as the department the terminal is in or the telephone number dialed on the terminal); the ability to add new database servers to a network in real time; the ability to obtain addresses and capabilities of all data servers available for transactions such that each terminal can interact on secure networks; the provision of built-in security mechanisms to permit public network transactions; through the use of DTL and distributed processing, the ability to build very large transaction networks with scalable performance which will meet any transaction network requirements; utilization of open transport technology to ensure modification of the networking technology to support at least IP and SS7 networks; utilization of Information Element (“IE”) datums to provide for data storage within any computing architecture; utilization of Information Element Collections (IECs) to permit multiple versions of terminal software to share a common data storage facility; the provision of a mechanism for fragmenting databases into a very large number of logical fragments, which, taken together, can represent physical fragments.
A further advantage of the present invention includes a dynamic transaction network having a management station containing transportable logic (prism logic) that facilitates access to the dynamic transaction network, a database connected to the management station through a communications medium, the database having at least one database fragment stored therein, and a terminal connected to the management station through the communications medium, the terminal receiving the transportable logic from the management station upon initialization of the dynamic transaction network, the terminal accessing the database fragment via the transportable logic in response to a transaction request from a user.
A still further advantage of the present invention includes a dynamic transaction network having a management station containing system configuration data that defines the dynamic transaction network and Dynamic Transportable Logic (DTL) that facilitates access to the dynamic transaction network, a database connected to the management station through a communications medium, the database having at least one database fragment stored therein, and a terminal connected to the management station through the communications medium, the terminal receiving the system configurati
Capó José J.
MeLampy Patrick J.
Penfield Robert F.
Kuntz Curtis
Priority Call Management, Inc.
Thomas Kayden Horstemeyer & Risley LLP
Tieu Binh K.
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