WO2000070820A1

WO2000070820A1 - Switched communications system for televoting services and method of subscriber management of a televoting event in a switched communications system

Info

Publication number: WO2000070820A1
Application number: PCT/AU1999/000355
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hoerdur Matthiasson; Frans De Rooij
Original assignee: Ericsson Australia Pty. Ltd.
Priority date: 1999-05-12
Filing date: 1999-05-12
Publication date: 2000-11-23
Also published as: AU3693499A

Abstract

A switch communications system for televoting services, comprising a plurality of service switching points (SSP's) (4) a service control point (SCP) (8) and a service management system (SMS) (10) connected to the SCP for the deployment and management of an executable service logic programming instance (SLPI), the SMS, SCP and the plurality of SSP's together forming an intelligent network. The switched communications system further comprises a file server (24) connected to the SMS and to the SCP, and a subscriber terminal connected to the server via the telephone network and adapted to enable the entry of scheduling information for the scheduling of the televoting event and to transmit the scheduling information to the SMS.

Description

SWITCHED COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM FOR TELEVOTING

SERVICES AND METHOD OF SUBSCRIBER MANAGEMENT OF A

TELEVOTING EVENT IN A SWITCHED COMMUNICATIONS

SYSTEM The present invention relates generally to televoting events in an intelligent network, and in particular to the management of such televoting events by a subscriber. In the context of the following description, the word televoting is used to designate teleshopping, radio or television contests and other intelligent network telephony events and services in which a large number of subscribers are likely to dial a predefined telephone number or numbers in an intelligent network for a certain duration of time.

An intelligent network consists of a number of switching entities that combine to offer subscribers a specialised service such as televoting. The switching entities contain processing software to process calls according to the required service or application. Typically, an intelligent network contains a number of service switching points (SSP) each connected to a public telecommunications network such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN), integrated services digital network (ISDN), packet switched public data network (PSPDN), mobile link network or like telephone network. Each of the SSP's are connected to a service control point (SCP) which contains services specific application software and customer or subscriber records. The SSP reacts to specific service triggers and initiate queries to the SCP over a common channel signalling network, such as the Signalling System No. 7 (SS7) network. The SCP acts upon the query from the SSP and returns a message containing the data and instructions required to complete the service. A service management system (SMS) is linked to the SCP and supports the administration of the customer records within the SCP.

Televoting is a particular service offered by an intelligent network and may comprise, for example, a service in which callers may dial predetermined destination telephone numbers to register a vote or an answer in response to a choice or question initiated through a viewer or listener participation program conducted by a broadcaster, such as a television or radio network and the like. The owner or broadcaster of the program, hereinafter referred to as a subscriber, may provide an incentive to cause to call the predetermined telephone numbers by offering prizes to selected callers. The televoting service is implemented in an intelligent network by having the network operator load the SMS with parameters defining the televoting event such as start time, end time, the destination numbers for each choice offered, announcements, etc. These parameters are downloaded into the SCP, which are in turn delivered to each SSP connected to the SCP, so that each SSP is programmed with the appropriate parameters. During an activated televoting service, incoming calls are received by the SSP's and handled in a sequential manner. The SSP's can then count the calls received and terminate a certain percentage of these calls by filtering. The remaining calls are allowed to be transferred to the SCP with a restored in time sequence and remain illegible to win a prize in the contest. This means that the subscriber to a televoting service has to order scheduling of a televoting event from the network operator. The network operator then has to contact the subscriber when the scheduling of the televoting event is carried out to inform the subscriber if the scheduling was successful or not, based upon available network capacity. When the results from a televoting event are presented to the subscriber they are retrieved through the SMS from the SCP. This means that the subscriber has no direct access to the result and has to request such information from the network operator. T is process can be slow and does not give the subscriber the opportunity of scheduling and monitoring the televoting event results in real time. An aim of the present invention is to overcome or ameliorate the above identified problem by providing a means for the subscriber to manage a televoting event without requiring the intervention of a network operator.

Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention provides a switched communications system for televoting services, comprising a plurality of service switching points (SSP's) each connected to a telephone network, a service control point (SCP) connected to each SSP and including an executable service logic program instance (SLPI) for controlling the operation of each SSP during a televoting event, and a service management system (SMS) connected to the SCP for the deployment and management of the SLPI, the SMS, SCP and the plurality of SSP's together forming an intelligent network, the switched communications system further comprising a file server connected to the SMS and to the SCP, and a subscriber terminal connected to the server via the telephone network and adapted to enable the entry of scheduling information for the scheduling of the televoting event and to transmit the scheduling information to the SMS.

Preferably, the subscriber terminal is further adapted to receive televoting results information from the SCP and to display the televoting results information to the subscriber.

In one embodiment of the invention, the file server is connected to the SMS via a remote procedure call (RPC) interface.

The file server may be connected to the SCP via an intelligent network interface.

The file server may advantageously be accessible from the Internet and the network interface may comprise an Internet gateway (ING). The file server may send and receive data according to TCP/IP protocol, the intelligent network may send and receive data according to TCAP protocol and the ING may include a converter between TCP/IP data and TCAP data.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of subscriber management of a televoting event in a switched communications system comprising a plurality of service switching points (SSP's) each connected to a telephone network, and a service control point (SCP) connected to each SSP and including an executable service logic program instance (SLPI) for controlling the operation of each SSP during the televoting event, a service management system (SMS) connected to the SCP for the deployment and management of the SLPI, the SMS, the SCP and the plurality of SSP's together forming an intelligent network, the switched communications system further comprising a file server connected to the SMS and to the SCP, and a subscriber terminal connected to the server via the telephone network, the method including the steps of: (a) entering scheduling information for the scheduling of the televoting event by means of the subscriber terminal,

(b) transmitting the scheduling information from the subscriber terminal to the SMS, (c) deploying the scheduling information from the SMS into the SLPI of the SCP, and

(d) initiating the televoting event.

Preferably, step (d) is carried out by sending an initiation operation from the file server to the SCP. Step (c) may be proceeded by:

(e) verifying the scheduling information within the SMS to determine if the televoting event is authorised, and

(f) carrying out step (c) only if the televoting event is so authorised.

In one embodiment of the invention, the method of subscriber management of a televoting event in a switched communications system further includes the steps of:

(g) receiving televoting response data at the SCP from the SSP's,

(h) forwarding the televoting response data from the SCP to the file server, and (i) accessing the televoting response data from the file server via the subscriber terminal.

Preferably, the method further includes the step of:

(j) displaying the televoting results information at the subscriber terminal. The following description refers in more detail to the various features of the present invention. To facilitate an understanding of the invention, reference is made in the description to the accompanying drawings where the switched communications system for televoting services and method of subscriber management of a televoting service in a switched communications system are illustrated in a preferred embodiment. It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the preferred embodiment as illustrated in the drawings. In the drawings:

Figure 1 is schematic block diagram of one embodiment of a switched communications system for televoting services according to the present invention; Figure 2 is a schematic block diagram of the Internet gateway (ING) of the switched communications system of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a schematic flow diagram of one embodiment of a method of subscriber management of a televoting event according to the present invention.

Referring now to Figure 1 , there is shown a switched communications system 2 for televoting services. The system 2 comprises a plurality of SSP's 4 connected through links 6 to an SCP 8. The service management system or SMS

10 is connected to SCP 8 through link 12. Each SSP 4 is connected to a public network 14 through links 16.

When a subscriber, such as a television network or radio network, wishes to conduct a televoting event or service in an intelligent network, parameters defining the televoting event are input by an intelligent network operator to the SMS. Such parameters would generally include the starting time and finishing time between which the televoting event will be active, the televoting destination telephone numbers, the contents of recorded messages to be delivered to callers at various stages throughout the event, etc. The parameters are distributed to the SCP and once the televoting service is implemented, the parameters are in turn distributed from the SCP to each SSP so that each SSP will be programmed to handle incoming calls to the event or service according to those parameters. Services in intelligent networks are executable service logic programs (SLP's) that are defined in terms of functional components that are networks call processing actions at direct internal network resources to perform specific actions. As service logic interpreter (SLI) executes SLP's and handles requests and responses exchanged between the various components of the intelligent network. A subscription to a televoting service by a television network or radio network is initiated by created an instance of the SLP and connecting data to the service logic program instance (SLPI). The SLPI is implemented in the SCP and controls the SSP's and is deployed and managed through the SMS. Through this mechanism, calls routed from the public network to the SSP's can be controlled by the SCP.

Each SSP 4 receives calls to the pre-selected televoting numbers from the public network 14 over links 16. In the event that the contest is open to a large proportion of the population, the telephone number may become congested and eventually collapse due to the large number of calls being received simultaneously. To alleviate the possibility of collapse in this situation, each call received by each SSP 4 is counted by a first counter means 18, this counter means being incremented by one for each call received. The counter means 18 is set with a predetermined value n so that only the nth caller associated with the value n is routed through to the SCP 8 over links 6. All calls counted that have a counter value other than n are terminated with an announcement such as "Your vote has been registered. Unfortunately you have not been successful in reaching the next stage of the contest". The nth call is routed through to the SCP 8, and the respective counter means 18 of each SSP 4 may be reset to zero to initiate a new incrementation of subsequently received calls. If it is deemed that the anticipated calls received will not congest the telephone network, the counter means 18 of the SSP's 4 can be set with n equal to a small number, for example 3, to let every third call be routed to the SCP 8, or to zero to allow all calls to be routed to the SCP 8. The counter value, prior to being reset, is transmitted to the SCP 8 and is stored and updated in memory means 20, which may be a standard RAM, to allow subscriber access to information as to the number of calls registered for each choice or other information associated with the televoting event.

The calls routed from each SSP 4 to the SCP 8 are received by second counter means 22 which increments by one for each call received. The calls so received have an announcement transmitted to them such as "Your vote has been registered. Please wait as your call has been transferred to the next stage of processing in the contest". The counter means 22 is incremented until it reaches a preselected counter value m. Accordingly, each call has a counter value associated with it and if a calls counter value does not match the value m, it is routed back to its respective SSP 4 and an announcement played to the called, such as "Unfortunately you have not been successful in this televoting event. Thank you for your participation".

Each call whose counter value is equal to m is declared the winner or winners of the event, and may be switched directly through to the subscriber where they are announced as winners. Alternatively, the winner or winners may be connected through an intelligent peripheral (not shown) from the SSP 4, which intelligent peripheral may be a voice mail facility, where they can leave their details.

In order to provide subscriber control management of the televoting event, the switched communications system 2 includes a file server 24 connected to both the SMS 10 and SCP 8. A subscriber terminal 26 is connected to the file server 24.

Accordingly, where the file server 24 receives and sends data according to the TCP/IP protocol and where the intelligent network sends and receives data according to the TCAP protocol, the ING 30 is able to convert TCP/IP data to TCAP data and vice versa.

The file server 24 enables subscribers to access and manipulate information contained in data files held therein. Preferably, the file server is of the type accessible from the Internet and to that end, is connected to the public telephone network 14 by a modem 28. It is to be appreciated, however, that other types of file servers are envisaged and that access to these file services need not be by means of a modem, but could be by means of conventional land line or mobile telephone networks or other data communication means. One such example of a possible file server in this regard is the French Minitel ® system.

The file server 24 is connected to the SMS 10 by a remote procedure call (RPC) interface, which is commonly a protocol used for the transmission of data between Unix machines such as the file server 24 and the SMS 10.

The file server 24 is also connected to the SCP 8 via an intelligent network interface 30. In the case where the file server 24 is an Internet file server, the intelligent network interface 30 comprises an Internet gateway (ING). The ING 4 provides means by which the file server 24 is able to access information contained within the SCP 8. The ING 30 comprises a CCITT Signalling System No. 7 (SS7) with Intelligent Network Application Protocol (LNAP) implemented on top of a Transaction Capabilities Application Part (TCAP). The ING 30 also includes a protocol converter that converts TCAP data packages into packages that can be transmitted over Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and TCP/IP packages into TCAP packages. Figure 2 shows a simplified block diagram of the ING 30 which includes hardware 40, drivers 42 and Internet protocol processing block 44 for receiving and processing Internet protocol instructions from the file server 24.

Similarly, the ING 30 includes an intelligent network interface, which can include hardware 46, drivers 48 and drivers development kit library 50 for receiving and processing data from the SCP 8. A switching control program 52 and associated 64 k data connection 54 handles the encoding of the IP protocol instructions and data into the intelligent network protocol data and instructions, and vice versa. The subscriber terminal 26 may be connected to the public telephone network 14 via a modem 32. The subscriber terminal 26 is preferably adapted to enable the entry of scheduling information for the scheduling of a televoting event, and to transmit the scheduling information to the SMS 10 via the file server 24. The subscriber terminal 26 may also be adapted to receive televoting results information from the SCP 8 via the ING 30 and the file server 24, and to display the televoting results information to the subscriber. In that regard, the subscriber terminal 26 may comprise a standard personal computer or PC including a display, keyboard and associated Internet access software.

With reference to Figure 3, the process of managing a televoting event by a subscriber in association with the present invention will now be described. At step 102 the subscriber accesses the file server 24 by establishing a connection from the subscriber terminal 26 to the file server 24. This may be achieved by entering the URL of the file server 24 through an appropriate web browsing software package. Once this connection has been established, the file server 24 causes a data entry form to be displayed on the subscriber terminal 26. The subscriber enters appropriate scheduling information into the relevant fields of the forms displayed on the subscriber terminal 26 in step 104. The scheduling information for the scheduling of the televoting event may include information such as the start time, end time, the destination numbers for each choice offered, announcements, the values of n and m to be used with respect to the counting means 18 and 22, etc. When these forms are completed, the subscriber transmits this information to the file server 24, which in turn sends this information to the SMS, via the RPC interface (step 106).

Preferably, the software in the SMS is adapted to verify the relevant data entered in the forms displayed on the subscriber terminal 26 by the subscriber, to determine if the televoting by calculating the load the televoting event is likely to create on the network elements, and comparing this load to available network capacity. If the televoting event is so authorised, SMS 10 then deploys the scheduling information in the SLPI in the SCP, at step 108.

In step 110, when the scheduling data is deployed in the SCP, the subscriber will initiate the event scheduling by sending a command from the subscriber terminal 26 to the file server 24, with the effect that an INAP televoting event request operation is sent to the SCP 8 through the ING 30.

The scheduling operations are then sent in step 112 to each of the SSP's 4. Each time a response is received by the SCP 8 from the SSP's 4, the SCP 8 forwards this response to the file server 24, at step 1 14. If the scheduling operation has been successful (step 116) the televoting event is or will be initiated between the start and stop times specified by the subscriber. If the event is not successfully scheduled, the subscriber will be invited to reenter alternative televoting events scheduling information. When the televoting event commences at step 118, the contents of the result counters from the SSPs 4 are sent to the SCP 8 in periodic intervals, as determined by the value n of the counting means 18. SCP 8 then forwards this information to the file server, through the ING 30, at step 120.

The televoting results information is made available to the subscriber's terminal 26 through the file server 24. A subscriber is therefore able to manage a televoting event, from the scheduling to the real-time monitoring of the progress thereof, without requiring the intervention of an network operator.

Finally, it is to be understood that various modifications and/or additions may be made to the above described switch communications system for televoting services and method of subscriber management of a televoting event in a switch communications system without departing from the ambit of the present invention.

Claims

1. A switched communications system for televoting services, comprising a plurality of service switching points (SSP's) each connected to a telephone network, a service control point (SCP) connected to each SSP and including an executable service logic program instance (SLPI) for controlling the operation of each SSP during a televoting event, and a service management system (SMS) connected to the SCP for the deployment and management of the SLPI, the SMS, SCP and the plurality of SSP's together forming an intelligent network, the switched communications system further comprising a file server connected to the SMS and to the SCP, and a subscriber terminal connected to the server via the telephone network and adapted to enable the entry of scheduling information for the scheduling of the televoting event and to transmit the scheduling information to the SMS.

2. A switched communications system according to claim 1, wherein the subscriber terminal is further adapted to receive televoting results information from the SCP and to display the televoting results information to the subscriber.

3. A switched communications system according to either of claims 1 or 2, wherein the file server is connected to the SMS via a remote procedure call (RPC) interface.

4. A switched communications system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the file server is connected to the SCP via an intelligent network interface.

5. A switched communications system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the file server is accessible from the Internet and the network interface comprises an Internet gateway (ING).

6. A switched communications system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the file server sends and receives data according to TCP/IP protocol, the intelligent network sends and receives data according to TCAP protocol and the ING includes a converter between TCP/IP data and TCAP data.

7. A method of subscriber management of a televoting event in a switched communications system comprising a plurality of service switching points (SSP's) each connected to a telephone network, and a service control point (SCP) connected to each SSP and including an executable service logic program instance (SLPI) for controlling the operation of each SSP during the televoting event, a service management system (SMS) connected to the SCP for the deployment and management of the SLPI, the SMS, the SCP and the plurality of SSP's together forming an intelligent network, the switched communications system further comprising a file server connected to the SMS and to the SCP, and a subscriber terminal connected to the server via the telephone network, the method including the steps of: (a) entering scheduling information for the scheduling of the televoting event by means of the subscriber terminal,

(b) transmitting the scheduling information from the subscriber terminal to the SMS,

(c) deploying the scheduling information from the SMS into the SLPI of the SCP, and

(d) initiating the televoting event.

8. A method of subscriber management of a televoting event, according to claim 7, wherein step (d) is carried out by sending an initiation operation from the file server to the SCP.

9. A method of subscriber management of a televoting event, according to either of claims 7 or 8, wherein step (c) is be preceded by:

(f) carrying out step (c) only if the televoting event is so authorised.

10. A method of subscriber management of a televoting event according to any one of claims 7 to 9, and further including the steps of:

(g) receiving televoting response data at the SCP from the SSP's,

11. A method of subscriber management of a televoting event according to claim 10, and further including the step of:

(j) displaying the televoting results information at the subscriber terminal.

12. A switched communicational system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

13. A method of subscriber management of a televoting event substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.