GB2257871A

GB2257871A - Improvements in or relating to call management systems

Info

Publication number: GB2257871A
Application number: GB9214573A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Paul Sweetland
Original assignee: Databit Computer & Communicati
Current assignee: Databit Computer & Communicati
Priority date: 1991-07-10
Filing date: 1992-07-09
Publication date: 1993-01-20
Anticipated expiration: 2012-07-09
Also published as: GB2257871B; GB9214573D0; GB9114909D0

Abstract

Telephone apparatus comprising a user control terminal 2 which includes a central processor unit (CPU) 2a a display/monitor 2b and a keyboard 2c, a telephone call management system 3 which comprises a call management computer 3a, and a telephone switch means 1 which telephone switch means is operative to route predetermined telephone lines to the user control terminal, data appertaining to switch operation and line use being stored in buffers which form a part of the telephone switch means, the CPU having a software program which serves to facilitate extraction of data from the buffers appertaining to switch operation and/or telephone line use and to make this data available to the call management system for data logging purposes. <IMAGE>

Description

IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO CALL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS This invention relates to telephone apparatus and more especially it relates to such apparatus which incorporates a telephone call management system.

Call management systems are known and are used to log telephone activity whereby system efficiency can be optimised having regard to costs and user requirements.

Telephone apparatus which incorporates a telephone call management system normally comprises a telephone switching system having an activity output port, usually described as a V24 port, which provides data appertaining to telephone usage/line activity.

Some systems do not however have the benefit of a V24 port and accordingly data relating to line usage can not easily be made accessible for telephone call management or data logging purposes.

One object of the present invention is to provide for the extraction of telephone usage data from systems which do not comprise a telephone switch having a V24 port.

According to the present invention telephone apparatus comprises a user control terminal which includes a central processor unit (CPU) a display/monitor and a keyboard, a telephone call management system which comprises a call management computer, and a telephone switch means which telephone switch means is operative to route predetermined telephone lines to the user control terminal, data appertaining to switch operation and line use being stored in buffers which form a part of the telephone switch means, the CPU having a software program which serves to facilitate extraction of data from the buffers appertaining to switch operation and/or telephone line use and to make this data available to the call management system for data logging purposes.

The user control terminal may be a dealer board the keyboard being operatively associated with the CPU and the display/monitor whereby exchange functions selected by dealer operation of the keyboard are displayed on the display/monitor.

The telephone switch means may comprise master control cards in which the said buffers are incorporated, data being extracted in accordance with the software program, which data relates to switch operation and/or telephone line usage, the data being translated and transmitted to the telephone call management system which serves to perform a logging function and which may serve also for the processing of the data to produce predetermined reports.

The telephone call management system may comprise a display/monitor and a keyboard operatively associated with the call management computer.

One embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing which is a somewhat schematic block diagram of telephone apparatus including a call management system.

Referring now to the drawing, telephone apparatus comprises a switch 1 which serves to route predetermined telephone lines to a control terminal 2 which comprises a central processor unit 2a a monitor/display unit 2b and a keyboard 2c. The switch 1 incorporates master control circuits (not shown) which serve to control telephone switching functions required and which embody buffer stores (not shown) wherein data appertaining to switch operation and telephone line usage is stored. The CPU 2a is arranged to be programmed with software which serves to control the transfer of data from the buffers in the switch 1 to a call management system 3 which comprises a call management computer 3a a monitor/display 3b and a keyboard 3c.Thus the call management computer 3a is provided with data appertaining to telephone line usage and operation of the switch 1 which is transmitted from the buffers of the switch via the CPU 2a to the call management computer 3a.

By arranging that the CPU 2a is provided with software suitable for the extraction of data from the buffers stores in the switch 1 the provision of a V24 port which is normally required for the extraction of data is obviated.

It will be appreciated that the switch 1 may be a dealing board telecommunications system, such as that manufactured by IPC, that switches telephone lines to telephone extensions, as used in most organisations. These dealing board telecommunications includes the aforementioned master control circuits.

It will also be appreciated that the central processing unit 2a and the call management computer 3a may be an industry standard 286, 386 or 486 personal computer. The type of computer used will depend upon the size of system required.

Program Description The main program (LOG) is arranged to take call records out of the dealer board system and pass them to the call management system. Call records are actively extracted from the dealer board system via a two-way error-correcting protocol. The PABX or dealer board is always connected to a COM1 port, and call records are sent to the call management system via a COM2 port. At this point they are coded in ASC11, and no protocol is used.

The program is a Terminate & Stay Resident (TSR) type program. This allows call logging to take place continuously in the background while the dealer board system computer performs other tasks in the background. These tasks must not involve the ports COM1 and COM2. The dealer board system computer runs the LOG program, together with administrative complex programs as well as being used for call logging. The program requires exclusive use of both the COM1 port and the COM2 port. Any attempt by the foreground program to use these ports will result in a malfunction.

Command Line Options When the program is run with no options, a list of possible options is displayed and the TSR is installed with all the default settings. Certain options may be specified from the command line.

The options may be given in any order.

The options are as follows: -b < n > Set COM2 baud rate The maximum baud rate is 9600, and any baud rate may be specified from the following list (110, 150, 300, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600). No other rate is possible. The port is always set to no parity, one stop and eight data bits.

-c Suppress change transmission This option is used to allow the system to start up with a mapping table that does not have a call management system field to keep track of changes sent across to the call management system.

-d < n > Set data timeout (ticks) The dealer board system contains a plurality of multiplexer (MUX) cards. This option sets the length of time that the LOG program will wait for a response from a polled MUX card. This is specified as a second. The default value of d is 19 ticks, which is just over a second (there are 18.2 ticks per second).

-f < n > Set fast poll interval (secs) This is the minimum amount of time between polls to a MUX card that appears to be working (that is one that worked last time it was polled). By default it is one second. This does not mean that each working card will be polled every second, because only one card can be addressed at a time and it may take longer than a second to address all the other cards.

-n < n > Set max transmitted NAKs The LOG program will attempt to obtain data from a MUX card a predetermined number of times. If no data is found the LOG program generates a NAK signal. Therefore, this option sets the maximum number of times that the LOG program will respond with a NAK signal to an incorrect incoming frame before giving up on that card and marking it as non-operational.

-r < n > Set max received NAKs This sets the maximum number of times that the LOG program is prepared to retransmit its poll in response to a non-operational MUX card.

-s < n > Set slow poll interval (secs) This is the minimum number of seconds between polls to a card that appears not to be working, i.e. one that did not respond correctly to its last poll. It is converted into ticks internally by multiplying by 18. As the tick rate is actually 18.2 (approx), higher settings may be slightly shorter than expected.

A list of working/non-working cards is maintained by the LOG program. The card that is polled next is the one that is most overdue for a poll. This is determined by scanning through all sixteen possible cards using the time it was last polled, whether it worked or not, and the fast and slow poll intervals.

-t: < tablename > Specify mapping table This option allows an alternative table to be used.

-w Send changes without waiting for the call management system response This option will allow changes in the database to be sent across to the call management system using the change record format, but it does not wait for a response from the system to acknowledge the transmission. If one is sent, it is ignored.

Because there is no response from the system, a cyclic redundant check, CRC field in the database is not updated. This ensures that all the records are sent every time the main program is run, so it does not matter if they get lost in transmission.

Messages Certain events within the LOG program trigger messages. These messages are passed to the call management system and may be displayed locally if a debug flag is set. The messages are: LOG program started This is sent whenever the program is started.

Timer interrupt overrun This indicates that the previous interrupt had not finished executing when another occurred.

MUX card < n > not responding A poll to card < n > has failed. The cards are numbered from zero. When the program is started, all cards are assumed to be working, so a not-responding message will be generated for each card that is not working. The message is not repeated at every failed poll, but only when its status changes from working to not-working.

MUX card < n > is now working This message is generated when a previously non-working card responds to a poll.

LOG program suspended This indicates that the operation of the program was temporarily suspended by writing to a COM1 interrupt register.

LOG program re-enabled This indicates that the program was re-enabled by writing OB to a COM1 interrupt enable register.

TX buffer full This indicates that the COM2 transmit buffer is full.

< n > RX NAKs, < n > TX NAKs < n > polls This message is generated approximately every ten minutes, and shows the cumulative error counts and a cumulative poll count.

Output Format Records are emitted from the COM2 port as complete lines of printable ASCII coding, terminated with < CR > < LF > . There are two types of record, the data record and the message record. Data records have a 'D' in the first column. Message records have an 'M' in the first column.

The format of data records is defined as follows: Column Content o 'D' to identify data record 1-4 (decimal) days since 1-Jan-1984 5 space 6-9 (decimal) minutes past midnight 1 0 'E' (for Extension) 11-13 Extension number (= port number) 1 4 'P' (for menu-Pair) 15-18 line card number, range 1-2800. (See "Circuit Number from Database" for the details of the derivation of this number) 1 9 Outgoing calls: space Incoming calls: 'I' 20-24 call duration (seconds) 25 < CR > 26 < IP > Columns are numbered from zero in this table as the lines are read into a character array in the call management system front end, where an offset from zero is required to access the elements. Data records are of constant length (27 characters).

Circuit Number from Database In the call record, the information about which outside line is in use is contained in the fields 'cabinet' and 'menu pair'. These two fields identify a particular outside line, but more than one combination of cabinet and menu pair may relate to the same outside line if that line appears on more than one cabinet. Reports are required which contain usage information about each actual outside line, regardless of the cabinet that used that line. This is achieved by holding a look-up table in a RAM in the LOG program. The cabinet (1-16) and menu pair (1-400) numbers are combined to form a single index into the table which has a range of 1-6400. The table stores the line card numbers to which that menu pair of that cabinet is connected, and it is this number (1-2800) that appears in the 'P' field of the call record that is sent to the call management system.

Database Requirements The mapping of cabinet and menu pair numbers onto line card numbers is set up by a further database. The database is opened and read whenever the LOG program is started up, and it is used to build the look-up table that will be applied to all call records subsequently processed by the LOG program. If the database is changed in any way that would affect the mapping table, the LOG program must be stopped and restarted.

The database must be in the current directory when the LOG program is started, and contain fields for cabinet number, menu pair, line card, left and right button descriptors and circuit name.

The cabinet field is called "Cab" or "CAB" and may only contain numbers between 1 and 16.

The menu pair field is called "Menu" or "MENU" or "Menu pr" or "MENU PR", and contains numbers between 1 and 400.

The line card field is alphanumeric with four characters. The first is a letter in the range 'A' to 'E', and the last three are digits.

The numeric part is in the range 1 to 560, and leading zeroes must be used. The 'lowest' line card number is A001 and the 'highest' is E560.

This field is used to form the line card number that will eventually appear in the P field of call records sent to the call management system, where it will become the 'trunk number'.

The formula used for the transformation from an alphanumeric field to a number is: (letter-A)*560 + numeric part.

Method of Operation The LOG program calls up a subprogram LOGMAP.EXE to read the database. This is because the LOG program will eventually terminate and stay resident. The database is read once at start up, so the database-reading code occupies about 100K of memory, need not be resident once the look-up table has been created. The LOG program invokes the LOGMAP program and passes a pointer to its look-up table down to the child process. The LOGMAP program opens the further database and fills up the table via that pointer.

The table is initialised to all-zeros, so if a call record is processed for a menu pair that has no database record, the call will be sent to the call management system with a trunk number of zero.

Change Transmission The call management system maintains a database by mapping the line card number (as appears in the call records) onto text describing the line. This information originates in the further database, and changes in that database must be mirrored in the database held in the call management system. The update process takes place during the start-up of the LOG program, when it invokes the subtask LOGMAP. It is this subtask that runs through the further database building a translation table in a RAM for the LOG program to use, checking the data for errors, and looking for changes in the mapping between line card and the text fields related to that line.

There is a field in the further database which contains a 16-bit quantity. It can also be "blank", which is its initial state, and is not the same as zero. This field is used to determine which records have altered and so needs to be transmitted to the call management system.

For each database record, a change record is created in the format documented below. A cyclic redundancy check, CRC is then computed covering the line card number, circuit number text, and button descriptor. If this CRC differs from the number in the field, then the change record is send out to the call management system COM2 port.

The front end will receive this change record and calculate the CRC. This is then sent back via the COM2 port. If this CRC matches the one generated on transmission then the record is confirmed as received. The CRC is written into the field of the database and prevents the record from being sent again.

In the event of the line card number or its text being changed, the CRC will no longer be correct, and the record will be retransmitted.

Three attempts are made to get a correct response from the call management system. If all three fail, it is assumed that the front end of the system is not running. Communication is therefore abandoned to avoid sitting through a timeout for each record in the database. No data is lost, and the LOGMAP program can be re-run once the call management system is connected and running.

Change record format Change records always begin after a CR LF pair. The first character is always a capital 'C'. This is followed by the variable part of the record. The change record is always terminated with CR LF.

The variable part of the record is an ASCII string of the form: nnnn, "circuit text", "button text" Where nnnn is the line card number (trunk number) in the range 1-2800. This number is of variable length, containing one to four digits. Allowance is made for five digits line card numbers.

"circuit text" is the 25-character (max) circuit number from the further database, enclosed in double quotes. "button text" is the left and right button descriptors concatenated into an 8-character string and enclosed in double quotes.

This variable part is used to generate the CRC. All the variable part from the first digit of the line card number to the final closing double quotes is used to generate the CRC. The initial 'C' and the final CR LF are outside of the CRC.

The resultant CRC should be sent back to the PC in the form: nnnnn CR LF Where nnnnn is a variable length unsigned decimal number.

The use of LF is optional.

If the response is not sent within two seconds of receiving the change record, the CPU 2a will time out and retry.

If duplicate records exist in the further database then duplicate records will be transmitted to the call management system.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that alternative ways of programming may be used which fall within the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.

Claims

1. Telephone apparatus comprising a user control terminal which includes a central processor unit (CPU) a display/monitor and a keyboard, a telephone call management system which comprises a call management computer, and a telephone switch means which telephone switch means is operative to route predetermined telephone lines to the user control terminal, data appertaining to switch operation and line use being stored in buffers which form a part of the telephone switch means, the CPU having a software program which serves to facilitate extraction of data from the buffers appertaining to switch operation and/or telephone line use and to make this data available to the call management system for data logging purposes.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the user control terminal is a dealer board the keyboard being operatively associated with the CPU and the display/monitor whereby exchange functions selected by dealer operation of the keyboard are displayed on the display/monitor.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the telephone switch means comprises master control cards in which the said buffers are incorporated, data being extracted in accordance with the software program, which data relates to switch operation and/or telephone line usage, the data being translated and transmitted to the telephone call management system which serves to perform a logging function and which may serve also for the processing of the data to produce predetermined reports.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 and substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.