GB2334403A

GB2334403A - Message transfer system

Info

Publication number: GB2334403A
Application number: GB9803027A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Sean O'donovan
Original assignee: Northern Telecom Ltd
Current assignee: Nortel Networks Ltd
Priority date: 1998-02-12
Filing date: 1998-02-12
Publication date: 1999-08-18
Also published as: GB9803027D0

Abstract

An apparatus and method for transferring a voice message from a calling party to an unavailable telephonically called party that includes the steps of initiating a potential voice call to the called party over a voice channel, identifying that the called party is not available to speak and generating a signal indicative thereof, sending the signal representing the called party is unavailable back to the calling entity that requests the calling party to leave a voice message, storing the calling party's voice message with the calling entity after the telephone communication to the called party has ended, and then subsequently transmitting the voice message through a data channel, storing the message with the called entity for retrieval by the called entity when desired. The system greatly reduces the use of the voice/telephone communications networks by allowing a voice message to be transmitted through data channels, reducing the amount of voice traffic on the voice communication lines. The fact that the original voice message was actually stored with the calling entity after the telephone voice communication had been discontinued is transparent to both the calling party and the called party.

Description

Message Transfer System BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transferring messages between two remote parties.

Most telephone calls today do not achieve their intended objection of putting two parties into direct voice communication with each other. Usually, the calling party ends up leaving a voice message which is subsequently listened to by the called party. Had the calling party known that the called party was not going to be available, rather than using a normal voice telephone line the message could have been sent as a data transmission via e-mail or some other system and this would have had two benefits. The first benefit is that the communication would have been less expensive in view of the fact that the same amount of data could be transferred over a data communication path in less time than the voice message and secondly that the voice telephone line would be available for other communications.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION The present provides a method and apparatus whereby the fact that the called party is only available to receive a message is recognised and the communication path between the called and the calling party altered from a voice channel to a data channel. This is achieved by recording the message locally to the calling party, processing the message as a data signal and sending it via the data channel to the called party where the message is reconstructed and awaits accessing by the called party.

The advantage of this system is that the time occupied by the calling party on an expensive voice telephone line is reduced to a minimum and in fact in some cases there can be no charge for the voice part of the message transfer.

Further, by utilizing a data path for a processes voice mail message, the advantages of data compression can be utilized so that the message can be passed over the data path utilizing the minimum time and consequently reducing the cost to a minimum.

The proposed system is fully automatic simply requiring the passage of appropriate messages between the calling switching station and the called switching station so that the overall process is transparent to the users.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In order that the present invention be more readily understood, an embodiment thereof will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 shows a diagrammatic representation of a system according to the present invention; Fig. 2 shows a flow diagram of part of the overall sequence of events according to the present invention; Fig. 3 is a further flow chart showing a further portion of the overall sequence of events according to the present invention; Fig. 4 is a further flow chart showing a further portion of the overall sequence of events according to the present invention; Fig. 5 is a further flow chart showing a further portion of the overall sequence of events according to the present invention; and Fig. 6 is a further flow chart showing a further portion of the overall sequence of events according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to Fig. 1, this shows in diagJammatic form a message transfer system between a calling entity (10) and a called entity (20). The calling entity comprises a telephone set 11 connected to a switching system such as a digital PBX (12) which has access to a voice network 30 via a conventional voice channel or line (13). The switching system (12) is also connected to a data access device 14 which is connected by a separate data channel or line (15) to a data network (40) the called entity has similar equipment namely a telephone set (21), a switching system (22) connected to the telephone network (30) via a normal voice channel or line (23), data network access device (24) connected to the data network (40) via a data channel or line (25).

Modern digital switching systems usually have provisions for handling voice mail i.e. messages for persons who have been unable to answer a telephone call. A voice mail server (16) is consequently shown connected to the switching system 12 and a further voice mail server (26) is shown connected to the switching system (22).

In a conventional system, voice mail is handled in the following manner.

Firstly, an answer message is recorded in the voice mail server which is played to a caller should the called party be busy or unavailable. The answer message requests the caller to leave a message which is recorded by the voice mail server and an indication is given to the called party that there is a message waiting. The called party then accesses the message on the voice mail server. This system requires the caller to be connected to the voice mail server for the duration of the answer message and also the time taken to record the message for the called party.

This can be expensive for long distance calls over a public network.

In contrast, in order to handle messages between the calling party (10) and the called party (20) the apparatus according to the preferred embodiment is designed to recognise when the called party (21) is in a position to receive only voice mail as opposed to a real time telephone call and causes the attempted voice communication via the lines (13,23) to be terminated and substitute therefor a data call via the data network (40) and the access devices (14,24). This is basically achieved by causing the voice mail message to be recorded at the calling entity side rather than at the called entity side as is the case in the conventional system.

Exactly how this is achieved will now be described.

If one turns to Fig. 2, this shows in flow chart form the sequence of events which will occur at the called entity side (20). An incoming telephone call is indicated by the letter A and is received by the switching circuit (22). This is represented by the block (221). The switching circuit (22) has the ability to determine at block (222) whether the called party is busy or not answering his telephone. If the called party is available, the switching circuit (22) causes the incoming telephone call A to be connected to the telephone set (21) as indicated by the block (223). However, if the called party is not answering his telephone or is busy on another telephone call, this fact is recognised by the switching circuit (22) and this causes the switching circuit (22) to send a message represented by the letter B back down the normal voice lines (23,13) to the calling party indicating that no voice connection can be made. The message B is preferably structured to contain at least two pieces of information namely the indication that no voice connection can be made but also a data address for the called party. This message can be sent back one or more times until such time as a call termination signal C is received as indicated by block (225) whereupon the voice call is concluded. The usual format for calling line identification can be used in modified form for this.

With modern digital switching systems, the call is not connected until the called party answer signal is received and no call charges are incurred therefor.

The position would be different if the initial call were answered by a switchboard operator and then passed to the appropriate telephone set.

If one now looks at Fig. 3 this shows a flow chart representing the sequence of events which takes place at the calling entity and the same letters have been allocated to the various messages as have been used in Fig. 2. In this case, the block (311) indicates that the calling entity has originated a call on the public switched telephone network. Thereafter, as indicated by block (312), the calling entity receives the message B indicating that the called party is not available and that voice mail should be used. Further the message also contains the data address of the called party. At this stage, the calling entity concludes the voice call as indicated by block (313) and as indicated by the message C. The next step in the sequence is the calling party is invited to leave a voice mail message as indicated by the block (314) and thereafter the message is recorded using the voice message server (16) at the calling entity as indicated by the block (315). After the caller has concluded his voice message, the caller hangs up as indicated by the block (316) and the initial sequence of events is concluded.

It will be appreciated that with the above described sequence of operations, the caller is not aware that he has left a message in the system at a location adjacent his telephone set. Further, while the request to leave a voice message has been described as being passed to him from the server 16 associated with his switching system (12) one could envisage that the voice link via the lines (13) and (23) could be opened and maintained for a time sufficient for the voice mail request message to be sent from server (26) associated with the called entity.

This latter arrangement would in some circumstances provide the calling party with the comfort of hearing the voice of the called party as it is customary for users to record their own voice mail answer message.

Once the calling party has hung up, having left his voice mail message, the switching circuit (12) transfers the voice message to a data network access device (14) where the voice message is processed in order to be put on to the data network (40). The type of processing used is dictated by the actual data network concerned and could be voice over Internet or could be digitised and formed into packets for ATM distribution. Once the voice message is in a suitable form, the network access device (14) accesses the network as indicated in Fig. 4 using the network data address obtained via the message B and this data message is sent over the data network (40) to the corresponding data network access device (24) of the receiving entity as indicated by the message E in Fig. 4. Once the voice message has been transmitted, the data network access device releases the network connection and ends the communication. It is also possible for the voice message stored at the calling entity (10) to be erased at this time or some predetermined time thereafter.

If one now turns to Fig. 5 this shows the data handling procedure at the receiving entity. Here the data network access device (24) receives the message D indicating that a data message is being delivered to it as indicated by the block (511) the device 24 then receives the incoming data message E and deposits the message in a mail box associated with the server (26) indicated by the data address associated with the message E as indicated by the block (512). The receipt of the message is indicated to the called party in some appropriate way either by a onscreen display or in some other way as indicated by the block (513). When the called party is ready to receive the message, he accesses the mail box in some convenient fashion for example by dialling up using his telephone set (21) to release the voice message which then concludes the overall messaging system.

From the above description, it will be appreciated that the messaging scheme is totally dynamic and the change in handling the voice mail message is transparent to both the calling and the called party. The above arrangement is suitable in many different situations and in fact can be used in conjunction with public telephony so that voice mail could be provided by public telephone companies to individual subscribers who may have ISDN lines without the subscribers requiring their own message recording and playback systems as is the case today. It is, of course, useful for large organisations which have both internal telephone networks and data networks. In either case, the main benefit is a reduction on the demands placed on the voice lines by making use of the larger capacity of the data network and the fact that data networks handle delay tolerant data much more efficiently.

A number of modifications to this basic system are possible. For example, the voice message could be stored at the calling entity (10) and only the indication that a voice message existed and its location need be sent to the called party. The message could then be relayed to the called party when required.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:1. A method of transferring a message from a calling party to a calling entity to a called entity comprising the steps of initiating a potential voice call to a called party at the called entity over a voice channel; identifying that the called party is not available to speak and generating a signal indicative thereof, sending the signal to the calling entity as a result of said identification, requesting the calling party to leave a voice message; and storing said voice message characterised in that the voice message is stored at the calling entity and after storage is forwarded to the called entity via a data channel for reception by the called party.
2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the signal sent to the calling entity indicates the address of the called party for data messages.
3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the voice message received via the data channel is stored at the called entity at a location indicated by the address of the called party.
4. A voice messaging system for transferring a message from a calling party at a calling entity to a called party at a called entity comprising means for initiating a potential voice call to the called party at the called entity over a voice channel; means for identifying that the called party is not available to speak and generating a signal indicative thereof; means for sending the signal to the called entity as a result of said identification; means for storing said voice message, characterised in that - said storing means for said voice message is located at said calling entity and there are means at said calling entity to forward the stored message to the calling entity via a data channel for reception by the called party.
5. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said signal sending means is arranged to send the data address of the called party.
6. Apparatus according to claim 5, wherein there are means at said called entity for storing the voice message received via the data channel at a location indicated by the address of the called party.