GB2362541A

GB2362541A - Terminal telephone apparatus for computer network

Info

Publication number: GB2362541A
Application number: GB0026214A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Pierre Sabatier
Original assignee: Sagem SA
Current assignee: Sagem SA
Priority date: 1999-10-25
Filing date: 2000-10-25
Publication date: 2001-11-21
Also published as: FR2800225B1; FR2800225A1; GB0026214D0; DE10052487A1

Abstract

The telephone terminal apparatus for computer network comprises circuits (15) for linking with a line (11) of a telephone network for access to the computer network, memory circuits (13) for storing a telephone table, circuits (12) for receiving telephone numbers of incoming calls, linking circuits (17) for linking the line (11) to a telephone terminal (20) of the access telephone network and circuits (14) for searching the table (13) for incoming call numbers, controlling the linking circuits (15) as well as telephone call circuits (16).

Description

2362541 Terminal telephone apparatus for computer network The present

invention relates to telephone communications in a computer network of the Internet 5 kind.

The Internet exhibits very low communication costs so that, apart from the transmission of data between computer terminals, it also serves nowadays for conveying speech communications between telephone terminals.

A user of the telephone must then be furnished with a conventional set for the switched telephone network STN and with an Internet digital telephone set, able to process the Internet protocol.

Since this user has no permanent Internet address, he accesses the Internet through an access provider, to which he is linked by a line of the STN. To limit the costs of subscription to the STN, the two sets, STN and Internet, are wired in parallel to this line.

Should there be an incoming Internet call on this common line, the problem then arises of routing it to the Internet set, whilst avoiding having the STN set ring. Otherwise, should the latter go off-hook inadvertently it might cause the Internet call to be aborted.

US 5 841 850 teaches a telephone terminal apparatus comprising a ringing detector associated with a processor receiving the identity of the caller so as to search for it in a table of addresses relating to the Internet and, if successful, route the call to an Internet set, while disabling the ringing of the conventional telephone set associated with the same line.

However, the Internet set must perform various operations to establish the communication, in particular have itself allocated a temporary IP address so as to be able to exchange information with the calling terminal.

The present invention aims to means 10 of ease these operations.

For this purpose, the invention relates to a telephone terminal apparatus for computer network, comprising means for linking with a line of a telephone network for access to the computer network, comprising memory means for storing a telephone table, means for receiving telephone numbers of incoming calls, linking for linking the line to a telephone terminal the access telephone network and means for searching the table for incoming call numbers, controlling the linking means, apparatus characterized in that the means for searching the table also control telephone call means.

Thus, as soon as a search of the table f or a number of a caller is completed, the telephone call means can be automatically activated so as to perform the string of operations required for establishing the communication and hence in particular to obtain an IP address for themselves.

The present invention will be better understood through the aid of the following description of a preferred embodiment of the telephone terminal apparatus of the invention, with reference to the 25 appended drawing, in which:

- Figure 1 diagrammatically represents a computer network, here the Internet, to which is in particular linked a telephone apparatus according to the invention, through an access provider, and - Figure 2 is a functional block diagram of the telephone apparatus of Figure 1.

Figure 1 represents a data transmission computer network 3, here the Internet, into which are plugged two telephone apparatuses 1, 2, here sets, configured so as to process speech data transmitted here packetwise according to the Internet protocol.

The Internet sets 1 and 2 are linked to the Internet 3 by a line, 11 and 21 respectively, of the switched telephone network STN, enabling them to link up to a respective provider 31, 32 of access to the Internet 3.

Furthermore, linked to the Internet set 1 is an STN conventional telephone terminal 20. Here, this is a telephone set but, in another example, it could be a fax machine, an answering machine and the like. A server 4 for effecting handshaking between Internet sets 1, 2 is linked to, or integrated into, the Internet 3.

Figure 2 represents the Internet set 1, linked to the line 11 for access to the Internet through the STN and linked to the conventional STN set 20.

The Internet set 1 comprises circuits 12 for receiving a call originating from the line 11 and specifically for receiving line signals identifying, by its telephone number, a calling telephone set. Here, these identification signals are those of the CLIP service, provided by the STN in the idle period separating a first and a second train of call signals or ringing.

The reception circuits 12 thus have a modem (demodulation) function and are linked at output to a computing block 14 for searching for the telephone numbers (CLIP) of incoming calls in a memory 13 linked to the computing block 14 and containing a table of telephone numbers of selected Internet corresponding parties, such as Internet sets like the one referenced 2 or else the server 4.

The reception circuits 12 furthermore receive and detect the call ringing trains and provide a corresponding indication to the computing block 14, so that, in this example, the latter does not initiate a CLIP signals recognition and memory 13 search procedure until after the first train. One thus avoids the need for continuous analysis of the signals of the line 11, thereby correspondingly decreasing the task of the computing block 14.

The computing block 14 controls linking circuits 15, represented very diagrammatically in the form of a breaker relay contact, enabling the STN line 11 to be linked or otherwise to the conventional set 20. For this purpose, the linking circuits 15 are linked, on the line 11 side, to a cord for connection to the line 11 of the receiver circuits 12, a cord terminated by a male part of a connector 17, of which a female socket fixed part or base terminates the line 11. on the conventional set 20 side, the linking circuits 15 comprise a female socket of a connector 18, of which a removable male part is linked to a plug-in cord of the STN set 20.

The connectors 17 and 18 here form a modular telephone socket, the female part of the connector 18 mechanically reproducing the female part of the connector 17 and its contacts being at the same potential as their counterparts of the connector 17 when the linking circuits 15 are closed.

The computing block 14 furthermore controls line seizure and telephone call circuits 16 linked at the output to the cord of the line connector 17.

The circuit referenced 19 very diagrammatically represents microphone and loudspeaker speech circuits, for man/machine interaction, with a codec, which are linked to the line 11 through the modem of the circuits 12 and under the control of the computing block 14.

Together, the circuits of the Internet set 1 can take the form of a conventional telephone set or else be integrated into a PC, the computing block 14 then being, in order to reduce the cost, a central processing unit of the PC, used in time-sharing mode or sharing tasks between the telephone function of the Internet set 1 and other PC functions.

The operation of the Internet set 1 will now be explained in greater detail.

When quiescent, the link 17-18 is disabled (linking circuits 15 open) and any incoming call arrives only at the Internet set 1.

When an incoming call is detected by the reception circuits 12 (CLIP signals), the computing - 5 block 14 scan-reads the table of the memory 13 so as to search therein for the number of the caller thus received.

Should there be no match between the number of the caller, received between the first and the second ringing train, and a number from the table in memory 13, the computing block 14 closes the linking circuits 15 so as to link the connectors 17 and 18 and thus link the STN set 20 to the line 11. Since the ringing trains are spaced 3.3 seconds apart, any decision to close the linking circuits 15 is taken either after a time-out of around this value, following the end of the first train, or after actual detection of the start of the second train.

It will be observed that the breaker relay diagrammatically representing the linking circuits 15 could as a variant be a router, and not a straightforward breaker, placed at the head of the line 11 so as to route the latter to the other circuits of the Internet set 1 or else route it, or return it, to the set 20.

Should there be a match between the calling number received and a number from the table in memory 13, the computing block 14 keeps the circuit 15 open, this isolating the STN set 20 from the line 11. There is thus override with regard to the incoming call by the Internet set 1 and the set 20 therefore does not ring mistakenly.

In this example, the computing block 14 does not answer the incoming call directly, that is to say it does not immediately instruct line seizure in answer to the call by the circuits 16. On the contrary, the computing block 14 waits for the end of the call, which it detects with certainty when the reception circuits 12 do not provide it with any ringing detection signal for 4 seconds (timeout mentioned above). As a variant, a timeout of specified value, 30 s to 1 min for example, could be envisaged, triggered at the start of an incoming call in the computing block 14, to provide 6 an indication according to which the call has probably ceased.

After the end of the incoming call, the computing block 14 instructs the call circuits 16 to seize the line 11 and it sends them the telephone number, which it has in memory, of the access service provider 31. The latter is then called by the circuits 16 and the service provider 31 answers, providing the Internet set 1 with a temporary Internet address IP1 in return. The computing block 14 then sends the CLIP telephone number just received to the access provider 31, through the circuits 12 then operating as a transmitting modem.

The access provider 31 then extends the STN link of the line 11 through an Internet link up to the handshaking server 4, which thus receives the computer address IP1. If it is the Internet set 2 which has just called the Internet set 1, the user of the Internet set 2 likewise calls the server 4 through its access provider 32 who obtains an Internet address IP2 therefor.

To effect handshaking, or to link, the two Internet links of the respective Internet sets 1 and,,2 culminating at two inputs of the server 4, shown dashed in Figure 1, the two Internet sets 1, 2 identify themselves to the server 4, one (1, 2) of the Internet sets identifying itself by sending its own telephone number N1, N2 to the server 4 and the other Internet_ set (2, 1) by sending the telephone number N1, N2 of the corresponding party (1, 2) which it wishes to contact. However, to avoid this asymmetric utilization of calling/called telephone numbers and avoid poor coordination in the dispatching of these two numbers, there may be provision for each Internet set 1, 2 to systematically dispatch both numbers N1, N2.

The server 4 then searches through all the incoming links, currently being established, for the one for which the telephone number of the caller corresponds to that which is requested by another - 7 incoming link. If successful, the server 4 sends the address IP1, IP2 of the sought-after corresponding party 1, 2 over each of the two links thus paired up and these, thus made to handshake (knowing the address of the other), can then communicate directly through the Internet 3 without having to go through the server 4.

As a variant, the Internet set 2 making the initial call can initially call the Internet set 1 through the server 4. The server 4 then places the communication of the Internet set 2 on hold, without cutting it off, and additionally calls the Internet set 1 via the STN. The Internet set 1 therefore receives the telephone number of the server 4 via the CLIP service and then continues as explained previously, by calling back the server 4.

The server 4 interrupts its call after 5 to 10 seconds of receiving call return signals, thereby guaranteeing sufficient time to send its telephone number N4 via the CLIP service to the Internet set 1. The call- back of the latter to the server 4 through the access provider 31 thus occurs rapidly, without the calling Internet set 2 having to hold on excessively. The latter may be similar to the Internet set 1.

The telephone link between the Internet sets 1 and 2 can be established fully automatically from the moment the user of the calling Internet set 2, or of a voice messaging apparatus, instructs the transmission on the line 21 of the telephone number of the Internet set 1. In particular, the computing block 14 receives the number IP2 through the reception circuits 12 so as to manage the Internet communication and it then activates, in this example, a call arrival warning circuit (not represented) such as a ringing circuit or indicator light. The user of the Internet set 1 is thus advised of the call only when the Internet communication is established, and not at the moment of arrival of the initial STN telephone call, thereby - 8 avoiding placing this user on hold throughout the phase of establishment of the Internet communication.

4 9 -

Claims

CLAIMS is 1. Telephone terminal apparatus for computer network (3),

comprising means (15) for linking with a line (11) of a telephone network for access to the computer network (3), comprising memory means (13) for storing a telephone table, means (12) for receiving telephone numbers of incoming calls, linking means (17) for linking the line (11) to a telephone terminal (20) of the access telephone network and means (14) for searching the table (13) for incoming call numbers, controlling the linking means (15), apparatus characterized in that the means (14) for searching the table (13) also control telephone call means (16).
2. Apparatus according to Claim 1, in which the searching means (14) are configured so as to detect the end of an incoming call and then to instruct a call of a service provider (31) providing access to the computer network (3) and to thereby receive a temporary computer address (IP).
3. Apparatus according to Claim 2, in which the searching means (14) are configured so as to call a server (4), for handshaking with a calling set, by sending the numbers of the incoming calls to the access service provider (31).
4. Apparatus according to Claim 1, in which the linking means (15) comprise a modular telephone socket (18) for plugging in the telephone terminal (20).