MXPA98003532A - Communications system, independent one - Google Patents

Abstract

The description relates to communications systems, and more particularly to a method and system for providing personalized communications services to users.

Description

SYSTEM. OF INDIVIDUAL VOSA CCM1NICACLICMES. NET AMPO TBCUICO The description relates to communication systems, and more particularly to a method and system for providing personalized communications services to users.

TECHNICAL BACKGROUND.

Few industries have experienced changes as fast and drastic as the communications industry in the last 15 years. These changes have been partially triggered by an increased deregulation of the communications industry that has resulted in the legacy of two separate network infrastructures for the provision of voice and data communications services. Network infrastructures, specifically the Internet and the network of carriers of traditional communications, present divergent models of service provision and different approaches to service creation. On the one hand, the Internet has fundamentally changed the scope of traditional communications services by offering a REF model: 27034 * uniform service that provides a technological platform which facilitates the creation of rapid communications services. Key factors in the Internet architecture include the separation of responsibility between the network and the 5 endpoints, and limited integration of service programming elements within the underlying network. Essentially, the network is responsible for supplying packages without having to care about their "meaning" while the final guests are responsible for applying service semantics to provide "meaning" to the received packets. In other words, a limited intelligence network provides basic communications services to sophisticated and intelligent endpoints. For example, in Java applications, the Internet supplies a server packets transmitted from it by a client which receives in return from the server (via Internet) a particular set of instructions for execution by the client. Therefore, communication services provided via the Internet can be created by storing the appropriate programming elements in the server and the service request parameters in the client, without introducing any changes in the configuration or capacity of the network nodes. Another advantage of the Internet architecture is that the services are associated with users regardless of its location or access point to the network. Unfortunately, the loss of coupling of the network nodes and the limited integration of service programming elements in the Internet architecture results in a generally poor service quality and in particular an unpredictable response time. In contrast, the traditional telecommunications infrastructure is a tightly woven network of programming elements and physical elements, where the service logic is interwoven with the fabric of the network at all levels of it. For example, the free telephone service, commonly known as "800 service", involves network-based service logic at different levels. To develop it, the network performs functions that include address or name of resolution, load balancing, responsiveness to the time of day and reverse loading, to name a few. From a general perspective, linked communication services are provided to users by running programs of network-based programming elements that some times used as input subscriber data previously stored in the network providing the service. On the other hand, outbound communication services are provided based on the characteristics associated with the calling party's ANI as opposed to the identity of the calling party. the calling party. Although the integration of services promotes the functioning of the network, unfortunately it introduces undesirable side effects. For example, subscribers of communications service deplore the fact that they are treated as "telephone connections" in opposition to users with real needs for characteristics that are independent of their access point to, or exit from, the network. In addition, the introduction of new services in traditional networks is unduly complex, susceptible to delays and costly because Providing new services typically has an impact on one or more existing services. Although the close integration of physical elements and programming elements is understandably motivated by the high standards of quality and functioning of the network, there is a need for an effective architecture in terms of costs for service and network management comparable to the # Internet flexibility, but still able to maintain the high quality of service of traditional telecommunications infrastructure for services increasingly complex communications. Another problem of the prior art is the inability of the subscribers to request from their service providers a communications service customized to their particular needs. For example, users can not define the characteristics of # service when required, nor the characteristics of personalized service per user for calls dynamically. Therefore, there is an unmet need for users of communications services to generate their own communications services for supply by communication service providers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 10 The present description is directed to communication systems that are designed to receive programmed instructions from an end-user device, request within the network the necessary processes that are required to execute these instructions, and to classify and assign the necessary resources to supply a communications service requested by the sending party of the programmed instructions. The necessary resources can be gathered from inside or outside of the network to implement a call-by-call provisioning to supply a communications service in a transparent manner through the owner's domains of the network and through heterogeneous communication technology (wireless, Internet, broadband, bandwidth narrow). Therefore, the functions of provisioning # and network management are decoupled from the management and service provision functions. In addition, the requested communications service can be created dynamically by the execution of programmed instructions. As used herein, the term "programmed instructions" refers to service-specific data and logic to interpret such data. In one embodiment of the principles described herein, a user can design a program of programming elements that allow a set of telephone numbers to be marked in a particular sequence pair communications with one or more persons associated with those telephone numbers. Programming instructions for the program element program are stored in the memory of an end user device. When a user of the device supplies the programming instructions of the programming element program in the network to request the communication service associated therewith, a processor in the network executes those instructions to mark those numbers in the sequence indicated in the program of programming elements. Upon detection of an unanswered dial or a busy line condition for a dialed telephone number, the processor returns a signal indicative of the condition found to the programmed instructions which then instruct the processor to move forward to dial the next number in the sequence. When one of the calls is answered by the called party, the network establishes a communication path between the user 5 (or the user's application) of the device and the called party. Optionally, the programmed instructions can direct the network to provide an email indicating the time, date and different telephone numbers dialed by the network to supply the requested communications service. In another example of the principles described herein, an end-user device may provide a communications system with programming instructions to request that an audio or video call be sent. on a particular communications carrier network that is selected by the communication system based on the parameters indicated in the instructions that may include, for example, rate rates, sound and video quality, level of network congestion, per name some.

In still another example of the principles described herein, a user may provide programming instructions to a switched video communications system to request from it a multimedia file or a movie that is selected based on the parameters defined in the programming instructions.

These parameters may include, for example, characteristics associated with the content of the multimedia file such as the language in the audio component of the file, particular images in the multimedia file.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is an illustrative representation of a communication system placed in accordance with the principles described herein to provide a communications service requested by the calling party from instructions programmed into the communication system; Figure 2 shows the main components of an illustrative end-user device that can be used to provide programming instructions to the communications system of Figure 1; and Figures 3, 4 and 5 present actions in flowchart format taken and decisions formulated by different components of Figure 1 to implement the principles described herein.

ESCRIPTPQN P * rT * TrTlftP Figure 1 is an illustrative representation of a communication system placed in accordance with the principles described herein to provide a communications service requested by a user who transmits programmed instructions to the communication system. The drawing of figure 1 shows the end user devices 101 to 106, access / egress points 107 and 117 and communication networks 110 to 112. The end user devices 101 and 104 are the well known analog telephone equipment to which card readers / writers 121 and 124 are connected, respectively. The card reader / writer 121 (124) includes a chip (not shown) of analog interface that is positioned to receive data from, and / or transmit data to, a smart card via the coincidence of capacitive cards of the smart card with the cards Capacitive Card Reader / Writer 121 (124). The card reader / writer 121 (124) also includes a modem that converts the analog signals received therein into digital signals transmitted to the smart card. Conversely, the reader / writer modem 121 (124) converts the digital signals received from the smart card to analog signals for transmission to access / egress points 107. When a smart card is not coupled to the card reader / writer 121 (124), the analog signals pass through the reader / writer 121 (124) without alteration, thereby allowing an analog 101 telephone equipment (104) to receive supervision and speech signals without interference from the reader / writer. card 121 (124). Also shown in Figure 1 are wireless end user devices 102 and 105 and multimedia end user devices 103 and 106. The wireless end user devices 102 and 105 may be the "AT &T" PocketNet phone which is placed to transmit and receive packetized information using the Internet protocol (IP) and the cellular digital packet data (CDPD) standard. multimedia end-user devices 103 and 106 can be implemented as microcomputers or personal computers in which the multimedia programming elements that enable multimedia end-user devices 103 and 106 receive and transmit data signals operate, voice and video. All of the end-user devices of Figure 1 must possess certain attributes to implement the principles described herein. Figure 2 represents a composite view of those attributes implemented in the components shown herein. All end-user devices of Figure 1 receive and / or transmit information to access / egress points 107 and / or access / egress point 117 which serves as the junction, eg, logical and physical interfaces between the end user devices 101 to 106 and the networks 110, 111 and 112. The access / egress point (107) 117 includes a modem cluster 108 whose 5 individual modems convert analog (digital) signals received from the reader / writer 121 ( 124) from card to digital (analog) signals as required. Of particular importance among the components of access / egress point 107 (117) is the processing complex 109 (119) whose characteristics and functionality are described in detail in the following. It is of paramount importance to note that although processing complex 109 (119) is shown as a component of access / egress point 107 (117), other implementations of the principles described herein may consider placing processing complex 109 (119) in some of the interior nodes of networks 110, 111, 112 or 113. Figure 2 shows the main components of the end-user device needed to implement the principles described herein. The end user device of Figure 2 can be implemented as a smart card for use with telephone equipment such as telephone equipment 101 111 with a card reader / writer 121 (124). Alternatively, the device The end-user of Figure 2 can be implemented as a self-sustaining digital or analog wireless end user device such as a portable processor equipped with an international ATM card of the PCMCIA for analog air interface. Because the end user device can be used for different implementations, certain components shown in the drawing of Figure 2 may not be necessary for a particular implementation. For example, when the end-user device of the figure 2 is implemented as a smart card, modem 208 and data entry pad 210 may not be required. The end user device of Figure 2 includes a receiver 201, a physical line interface 202, a transmitter 203, a button 207, a modem 208 and a processor 204. The latter is constituted by a memory 206 and a CEPU 205. The memory 206 can be implemented as an electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) which it is a non-volatile memory placed to store information such as processing instructions and other appropriate data that are to be supplied to the access / egress point 107 (117) of Figure 1. The information stored in the memory 206 can be entered therein by means of the pad 210 data entry. Alternatively, the instructions and / or processing data may be extracted to the memory 206 via a physical line interface 202 and other appropriate components (such as a receiver 201 and a modem 208) if desired. Conversely, the processing instructions are supplied to the access / egress point 107 (117) of Figure 1 via a transmitter 203 and the physical line interface 202. At the heart of the communications device of Fig. 2 is the processor 204 which uses the CPU 205 to perform instructions of Programming to extract data and instructions stored in memory 206 to supply extracted data and instructions to access / egress point 107 (117) of figure 1. Processor operations 204 can be activated when a user presses the button 207 .

Alternatively, the operations of the processor 204 may be initiated when a user slides a smart card that makes up most of the components of Figure 2 into a card reader 121 (124) of the telephone equipment 101 (104). When the line interface 202 is an analog component, the modem 208 is activated to convert the digital signals associated with the extracted data and the instructions into analog signals which are then supplied to the access / egress point 107 (117) of FIG. 1 via the transmitter 203 .

With reference again to Figure 1, all end-user devices of Figure 1 receive and / or transmit information to access / egress points 107 and / or access / egress point 117 which serve as the junction, for example, the logical and physical interfaces between the end user devices 101 to 106 and the networks 110, 111 and 1112. The access / egress point (107) 117 includes a f modem cluster 108 whose individual modems convert the analog signals ( digital) received from reader / writer 121 (124) of card to digital (analog) signals as required. The access / egress point 107 (117) also includes the access / egress switch 140 (150) which can be implemented using, for example, the Lucent communications switch Technologies # dESS * ®. A detailed description of the communications switch of Lucent Technologies # 5ESS is provided in AT &T Technical Journal, Vol. 64, No. 6, part 2, pp. 1305-1564, July / August, 1985. Of particular importance among the components of point 107 (117) of Access / egress is complex 109 (119) of processing, which is a general-purpose computer that is positioned to: a) receive instructions transmitted to it by end-user devices 101 to 106; b) execute those instructions to determine the type of communications services associated with those instructions, and c) request and classify appropriate resources from network 111, 112 or 113, if needed, to provide the requested communications services to the end user, as described in detail later. The originating network 110 can be a communication network of the service provider selected by the end user. The home network 110 may be commonly owned by one or more or may be operated communications networks placed to supply one or more communications services (POTS service, wireless communications service, Internet access service, search service, multimedia communication service, community television antenna service (CATV), to name a few). Internet network 111 can be implement as a wide area network that allows a group of interconnected processors to exchange data according to a common protocol, such as the Internet Protocol (IP). Another telecommunication company network 112 can be a conglomerate of voice networks and / or data and / or multimedia under common ownership or management. Search network 113 / cellular / PCS. It is important to note that although figure 1 shows only the Internet network 111, other networks can also be included such as the telecommunication company network 112 and the network 113 of search / cell / PCS, different from other types of networks.

The functions performed by the processing complex 109 (119) are illustrated in Figure 3. It is important to note that most, if not all functions performed by the processing complex 109 (119) are downloaded as result of the execution of programmed instructions received from an end user. The operations of complex 109 (119) of processing are activated in step 301 when programmed instructions are received from a device. end user, such as a wireless end user device 102. Upon receiving these instructions, the processing complex 109 (119) in step 302 executes these instructions to determine the type of resources needed to provide the requested communications service. by a user. By way of example, and not limitation, the execution of the instructions may indicate that the user wishes to receive a combination of the old plane telephone service (POTS), search service, electronic mail, multimedia communications service or Information retrieval under particular conditions as described in more detail later, in relation to figures 4 and 5. By identifying the type of resources needed to provide the requested communications services by the user through the execution of the received instructions *, the processing complex 109 (119), in step 303, executes the first service module in the programmed instructions received. Subsequently, the processing complex 109 (119) determines in step 5 304 whether an exception has been received as a result of the execution of the first service module. If so, the processing complex 109 (119) in step 305 determines whether another service module is available within the programmed instructions received. In case of being Thus, the processing complex 109 (119) executes the next service module in step 306 and determines whether an exception has been generated from the execution of the service module, as shown in step 307. A condition of exception is any condition, either imposed by the network or by the programmed instructions, which prevents the communications services requested by the sending party from the programmed instructions from being supplied. This may be because they are considering the preferences of the calling party and / or that is called to provide service in specific circumstances or in specific situations, such as the time of day, the refusal to pay charges for search in wireless communications applications, to name a few. The complex 109 (119) of processing repeats the stages 305 and 306 insofar as exceptions ^ P or all the service modules are received in the received instructions that have been executed. When one or more exceptions are received from the execution of one or more service modules, as determined in step 304 or 5 307, and no further service modules are available in the programmed instructions received, as determined in step 305, the complex 109 (119) potentially processing through the execution of a special module in the instructions received, in step 314, indicates to the end user (application) the unavailability of the requested communications services. When no exceptions are received from the execution of a service module, determined in step 304 or 307, the processing complex 109 (119), in step 308 determines whether the network resources necessary to supply the requested communication services are available within the home network 110 which supervises the processing operations of the complex 109 (119) . The Source network 110 is the communication network of the service provider selected by the end user or subscriber. If the resources of the identified network are available within the source network 110, the processing complex 109 (119) proceeds to step 310 to supply or to cause the requested communications services to be supplied. This can be done, for example, by the processing complex 109 (119) when exchanging appropriate signaling messages or control messages with the access / egress switch 140 (150) and / or with other equipment in the network (not shown), as explained below in connection with figure 4. When the network resources that are necessary to supply the requested communications services from the home network 110 are not available, determined in step 303, the processing complex 109 (119), in step 305, requests appropriate "associated" networks, such as the Internet 111 network, another telecommunications network company 112 and / or the network 113 search / cell / PCS to determine the availability of network resources for service provision. The policy of selecting an "associated" carrier can be part of the instructions of the supplied program. The search function can be carried out, for example, by exchanging signaling or control information between the Processing complex 109 (119), and each of the associated networks requested. For example, the processing complex 109 (119) may send a signaling message to another company in a telecommunications network 112 instructing such a network to: a) complete one or more calls to one or more destinations and b) return a signaling message # indicative of the arrangement of calls (marked unanswered, busy, rejected, answered / connected). When the network resources needed to provide the requested communication services are not available from one or more associated networks, as determined in step 312, the processing complex 109 (119) in step 314 by executing a module Special in the instructions received indicates to the end user the incapacity of the requested communications services. Alternatively, Communications services of a lower quality than requested may be provided to the end user when less than the full amount of the necessary resources are available if such alternative is established in the programmed instructions received. When the network resources necessary to supply the requested communications service from one or more associated networks are available, as determined in step 312, the processing complex 109 (119) in step 313 acquires the resources required to supply the requested communications services. Subsequently, processing complex 109 (119), a. through the execution of billing instructions proceeds to step 315, to create an establishment record before supplying the communications services requested from the user. The establishment record is updated at the end of the communications service. The principles described in relation to Figure 3 can be used for speech recognition applications. As is well known in the art, the speech recognition system consists of three parts: a sample coder, a recognition device (a sample parser), and a database of samples used by the recognition device for classify translation hypotheses. Ideally, the sample coder is close to a speaker. Similarly, the recognition device is ideally located near the sample base. To improve speech recognition performance, ideally the recognition is made using a sample base that closely approximates the particular speech pattern characteristics (pronunciation, accent and vocabulary) of the speaker. Unfortunately, one of the problems with speech recognition systems is the occasional operability of such systems due to speaker-dependent attributes. Specifically, because there is great variability in pronunciation, accents and vocabulary among English speakers, a sample base provides good functioning for a person who speaks English with a Scandinavian accent, for example, can perform poorly for a person who speaks with Japanese accent. Similarly, synthetic speech can be more easily understood if it is generated with an accent similar to that of the person who listens to it. In a speech recognition application of the principles described in Figure 3, a user, through the end user device 200, can supply a processing complex 109 (119) with programmed instructions that include, for example, an indication of the language spoken by the user and a sample base that closely approximates the particular speech pattern characteristics (pronunciation, accent and vocabulary) of the user. To the In order to receive these programmed instructions, the processing complex 109 (119) uses the language identified by those instructions and the sample base for all communications services requested by the user that require the use of the speech recognition system.

Figure 4 shows an exemplary implementation of the principles of this description. This implementation is initiated in step 401 when the calling party in the end user device transmits programmed instructions to the processing complex 109 (119). The phase 401 can be performed, for example, if the user presses or releases a button 207 and places the device 200 close to the microphone in the telephone handset of the telephone apparatus 101 (104). Alternatively, the user can slide a smart card through the card reader 121 (124). The release of the button 207 causes the telephone equipment 101 (104) to dial the telephone number associated with one of the modems in the modem pool 108. The modem then transmits a short signal to the end user device 200 to indicate that the programmed instructions stored in RAM 212 or ROM 211 can be supplied to processing complex 109 (119). Once the programmed instructions are received, the processing complex 109 (119) executes those instructions to identify the type of resources necessary to supply the communication services requested by the calling party. As specified by the programmed instructions, the processing complex 109 (119) in steps 403 establishes a call to a first destination number identified in the data list that accompanies the programmed instructions. The first destination number can be associated with an end user device, such as a wireless end user device 105 (102), a telephone equipment 104 (101) wired or a multimedia end user device 106 (103) or any another end user device connected to -LJ- - 24 - any of the networks 110 to 112. The step 403 can be carried out by processing the complex 109 (119) which transmits a signaling message to one of the networks 110 to 112 to request the availability of 5 communication resources to complete the calls to the first destination number indicated in the programmed instructions. When processing complex 109 (119) determines step 405 that communications resources are not available, for example by busy line condition, automatically initiates a call to the second calling party in the second destination number by the programmed instructions, as shown in step 404. When processing complex 109 (119) determines step 405 that communications resources are available, it establishes in the step 406 a communication path from the calling party end user device (such as telephone equipment 101 or 104) to the called party end user device associated with the first destination number. If a marking condition is not found without The response in the first destination number, as determined in step 407, completes the call in a conventional manner, as shown in step 413. Otherwise, the processing complex 109 (119) automatically initiates a call. to a second part call at a second destination number by the programmed instructions, as shown in step 404. Since it is likely that there is an unanswered dialing condition after the end user device has dialed a predetermined number of times (eg example 5 four times) without the receiver having off-hook. In the event that a busy line condition is found on the line associated with the second number of F destination, as determined in step 408, the processing complex 109 (119) in step 411 sends a message of emergency search to a locator in a third destination number. Subsequently, the processing complex 109 (119) in step 412 initiates a call to the police department to supply a previously recorded emergency message. When the line associated with the second destination number is not busy, as determined in step 408, the processing complex 109 (119) establishes a communication path from the calling party's end-user device (such as telephone equipment 101 or 104) to the device end user associated with the second destination number. Subsequently, processing complex 109 (119) determines step 410 if a no-answer marking condition is present on the line associated with the second destination number. If such condition is not present in that line, the call is completed in a conventional manner, as shown in step 413. If both lines are busy or none of the parties called in the first and second destination numbers 5 answers your telephone, then the processing complex 109 (119), in step 411, sends an emergency search message to a locator at a third destination number. Subsequently, the processing complex 109 (119), in step 412, initiates a call to the police department to supply an emergency message previously recorded. The telephone number of the police department is derived from a processing complex 109 (119) from location information included in the programmed instructions. This could be as simple as carrying out a table search to associate the exchange number of the automatic number identification (ANI) of the origin number (user number) with the local police emergency telephone number. In the particular case of Internet telephony, the programmed instructions may describe the identification Internet protocol address or the main server of the user device, from which the processing complex may be able to derive the user's location.

It is important to note that more than two destination numbers can be dialed before steps 411 and 412 are carried out. Figure 5 represents a multimedia implementation illustrative of the principles of this description. This implementation is initiated in step 501 when the multimedia end user device 103 (106) transmits programmed instructions to the access point 107 to establish a multimedia conference call over the Internet 111 network. Such programmed instructions can identify particular services that are provided to one or more participants in the multimedia videoconference. These services may include, for example, registration coding, data compression, text to speech translation, to name a few. The data accompanying the programmed instructions can also specify, for example, the speed of the link between the device 103 (106) of the multimedia end user and the access point 107 (117), or identify a standard of video transmission that will be used, such as the national television standards committee (NTSC) or high definition television (HDTV) or the type of video file format to be used, such as the expert group format photographic sets (JPEG) or the group format of film experts (MPEG) or interspersed format ^ BP audiovisual (AVI). In general, the programmed instructions can include the implementation of a registered coding scheme. Upon receiving the programmed instructions transmitted by the multimedia end user device 103 (106), the processing complex 109 (119), in step 512, executes those instructions to determine the type of resources required F P * to provide the communications service requested by the user. Once the complex 109 (119) of processing determines that the user wishes to establish a multimedia conference call to the participants identified in the processing instructions, the processing complex 109 (119), in step 513, sends a signaling or control message to the participants proposed by inviting them to supply the same parameters and policies associated with their end-user devices (applications). Upon receiving from the other participants their parameters and policies, in step 504, the processing complex 109 (119) in step 505 establishes or seeks to establish the appropriate communication paths among all the participants in the multimedia conference call. Subsequently, processing complex 109 (119) provides or causes the provision of appropriate communications services for each participant. For example, a participant who # requires that multimedia files be supplied in AVI format can receive those files in the requested format while the other participants who can request old services, such as data compression 5 or allow transmission via lines of Low speed, or data encryption for security, can also be adapted. When the multimedia conference call ends, as determined in step 507, the processing complex 109 (119) in step 508 transmits a file of conference activity to all participants who request such service. The foregoing can only be considered as an illustrative embodiment of the description. People familiar with the technique can easily conceive alternative arrangements that provide similar functionality to this modality without deriving from the fundamental principles of the teachings in this description. It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known by the applicant to carry the In practice, said invention is the conventional one for the manufacture of the objects to which it refers. Having described, the invention as above, is claimed as property contained in the following:

Claims (7)

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1. A method for providing a communication service to a user, characterized in that it comprises 5 the steps of: receiving in a communications system a set of programmed instructions and corresponding data parameters transmitted to it by a device ^ of end user; and executing in a communication system processor the programmed instructions directing the communication system to provide a communications service based on the execution of the programming instructions.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the communication system is a network consisting of interconnected nodes that are selected from a group which 20 includes communication routers and routers.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the communication system is a private branch exchange. 25

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the communication system is a POTS communications network and in which the end user device is a unit capable of 5 encode and transmit encoded data in a frequency range of a telephone microphone.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the instructions 10 scheduled are designed to implement protocol conversion.

6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the program of 15 programming elements identifies a sequence in which a plurality of addresses will be accessed to allow the user to communicate with a receiving party in one of the addresses.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that the addresses are telephone numbers and wherein the communication systems ignore the remaining numbers in a sequence once a call has been completed with the 25 receiving party.