RU2099895C1 - Method and device to receive telephone call - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: communicate. SUBSTANCE: calling subscriber executes telephone call. Call is directed over telephone network to unit of terminal equipment. Terminal equipment analyses information directly coupled to given telephone call. This information is divided into separate attributes such as numbers of telephones of calling and called subscribers. Then search is conducted in lists of numbers stored in terminal equipment to recording corresponding to attributes of call. If such recording is not found call is rejected. If there is found one or several such recordings call is directed over route specified in recording of list of numbers having most optimal correspondence with attributes of call. Lists of numbers are available for editing by user. EFFECT: enhanced operational reliability of device. 6 cl, 12 dwg

Description

 The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for making a telephone call based on an analysis of the information that accompanies said telephone call.

 In the past few years, the telecommunications industry has experienced significant advances in technology. Those days were left in the distant past when the phone was highly regarded only as a simple, convenient and relatively confidential device, used mainly for communicating with friends, acquaintances and in order to call, for example, a store.

 Today, the owner of the phone has as many reasons to praise him as to curse him. Very often, upon returning home after a working day, he is greeted by a flurry of unwanted phone calls from unknown subscribers, each of whom is trying to sell him his goods or services. Sifting out incoming calls with an answering machine partially solves the problem, but leads to the fact that it already annoys family, friends and other subscribers who have better reasons for making a call, because all calls after being processed by the answering machine are sifted out. In addition, many "friendly" subscribers suffer from the so-called "fear of answering machines" and hang up after a few beeps so that the answering machine does not work.

 Some regional telephone companies in the United States are now providing their customers with a service called Caller ID. Caller ID displays the telephone number of the subscriber from whom the call was received. Thus, when the phone rings, the owner can look at this number and decide whether he should answer the call. Although the caller ID has some advantages over an answering machine, it is limited in its own way. Often, the owner cannot remember whether this particular number is “desirable” or not. Hence the frequent errors associated with answering an unwanted call, and vice versa.

 The technological advancement of telephone facilities has also entailed new problems for the owner of the telephone. When the owner wants to make inquiries about goods or services and calls one or another commercial organization, the friendly seller no longer answers the call. Instead, the call receives an integrated telemarketing service in a particular geographical location. Then, very often, the owner has to wait and experience some disappointment, as his call is repeatedly redirected inside the help desk in search of a specialist who has the necessary knowledge to answer a specific request. The owner may also be required to answer a long series of leading questions posed by the synthesized voice recorded on tape, for which he (the owner) has to type in a sequence of numbers or other characters on the keyboard of his phone. Such crude methods of routing a telephone call also do not satisfy telemarketing services because their operators are used inefficiently. But more importantly, their customers feel dissatisfied and uncomfortable and may even decide to deal with someone else.

 Examples of prototypes of such a technology are disclosed in the following documents: EP-A-0.347.155 and US-A-4.277.649.

 The main objective of the present invention is the provision of an extended mechanism for processing incoming telephone calls.

 A second object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism for efficiently filtering out unwanted telephone calls.

 Another objective of the invention is the provision of effective automatic and optimal direction of an incoming call to its destination.

 These and other goals are achieved using the method and device for flexible and optimal reception and routing of a telephone call described in this application.

 A phone call is made by the caller. Then the telephone call is routed over the telephone network to the terminal equipment unit. Then, the terminal equipment analyzes the information accompanying the telephone call. This information is divided into independent call attributes, such as the number of the calling subscriber and the number of the called subscriber. After that, a search is performed in the number list (one or more) and it is checked whether it contains an entry corresponding to the attributes of the call. If no match is found, the call is rejected. If one or more matches are found, the call is routed according to the information contained in that number list entry that has the most optimal match. Moreover, the user has the ability to easily modify the number lists.

 In FIG. 1 shows a general diagram of the communication environment of the present invention.

 In FIG. 2 shows a diagram of the terminal equipment of the present invention.

 In FIG. 3 shows in more detail the contents of the memory of the terminal equipment of the present invention.

 In FIG. 4 shows an example of a number list used in the main implementation of the present invention.

 In FIG. 5 shows examples of search trees for the number lists shown in FIG. 4.

 In FIG. 6 shows an example of a number list used in an alternative implementation of the present invention.

 In FIG. 7, 8, 9 show a block diagram of a suitably programmed terminal equipment of the present invention.

 In FIG. 10 to 12 show computer screen forms used to modify the information contained in number lists.

 In FIG. 1 shows a general diagram of the communication environment of the present invention. Telephone 10 can make a call that, after passing through terminal equipment 12, telecommunications network 15, and terminal equipment 20, will be received by telephone 18. In the main implementation, network 15 is an Integrated Services Digital Network, better known as ISDN. However, other telecommunication networks can be used, from modern networks such as DTMF to those that will appear in the future. In general, any telecommunications network capable of transmitting information about a telephone call directly with this call can be used.

 Network 15 can communicate between thousands of terminals, such as terminal equipment 12 and terminal equipment 20 shown in FIG. 1. The terminal equipment connected to the network 15 supports the protocol of the network 15 and allows communication between the terminals and any of the connected telephones. Although in FIG. 1 shows one telephone connected to each terminal; in fact, the number of connected phones to each such terminal is in the range from zero to several hundred.

 Terminal equipment 12 may be physically located in the same place with the phones it supports, or located remotely at a local, regional, or national telephone exchange. While in the main implementation the telephone 10 and the terminal equipment 12, as well as the telephone 18 and the terminal equipment 20 are separate components, in an alternative implementation, the telephone and terminal equipment can be combined in one unit. This combination is especially convenient for use in a small office or apartment where there is no need for a powerful terminal with hundreds of phones connected to it.

 In FIG. 2 shows a more detailed diagram of the terminal equipment 20. The terminal equipment 20 includes a network interface 21, a processor 23, a memory 30, and a telephone interface 25. A network interface 21 allows the terminal equipment 20 to communicate with the network 15. The network interface receives telephone calls sent by other phones to network, and also transmits telephone calls sent by telephones connected to terminal equipment 20 via line 17. Line 17 is not required if there are no connected telephones at all, as, for example, for exchange between terminals or in the case where the terminal equipment answers calls through synthesized speech or sends calls back through network 15.

 A suitably programmed processor 23, as shown in FIG. 7 9, accepts / rejects and optimizes routing of incoming telephone calls received by terminal equipment 20. This will be discussed in more detail later. The processor 23 may be a very simple microprocessor such as the Intel 8088, or it may be part of a more complex processor environment for microcomputers, mid-range computers, or even basic computers (manframes).

 The telephone interface 25 is connected to the processor 23 and allows the terminal equipment 20 to communicate with one or more telephones, such as the telephone 18 (Fig. 1), connected to the telephone interface 25 via line 17. The complexity of the telephone interface 25 is largely dependent on the number of telephones supported by terminal equipment 20. If one or at least several telephones are supported, telephone interface 25 is sufficient to have a very simple switching logic embedded in conventional multiplexes sora or other logic circuits well known to those skilled in the art. Telephone interface 25 is not required if no telephone is connected to terminal equipment 20 at all. Otherwise, when tens, hundreds and, moreover, thousands of phones are simultaneously supported, the telephone interface 25 becomes much more complex. In such cases, it is desirable to use the equipment of a private telephone exchange (Private Branch Exchange PBX) or a similar device, or a computer program capable of communicating with such a device.

 In the main implementation, the processor 23 and memory 30 are components of a middle-class computer AS / 400 (Application Systtem / 400) computer system manufactured by IBM (International Buisiness Machines Corporation). Network Interface 21 is an ISDN Basic Rate Interface adapter installed inside the AS / 400. Line 16 is an RJ45 type cable. Telephone Interface 25 is a well-known telephony software product, Call Path / 400, also manufactured by IBM.

 Returning again to FIG. 2: the memory 30 is connected to the processor 23. The memory 30 contains the data used by the processor 23 to decide whether to accept or reject the call and, if received, send it to the appropriate phone. The contents of memory 30 are shown in more detail in FIG. H. Memory 30 contains one or more number lists 31, as well as one or more search trees 32. All search trees in memory 30 have one number of rows (such as row 33) and one number of columns (such as column 34). In a number list, a row is an entry containing one or more data fields. The data from the number list is used to determine the optimal route for an incoming call or its rejection. The number of rows, columns and number lists is variable and can be changed depending on the desired functional configuration.

 In the main implementation, search trees 32 are used to speed up the search for data in the number list, but they are not required in the alternative implementation. If used, there is one search tree for each column (such as column 32). Since the number lists 31 contain four columns, four search trees 32 are shown for them.

 Each search tree contains records (such as record 35). Moreover, there are as many entries in one search tree as there are entries in all number lists combined. Since the total number of entries in the number lists is fifteen, each search tree consists of fifteen entries.

 The first search tree contains data taken from the first column of each number list. A search tree entry consists of three data fields. Field 37 of record 35 of the search tree contains data from the field at the intersection of the first row and the first column of the second number list (here "5551212"). Field 38 contains a sign of the number list from which the data was taken (here 02 is a sign of the number list 02). Field 39 contains a sign of a number number list from which data was taken (here 01 is a sign of the first number list row).

 To increase the search performance in the main implementation of the invention, the search tree entries are sorted according to the number list data, by the number list number and by the number number of the number list. For example, the three records preceding records 35 will contain data from the first fields of number list entries with numbers less than "5551212". The remaining entries, following entry 35 in the first search tree, will contain data from the first fields of numbered list entries with numbers greater than "5551212", followed by entries containing templates (such as "608 #") and generalizing fields ( such as "* ANY").

 The second search tree contains data from the second columns of the number lists, where the data is also sorted to speed up the search. Record 36 contains data from the field at the intersection of the first row and second column of the second number list (here “23”). The rest of the second search tree, just like the third and fourth, is built according to the same organizational model. It should be very clear to a person skilled in the art that the diagram shown here is only one of several different but equally suitable organizational models that can be used to speed up the search process in number lists.

 In FIG. Figure 4 shows an example of number lists that can be used in a telemarketing service when terminal equipment receives thousands of phone calls every day. Three numbered lists are shown, each with four data columns. The first column contains the telephone number of the caller, the second subaddress of the caller. The subaddress is entered by the subscriber (the caller) or its terminal equipment and provides additional information about the caller. For example, caller subaddress “13” may be a sign that the subscriber is a woman aged 30-50 years old with annual income in excess of $ 50,000.

 The third column contains the telephone number of the called party, and the fourth subaddress containing additional information about the purpose of the call. For example, the called subscriber sub-address “09” may be a code from a magazine announcement and entered by the calling subscriber to indicate that he is interested in information about the international mutual fund.

 In the example of FIG. 4 terminal equipment in the telemarketing service receives a phone call, accompanied by some information related to it. The terminal equipment divides this information into call attributes. In this case, it is the number of the calling subscriber and his subaddress, the number of the called subscriber and his subaddress. If there are also environment attributes containing information about the recipient of the call, then they are defined and added to the attributes of the call.

 Then these attributes are compared with each number list entry in order to find matches. Distinguish between exact matching, matching according to templates and generalizing fields. Exact match occurs when all attributes exactly match the data in the number list entry. It should be noted that in the main implementation, a field with the value "NONE" (no suitable values exist) is considered to correspond exactly to the attribute that does not contain any data. Template matching occurs when one or more attributes does not exactly match the data in the number list, however, such a match occurs in truncated form. For example, the phone number 6081111211 does not match the data from the 608 # number list, but in a truncated form matches. The "#" sign is one of the many notation for the truncation operation on the right. In the alternative implementation, other templates may also be used), for example, the number list data in the form of $ 555 # will coincide with the truncated type of the call attribute 6085551111, since it contains the string "555". The $ symbol is one of the many notation for the truncation operation on the left.

 Matching by generalizing fields occurs when one or more attributes do not exactly match the number list data, but the record data indicates that any attribute value is acceptable. For example, the phone number 6081111211 does not match the * ANY record, but * ANY indicates that any phone number, including 6081111211, is acceptable.

 Note, however, that a record that matches the call attributes and recipient environment attributes by template or generic fields may actually contain fields that are completely identical to certain attributes. For example, when the call attributes are "5075553311, 12, 6082224444, 00", we will talk about the coincidence in generalizing fields with the number list entry "5075553311, * ANY, * ANY, * ANY", despite the fact that the first attribute "5075553311" is identical the first field of the number list entry.

 In the main implementation, the number list entry cannot match the call attributes and environment attributes neither exactly, nor by template, or by generalizing fields, if any field does not coincide in value with the corresponding attribute. However, in an alternative implementation, this is permitted if the value of at least one attribute matches.

 The record of the number list, which exactly matches the attributes of the incoming call, is used to control the call (“captures” the call) and indicates where it should be directed. If no exact match is found, the call captures the record that has the most optimal match by template or generic fields. In more detail, the method for determining this most optimal match will be discussed below. It is based on accounting for the amount of field identical to the call attributes. The user-defined weighting factors of the significance of the number list data are also taken into account.

 If neither an exact match is found, nor a match on the template or generic fields (as shown above), the call is rejected.

 To direct the phone call to the destination, the number list entry that "captures" the call uses routing information, which can be the same for the entire number list or different for each record. The routing data can be stored together with the number list or with the entries of the number list, and can also be stored as part of the application program or in other memory segments 30 (Fig. 2).

Returning again to FIG. 4. Assume that the number list 01 will control the routing of incoming calls, for which no detailed information can be obtained in advance. Each time a call is “picked up” by an entry from list 01, it will be routed to a specific phone according to list 01. Number list 02 will control the routing of calls from “special customers” who have already called or for whom the necessary telephone numbers have already been received rooms and possibly other information. These customers are immediately directed exactly to the operator who is servicing the telephone number defined in list 02. Additional information may also be included in such a call, allowing the operator to start the conversation with a personal greeting, such as: "Hello, Mrs. Applegate! Have you already something have you decided on the sweater that you dealt with before? "
Number list 03 will control the routing of calls from clients who have not yet called, but who have indicated, nevertheless, that they are interested in some specific help. For example, any incoming call with the sub-address "21" will indicate that the client wants to receive information about medicines for the treatment of male pattern baldness, so the call can be automatically sent to the telemarketing service operator who has knowledge on this subject.

 In FIG. 5 shows search trees for the number lists of FIG. 4. As mentioned, each search tree contains sorted data from the corresponding column of each number list.

 In FIG. Figure 6 shows an example of a number list that could be used in a small office or apartment system, where the terminal equipment does not receive a lot of calls daily. One numbered list containing seven data columns is shown. The first four columns were discussed above, the fifth indicates the day of the week during which the call was received. This information can be obtained as a call attribute or determined by the processor 23 (Fig. 2) by querying the system date stored in memory 30. The sixth column contains information about the status of the owner of the phone. This information is used when matching with an "environment attribute", which is not part of the incoming call, but is indicated by the recipient of the call. If there is one or more attributes of the environment, they are added to the attributes of the call and processed in a single way. This will be explained in more detail below. In this example, owner status information indicates whether he is absent, working, or currently not busy. The last column contains route information. In contrast to the example of FIG. 3A, this routing data is stored directly in each number list entry.

 In the example of FIG. 6 terminal equipment is located on the main telephone located in the Johnson family home. They have three telephone lines in the house: 5071111111 the main phone number of the house, 5072222222 - the telephone number of Mrs. Johnson's small accounting office, which is located in the basement and 5073333333, the telephone number of Johnson's daughter, a very talkative girl Tiffany.

 The trip codes "01" and "02" equally direct the incoming call to the telephone in the kitchen, and in the case of the code "02" a double bell rings. Similarly, codes “03” and “04” direct a call to a telephone in the basement, with code “04” making a double call, and codes “05” and “06” directing a call to a telephone in Tiffany’s bedroom, the code “06” is followed by double call. The routing code "00" clearly indicates that the call should not be received, and the code "10" indicates that the call should be directed to the answering machine.

 If the call “captures” the first entry in the number list, it will be directed to the telephone in the kitchen, and the call will be single. If the fourth record “captures” the call, it means that a certain specific client of Mrs. Johnson’s company is calling. Such a call is routed to a telephone in her office and is accompanied by a double call. If the challenge captures the eighth record, it calls James Giltid, an old friend of Tiffany. She specifically entered this entry into the number list so that calls from James's phone would not be accepted.

 In the main implementation, search trees, similar to those shown in FIG. 9 are associated with the number list of FIG. 6. As discussed above, each search tree contains sorted number list data from its corresponding column. In the case when a single number list or a small number of them is used, the use of search trees may not give the expected increase in the performance of the search procedure.

 7 to 9 show a block diagram of a program of terminal equipment 20 operating in the framework of the present invention, where: 101 Initialize the variable Count for all entries in the number list to -1.

 102 Break the call information into attributes from (1) to (N).

 103 Check the search tree for the first / next record matching the attribute (1).

104 Match found?
110 Get environment attributes.

130 All possible patterns for attribute (1) have been verified?
132 Truncate attribute (1).

160 Attribute (1) * ANY
162 Set attribute (1) * ANY.

 170 Find the number list entry with the highest value for the Count variable.

171 Valid number list entry found?
172 Make a call according to the number list or its entry.

 175 Reject the call.

 190 The End.

 105 Save the number list number and row number.

106 Attribute (1) * ANY or did a pattern field match?
107 Set the variable Count to the weighting factor of the attribute (1).

 120 Check the search tree (j) for the match of attribute (j) with the contents of the record corresponding to the stored number list number and row number.

121 Coincidence?
122 Attribute (1) * ANY or did a pattern field match?
123 Increase the variable Count by the value of the weight factor of the attribute (j).

124 Still attributes to check?
140 Are all possible patterns for attribute (j) checked?
142 Truncate attribute (j).

150 Attribute (j) * ANY
152 Set attribute (j) * ANY.

 155 Reset the variable Count to -1.

 157 Restore attributes to their original values. Block 101 assigns the variable "Count" an initial value of 1 for each record from the number lists. Block 102 divides or breaks the information accompanying the call into one or more call attributes. Consider the operation of the flowchart using our example telemarketing service in FIG. 4. Block 102 splits the call information into four attributes: attribute (1), attribute (2), attribute (3), and attribute (4). Attribute (1) corresponds to the number of the caller, attribute (2) to its subaddress, etc. Block 102 also makes a duplicate copy of these attributes so that the flowchart in FIG. 7-9 always works with undistorted information. This duplicate copy is used to restore the attribute to its original value if it was truncated or generalized as a result of some processing operation.

 Block 110 checks whether any attributes of the environment will be required in the decision-making process. As discussed above, the environment attribute is not part of the call, but is indicated by the recipient. If there is one or more attributes of the environment (such as the owner status from FIG. 6), the values of these attributes are determined and added to the call attributes defined in block 102. A duplicate copy of the environment attributes is also produced in block 110. In our example, there are no environment attributes.

For a better understanding of the flowchart, suppose the call is received and block 102 breaks the accompanying information into the following attributes:
attribute (1) 6085551111
attribute (2) 16
attribute (3) 5073337766
attribute (4) 21
Block 103 searches the first search tree to find a record matching attribute (1). Block 103 determines that the record 201 of the first search tree matches attribute (1), so that the question in block 104 receives an affirmative answer. Block 105 stores the list number (02) and row number (also 02) contained in the record 201. Block 106 checks the condition: the attribute value is * ANY or a pattern field match has occurred. In this case, the answer is no. Next, block 107 sets the Count variable (for a given number list entry) to the user-defined weight of the attribute (1). The telemarketing center may consider some call attributes more important and therefore attribute different weighting factors to the attributes. For example, attribute (2) could be assigned a weight factor of 0.5, and the remaining attributes of 1.0. Thus, it is shown that the significance of attribute (2) is only half the significance of each of the other attributes. For convenience, assume that all attributes have the same weight factor of 1.0. In this case, block 107 sets Count = 1. Block 108 sets the counter variable "j" = 2, preparing to check the next attribute.

 Block 120 (Fig. 9) checks whether the next attribute matches the next field in the number list entry, the previous field of which has already coincided with the previous attribute. In our example in FIG. 4, it is checked whether the data in the first field of the record 202 of the second search tree matches the attribute (2). Since attribute (2) 16, i.e. there is a match, control is passed to block 122. Block 122 checks the condition: whether the match of attribute (j) was a match in generalizing (* ANY) or in a template field. Since in our case there is an exact match, the condition of block 122 is not satisfied and, therefore, block 123 increases the value of the Count variable for this list entry by an amount equal to the user-defined weight of the attribute (2). In our example, block 123 increments Count to 2.

 Block 124 determines if there is any other attribute to check. Since there is still attribute (3), the variable "j" increases to 3 and blocks 120 123 are executed again. These blocks determine that attribute (3) matches the record 203 of the search tree and the variable Count increases to 3. Since there is still attribute (4), then blocks 120 123 are executed again and it is found that attribute (4) matches the record 204 of the search tree and, therefore, Count increases already to 4. Block 124 determines that there are no more unverified attributes and control passes to block 103 in FIG. 7. In our example, Count 4 indicates the exact correspondence of the record 301 of the number list (Fig. 4) to the call attributes.

 Block 103 again checks the first search tree for other entries in it matching the attribute (1). Since no records other than 201 contain the value "6085551111", no matching records are found, and the condition of block 104 is not satisfied. Block 130 checks the condition: whether all template fields that satisfy the attribute (1) are viewed. Since the template fields have not yet been verified, the conditions of block 130 are not satisfied, and therefore, block 132 truncates attribute (1), discarding one character at a time and replacing all discarded characters with a single "#" character. Thus, attribute (1) takes the form "6085551 #". Blocks 103, 104, 130, and 132 are re-executed until a pattern match is found or all characters of attribute (1) are truncated. In our example, attribute (1) is truncated to the state "608 #". At this point, block 130 finds a match with search tree record 205, and block 105 stores the list number and row number contained in record 205. Block 106 again checks the condition: attribute (1) * ANY or a pattern field match has occurred. Since in our case there was just a coincidence in the template field, therefore, the Count variable associated with this list entry changes the value from -1 to 0, thus showing that for this record there is a valid (but not exact) match. Block 108 sets j 2, and blocks 120 123 check if the first field of the search tree entry 206 matches attribute (2). Since both of these values are 16, they coincide, and the variable Count increases and becomes equal to 1.

 Block 125 sets j = 3, and blocks 120-122 check if the first field of the search tree entry 207 matches attribute (3). Since attribute (3) is 5073337766, and the record field contains * ANY, they do not match. The condition of block 121 is not satisfied, and control is passed to block 140. Block 140 checks the condition: are all possible patterns for attribute (3) already viewed. The condition is not satisfied, and block 142 truncates the attribute (3), discarding one character at a time and replacing the discarded characters with a single “#" sign. As a result, attribute (3) now looks like "507333776 #". Blocks 103, 104, 130, and 132 are re-executed until a pattern match is found or all characters of attribute (3) are truncated. In our example, attribute (3) is gradually truncated, until only the “#” character remains, not coinciding in any form with the * ANY value contained in the record field 207. Thus, all the templates are checked and when checking the conditions in block 140 affirmative answer.

 Block 150 checks the condition: attribute (3) * ANY. Since the attribute (3) is “#" at the moment, the condition is not satisfied, and block 152 sets the attribute (3) * ANY. Control is returned to block 120, which checks whether the record field 207 of the search tree now matches attribute (3). Since both values are * ANY, they are the same. The condition of block 122 is satisfied, however, the variable Count does not increase. Unlike a pattern match, in the case of a match on a generic field, the Count value does not increase. Block 123 shows that there is one more attribute that needs to be checked. Therefore, j increases to 4 and returns to block 120.

 This time, blocks 120 122 check to see if the first field of the search tree entry 208 matches attribute (4). Since attribute (4) is 21, and the record field contains 99, they do not match. The condition of block 121 is not satisfied, and control is passed to block 140. Blocks 140 and 142 are executed until attribute (4) becomes "#", which means there is no match. Then blocks 150 152 set the attribute (4) * ANY, but this time the condition of block 121 is not satisfied because * ANY does not match 99. Since all possible patterns are checked and attribute (4) is * ANY, therefore, the condition of block 150 not executed. In this case, as we know, the found field does not coincide with the attribute, that is, there is neither an exact match, nor a match in the template, or in the generalizing field. In the main implementation, a number list entry cannot “capture” a call if it contains a field that does not match the call attribute. Therefore, block 155 returns the value of the Count variable for this record again to -1, thus showing that the result is unacceptable. In an alternative implementation, a numbered list entry can “capture” a call, even if it contains a field that does not match the call attribute, but its variable Count is of the greatest importance. In this implementation, block 155 is missing.

 Be that as it may, in any implementation, block 156 restores the attributes to their original values using a duplicate copy made by block 102 and / or block 110. Then control returns to block 103. Block 103 again checks the first search tree for other entries in it. matching attribute (1). Since, in addition to record 201, no record contains the value "6085551111", there are no matching records and the condition of block 104 is not satisfied. Next, the condition of block 130 is checked: are all possible patterns for attribute (1) checked. Since the patterns have indeed already been verified, the condition of block 130 is satisfied. Block 160 contains the condition: attribute (1) * ANY. Since the attribute (1) is not equal to * ANY, this condition is not satisfied and block 162 sets the attribute (1) * ANY. Control is passed to block 103, which checks whether the first field of the search tree entry 209 now matches the attribute (1). Since both of these values are now equal to * ANY, they coincide. Blocks 104 and 106 form an affirmative answer, and block 109 sets the value of the Count variable for this record to 0.

 Blocks 120, 121, 140, 150, 152, 103-108, 120, 121, 122, 124, 125 are re-executed and determine that records 210; 211 and 212, as well as record 209, coincide with attributes on the generalizing field. After the last attribute is checked, the condition of block 124 is not satisfied and control is returned to block 103. It should be noted that the value of the Count variable for this number list entry is 0.

 Block 103 ultimately finds other entries in the search tree that have * ANY in the first field. He also determines that these numbered list entries are unacceptable because they contain one or more mismatched fields. When all records are checked, block 160 generates an affirmative answer, thereby indicating that the search procedure is completed. Control is transferred to block 170.

 Block 170 searches for the number list entry with the highest value of the Count variable. It determines that for record 301, the value of Count is 4, for record 302 1, for record 303 0, and for other records, the value of Count is -1. Therefore, record 301 with the value of the Count variable equal to 4 is used to control the incoming call. In the case when none of the records “captures” the call, it can be randomly selected, but another mechanism can be used.

 Block 171 checks the condition: whether the value of the variable Count is valid for the record of the number list that has "captured the call." In the main implementation, any Count value greater than or equal to 0 is considered valid, although this definition can be changed if necessary. Since the record 301 of the number list has a valid value of Count 4, block 172 routes the call along the route that is indicated in the record of the number list or in the list itself. In our case, the call is routed to the operator in accordance with the number list 02, since record 301 is contained in this list. After that, the program ends in block 190. If the record with a valid Count value was not found, the call will be rejected in block 175.

 The data contained in the number lists, as well as the weights assigned to the call attributes, can be easily modified by the user, as shown on the screen forms of FIG. ten.

 Although basically considered the application in the field of analog communication, this invention can be used to receive / reject and route digital signals between computers. This invention may be particularly useful as a security mechanism for remote terminals connected to a host computer via a telephone network. In addition, other methods may be used to enter / change data in the number list instead of that illustrated in FIG. 10 12 screen forms. For example, using the telephone keypad.

Claims (6)

 1. A method of receiving a telephone call, based on the analysis of information directly related to the given telephone call, characterized in that the information is sequentially divided into a set of call attributes, a list is searched to find the first record corresponding to the set of call attributes, the first record corresponding to the number is found to the list, assign the first numerical value to the first record of the number list, showing how optimally the first record corresponds to the aggregate these call attributes, look at the number list to find the second record of the number list corresponding to the set of attributes, find the second record of the number list, assign a second numerical value to the second record of the number list, showing how optimally the second record of the number list corresponds to the specified set of call attributes, determine the second numerical value shows a more optimal match than the first numerical value, direct a telephone call to a telephone with a number connecting annym the second number list entry.  2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that at the stage of assigning the first numerical value to the first record of the number list, it is additionally indicated in the first numerical value that there is a valid correspondence for the first record of the number list, the weight factor for each of the specified set of attributes is determined call, increase the first numerical value by the value of the weight factor corresponding to one of the set of call attributes, and do it every time when the record of the number list exactly matches uet one of the plurality of call attributes.  3. The method according to claims 1 and 2, characterized in that they further determine the environment attribute, look at the number list to find the first record corresponding to the set of environment attributes, assign the first numerical value to the first record of the number list, showing how optimally the first record corresponds to the set attributes of the environment, look through the number list to find the second record of the number list corresponding to the set of attributes of the environment, assign the second record to the second record of the number list a word value showing how optimally the second entry in the number list corresponds to the specified environment attribute.  4. The method according to p. 3, characterized in that at the stage of assigning the first numerical value to the first entry in the number list, the weight factor for the specified environment attribute is additionally determined and the first numerical value is increased by the value of the weight factor corresponding to the specified environment attribute, and this is done every time when the specified number list entry exactly matches the specified environment attribute.  5. A device for receiving a telephone call from the telephone network, based on the analysis of information directly related to the telephone call data, comprising terminals connected to the telephone network and having a processor and a memory unit, characterized in that it comprises series-connected information sharing unit for the set of call attributes , a search block in the number list of the first record corresponding to the set of call attributes, a block for finding the first record corresponding to the set of call attributes, block learning this first record of the number list of the first numerical value characterizing the optimality of matching the first record of the specified set of call attributes, the search block in the number list to find the second record of the number list corresponding to the specified set of call attributes, the block of finding the second record of the number list, the assignment unit of the second record of the second a numerical value characterizing the optimality of correspondence of the second record of the specified set of call attributes, the establishment unit b proc eed optimality of the display a second numerical value in comparison with the first numerical value, the unit direction telephone call to the phone number corresponding to the second number list entry.  6. The device according to claim 5, characterized in that the assignment unit of the first record of the number list of the first numerical value includes a block indicating in the first numerical value that there is a valid correspondence in the first record of the number list, a weight factor determination unit for each of the specified set of call attributes, the unit for increasing the first numerical value by the weight factor corresponding to one of the specified set of call attributes each time the record exactly matches and enno this attribute call.

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