WO2004093398A9 - Telephone internet - Google Patents

Telephone internet

Info

Publication number
WO2004093398A9
WO2004093398A9 PCT/SG2004/000057 SG2004000057W WO2004093398A9 WO 2004093398 A9 WO2004093398 A9 WO 2004093398A9 SG 2004000057 W SG2004000057 W SG 2004000057W WO 2004093398 A9 WO2004093398 A9 WO 2004093398A9
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
internet
user
phone
identifier
telephone
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/SG2004/000057
Other languages
English (en)
Other versions
WO2004093398A1 (fr
Inventor
Guo Jin Bai
Original Assignee
Jp Tech Pte Ltd
Guo Jin Bai
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Jp Tech Pte Ltd, Guo Jin Bai filed Critical Jp Tech Pte Ltd
Publication of WO2004093398A1 publication Critical patent/WO2004093398A1/fr
Publication of WO2004093398A9 publication Critical patent/WO2004093398A9/fr

Links

Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M7/00—Arrangements for interconnection between switching centres
    • H04M7/006—Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M1/00—Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers
    • H04M1/253—Telephone sets using digital voice transmission
    • H04M1/2535—Telephone sets using digital voice transmission adapted for voice communication over an Internet Protocol [IP] network
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
    • H04M15/56—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP for VoIP communications
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
    • H04M15/70—Administration or customization aspects; Counter-checking correct charges
    • H04M15/765—Linked or grouped accounts, e.g. of users or devices
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
    • H04M15/70—Administration or customization aspects; Counter-checking correct charges
    • H04M15/765—Linked or grouped accounts, e.g. of users or devices
    • H04M15/7652—Linked or grouped accounts, e.g. of users or devices shared by users
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
    • H04M3/38—Graded-service arrangements, i.e. some subscribers prevented from establishing certain connections
    • H04M3/387—Graded-service arrangements, i.e. some subscribers prevented from establishing certain connections using subscriber identification cards
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
    • H04M2215/20—Technology dependant metering
    • H04M2215/202—VoIP; Packet switched telephony
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
    • H04M2215/72—Account specifications
    • H04M2215/724—Linked accounts
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
    • H04M2215/72—Account specifications
    • H04M2215/724—Linked accounts
    • H04M2215/7245—Shared by users, e.g. group accounts or one account for different users
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
    • H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
    • H04M3/42229—Personal communication services, i.e. services related to one subscriber independent of his terminal and/or location
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
    • H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
    • H04M3/50—Centralised arrangements for answering calls; Centralised arrangements for recording messages for absent or busy subscribers ; Centralised arrangements for recording messages
    • H04M3/53—Centralised arrangements for recording incoming messages, i.e. mailbox systems
    • H04M3/533—Voice mail systems

Definitions

  • This invention relates to an Internet telephone for performing voice communications over the Internet.
  • VoIP Voice-Over-Internet Protocol
  • PSTN public switched telephone systems
  • VoIP is the technology for transmission of voice over packet switched networks and is commonly known as Internet telephony, which can be implemented using software, hardware or a combination of both.
  • the hardware used is a personal computer (PC) and a user may also use software applications such as NetMeeting or Net2phone to perform voice communications over the Internet via the PC.
  • PC personal computer
  • This implementation requires a full duplex sound card, an external microphone and speakers for the computer system, which can be costly.
  • the Internet phone comprises a thin client connectable to the Internet via a local area network (WLAN).
  • LAN local area network
  • USB USB interface
  • Voice message is sent via the digital phone through the thin client, stored on the LAN and eventually sent over the Internet to its destination.
  • Such arrangement alleviates a need of a sound card in the thin client, since the digital phone also has audio means for inputting or outputting voice messages.
  • such an Internet phone suffers from a disadvantage that the calling party and the receiving party must be "online" at the same time before a voice message can be delivered.
  • the message must be sent via a local area network (LAN) since the thin client resides within the LAN.
  • LAN local area network
  • an Internet telephone for performing voice communication over the Internet having an identifier that is transmissible over the Internet to identify the Internet phone in such communications.
  • an advantage of the described embodiment of the invention is that a user can use the Internet telephone on any computer system since the user can be identified by the identification code stored in the telephone. This allows the user to "roam" between computer systems.
  • the identifier is associated with a user and the identifier may include a phone ID and/or a product ID.
  • the identifier may further include a vendor ID to identify the manufacturer or seller of the telephone.
  • the Internet telephone further comprises an ID controller for storing the identifier.
  • the Internet telephone also comprises audio means for inputting or outputting voice messages and thus there is no need to rely on the sound card or microphone of a PC.
  • the voice messages may also be input or output through the computer system.
  • the Internet telephone may comprise an interface port arranged to connect the phone communicatively to an online computer system.
  • the interface is an USB port and the protocol for voice communications is VoIP.
  • the present invention also relates to a method for performing voice communications using the Internet phone.
  • apparatus for performing voice communications over the Internet comprising: a telephone having an identifier; a computer system arranged to connect the telephone to the Internet; and a central server connected to the Internet and arranged to identify the telephone and its connection to the Internet and being arranged to receive the identifier to perform voice communication-related
  • Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating internal components of an Internet telephone according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention
  • Figure 2 illustrates arrangement of two Internet telephones for sending and receiving VoIP messages over the Internet according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention
  • Figure 3 illustrates the use of an Internet phone of Figure 1 to make a call to a PSTN.phone.
  • FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating internal components of an Internet telephone (or phone) 100 arranged to be connected to a personal computer (PC) 200 via an input/output port in the form of an USB port 202 in this embodiment.
  • the Internet phone 100 comprises audio means such as a speaker 102 and a microphone 104, a keypad 106 and an ID controller 108.
  • Each of these components is controlled by a digital signal processor (DSP) 110.
  • DSP digital signal processor
  • the DSP 110 processes the information from these components and
  • USB connector/port 112 interfaces with a USB connector/port 112 to communicate with the PC 200.
  • the DSP 110 enables the use of Microsoft USB audio driver that is provided by common operating systems such as Windows XP, 2000 and 98.
  • the design of the keypad 106 " is similar to that of a normal mobile telephone with sixteen available keys comprising numeric keys 0 to 9, and other miscellaneous keys such as #, *, volume, dial/hang up etc.
  • the DSP 110 has a keyboard scanning circuitry which scans and detects the keypad 106 for any key press. When a key is pressed, the command is detected may the DSP 110 and the character may be sent to the PC 200 via the USB interface 112 for display on the computer screen.
  • the scanning circuitry is conventional in design and will not be elaborated here.
  • the Internet phone 100 is provided with a V6IP software application which functions as software interface to the user.
  • the user interface of the application is designed to be as user-friendly as possible and preferably, the interface has a "keypad" display on the main menu which resembles the keypad 106 on the Internet phone 100.
  • the software application also includes an electronic phone book so that the user can create a contact list and
  • the user can also save personal information in the
  • the Internet phone 100 has an ID controller which stores an identifier or identification code for the phone.
  • the identification code comprises a unique phone ID which can be assigned by the vendor or manufacturer of the phone 100.
  • the phone ID can be programmed at point of sale when a user purchased the phone and a user account will be created based on the phone ID.
  • This phone ID which is associated with the user and corresponding account information is then provided to a service provider offering the Internet telephony service so that the user can subsequently be identified based on the identification code.
  • the application When a user plugs his Internet phone 100 into the computer, the application would automatically detect the hardware (the phone 100) and read the phone ID stored in the ID controller 108. The application then notifies a central server 300 that the user (as identified by the phone ID) is online.
  • the server 300 functions as a registry which stores the registration records and other relevant information of the users of the service.
  • the server 300 also checks and updates the status of each user whether the user is online or offline.
  • the server 300 creates a communication link in the packet switched network (Internet) to facilitate the communication and VoIP messages are sent direct to the recipient.
  • identification code offers numerous advantageous features for the Internet phone 100. These features can be selected using the VoIP software application or as "hot keys" on the keypad 106 of the Internet phone 100. PC to PC call
  • a user can communicate with another user via Internet using the "PC to PC call" feature. This is performed in a conventional manual except that the user makes use of the Internet phone 100 to perform the call and when connected, use the Internet phone 100 to converse similar to a normal mobile phone.
  • user A When user A wants to call user B, user A will have to dial user B's phone ID (either from the application or by pressing the buttons on the phone 100). The software application will then send a query to the server 300 to check the online status of user B. If user B is online, the server 300 will inform the caller (user A) so that user A can proceed to establish a direct connection with user B. This is performed by the VoIP application in user A's PC 200 sending a handshaking message or call request message to the user B's Internet phone 100'. When user B acknowledges receipt of the call, the VoIP application in user B's PC 200' will send an acknowledgement message to user A's PC 200. When this is complete, a call is thus established and both users can start talking to each other.
  • the voice packet is received by user B's PC 200' and relayed to his Internet phone 100'.
  • the DSP 110 in user B's Internet phone 100 then converts the digital voice packet into analog voice signal for output through the speaker 102 . of user B's Internet phone 100.
  • the server 300 will return a voice message to the software application or the Internet phone of user A announcing user B's unavailability. User A may then be prompted to leave a voice mail which will be stored or recorded in the server 300.
  • the server will send a message to the software application or user B's Internet phone announcing that he (user B) has a new voice mail. User B can then use the Internet phone 100' or the software application to listen, save or delete the message.
  • user A can similarly be prompted or opt to leave a voice mail for user B.
  • the server 300 allows voice messages to be stored until the called party is online again.
  • PC to PSTN telephone call
  • a user can make a call to a normal PSTN number as shown in Figure 3. This is performed by dialling the number of the PSTN phone using the Internet phone 100 and the call will be routed through the gateway 400.
  • the use of the gateway 400 in establishing calls also enables the user to accept calls through his Internet phone 100 even though the PC to which the phone is connected, resides behind a firewall, proxy server or router.
  • the user of the Internet phone 100 first installs the VoIP application software provided with his phone 100 on a PC. Alternatively, the user can download the software from the service provider's website. Take for example, if the identification code in user A's Internet phone 100 has a phone ID of 65001012, then whenever he plugs in the Internet phone 100 and the VoIP application is active, the application would automatically read the code 65001012 and sends this number to the service provider's server 300 which resides over the Internet. Once the server 300 receives this message, the server 300 proceeds to register the information in a database that the user with the phone ID 65001012 is online. The server 300 can also check if there is any voice mail available for the user of 65001012 and inform the user accordingly. This is depicted pictorially in Figure 2 which shows a typical set up of an
  • user A When user A wishes to make a PC-to-PC call to another user B associated with another Internet phone 100', user A will need to know user B's phone ID.
  • User B's phone is connected to another computer system 200' and the phone 100" may have an ID of 65002101. Thus user A will dial this phone ID either using the software application or using the keypad 106 on his Internet phone 100.
  • the software application then proceeds to deliver a message to the server 300 which checks the online status of 65002101 (user B). If 65002101 is online at that time, a call request would be sent to user B.
  • User B's Internet phone 100' would then ring to notify user B of an incoming call. If the call is picked up, a connection is thus formed between both users A and B, and a voice communication can commence.
  • the VoIP application detects this and sends a "disconnect" message automatically to notify the server of the status.
  • the user A may disconnect his phone by closing the application and a "disconnect" message is also sent to the server. Any call that is destined for the phone ID 65001012 (i.e. user A) would thus be received by the server 300.
  • the user A needs to either re-insert the phone into the USB port or re-activate the VoIP application.
  • the service provider may charge for either one or both types of calls.
  • the service provider may provide the PC-to-PC call free to the users to
  • the rates for the voice mail may be time dependent i.e. depending on the length of the recorded voice mail.
  • the voice mail may also be provided free whereas the PC-to-PSTN call would be charged based on a per-minute basis.
  • the length of the call can be tracked by either the software application or the server 300 and the charges calculated accordingly. The user may then be billed at the end of the month.
  • identification code allows the user to be identified anywhere by the service provider regardless of the computer system since the identification code is provided in the Internet phone 100 and is independent of the computer system 200.
  • the identification code also serves as a "nickname" for the user since the user would be recognised based on this unique identification code.
  • the identification code for the Internet phone 100 may include a code to differentiate the phone ID from a normal PSTN number. For example, the first three digits of the code 650XXXXX may be used for this purpose.
  • the identification code may also contain a vendor or product ID which can be used by the service provider when for example, the Internet phone is lost and the user wants to block any calls made from that phone but the user wishes to
  • USB is the preferred technology for the input/output port, other emerging technologies may be applicable.
  • the PC 200 may have an infrared red communication port and this may also be used to establish a communication link with the Internet phone 100.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
  • Telephonic Communication Services (AREA)
  • Data Exchanges In Wide-Area Networks (AREA)

Abstract

L'invention concerne un téléphone Internet assurant une communication vocale sur Internet et un procédé de mise en oeuvre. Dans un mode de réalisation décrit, le téléphone Internet (100) présente un code d'identification associé à un utilisateur et mémorisé dans un contrôleur ID (108). Le téléphone Internet (100) est disposé de manière à être connecté à un système informatique en ligne (200) et le procédé préféré consiste à recevoir le code d'identification provenant du téléphone Internet (100) par le biais du système informatique (200) ; et à recevoir ou transmettre des messages vocaux sur ou depuis le téléphone Internet (100) d'après le code d'identification. De préférence, le téléphone Internet (100) comporte des moyens audio (102, 104) permettant d'entrer et d'émettre des signaux vocaux.
PCT/SG2004/000057 2003-04-16 2004-03-16 Telephone internet WO2004093398A1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
SG200302162 2003-04-16
SG200302162-3 2003-04-16

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2004093398A1 WO2004093398A1 (fr) 2004-10-28
WO2004093398A9 true WO2004093398A9 (fr) 2005-01-13

Family

ID=33297628

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
PCT/SG2004/000057 WO2004093398A1 (fr) 2003-04-16 2004-03-16 Telephone internet

Country Status (1)

Country Link
WO (1) WO2004093398A1 (fr)

Families Citing this family (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JP4156615B2 (ja) * 2005-08-22 2008-09-24 ソニー・エリクソン・モバイルコミュニケーションズ株式会社 携帯電話機、通信端末、通話方法及び通話プログラム
US8073123B2 (en) 2006-12-27 2011-12-06 Vonage Network Llc Method for automated management of a telecommunication service

Family Cites Families (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JP3576906B2 (ja) * 1999-12-21 2004-10-13 Ｎｅｃインフロンティア株式会社 インターネット網に接続可能な電話通信装置と主電話制御装置とｉｐアドレスを管理する方法
US20020122415A1 (en) * 2001-03-01 2002-09-05 Ju-Nan Chang Internet phone using a USB interface to transmit signals
GB2372900A (en) * 2001-03-02 2002-09-04 Lammtara Ind Ltd Voice message transmission system
US8363647B2 (en) * 2001-04-03 2013-01-29 Voxpath Networks, Inc. System and method for configuring an IP telephony device

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
WO2004093398A1 (fr) 2004-10-28

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