WO2014106293A1 - Method for management of telephone numbers in a software system - Google Patents

Method for management of telephone numbers in a software system Download PDF

Info

Publication number
WO2014106293A1
WO2014106293A1 PCT/CA2013/001078 CA2013001078W WO2014106293A1 WO 2014106293 A1 WO2014106293 A1 WO 2014106293A1 CA 2013001078 W CA2013001078 W CA 2013001078W WO 2014106293 A1 WO2014106293 A1 WO 2014106293A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
telephone number
terminal device
receiving telephone
receiving
caller
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/CA2013/001078
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Joseph Tosey
Original Assignee
Claris Healthcare Inc.
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 Claris Healthcare Inc. filed Critical Claris Healthcare Inc.
Publication of WO2014106293A1 publication Critical patent/WO2014106293A1/en

Links

Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
    • H04W4/12—Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L51/00—User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
    • H04L51/48—Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
    • 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
    • H04M3/42025—Calling or Called party identification service
    • H04M3/42034—Calling party identification service
    • H04M3/42059—Making use of the calling party identifier
    • 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
    • H04M3/42263—Personal communication services, i.e. services related to one subscriber independent of his terminal and/or location where the same subscriber uses different terminals, i.e. nomadism
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L2101/00—Indexing scheme associated with group H04L61/00
    • H04L2101/60—Types of network addresses
    • H04L2101/618—Details of network addresses
    • H04L2101/65—Telephone numbers
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L51/00—User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
    • H04L51/58—Message adaptation for wireless communication
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M2203/00—Aspects of automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
    • H04M2203/45—Aspects of automatic or semi-automatic exchanges related to voicemail messaging
    • H04M2203/4509—Unified messaging with single point of access to voicemail and other mail or messaging systems
    • 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
    • H04M3/42382—Text-based messaging services in telephone networks such as PSTN/ISDN, e.g. User-to-User Signalling or Short Message Service for fixed networks
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
    • H04W4/06—Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W88/00—Devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations or access point devices
    • H04W88/18—Service support devices; Network management devices
    • H04W88/184—Messaging devices, e.g. message centre

Definitions

  • the present invention relates generally to automatic allocation of telephone numbers in a computer controlled communications system.
  • SMS Short Message Service
  • MMS Multimedia Message Service
  • email and video communication provide a valuable way to provide a single-point of access for disparate communications services. This is particularly useful in situations where the target users may not have the ability or desire to use multiple devices for these tasks - for example a cell phone for voice and text messages, a tablet for email and a laptop for video.
  • Claris Companion Claris Healthcare Inc., Vancouver Canada, www.clarishealthcare.com
  • SMS text
  • MMS multimedia
  • the current invention describes a method for providing the effect of an individual telephone number for an end user's device, while actually sharing the number among any number of devices, while preserving the ability for a caller to send messages to any unique device.
  • the invention makes use of the incoming caller identification to a telephone number to map the combination of the incoming caller's identification and the telephone number to a specific device, then forwarding the SMS or MMS message to that device.
  • the method of the invention also provides for attempting to assign the same receiving telephone number to different incoming caller identifications for a specific device, unless the combination of the receiving telephone number and caller identification has already been assigned to a different device.
  • the method of the invention has the advantage of allowing multiple callers to send messages to multiple terminal devices by dialling a selection of telephone numbers that are much fewer in number than the total number of terminal devices being served.
  • a communications system is implemented as a computer program running on a server.
  • This server includes the capability to receive SMS or MMS messages at one or more receiving telephone numbers.
  • the server provides a database in which there is a table that links a unique terminal device identification to a receiving telephone number and a calling telephone number.
  • a caller Before a caller can use the communications system, they must register their calling telephone number in a database. At the time of registration, the caller also identifies the terminal device to which they wish their SMS and MMS messages directed.
  • the computer software checks the database table to see if there are any entries in the table for the specified terminal device, and if so, what receiving telephone number or numbers have been assigned to that terminal device.
  • the computer software then checks the database table for every instance of the caller's telephone number to see if the caller's telephone number has been previously linked to the first candidate receiving telephone number. If so, the first candidate receiving telephone number is rejected and the next candidate telephone number is similarly checked. If all the candidate receiving telephone numbers, (i.e. receiving telephone numbers that have been previously associated at least once with the candidate device) have already been linked to the caller's telephone number, the computer software begins testing additional candidate telephone numbers from the remaining available receiving telephone numbers (i.e. those receiving telephone numbers available for use by the server but not previously assigned to the terminal device).
  • the caller may send a text message to any one of one or more of the receiving telephone numbers linked to the caller's telephone numbers.
  • the text message When the text message is received by the server, it will refer to the database table to locate the single entry that has the caller's telephone number and the receiving telephone number. From this entry in the database table, the server retrieves the unique terminal device identification, then uses this to forward the text message to the terminal device.
  • the computer software will not find any candidate receiving telephone numbers in the database. In this case, provided that it has not already been associated with the caller's telephone number, any receiving telephone number could be selected. To ensure that all the available receiving telephone numbers share the incoming call load reasonably equally, the software can search the database table to see how many devices each receiving telephone number is associated with and attempt to use the receiving telephone number having the fewest associated terminal devices.
  • the method of the invention has the further advantage of automatically spreading the incoming call load over all available receiving telephone lines, and automatically assigning new terminal devices to the least-used receiving telephone lines. This is particularly helpful when new receiving telephone lines are added to the server, as new devices will be preferentially assigned to the new receiving telephone number.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
  • Telephonic Communication Services (AREA)

Abstract

A method is described for providing the effect of an individual telephone number for an end user's device, while actually sharing the number among any number of devices, while preserving the ability for a caller to send messages to any unique device. The method maps the combination of an incoming caller's identification and the telephone number to a specific device, then forwarding the SMS or MMS message to that device. The method also provides for attempting to assign the same receiving telephone number to different incoming caller identifications for a specific device, unless the combination of the receiving telephone number and caller identification has already been assigned to a different device. The method allows multiple callers to send messages to multiple terminal devices by dialling a selection of telephone numbers that are much fewer in number than the total number of terminal devices being served.

Description

METHOD FOR MANAGEMENT OF TELEPHONE NUMBERS IN A SOFTWARE
SYSTEM
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to automatic allocation of telephone numbers in a computer controlled communications system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Software based systems that integrate text (Short Message Service, or SMS), multimedia (Multimedia Message Service or MMS), email and video communication provide a valuable way to provide a single-point of access for disparate communications services. This is particularly useful in situations where the target users may not have the ability or desire to use multiple devices for these tasks - for example a cell phone for voice and text messages, a tablet for email and a laptop for video.
To address this need, there exist products like the Claris Companion (Claris Healthcare Inc., Vancouver Canada, www.clarishealthcare.com) that attempt to integrate all of these communications channels into one device.
A problem arises with such products when text (SMS) and multimedia (MMS) messaging is used. To receive SMS and MMS messages, each target device must be assigned a unique telephone number. This necessarily drives up the cost for the end user, as they must pay a fee for assignment and maintenance of the individual telephone numbers. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The current invention describes a method for providing the effect of an individual telephone number for an end user's device, while actually sharing the number among any number of devices, while preserving the ability for a caller to send messages to any unique device.
The invention makes use of the incoming caller identification to a telephone number to map the combination of the incoming caller's identification and the telephone number to a specific device, then forwarding the SMS or MMS message to that device.
The method of the invention also provides for attempting to assign the same receiving telephone number to different incoming caller identifications for a specific device, unless the combination of the receiving telephone number and caller identification has already been assigned to a different device.
The method of the invention has the advantage of allowing multiple callers to send messages to multiple terminal devices by dialling a selection of telephone numbers that are much fewer in number than the total number of terminal devices being served.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In the preferred embodiment, a communications system according to the invention is implemented as a computer program running on a server. This server includes the capability to receive SMS or MMS messages at one or more receiving telephone numbers.
The server provides a database in which there is a table that links a unique terminal device identification to a receiving telephone number and a calling telephone number.
Before a caller can use the communications system, they must register their calling telephone number in a database. At the time of registration, the caller also identifies the terminal device to which they wish their SMS and MMS messages directed.
Once a caller's telephone number and a terminal device are identified, the computer software checks the database table to see if there are any entries in the table for the specified terminal device, and if so, what receiving telephone number or numbers have been assigned to that terminal device.
Once these candidate receiving telephone numbers have been selected, the computer software then checks the database table for every instance of the caller's telephone number to see if the caller's telephone number has been previously linked to the first candidate receiving telephone number. If so, the first candidate receiving telephone number is rejected and the next candidate telephone number is similarly checked. If all the candidate receiving telephone numbers, (i.e. receiving telephone numbers that have been previously associated at least once with the candidate device) have already been linked to the caller's telephone number, the computer software begins testing additional candidate telephone numbers from the remaining available receiving telephone numbers (i.e. those receiving telephone numbers available for use by the server but not previously assigned to the terminal device).
Once a receiving telephone number that is unique for the caller's telephone number has been determined, a new entry is made into the database table linking the caller's telephone number, the receiving telephone number and the unique device identification.
Once this linkage is made the caller may send a text message to any one of one or more of the receiving telephone numbers linked to the caller's telephone numbers. When the text message is received by the server, it will refer to the database table to locate the single entry that has the caller's telephone number and the receiving telephone number. From this entry in the database table, the server retrieves the unique terminal device identification, then uses this to forward the text message to the terminal device.
Although it is not absolutely necessary to select candidate receiving telephone numbers from those previously assigned to a particular terminal device, this increases the likelihood that there will be only a few different receiving telephone numbers for a specific terminal device. Clearly, the selection of the receiving telephone number could be done randomly or sequentially instead.
For a new unique terminal device (i.e. one which has not yet been associated with any receiving telephone numbers), the computer software will not find any candidate receiving telephone numbers in the database. In this case, provided that it has not already been associated with the caller's telephone number, any receiving telephone number could be selected. To ensure that all the available receiving telephone numbers share the incoming call load reasonably equally, the software can search the database table to see how many devices each receiving telephone number is associated with and attempt to use the receiving telephone number having the fewest associated terminal devices.
Following the method herein described allows any number of callers to send messages to any subset 'n' of any number of terminal devices while requiring the use of only 'n' receiving telephone numbers. This is advantageous when any individual caller desires the ability to send messages to only a small number of the available terminal devices as the number of receiving telephone numbers required is limited to the maximum number of terminal devices associated with the most prolific caller.
The method of the invention has the further advantage of automatically spreading the incoming call load over all available receiving telephone lines, and automatically assigning new terminal devices to the least-used receiving telephone lines. This is particularly helpful when new receiving telephone lines are added to the server, as new devices will be preferentially assigned to the new receiving telephone number.
Many variations on the preferred embodiment described here can be easily imagined, hence the current invention should be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

Claims:
1. A method for forwarding digital telephone messages such as Short Message Service (SMS) or Multimedia Message Service (MMS) messages to a unique terminal device comprising the steps of:
a. recording in a computer database a caller's telephone number;
b. selecting from a pre-determined set of receiving telephone numbers, a receiving telephone number not already linked to the caller's telephone number;
c. selecting a from a pre-determined list of terminal device identification codes, a unique terminal device identification code associated with the unique terminal device;
d. linking, in the computer database, the caller's telephone number, the selected receiving telephone number and the unique terminal device identification code;
e. receiving a digital telephone message from the caller's telephone number at the receiving telephone number;
f. looking up, in the computer database, the unique terminal device identification code linked to the caller's telephone number and the receiving telephone number; and
g. forwarding the digital telephone message to the terminal device associated with the unique terminal device identification code.
2. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the steps of:
a. selecting from the pre-determined set of receiving telephone numbers a subset of receiving telephone numbers that are already linked to the unique terminal device identification code;
b. selecting from the subset of receiving telephone numbers, a receiving telephone number not already linked to the caller's telephone number should there be a receiving telephone number in the subset that is not already linked to the caller's telephone number; and c. if all the receiving telephone numbers in the subset are already linked to the caller's telephone number, selecting from the remaining receiving telephone numbers in the set of receiving telephone numbers, a receiving telephone number not already linked to the caller's telephone number.
3. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the steps of:
a. enumerating the number of unique terminal device identification codes linked to each receiving telephone number in the set of receiving telephone numbers; and
b. selecting from the set of receiving telephone numbers, the receiving telephone number linked to the fewest unique terminal device identification codes that is not already linked to the caller's telephone number.
4. A method for forwarding digital telephone messages such as Short Message Service (SMS) or Multimedia Message Service (MMS) messages to a terminal device comprising the steps of:
a. registering a calling telephone number in a database;
b. identifying in the database a terminal device to which SMS or MMS messages will be sent with a unique terminal device identification code;
c. querying the database to determine whether there are any calling telephone numbers in the database associated with the unique terminal device identification code;
d. if there are any calling telephone numbers in the database associated with the unique terminal device identification code, forming a set of one or more receiving telephone numbers that have been associated with the unique terminal device identification code;
e. querying the set of one or more receiving telephone numbers and determining whether the calling telephone number has been associated in the database with a first receiving telephone number and if so, rejecting said first receiving telephone number and querying the next receiving telephone number in the set of set of one or more receiving telephone numbers and determining whether the calling telephone number has been associated in the database with said next receiving telephone number;
f. continuing step e. until a receiving telephone number that is unique for the calling telephone number is determined;
g. linking in the database the caller's telephone number, the receiving telephone number and the unique terminal device identification code; and h. forwarding the digital telephone message to the receiving telephone number that is linked to the unique terminal device identification code.
PCT/CA2013/001078 2013-01-03 2013-12-24 Method for management of telephone numbers in a software system WO2014106293A1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US201361748508P 2013-01-03 2013-01-03
US61/748,508 2013-01-03

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2014106293A1 true WO2014106293A1 (en) 2014-07-10

Family

ID=51062106

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
PCT/CA2013/001078 WO2014106293A1 (en) 2013-01-03 2013-12-24 Method for management of telephone numbers in a software system

Country Status (1)

Country Link
WO (1) WO2014106293A1 (en)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN110062342A (en) * 2019-03-28 2019-07-26 山西智网科技有限公司 For counting the user and the method for reading time that the short message of the network address containing link is opened

Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8121625B2 (en) * 2004-11-24 2012-02-21 John Terrence Carroll System for enabling communication between computers and mobile telephones
US20120095831A1 (en) * 2007-03-09 2012-04-19 Janne Aaltonen Method and apparatus for controlling user communications
US20120108222A1 (en) * 2007-05-18 2012-05-03 Tango Networks, Inc. System, method, and apparatus for using alternative numbers for routing voice calls and short messages in a communications network

Patent Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8121625B2 (en) * 2004-11-24 2012-02-21 John Terrence Carroll System for enabling communication between computers and mobile telephones
US20120095831A1 (en) * 2007-03-09 2012-04-19 Janne Aaltonen Method and apparatus for controlling user communications
US20120108222A1 (en) * 2007-05-18 2012-05-03 Tango Networks, Inc. System, method, and apparatus for using alternative numbers for routing voice calls and short messages in a communications network

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN110062342A (en) * 2019-03-28 2019-07-26 山西智网科技有限公司 For counting the user and the method for reading time that the short message of the network address containing link is opened

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US10116792B2 (en) Adding additional information to caller ID information
TWI806813B (en) Communication method and server
US8824998B2 (en) Mechanism for facilitating dynamically prioritized control of calls over a network
US8457613B2 (en) Automated mobile intelligent communication processing system
US9100489B2 (en) Managing groups using telephones
CN103975320A (en) Contextual and location awareness for device interaction
USRE43205E1 (en) Skill based chat function in a communication system
CN102958024B (en) Come method and the system thereof of electrotransfer
CN106529851B (en) Order data processing method, communication data query method and server
CN105282721B (en) The display processing method of calling number, system and equipment in one-set-multi-number business
CN105339959A (en) Device for displaying electronic communications received from communications services
US11523000B1 (en) Management of VoIP device contact lists in a data communications services system
CN104010064A (en) Networking number search method and device
US11979519B2 (en) Automatic caller identification translation
CN104917906B (en) Information acquisition method, information recommendation method, electronic device and network server
US9699121B2 (en) Instant text message conductor
WO2014106293A1 (en) Method for management of telephone numbers in a software system
US20150271326A1 (en) System and method for processing calls to an invalid called-to number
CN107864262B (en) Incoming call shielding method and device
KR20150067700A (en) The integrated messenger
US20080123830A1 (en) Association table for multiple directory numbers
US8917840B2 (en) Enhanced privacy caller identification system
US8750842B1 (en) System, method, and computer program for filtering a request to communicate with a user
KR20140085634A (en) The integrated messenger
JP2013219640A (en) Incoming call rejection service providing system

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
121 Ep: the epo has been informed by wipo that ep was designated in this application

Ref document number: 13870341

Country of ref document: EP

Kind code of ref document: A1

NENP Non-entry into the national phase

Ref country code: DE

122 Ep: pct application non-entry in european phase

Ref document number: 13870341

Country of ref document: EP

Kind code of ref document: A1