Method for providing and processing locality information in switched networks

• US 20020193123A1
• Filed: 07/03/2002
• Published: 12/19/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deutsche Telekom AG
• Original Assignee: Deutsche Telekom AG
• Inventors: Zeffler, Klaus-Peter, Dassow, Heiko, Herzog, Uwe
• Granted Patent: US 7,110,746 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/12 intelligent networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/20 hybrid systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/14 with services dependent on location where the service is an information service H04M2242/15; services independent of location H04M3/42229
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4228 in networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/12 for working between exchanges having different types of switching equipment, e.g. power-driven and step by step or decimal and non-decimal
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13097 Numbering, addressing
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13103 Memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13141 Hunting for free outlet, circuit or channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13204 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13345 Intelligent networks, SCP
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1338 Inter-exchange connection
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0045 involving hybrid, i.e. a mixture of public and private, or multi-vendor systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/20 based on geographic position or location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for providing and processing locality information in switched networks (1 to 3). The aim of the invention is to overcome the problem of conventional switching methods of connections, whereby said methods depend on the origins. A uniform method which is compatible with conventional network architectures is provided for providing information on locations. The existing signalling protocols which are partially standardised do not require modifications. Different networks (1 to 3) can be interconnected by means of different methods for determining co-ordinates and in a particularly simple manner and a service extending beyond one network is possible by virtue of the selected architecture and the separation during transmission of signalling information and geographic co-ordinates.

Claims

1. A method for providing and processing locality information in switched networks such as fixed networks, mobile telephone networks, Internet or technically equivalent networks, in particular, at the appropriate interface to the respective service logic,

wherein the locality information from different networks (for example, 1 through 3) are provided in a uniform manner outside of the existing signaling protocols (for example, INAP) in that a network-specific location information server (11) determines, at any one time, the current locality information using network-specific information of a caller which is transmitted via signaling protocols of a service logic located on a service platform (8).

2. The method as recited in Patent claim 1,

wherein the locality information is evaluated in that, in spite of an identical destination call number, a connection is routed to destinations belonging to different customers on the basis of the different locality information by determining, via a data base query operation, which customer is the appropriate destination for a specific position.

3. The method as recited in one of Patent claims 1 and/or 2,

wherein for position determination, an online access to a data base (10) is carried out;

and

the networks (1 through 3) are administered in data bases (9) associated with the respective networks (1 through 3).

4. The method as recited in one of the Patent claims 1 through 3,

wherein the locality information is transmitted in the form of geographical coordinates.

5. The method as recited in one of the Patent claims 1 through 3,

wherein the locality information is transmitted in the form of addresses such as country, city, district, and possibly, street and street number.

6. The method as recited in one of the Patent claims 1 through 5,

wherein the positional information is also made available at the interface (14) for external applications.

7. The method as recited in one of the Patent claims 1 through 6,

wherein in mobile telephone networks (2), the positional information is carried out at the appropriate interface to the service logic by a local management access to the antenna configuration of the radio cell of the call.

8. The method as recited in one of the Patent claims 1 through 5,

wherein the positional information is made available at the appropriate interface to the service logic by transmission of the information obtained with a Global Positioning Systems (GPS) in the mobile terminal device (5) using existing protocols (such as WAP).

9. The method as recited in one of the Patent claims 1 through 5,

wherein in fixed networks (1), the positional information is made available at the appropriate interface to the service logic by access to subscriber line data at the respective network operator'"'"'s site for accurate position determination.

10. The method as recited in one of the Patent claims 1 through 5,

wherein in Internet networks (3), the required positional information is made available at the appropriate interface to the service logic by tracing functionalities for backtracing (trace route), possibly, in combination with a record of locations of Internet nodes.

11. The method as recited in one of the Patent claims 1 through 10,

wherein the conversion of raw location data into a format according to the syntax and semantics to be provided is carried out in that in a central server (11) or already before in a preprocessing (9) in the respective source networks (1 through 3) takes place.