Method and system for processing call-forward telephone numbers received for a subscriber

• US 20040248563A1
• Filed: 06/09/2003
• Published: 12/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Miller, Robert G., Chilukuri, Srinivas, Ayers, John I., Gullett, Mark, Moore, Tiffany A.
• Application Number:
  US10/456,468
• Publication Number:
  US 20040248563A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/417
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42136 Administration or customisation of services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/54 Arrangements for diverting calls for one subscriber to another predetermined subscriber based on the calling party profile H04M3/42059; based on location H04M3/42348; based on presence H04M3/42365; to voice mail H04M3/53308

Abstract

A method and system are disclosed for processing call-forward telephone numbers received by a computer system from a subscriber of the computer system. The computer system includes a call-processing subsystem and a provisioning subsystem. A call-forward number is received for a subscriber. The computer system identifies a class of service associated with the subscriber and reconfigures the call-forward number by prepending any missing digits and/or deleting any extraneous characters as necessary, based on the class of service. The computer system then validates the call-forward number, based on the subscriber'"'"'s class of service. The reconfigured and validated call-forward number is stored by the computer system, and thereafter calls received for the subscriber are forwarded to the call-forward number.

Claims

1. A method of processing call-forward telephone numbers for a subscriber associated with a computer system, the method comprising:

receiving a call-forward number for the subscriber;

identifying a class of service associated with the subscriber;

reconfiguring the call-forward number based on the class of service;

validating the call-forward number based on the class of service; and

storing the reconfigured call-forward number based on the validating.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring validation rules using a call-forward number validation tree, and wherein the step of validating comprises traversing the tree to determine whether the call-forward number is valid.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of configuring comprises, for each of the rules, prompting a user through a graphical user interface for a call-forward number type, a subscriber identifier, an action type that specifies whether the rule allows or disallows call-forward numbers falling within the rule, a digit pattern, a nature of address indicator, and a numbering plan indicator.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the call-forward number type is call forward unconditional, call forward busy, call forward no reply, or call forward not reachable.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of receiving the call-forward number comprises receiving a digit pattern for the call-forward number, and wherein the step of reconfiguring comprises adding one or more digits to the digit pattern to create a complete call-forward number based on the class of service for the subscriber.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising forwarding an incoming call for the subscriber to the stored, reconfigured call-forward number.

7. A computer system for processing call-forward numbers received for a subscriber of the system, comprising:

a storage medium; and

a processor for executing a software program stored on the storage medium, the software program comprising a set of instructions for;

receiving a call-forward number for the subscriber;

determining whether the call-forward number requires reconfiguration;

identifying a class of service associated with the subscriber;

reconfiguring the call-forward number based on the class of service;

storing the reconfigured call-forward number; and

redirecting incoming calls based on the reconfigured call-forward number.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the step of receiving the call-forward number comprises receiving the call-forward number from the subscriber in a supplemental services message initiated remotely from a telecommunications device associated with the subscriber.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the step of reconfiguring comprises prepending one or more missing digits to the call-forward number based on information associated with the subscriber.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the step of reconfiguring comprises prepending a country code associated with the subscriber to the call-forward number if the call-forward number received from the subscriber is missing a country code.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the step of reconfiguring comprises deleting one or more extraneous characters from the received call-forward number.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the software program further comprises a set of instructions for validating the call-forward number based on rules associated with the class of service for the subscriber.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the set of instructions for validating comprises a set of instructions for converting the call-forward number to an ASCII string and identifying a rule associated with the call-forward number by traversing a decision tree of rules stored as ASCII strings in a common format as the ASCII string of the call-forward number and comparing the ASCII string of the call-forward number character by character with each of the ASCII strings of the rules.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the system further comprises:

a provisioning subsystem that configures the rules for the class of service, wherein the provisioning subsystem includes a graphical user interface that displays the rules in a decision tree structure; and

a call processing subsystem that processes the incoming calls.

15. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method of processing call-forward numbers for a subscriber, the method comprising:

receiving a call-forward number for the subscriber;

identifying a class of service associated with the subscriber;

identifying one or more validation rules for the class of service; and

validating the call-forward number based on the rules.

16. The medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises converting the call-forward number to an ASCII string, and wherein the step of identifying one or more rules comprises traversing a decision tree of rules that are stored as ASCII strings, and determining whether the call-forward number falls within any of the rules in the tree by comparing the ASCII string of the call-forward number to the ASCII strings of the rules, character by character.

17. The medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises reconfiguring the call-forward number as a complete number by adding one or more missing digits to the call-forward number, based on the class of service of the subscriber.

18. The medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises configuring validation rules associated with the subscriber'"'"'s class of service, using a graphical user interface to configure the validation rules in software, wherein the validation rules may be dynamically changed for the class of service.

19. The medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises forwarding a call to the call-forward number based on the validating.

20. An apparatus for processing call-forward numbers for a subscriber, comprising:

means for reconfiguring a call-forward number based on a class of service associated with the subscriber, to make the call-forward number a complete number;

means for validating the call-forward number based on the class of service, by traversing a decision tree of validation rules and comparing the call-forward number with the validation rules to identify an applicable validation rule; and

means for forwarding an incoming call to the reconfigured call-forward number, if the call-forward number is valid.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising means for converting the call-forward number to an ASCII string, and wherein the means for validating comprises means for comparing, character by character, the ASCII string of the call-forward number to ASCII strings associated with the validation rules in the decision tree.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the means for reconfiguring comprises means for adding digits to the call-forward number if the call-forward number is missing digits and means for removing extraneous characters from the call-forward number, if the call-forward number includes extraneous characters.