Method and apparatus for co-socket telephony
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for allowing a caller on a telephone network to establish an internet co-socket. In a first embodiment, a protocol stack establishes an Internet connection over a public switched telephone network (PSTN) link and then operates and maintains the Internet connection on a second link. Internet socket establishment is initiated with a caller-ID packet so the distant end may pick up with an Internet form instead of a interactive voice response system (IVR). This allows the caller to interact with a graphical form instead of a voice prompt, and provides new methods of operation for web call-back systems for call centers. The invention also enables mixed PSTN/internet multimedia telephone calls. In an exemplary embodiment, when a point-to-point telephone PSTN connection is established, a screen of information automatically appears at both ends via the Internet. This allows users who have computers connected to an internet to easily mix PSTN calling with internet services.
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Citations
82 Claims
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1-61. -61. (canceled)
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62. For use in a communication system that includes a plurality of wireless Internet access gateways that are coupled to an Internet and that communicate via a respective wireless local area network air interface with any of a plurality of wireless handsets that are within wireless local area network range thereof, a method comprising:
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receiving at a particular wireless Internet access gateway from a particular wireless handset, via the respective wireless local area network air interface, a set of dialing digits corresponding to a first telephone number of a first callee where the first call can be reached via telephone calls originated from a public switched telephone network (PSTN);
sending the dialing digits to a remote Internet database server at least partially via an Internet Protocol (IP) packet-switched data network;
the particular wireless Internet gateway receiving from the remote Internet database server, at least partially via the IP packet-switched data network, an IP address where a first remote device associated with the first callee can be presently reached at least partially via the IP packet-switched network;
forwarding the IP address from the particular wireless Internet access gateway to the particular wireless handset, via the respective wireless local area network air interface, for use in establishing a voice over Internet (VoIP) communication connection for use in communicating with the first remote device;
transmitting a stream of data packets associated with the VoIP communication connection, from the particular wireless handset, via the wireless Internet access gateway and at least partially via the IP packet-switched data network, for use in communicating with the first remote device. - View Dependent Claims (63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71)
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72. For use in a communication-system that includes a plurality of wireless communications access devices that each employ a respective wireless air interface which provides both circuit-switched communications access and Internet Protocol (IP) packet-switched wireless communications access to allow at least some wireless client telephony devices to set up both circuit-switched telephone calls and Voice-over-Internet (VoIP) calls at least partially via an IP packet-switched data network, a method comprising:
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receiving at a particular one of the wireless communications access devices from an originating wireless client telephony device a first IP packet comprising a destination call setup address of a callee and forwarding the destination call setup address to a remote database server at least partially via the IP packet-switched data network;
the particular one of the wireless communications access devices receiving back from the remote database server a second IP packet comprising an IP address where a remote device associated with the callee can be presently reached at least partially via the IP packet-switched network, and forwarding the IP address to the originating wireless client telephony device, via the respective wireless air interface; and
supporting at least a portion of a voice over Internet (VoIP) communication connection between the originating wireless client telephony device and the remote device associated with the callee, via the particular one of the wireless communications access devices and at least partially via the IP packet-switched data network, using the IP address;
wherein the communication system is configured to support the setup of circuit-switched telephone calls between the originating wireless client telephony device and the remote device and to support the setup of voice over Internet (VoIP) communication connections between the originating wireless client telephony device and the remote device. - View Dependent Claims (73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82)
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Specification