Method and apparatus for co-socket telephony
4 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
94 Claims
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1-61. -61. (canceled)
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62. For use in a computerized wireless handset, a method comprising:
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wirelessly communicating via a wireless local area network air interface with a wireless Internet access gateway coupled to an Internet Protocol (IP) packet-switched network;
interacting with a user via a user interface which enables a user to specify a set of dialing digits corresponding to a telephone number of a callee where the callee can be reached via telephone calls originated from a public switched telephone network (PSTN);
sending the dialing digits to a remote database server via the wireless Internet access gateway and via the IP packet-switched network;
receiving from the remote database server via the wireless Internet access gateway and via the IP packet-switched network a destination address that corresponds to an IP address where a remote device associated with the callee can be presently reached at least partially via a path through the IP packet-switched network; and
establishing a voice over Internet (VoIP) communication connection between the computerized wireless handset and the remote device, via the wireless Internet access gateway and at least partially via the IP packet-switched network, using the IP address. - View Dependent Claims (63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72)
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73. For use in a computerized wireless handset, a method comprising:
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wirelessly communicating via a wireless local area network air interface with a wireless Internet access gateway coupled to an Internet Protocol (IP) packet-switched network, using a wireless local area network air interface protocol;
interacting with a user via a user interface which enables a user to specify a set of dialing digits corresponding to a telephone number of a callee where the callee can be reached via telephone calls originated from a public switched telephone network (PSTN);
sending the dialing digits to a remote Internet database server via the wireless Internet access gateway and via a wide area network connection at least partially through the Internet, wherein the remote Internet database server is accessible to the public and provides dynamic information indicative of active Internet Protocol (IP) addresses available for use in communicating with subscribers via respective IP connections;
receiving from the remote Internet database server, via the wireless Internet access gateway and at least partially via the Internet, an IP address where a remote device associated with the callee can be presently reached via a respective IP connection; and
establishing a voice over Internet (VoIP) communication connection between the computerized wireless handset and the remote device, via the wireless Internet access gateway and at least partially via the Internet, using the IP address;
wherein the computerized wireless handset can place voice telephony connections to the remote device associated with the callee via the wireless local area network air interface, the wireless Internet access gateway, and at least partially via the Internet, irrespective of whether the remote device is VoIP telephony endpoint or a PSTN telephony endpoint. - View Dependent Claims (74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81)
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82. For use in a computerized wireless handset, a method comprising:
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wirelessly communicating via a wireless air interface which enables both circuit-switched and packet-switched wireless communications between the computerized wireless handset and a network access device that is coupled to both a circuit-switched telephone network and to an Internet Protocol (IP) packet-switched network;
interacting with a user via a user interface which enables a user to specify a subscriber address to identify a remote device associated with a callee;
sending a first IP packet comprising the subscriber address to a remote database server via the network access device;
receiving from the remote database server via the network access device a second IP packet comprising an IP address where the remote device can be presently reached via an active IP connection; and
establishing a voice over Internet (VoIP) communication connection between the computerized wireless handset and the remote device, via the network access device and at least partially via the IP packet-switched network, using the IP address;
wherein the computerized wireless handset is configured to be able to place a circuit-switched telephone call to the remote device via the wireless air interface and the network access device, and is also configured to be able to initiate a VoIP communication connection to the remote device via the wireless air interface, the network access device, and at least partially via the IP packet-switched network. - View Dependent Claims (83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94)
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Specification