System for digital radio communication between a wireless LAN and a PBX

• US 20070177560A1
• Filed: 11/06/2006
• Published: 08/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/1996
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Symbol Technologies, LLC (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Symbol Technologies, Inc. (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Inventors: Beach, Robert, Swartz, Jerome, McGlynn, Daniel, Heiman, Fred
• Granted Patent: US 7,492,748 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/00 Methods or arrangements for effecting co-operative working between equipments covered by two or more of main groups G06K1/00 - G06K15/00, e.g. automatic card files incorporating conveying and reading operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/343 Cards including a counter
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3552 Downloading or loading of personalisation data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/00 Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/02 by keys or other credit registering devices
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0036 Checkout procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/14 Systems including one or more distant stations co-operating with a central processing unit data transmission in general H04L; telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2535 adapted for voice communication over an Internet Protocol [IP] network Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network equipment and services H04M7/006; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/57 Arrangements for indicating or recording the number of the calling subscriber at the called subscriber's set at the operator set in a manual exchange H04M5/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/663 Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72445 for supporting Internet browser applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/725 Cordless telephones user interfaces specially adapted therefor H04M1/724
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/733 with a plurality of base stations connected to a plurality of lines for selection in cordless PBX H04W84/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 : wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/20 : hybrid systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/22 : Automatic class or number identification arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/38 : Graded-service arrangements, i.e. some subscribers prevented from establishing certain connections queuing arrangements H04Q3/64
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42042 : Notifying the called party of information on the calling party details within substation equipment H04M1/57, signalling details H04Q3/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 : Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42246 : where the subscriber uses a multi-mode terminal which moves and accesses different networks with at least one network having a wireline access including cordless PBX
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42314 : in private branch exchanges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 : Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 : Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42
• 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: H04W 76/10 : Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/00 : Wireless network protocols or protocol adaptations to wireless operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/16 : WPBX [Wireless Private Branch Exchange]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 : Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

A wireless local area network for digital radio communication between remote devices and a PBX telephone system, wherein the remote devices can access and use the voice message features in the PBX and the data bases on a host computer and servers. A wireless phone is provided for voice and data communication through the PBX or a CO telephone line with remote locations or the Internet using digital data packets and standard Internet Protocol. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the remote device is a cash register comprising a bar code scanner and a phone. Radio communication between the register and a host computer is carried out over two channels, a first channel for data communication and a second channel for voice communication.

Claims

1-44. -44. (canceled)

45. A wireless telephone system, comprising:

at least one access point for communicating with mobile units using a wireless protocol;

a plurality of mobile units, each having a network address and a telephone extension address;

and a telephone service interface unit connected to said access point and a central office, said interface unit providing a correspondence between the telephone extension addresses of said mobile units and the network addresses of said mobile units;

wherein said mobile units can provide telephone communication with other mobile units using said network addresses, and wherein said mobile units can receive telephone communication from said central office addressed to said telephone extension addresses via said telephone service interface unit.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein said interface unit comprises a gateway for providing said correspondence.

47. The system of claim 45, wherein said correspondence is a mapping between the telephone extension addresses and the network addresses.

48. The system of claim 45, wherein said interface unit comprises a PBX.

49. The system of claim 45, wherein said mobile units are arranged to generate DTMF tones and to communicate said DTMF tones to said telephone service interface unit via said access point to establish a telephone connection to said central office.

50. The system of claim 45, wherein said network addresses are IP addresses.

51. In a local area network having at least one access point for providing wireless communication to mobile units, and a telephone service interface connected to said access point and a central office, a method of providing telephone service to said mobile units, said method comprising:

assigning telephone extension numbers and network addresses to said mobile units;

establishing telephone connections using data messages between said mobile units using said network addresses;

providing, for outgoing calls, DTMF signals from said mobile units as data messages to said telephone service interface to establish external telephone connections from said mobile units to said central office; and

receiving, for incoming calls, signals from said central office representing telephone extension numbers and correlating said extension numbers with network addresses to establish telephone connections from said central office to said mobile units.

52. The method of claim 51 wherein said network addresses are IP addresses.

53. A telephone system, comprising:

a PBX having a gateway for providing a correspondence between telephone extension numbers and network addresses;

telephone extensions having extension numbers connected to said PBX;

at least one data communications access point connected to said gateway of said PBX;

and a plurality of mobile units, arranged for radio data communication with said access point and each having a network address corresponding to a telephone extension number;

wherein said PBX receives telephone extension numbers corresponding to said mobile units and establishes a connection to said mobile unit via said access point using said corresponding network address, and wherein said mobile units generate DTMF signals corresponding to an extension number of a telephone extension and provide said DTMF signals as a data message to said PBX via said access point to establish a connection to said telephone extension.

54. The system of claim 53, wherein said mobile units generate DTMF signals corresponding to an external telephone number and provide said DTMF signals to said PBX via said access point to establish a connection to said external telephone number.

55. The system of claim 53, wherein said mobile units communicate with other mobile units via said access points using said network address.

56. The system of claim 53, wherein said network addresses are IP addresses.

57. A communication gateway for a wireless telephone system for communicating with a plurality of mobile units, each unit having a network address and a telephone extension address, said gateway including:

a memory for correlating telephone extension addresses of said mobile units with network addresses of said mobile units, said gateway connected to an access point and a public switched network;

wherein said mobile units can provide telephone communication with other mobile units via said gateway using said telephone extension addresses.

58. A communication gateway for a wireless telephone system for communicating with a plurality of mobile units, each unit having a network address and a telephone extension address, said gateway including:

a memory for correlating telephone extension addresses of said mobile units with network addresses of said mobile units, said gateway connected to an access point and a public switched network;

wherein said mobile units can provide telephone communication with other mobile units using said network addresses, and wherein said mobile units can receive telephone communication from said public switched network addressed to said telephone extension addresses via said gateway.

59. A wireless system of claim 58 wherein said mobile units are IP phones and said network addresses are IP addresses.

60. A wireless system of claim 58 wherein said gateway is connected to said public switched network via a PBX.

61. A wireless system of claim 58 wherein said mobile units are arranged to generate DTMF tones and to communicate said DTMF tones as data messages to said gateway via said access point to establish a telephone connection to said public switched network.

62. A wireless system of claim 58 wherein said mobile units can provide telephone communication with other mobile units via said gateway using said telephone extension addresses.

63. The wireless system of claim 62 wherein said mobile units are arranged to generate DTMF tones and to communicate said DTMF tones as data messages to said gateway via said access point to establish a telephone connection to said other mobile units.

64. A wireless system of claim 58 wherein said mobile units can provide telephone communication with other mobile units using said network addresses without having to utilize said gateway.

65. A wireless telephone system, comprising:

a plurality of mobile units, each having a network address and a telephone extension address; and

an interface unit connected to an access point, said interface unit including a memory for correlating telephone extension addresses of said mobile units and network addresses of said mobile units;

wherein said mobile units can provide telephone communication with other mobile units using said network addresses, and wherein said mobile units can receive telephone communication from other mobile units addressed to said telephone extension addresses via said interface unit.

66. The wireless system of claim 65 wherein said interface unit comprises a gateway for providing said correlation.

67. The wireless system of claim 65 wherein said correlation is a mapping between the telephone extension addresses and the network addresses.

68. The wireless system of claim 65 wherein said interface unit comprises a PBX.

69. The wireless system of claim 65 wherein said mobile units are arranged to generate DTMF tones and to communicate said DTMF tones as data messages to said interface unit via said access point to establish a telephone connection to said public switched network.

70. The wireless system of claim 65 wherein said mobile units can provide telephone communication with other mobile units via said interface unit using said telephone extension addresses.

71. The wireless system of claim 70 wherein said mobile units are arranged to generate DTMF tones and to communicate said DTMF tones as data messages to said interface unit via said access point to establish a telephone connection to said other mobile units.

72. The wireless system of claim 65 wherein said mobile units can receive telephone communication from said public switched network addressed to said telephone extension addresses via said interface unit.

73. The wireless system of claim 65 wherein said mobile units can provide telephone communication with other mobile units using said network addresses without having to utilize said interface unit.

74. In a local area network having at least one access point for providing wireless communication to mobile units, and a gateway connected to an access point and a public switched network, a method of providing telephone service to the mobile units, said method comprising:

storing telephone extension numbers and network addresses assigned to the mobile units; and

receiving DTMF signals from the mobile units via said access point as data messages representing telephone extension numbers and providing a correspondence between said telephone extension numbers and said network addresses to establish telephone connections from a mobile unit to another mobile unit.

75. In a local area network having at least one access point for providing wireless communication to mobile units, and a gateway connected to an access point and a public switched network, a method of providing telephone service to the mobile units, said method comprising:

storing telephone extension numbers and network addresses assigned to the mobile units;

receiving, for out-going calls, DTMF signals from the mobile units as data messages via said access point to establish external telephone connections from the mobile units to said public switched network; and

receiving, for incoming calls, signals from said public switched network representing telephone extension numbers and providing a correspondence between said telephone extension numbers and network addresses to establish telephone connections from said public switched network to the mobile units.

76. The method of claim 75 further comprising:

transmitting said DTMF signals to a PBX.

77. The method of claim 75 wherein said signals received from said public switched network are received via a PBX.

78. The method of claim 75 further comprising:

receiving DTMF signals representing telephone extension numbers from the mobile units via said access point to establish telephone connections from the mobile units to other mobile units; and

providing a correspondence between said telephone extension numbers and network addresses to establish telephone connections from the mobile units to the other mobile units.

79. The method of claim 75 further comprising:

establishing telephone connections using data messages between the mobile units using said network addresses.

80. In a local area network having at least one access point for providing wireless communication to mobile units, and a gateway connected to an access point and a public switched network, a method of providing telephone service to the mobile units, said method comprising:

storing telephone extension numbers and network addresses assigned to the mobile units;

receiving DTMF signals from the mobile units via said access point as data messages representing telephone extension numbers and providing a correspondence between said telephone extension numbers and network addresses to establish telephone connections from the mobile units to other mobile units; and

receiving signals from said public switched network representing telephone extension numbers and providing a correspondence between said extension numbers and network addresses to establish telephone connections from said public switched network to the mobile units.

81. The method of claim 80 further comprising,

establishing telephone connections using data messages between the mobile units using said network addresses.

83. A telephone system, comprising:

a gateway for providing a correspondence between telephone extension numbers and network addresses for a plurality of mobile units arranged for radio data communication with an access point, each of the mobile units having a network address corresponding to a telephone extension number;

wherein said gateway receives telephone extension numbers corresponding to said mobile units and establishes a connection to a mobile unit via said access point using said corresponding network address, and wherein said mobile units generate DTMF signals corresponding to an extension number of a telephone extension and provide said DTMF signals as a data message to said gateway via said access point to establish a connection to said telephone extension.

84. The system of claim 83 wherein said gateway receives telephone extension numbers corresponding to said mobile units from other mobile units.

85. The system of claim 83 wherein said gateway receives telephone extension numbers corresponding to said mobile units from a PBX.

86. The system of claim 83 wherein said mobile units generate DTMF signals and to communicate said DTMF signals as data messages to said gateway via said access point to establish external telephone connections from said mobile units to said public switched network.

87. In a local area network having an access point for providing wireless communication to mobile units, a method for establishing telephone communication from a first mobile unit to a second mobile unit, said method comprising:

storing a correlation between telephone extension numbers and network addresses of said mobile units;

receiving a dialed telephone extension number corresponding to said second mobile unit;

correlating said dialed telephone extension number to a network address; and

transmitting said network address to said access point using a wireless protocol to establish telephone communication with said second mobile unit.

88. In a local area network having an access point for providing wireless communication to mobile units, a method for establishing telephone communication from a first mobile unit to a second mobile unit, comprising:

storing a correlation between names and network addresses associated with the mobile units;

receiving a name associated with a second mobile unit;

correlating said name to a network address; and

transmitting said network address to said access point using a wireless protocol to establish telephone communication with the second mobile unit.

89. A wireless telephone system, comprising:

at least one access point for communicating with mobile units using a wireless protocol;

a plurality of mobile units, each having a network address and a telephone number including a telephone extension address;

and a telephone service interface connected to said access point and a central office, said interface including a gateway for providing a correspondence between said telephone numbers including said telephone extension addresses of said mobile units and network addresses of said mobile units;

wherein said mobile units can provide telephone communication with other mobile units using said network addresses, and wherein said mobile units can receive telephone communication from said central office addressed to said telephone numbers including said telephone extension addresses via said telephone service interface.

90. In a local area network having at least one access point for providing wireless communication to mobile units, and a telephone service interface connected to said access point and a central office, a method of providing telephone service to said mobile units, comprising:

assigning telephone numbers, including telephone extension numbers, and network addresses to said mobile units;

establishing telephone connections using data messages between said mobile units using said network addresses;

providing DTMF signals from said mobile units as data messages to said telephone service interface to establish external telephone connections from said mobile units to said central office; and

receiving signals from said central office representing telephone numbers including telephone extension numbers and correlating said telephone numbers with network addresses to establish telephone connections from said central office to said mobile units.

91. A telephone system, comprising:

a PBX having a gateway for providing a correspondence between telephone numbers, including telephone extension numbers, and network addresses;

telephone extensions having telephone numbers connected to said PBX;

at least one data communications access point connected to said gateway of said PBX;

and a plurality of mobile units, arranged for radio data communication with said access point and each having a network address corresponding to a telephone number;

wherein said PBX receives telephone numbers corresponding to said mobile units and establishes a connection to said mobile unit via said access point using said corresponding network address, and wherein said mobile units generate DTMF signals corresponding to a telephone number of a telephone extension and provide said DTMF signals as a data message to said PBX via said access point to establish a connection to said telephone number.

92. The system of claim 91, wherein at least one of the plurality of mobile units assigns distinctive rings to different priority calls.