SERVER-LESS TELEPHONE SYSTEM AND METHODS OF OPERATION
First Claim
1. A method for a first telephony network device to discover and communicate with a second telephony network device across a wide area network for establishing an operative communication link between the first and second telephony network devices and between at least one local peer of either the first or second telephony network device comprising the steps of:
- a) the first telephony network device sending out a unicast discovery message to a predetermined device network address associated with the second telephony network device;
b) the second telephony network device receiving and responding to the unicast discovery message with a discovery response message;
c) the first and second telephony network devices establishing an operative communication link between each other; and
d) wherein upon establishment of an operative communication link between the first and second telephony network devices, either or both of the first and second telephony network devices enabling operative wide area and local area communication between the first and second telephony network devices and the at least one local peer.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods are described for a plurality of telephony devices that have no central telephony call processing services (server-less) to discover each other in a peer-to-peer manner. The methods describe how telephony devices can discover and operate as a fully functional telephone system, not only on a local area network, but also across wide area network. This ability allows the deployment of a server-less telephone phone system across a large geographical area. The methods described also allow the telephone system to be logically segmented on a network, such that they don'"'"'t interfere, or unintentionally share telephony resources with an unrelated deployment of a like server-less telephone system. Further still, the method also allows the packet network telephony devices to operate cooperatively with centralized telephony call processing services. By the nature of the peer-to-peer server-less methods, the devices can continue to provide telephony call processing services on the local network domain, in the event the centralized telephony call processing services becomes unavailable.
48 Citations
35 Claims
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1. A method for a first telephony network device to discover and communicate with a second telephony network device across a wide area network for establishing an operative communication link between the first and second telephony network devices and between at least one local peer of either the first or second telephony network device comprising the steps of:
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a) the first telephony network device sending out a unicast discovery message to a predetermined device network address associated with the second telephony network device;
b) the second telephony network device receiving and responding to the unicast discovery message with a discovery response message;
c) the first and second telephony network devices establishing an operative communication link between each other; and
d) wherein upon establishment of an operative communication link between the first and second telephony network devices, either or both of the first and second telephony network devices enabling operative wide area and local area communication between the first and second telephony network devices and the at least one local peer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for a first telephony network device to discover and communicate with other peer network devices across a local area network for establishing an operative communication link between the first telephony network device and at least one peer network device within a defined workgroup comprising the steps of:
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a) the first telephony network device sending out a broadcast message to a local area network to identify all peer network devices on the local area network; and
,b) automatically establishing an operative communication link with all identified peer network devices on the local area network within the defined workgroup. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method for at least two local telephony network devices defined as local peers to communicate with each other across both a wide area network and a local area network comprising the steps of:
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a) simultaneously enabling a local area network address and a wide area network address on each of the local telephony network devices; and
,b) enabling operative communication between local area peers utilizing either of the local area or wide area network addresses. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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24. A network device enabled to discover and communicate with a second network device across a wide area network for establishing an operative communication link between the network device and the second network device and between at least one local peer of the network device comprising:
a microprocessor operatively connected to a wide area network communication interface, the microprocessor for a) sending out a unicast discovery message to a predetermined device network address associated with the second network device;
b) receiving and responding to a discovery response message from the second network device;
c) establishing an operative communication link between the network device and the second network device; and
d) whereupon establishment of an operative communication link between the network device and second network device, enabling operative wide area and local area communication between the each of the network device, the second network device and the at least one local peer.- View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A system comprising:
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at least two local network devices within a local area network;
at least one remote network device outside the local area network but operatively linked to the local area network, wherein each local network device is enabled to allow the local and remote devices to discover and communicate within the local area and wide area networks, each local network device comprising a microprocessor operatively connected to a wide area network communication interface, the microprocessor for a) sending out a unicast discovery message to a predetermined device network address associated with at least one remote network device;
b) receiving and responding to a discovery response message from the at least one remote network device;
c) establishing an operative communication link between the local area network device and the at least one remote network device; and
d) whereupon establishment of an operative communication link between the local area network device and at least one remote network device, enabling operative wide area and local area communication between the each of the local area network devices and the at least one remote network device. - View Dependent Claims (35)
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Specification