Telephone terminal, telephone communication system, and telephone terminal configuration program

• US 20080080694A1
• Filed: 08/30/2007
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OKI Electric Industry Company Limited
• Original Assignee: OKI Electric Industry Company Limited
• Inventors: Satoh, Tatsuya, Yamaguchi, Kouki, Usuba, Shinji
• Granted Patent: US 8,774,388 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/219
• 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 1/6025 implemented as integrated speech networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72406 by software upgrading or downloading
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0072 Speech codec negotiation H04L65/1069 takes precedence

Abstract

A telephone terminal executes voice communication with a partner telephone terminal by using a selected codec program to code and decode voice signals. Both telephone terminals have facilities for storing codec programs and transferring codec programs over a communication network. During a voice call, one of the two telephone terminals may transfer a codec program to the other telephone terminal, and the call may then proceed by use of the transferred codec program. This enables voice communication to take place with the best codec program that either telephone terminal can provide, even if the two telephone terminals are associated with different communication systems.

Claims

1. A telephone terminal comprising:

a memory for storing at least one type of codec program;

a codec selection processor operative to negotiate with a partner telephone terminal to select a codec program to use during voice communication with the partner telephone terminal;

a transmitting processor operative to transfer the selected codec program from the memory to the partner telephone terminal over a communication network;

a receiving processor operative to receive the selected codec program from the partner telephone terminal through the communication network and store the received codec program in the memory; and

a voice processor operative to execute the selected codec program to code and decode voice signals during said voice communication.

2. The telephone terminal of claim 1, wherein the telephone terminal and the partner telephone terminal are terminals of different telephone communication systems.

3. The telephone terminal of claim 1, wherein the telephone terminal is an Internet protocol softphone.

4. The telephone terminal of claim 1, wherein the voice communication is conducted in one communication session and the selected codec program is transferred between the telephone terminal and the partner telephone terminal in a different communication session.

5. The telephone terminal of claim 1, wherein said voice communication begins with the voice processor executing a common codec program stored at both the telephone terminal and the partner telephone terminal, the codec selection processor selects another codec program stored at only one of the telephone terminal and the partner telephone terminal, the selected codec program is transferred between the telephone terminal and the partner telephone terminal during the voice communication, the transfer being conducted by the transmitting processor if the selected codec program is stored at the telephone terminal and by the receiving processor if the selected codec program is stored at the partner telephone terminal, and the voice processor switches from executing the common codec program to executing the selected codec program during the voice communication, after the selected codec program has been transferred.

6. The telephone terminal of claim 5, wherein the selected codec program provides higher voice quality than the common codec program.

7. The telephone terminal of claim 5, wherein the memory stores a plurality of codec programs with respective priorities, and the selected codec program has a higher priority than the common codec program.

8. The telephone terminal of claim 7, wherein the receiving processor assigns a highest priority to the received codec program.

9. The telephone terminal of claim 1, wherein the transmitting processor begins transferring the selected codec program automatically in response to a command from the selection processor.

10. The telephone terminal of claim 1, further comprising an operation unit for receiving commands from a human user, wherein the transmitting processor begins transferring the selected codec program in response to a command from the human user.

11. The telephone terminal of claim 1, wherein the transmitting processor transfers the selected codec program together with a deletion condition instructing the partner telephone terminal to delete the selected codec program after the voice communication is completed.

12. The telephone terminal of claim 11, wherein the deletion condition instructs the partner telephone terminal to delete the selected codec program after elapse of a designated time from completion of the voice communication unless voice communication between the telephone terminal and the partner telephone terminal resumes within the designated time.

13. The telephone terminal of claim 11, wherein the deletion condition instructs the partner telephone terminal to delete the selected codec program after a designated number of voice communication sessions have been completed without using the selected codec program.

14. The telephone terminal of claim 1, further comprising a downloading processor operative to download a codec program from a codec server connected to the communication network and store the downloaded codec program in the memory.

15. The telephone terminal of claim 1, wherein the memory stores a plurality of codec programs with respective priorities, and the receiving processor assigns a highest priority to the downloaded codec program.

16. A telephone communication system comprising a plurality of telephone terminals as recited in claim 1, wherein codec programs are transferred between the telephone terminals.

17. The telephone communication system of claim 16, further comprising a codec server for downloading a codec program to the telephone terminals.

18. The telephone communication system of claim 17, wherein the codec server also downloads a wrapper to adapt the downloaded codec program to the telephone terminals so that the telephone terminals can execute the downloaded codec program.

19. A machine-readable medium storing a program executable by a computer having a memory to configure the computer to operate as a telephone terminal, the program comprising:

instructions for negotiating with a partner telephone terminal to select a codec program to use during voice communication with the partner telephone terminal;

instructions for transferring the selected codec program from the memory to the partner telephone terminal over a communication network;

instructions for receiving the selected codec program from the partner telephone terminal through the communication network and storing the received codec program in the memory; and

instructions for executing the selected codec program to code and decode voice signals during said voice communication.