Methods and apparatus to protect and audit communication line status

• US 20080260121A1
• Filed: 04/19/2007
• Published: 10/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Raftelis, Michael, Chin, Jae-Sun
• Granted Patent: US 8,340,086 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/93.07
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/00 Telephonic communication systems specially adapted for combination with other electrical systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/068 using time division multiplex techniques; integrated services digital networks H04Q11/0428
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2272 Subscriber line supervision circuits, e.g. call detection circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/30 for subscriber's lines , for the local loop
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0057 Services where the data services network provides a telephone service in addition or as an alternative, e.g. for backup purposes, to the telephone service provided by the telephone services network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1235 where one of the core networks is a wireless network

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to protect and audit communication line status are disclosed. An example method includes receiving a set of available communication lines from a media gateway, associating a plurality of destination numbers with respective ones of the available communication lines, and dialing the plurality of destination numbers from the media gateway to identify the communication line status information.

Claims

1. A method to identify communication line status information comprising:

receiving a set of available communication lines from a media gateway;

associating a plurality of destination numbers with respective ones of the available communication lines; and

dialing the plurality of destination numbers from the media gateway to identify the communication line status information.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the set of available communication lines comprise at least one of a set of trunk lines or a set of telephone lines.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein dialing the destination number emulates outbound modems connected to the set of available communication lines.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein identifying the line status comprises identifying at least one of a fax machine or a modem associated with at least one of the destination numbers.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein receiving the set of available communication lines comprises determining which of the plurality of communication lines is free of communication services.

6. A method as defined in claim 5, wherein the communication services comprise at least one of telephone traffic, facsimile traffic, or modem traffic.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising receiving the plurality of destination numbers.

8. A method as defined in claim 7, wherein the plurality of destination numbers are received from a user via a graphical user interface.

9. A method as defined in claim 7, wherein the plurality of destination numbers are received in a file.

10. A method as defined in claim 9, further comprising parsing the plurality of destination numbers from the file.

11. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising receiving a log file from the media gateway to identify network devices associated with respective ones of the destination numbers.

12. A method as defined in claim 11, further comprising blocking at least one of the destination numbers associated with an unauthorized network device.

13. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the media gateway at least one of converts a stream of time division multiplexed (TDM) signals on a first network to an Internet protocol (IP) stream on a second network, or converts an IP stream on the second network to a stream of TDM signals on the first network.

14. A method to identify war dialing in a network comprising:

monitoring, with a media gateway, a plurality of destination numbers associated with the network;

generating a log file of call activity associated with the plurality of destination numbers; and

analyzing the log file of call activity to detect an instance of war dialing within the network.

15. A method as defined in claim 14, further comprising blocking an originating number associated with the instance of war dialing.

16. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein the originating number comprises a telephone number or an Internet protocol address.

17. A method as defined in claim 14, wherein analyzing the log file comprises searching the log file of call activity for at least one pattern indicative of war dialing.

18. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein the at least one pattern indicative of war dialing comprises a plurality of numerically consecutive destination numbers dialed within a time period.

19. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein the at least one pattern indicative of war dialing comprise a plurality of numerically consecutive destination numbers dialed sequentially.

20. A method as defined in claim 14, wherein the media gateway at least one of converts a stream of time division multiplexed (TDM) signals on a first network to an Internet protocol (IP) stream on a second network, or converts an IP stream on the second network to a stream of TDM signals on the first network.

21. An apparatus to identify devices in a network comprising:

an audit dialing manager to identify a plurality of destination numbers associated with the network; and

a media gateway to dial at least some of the plurality of destination numbers to identify network devices connected thereto.

22. An apparatus as defined in claim 21, further comprising a communication line query engine to determine available communication lines connected to the media gateway.

23. An apparatus as defined in claim 22, wherein the communication line query engine reserves at least some of the available communication lines.

24. An apparatus as defined in claim 21, further comprising a dialing number sequencer to associate at least some of the plurality of destination numbers with a media gateway communication line.

25. An apparatus as defined in claim 24, wherein the dialing number sequencer provides the at least some of the plurality of destination numbers to the media gateway.

26. An apparatus as defined in claim 21, further comprising a dialing results database to store at least one log file from the media gateway.

27. An apparatus as defined in claim 26, further comprising a log file parser to detect network devices associated with the plurality of destination numbers from the log file.

28. An apparatus as defined in claim 21, wherein the media gateway comprises a converter to convert a stream of time division multiplexed signals on a first network to an Internet protocol stream on a second network.

29. An apparatus as defined in claim 21, wherein the media gateway comprise a converter to convert an Internet protocol on a first network to a stream of time division multiplexed signals on a second network.

30-47. -47. (canceled)