System and Method for Validating and Processing Customer Entered Addresses

• US 20090089070A1
• Filed: 10/01/2007
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hartman, Chad, Engel, Dean, Pondugula, Sudhir, Pruett, Susan, Benz, Phil
• Application Number:
  US11/865,593
• Publication Number:
  US 20090089070A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/342
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/265 Personal security, identity or safety
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/60 Business processes related to postal services shipping G06Q10/083; franking apparatus G07B17/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A system includes an address validation and resolution module operable to determine a location corresponding to a civic address; a location key generator operable to generate a location key adapted to index a set of location-based services identifiers; and an available services determination module operable to use the location key to index the set of location-based services identifiers to determine location-based services available at the civic address. An embodiment of a computer-implemented method includes receiving address data identifying a civic address associated with a, determining a location corresponding to the identified civic address based on the address data; and determining whether one or more services are available at the identified civic address based on the determined location.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing a location-based service, the method comprising:

receiving address data identifying a civic address;

determining a location corresponding to the identified civic address based on the address data; and

determining whether one or more services are available at the identified civic address based on the determined location.

2. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the received address data comprises a street name and a street number, and wherein determining a location corresponding to the identified address comprises determining a first street segment of the named street on one side of the identified address and a second street segment of the named street on another side of the received address.

3. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 2 wherein a street number of the first street segment, the street number of the identified address and a street number of the second street segment identify contiguous sections of the named street.

4. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1 further comprising generating a location key based on the location.

5. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 4 wherein generating the location key comprises combining a rate center associated with the identified address and one or more area criteria associated with the identified address.

6. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 4, further comprising mapping the location key to a set of one or more location-based service identifiers.

7. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the received address data includes at least one name chosen from a variable name space, the computer-implemented method further comprising translating the at least one name chosen from the variable name space to a corresponding name in a fully qualified name space.

8. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 7, wherein the fully qualified name space comprises at least a subset of a Master Street Address Guide (MSAG).

9. The computer-implemented method claim 1, further comprising validating the received address data to determine if the identified address is an actual address.

10. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 9, wherein validating the received address data comprises:

searching a customer location data store for the identified address, the customer location data store storing data that associates previously validated addresses with locations;

if the identified address is not found in the customer location data store, querying a geospatial data store for a location corresponding to the identified address;

if the geospatial mapping service does not supply a location corresponding to the identified address, querying a postal service data store to indicate whether the identified address is an actual address; and

if the postal service data store does not indicate whether the identified address is an actual address, determining a probability that the identified address is an actual address and accepting the identified address based on a confidence factor.

11. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 10, wherein determining a location corresponding to the identified address further comprises:

if the postal service indicates that the identified address is an actual address, querying the geospatial mapping service with one or more area criterion to obtain a determined location and accepting the address based on the confidence factors.

12. A system for identifying one or more location-based services available at an address, the system comprising:

an address validation and resolution module operable to determine a location corresponding to a civic address;

a location key generator operable to generate a location key adapted to index a set of location-based services identifiers; and

an available services determination module operable to use the location key to index the set of location-based services identifiers to determine location-based services available at the civic address.

13. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein the address validation and resolution module is further operable to validate the civic address by querying one or more customer supplied data stores, a geospatial data store and a postal service.

14. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein the location key generator generates the location key by combining rate center data with one or more area criteria.

15. The system as recited in claim 12, further comprising a Master Street Address Guide (MSAG) address resolution module operable to resolve the civic address to an MSAG address.

16. The system as recited in claim 15, further comprising an MSAG resolution rule set comprising rules for deriving alternative spellings of names in the civic address.

17. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the MSAG resolution rule set comprises one or more of city name rules, street name rules, and phonetic rules.

18. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that cause a computer to carry out a process comprising:

receiving a civic address including a plurality of names selected from a variable namespace;

searching an address reference set for a name included in the civic address;

if the name is not found in the address reference set, deriving an alternative spelling of the name; and

searching the address reference set with the alternative spelling of the name.

19. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 18 wherein deriving an alternative spelling comprises phonetically mapping the name to an alternative spelling of the name.

20. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 18 wherein deriving an alternative spelling comprises mapping the name to a spelling that is used in a namespace of the address reference set.