Telephone network performance monitoring method and system
First Claim
1. A telephone call progress evaluation apparatus, comprising;
- means for automatically placing a call to at least one destination at a certain time according to a schedule;
means for monitoring the progress of said call;
means for discriminating any one of various possible progress tones and responses from said destination;
means for corresponding with said destination, said corresponding means continues to correspond with said destination until a perceived final response is received from said destination;
means for recording the time of occurrence of said any response;
means for recording at least one portion of said any response, said one portion contributable to the selection of an appropriate reply to said any response during communication between said corresponding means and said destination;
means for storing said reply;
wherein said recording means further records any progress tone discriminated by said discriminating means and said storing means stores said any progress tone recorded by said recording means, said apparatus further comprising;
means for converting said occurrence time, tone and response to respective data;
means for compressing said data to provide for compact storage and transport.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention automatically initiates a telephone call to a given destination. At the same time, the progress of the call is monitored. The time of a ring back and voice answer received from the destination are recorded to an output file. At the end of the voice answer, a pre-recorded voice message is sent by the system to the person answering at the destination. Thereafter, the recorded data is used to determine the response time for that particular telephone destination. A plurality of destinations can be tested. A second embodiment of the present invention provides for the interactive correspondence between a remote evaluation unit and a called destination and the measurement of the performance characteristics of the telephone network.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. A telephone call progress evaluation apparatus, comprising;
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means for automatically placing a call to at least one destination at a certain time according to a schedule; means for monitoring the progress of said call; means for discriminating any one of various possible progress tones and responses from said destination; means for corresponding with said destination, said corresponding means continues to correspond with said destination until a perceived final response is received from said destination; means for recording the time of occurrence of said any response; means for recording at least one portion of said any response, said one portion contributable to the selection of an appropriate reply to said any response during communication between said corresponding means and said destination; means for storing said reply; wherein said recording means further records any progress tone discriminated by said discriminating means and said storing means stores said any progress tone recorded by said recording means, said apparatus further comprising; means for converting said occurrence time, tone and response to respective data; means for compressing said data to provide for compact storage and transport. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A system for evaluating a telephone network, comprising:
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(a) at least one call progress evaluation unit for automated telephone call testing having means for automatically placing a call to at least one destination at a certain time according to a schedule; means for monitoring the progress of said call; means for discriminating any occurring progress tones and any response from said destination; and neans for interactively corresponding with said destination; (b) means for storing said any response as data; and (c) a data collecting and analyzing unit remotely located from said evaluation unit having means remotely communicating with said evaluation unit for retrieving data at least representative of said any response from said destination; and means utilizing said data retrieved by said remotely communicating means and representative of said any response from said destination to determine predefined characteristics of said telephone network relating to said at least one destination. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of evaluating characteristics of a telephone network, comprising the steps of:
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(a) storing a schedule of calls to be made to selected destinations at respective predetermined times; (b) placing a call to one of said destinations; (c) monitoring the progress of said call; (d) discriminating any occurring progress tones and any responses from said destination; (e) corresponding with said destination in response to any response from said destination until a perceived final response is received from said destination; (f) recording said any response from said destination; and (g) utilizing said recorded response to evaluate the characteristics of said telephone network. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14)
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Specification