Communication switching system

• US 5,509,054 A
• Filed: 11/19/1993
• Issued: 04/16/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: AT&T IPM Corp. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T IPM Corp. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Garland, Stuart M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Wing F.
• Application Number:
  US08/155,047
• Time in Patent Office: 879 Days
• Field of Search: 379/93, 379/96-98, 379/102, 379/104-107
• US Class Current: 379/106.09
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/002 with telemetering systems telemetering in general G08C

Abstract

A communication switching system, in addition to normal services i.e., voice, FAX, data, etc., provides secure bi-directional communication between the facilities of a utility and specialized voice and/or data CPE which are served by an on-premises Telemetry Interface Unit. A Central Office Service Unit (COSU), which is connected to a switching system by Utility Telemetry Trunks (UTT), is employed as an interface between utilities and one or more communication switching systems. The COSU provides detailed calling instructions and data which define the services to be rendered by the switching system. The detailed instructions serve to: define the source and character of the signals to be used to alert the TIU; sub-addresses of CPE served by a TIU; conduct of line supervision; permitted supervisory state of a called line at time of call to a TIU; broadcast of messages, etc.

Claims

1. A communication switching system comprising:

one or more switching offices wherein each office comprises;

a switching network (23) comprising;

a plurality of line ports for connection to subscriber lines;

a plurality of trunk ports for connection to other switching offices and to utility facilities;

switching means for selectively interconnecting said line and trunk ports; and

network control means for controlling said switching means;

a stored program control processor (SPCS) (26, 27,28) comprising;

input means coupled to said line and trunk ports for receiving supervisory, control, and call signalling information from said line and trunk ports; and

control means for controlling said network control means in accordance with received supervisory, call signalling and control information;

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

certain of said trunk ports which are connected to utility facilities (20,

     70) are assigned a class of service that dictates that said stored program control processor (SPCS), in addition to supervisory and call signalling information, is to receive instructions for serving requests for voice, data, and administrative calls from said utility facilities.

2. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 1

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

customer premises equipment (CPE) respectively associated with certain ones of said subscriber lines comprises a telemetry interface unit and one or more telemetry/voice devices controlled by said telemetry interface units in accordance with calling signals received over its associated subscriber line;

and

said instructions identify the source and type of calling signals to be employed in serving the instruction.

3. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 2

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

said calling signals comprise alerting signals and optional sub-addresses.

4. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 3

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

the possible sources of alerting signals comprise:

said utility facilities (20,70) and said control processor (26, 27,

     28).

5. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 3

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

the possible types of alerting comprise:

suppressed ringing, power ringing, and tones.

6. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 1

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

certain of said instructions specify that connection to a line port is to be made independently of the supervisory state i.e., on-hook of off-hook state of CPE connected to the line port;

and

others of said instructions specify that connection to a line port is to be made only if CPE connected to the line port is in the on-hook state.

7. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 1

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

certain of said instructions specify that the SPCS, for the duration of a connection to a line port, is to monitor the connection for on-hook or off-hook transitions of CPE connected to the port;

and

others of said instructions specify that the SPCS, for the duration of a connection to a line port, is not to monitor the connection for on-hook or off-hook transitions of CPE connected to the port.

8. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 1

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

certain of said instructions specify that the SPCS is to invoke other switch based services with respect to CPE identified in said certain instructions.

9. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 8

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

said other switch based services comprise Analog Display Services Interface (ADSI) services.

10. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 1

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

certain of said instructions comprise broadcast instructions that specify that the SPCS is to broadcast messages to identified CPE.

11. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 10

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

certain of said broadcast instructions specify that the SPCS is to store a list of records of subscriber lines as an identified list in the memory of said SPCS.

12. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 11

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

the records of an identified list each comprise a plurality of fields which specify:

the directory number of a subscriber line, alerting codes, sub-addresses, and other calling instructions.

13. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 1

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

certain of said broadcast instructions specify that the SPCS is to transmit a message, included in the instruction, to CPE of a specified identified list of subscriber lines.

14. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 13

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

a message to be transmitted may be a voice message or a telemetry message.

15. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 1

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

said instructions to an SPCS comprise:

a first data string comprising;

KP+TFI+ANI+ST wherein KP is a beginning of message signal;

TFI is a coded instruction to said SPCS;

ANI is the billing directory number; and

ST is an end of string signal; and

a second data string comprising;

KP+7/10DN/Directive+ST wherein 7/10DN is a 7 or 10 digit directory number; and

Directive identifies information stored, or to be stored, by said SPCS.

16. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 15

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

in said instructions to an SPCS, TFI is of the form XX YYY ZZZZ wherein;

XX identifies one of a set of possible alerting codes;

YYY identifies one of a set of possible function codes; and

ZZZZ comprises a sub-address code.

17. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 15

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

certain of said instructions to an SPCS further comprise;

a third data string comprising;

KP+NNN+ST wherein;

NNN is a variable length string of information.

18. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 17

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

NNN, said variable length string of information, is a list of directory numbers to be called.

19. A communication switching system in accordance with claim 17

CHARACTERIZED IN THAT

NNN, said variable length string of information, identifies a predefined function to be performed.