Method of creating and accessing value tables in a telecommunication service creation and execution environment

• US 5,511,116 A
• Filed: 11/06/1992
• Issued: 04/23/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures II LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Bell Communications Research, Inc. (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Man, Susan K., Nazif, Zaher A., Chu, Francis Y., Shastry, Subramanya K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hofsass, Jeffery
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hong, Harry S.
• Application Number:
  US07/972,502
• Time in Patent Office: 1,264 Days
• Field of Search: 379/94, 379/112, 379/127, 379/142, 379/201, 379/207, 379/230, 364/DIG. 1, 395/51, 395/75, 395/159, 395/160, 395/161, 395/500, 395/917, 395/922
• US Class Current: 379/201.03
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/12 intelligent networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42144 by service provider
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13149 Change of provider, e.g. network or service
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1316 Service observation, testing
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/135 Service creation
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13503 object-oriented systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13517 SLEE - service logic execution
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13525 GUI - graphical user interface, inc. for service creation
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13545 monitoring of signaling messages, intelligent network
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0054 Service creation techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/007 customer-controlled

Abstract

A data table for organizing data used by call processing procedures in a telephone service execution environment of a telecommunication network. The data table includes a table header for identifying the data table. Data in the table is organized in one or more rows corresponding to one or more columns. The data table further includes a table specification for defining the one or more columns of the data table. Data tables can be created in a telephone service creation environment in the telecommunication network and can be accessed by one or more call processing records for executing telephone services during telephone service execution. The call processing records comprise a plurality of nodes and branches, each node representing a particular call processing procedure. The data tables are stored in a data base in the telephone service creation environment. Table nodes permit a call processing record to access a table and return information indicating whether a specified value exists in the data table or for retrieving a particular value from the table. The returned information of values are then used to complete the call processing procedure corresponding to the particular node or other nodes in the call processing record during execution of the call processing record.

Claims

1. A method of providing a requested service to one or more customers of a telecommunication network, the method comprising the steps, executed by a data processor of the telecommunication network, of:

prompting an operator to create one or more call processing records each including a plurality of call processing procedures for execution by a call processing environment of the telecommunication network;

prompting an operator to create a table of data associated with, but separate from, each of said one or more call processing records;

storing said one or more call processing records and said table of data;

executing one of said processing records in the call processing environment; and

retrieving data from said table of data during the execution of said one of said call processing records.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of storing said one or more call processing records and said table of data includes the steps of storing said table of data separate from said one or more call processing records.

3. In a telecommunications service creation environment in a telecommunication network providing for call processing records and value tables, each of the value tables comprising one or more columns and one or more rows of values, a method of creating a call processing procedure to determine whether a particular value exists in a particular value table comprising the steps, executed by a data processor, of:

prompting an operator to identify a value table to be searched;

receiving from the operator an identification of a value table to be searched;

prompting an operator to identify one or more columns in the value table to be searched;

receiving from the operator an identification of one or more columns in the value table to be searched;

prompting an operator to specify a value to be searched for in the one or more of said columns identified;

receiving from the operator a specified value to be searched in the one or more of said columns to be searched;

prompting an operator to specify comparison criteria for the specified value for any one of said columns to be searched;

receiving from the operator a comparison criteria for the value specified and values for any one of said columns to be searched; and

instantiating the table name, one or more columns, value to be searched for, and comparison criteria as part of the call processing procedure.

4. A method of providing call processing in a telecommunication network comprising the steps, executed by a processor, of:

retrieving a call processing record from storage in response to a request to process a call;

executing call processing procedures specified in the call processing record;

reading a table name specified in a predetermined call processing procedure;

accessing a value table corresponding to the table name;

reading one or more column names, a search value, and comparison criteria specified in the predetermined call processing procedure;

searching the specified one or more columns of the accessed value table;

comparing values in the one or more columns to the specified search value in accordance with the specified comparison criteria;

generating a first output if the comparison criteria is met during the comparing step; and

generating a second output if the comparison criteria is not met during the comparing step.

5. A method according to claim 4, further comprising the steps, executed by a processor, of:

receiving requests from a caller to update one or more values in the value table; and

updating the one or more values in the value table in response to the caller requests.

6. In a telecommunication service creation environment providing for call processing records and value tables, the value tables comprising one or more columns and one or more rows of values, a method of creating a call processing procedure to retrieve a value from the value table for call processing, the method comprising the steps, executed by a data processor, of:

prompting an operator to name a value table to be searched;

receiving from the operator a name of the value table to be searched;

prompting an operator to identify one or more columns in the value table to be searched;

receiving from the operator an identification of one or more columns in the value table to be searched;

prompting an operator to specify a value to be searched for in the one or more columns to be searched;

receiving from the operator a value to be searched for in the one or more columns to be searched;

prompting an operator to specify comparison criteria for the value specified and values to be retrieved from the one or more columns to be searched

receiving from the operator a comparison criteria for the value specified and values to be retrieved from the one or more columns to be searched;

prompting an operator to specify one or more call variable names to which one or more of the retrieved values should be assigned;

receiving from the operator one or more call variable names to which one or more of the retrieved values should be assigned; and

instantiating the table name, one or more columns, one or more values to be searched for, comparison criteria, and one or more call variables as part of the call processing procedure.

7. A method of providing call processing in a telecommunication network comprising the steps, executed by a processor, of:

retrieving a call processing record from storage in response to a request to process a call;

executing call processing procedures specified in the call processing record;

reading one or more call variable names specified in a predetermined procedure;

reading a table name specified in a predetermined call processing procedure;

accessing a value table corresponding to the table name;

reading one or more column names, a search value, and comparison criteria specified in the predetermined call processing procedure;

searching the specified one or more columns of the accessed value table;

comparing values in the one or more columns to the specified search value in accordance with the specified comparison criteria;

assigning a value that meets the comparison criteria to a corresponding one of the one or more call variables; and

generating a predetermined output when no value meeting the comparison criteria is found in the value table.

8. A method according to claim 7, further comprising the steps, executed by a processor, of:

receiving request from a caller to update one or more values in the value table; and

updating the one or more values in the value table in response to the caller requests.