System and method of validating special service calls having different signaling protocols
First Claim
1. A method of enabling a first telephone service provider to validate an account of a subscriber of another telephone service provider when said subscriber places a special service call with said first telephone service provider, comprising the steps of:
- (a) prompting said subscriber to provide an account number when said special service call is placed;
(b) determining from said account number the telephone service provider of said subscriber;
(c) routing a message relating to said special service call to a node means through which at least messages relating to calls from said first telephone service provider may be routed to the telephone service provider of said subscriber;
(d) translating and converting, at said node means, the signaling protocol of said message relating to said special service call from the signaling protocol of said first telephone service provider to the signaling protocol of the telephone service provider of said subscriber if the signaling protocol of calls of said first telephone service provider is different from the signal protocol of calls of the telephone service provider of said subscriber; and
(e) routing a query of said special service call having the converted signaling protocol to the telephone service provider of said subscriber to ascertain the validity of said account number.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention telecommunications system provides validation of authorization codes input by a user for placing a call from a service area of a first telecommunications service provider with a calling card issued by another telecommunications service provider. The present invention allows the subscriber to place a special service call irrespective of whether the signaling protocol of the first service provider is different from the service provider to which the subscriber is a customer of. If the protocol of one telecommunications service provider is indeed different from the other service provider, a gateway residing in an intelligent service network node would convert the signaling protocol of the first service provider into a signaling protocol that is compatible with the other service provider. Consequently, the first service provider can quickly validate the authorization code provided by the subscriber by sending a query to the service provider that issued the calling card to the caller by referencing the LIDB database of the latter service provider. To achieve the conversion of one protocol to another, a system that includes an ISN node having gateways, file servers, a monitoring system, and mainframes is used. The gateway inside the ISN node has a client application program interface (API) component, a translate/convert component, a transaction capabilities part (TCAP) component and a SS7 API component. These various components, together with other controlling and interface components, are able to convert a first signaling protocol, for example a SS7 protocol, into a second protocol, for example a network information distributed service (NIDS) sequenced packet protocol.
264 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method of enabling a first telephone service provider to validate an account of a subscriber of another telephone service provider when said subscriber places a special service call with said first telephone service provider, comprising the steps of:
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(a) prompting said subscriber to provide an account number when said special service call is placed; (b) determining from said account number the telephone service provider of said subscriber; (c) routing a message relating to said special service call to a node means through which at least messages relating to calls from said first telephone service provider may be routed to the telephone service provider of said subscriber; (d) translating and converting, at said node means, the signaling protocol of said message relating to said special service call from the signaling protocol of said first telephone service provider to the signaling protocol of the telephone service provider of said subscriber if the signaling protocol of calls of said first telephone service provider is different from the signal protocol of calls of the telephone service provider of said subscriber; and (e) routing a query of said special service call having the converted signaling protocol to the telephone service provider of said subscriber to ascertain the validity of said account number. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A system for enabling a first telephone service provider to validate an account of a subscriber of another telephone service provider when said subscriber places a special service call with said first telephone service provider, comprising:
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means for prompting said subscriber to provide an account number when placing said special service call; means for determining from said account number the telephone service provider of said subscriber; means for routing a message relating to said special service call to a node means through which at least messages relating to calls from said first telephone service provider may be routed to the telephone service provider of said subscriber; wherein said node means includes; means for translating and converting the signaling protocol of said special service call from the signaling protocol of said first telephone service provider to the signaling protocol of the telephone service provider of said subscriber if the signaling protocol of calls of said first telephone service provider is different from the signal protocol of calls of the telephone service provider of said subscriber; and means for forwarding a query relating to said special service call having the converted signaling protocol to the telephone service provider of said subscriber to ascertain the validity of said account number. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of enabling different telephone service providers having respective different signaling protocols to validate subscriber accounts of different signaling protocols, comprising the steps of:
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(a) obtaining an account number from a subscriber when said subscriber places a special service call; (b) evaluating said account number to determine a telephone service provider associated with said account number; (c) forwarding a message relating to said special service call to a node communicatively connected to said telephone service provider if said call did not originate with said telephone service provider; (d) converting, at said node, the signaling protocol of said message relating to said special service call to the signaling protocol of said telephone service provider if the signaling protocol of the originating telephone service provider of said special service call is different from the signaling protocol provided to calls originating from said telephone service provider; (e) forwarding a query relating to said special service call having the converted protocol to said telephone service provider to request validation of said account number. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A system for enabling different telephone service providers having respective different signaling protocols to validate subscriber accounts of different signaling protocols, comprising:
- means for obtaining an account number from a subscriber when said subscriber places a special service call;
means for evaluating said account number to determine a telephone service provider associated with said account number; means for forwarding a message relating to said special service call to a node means communicatively connected to said telephone service provider if said call did not originate with said telephone service provider; wherein said node means comprises; means for converting the signaling protocol of said message relating to said special service call to the signaling protocol of said telephone service provider if the signaling protocol of the originating telephone service provider of said special service call is different from the signaling protocol provided to calls originating from said telephone service provider; means for routing a query relating to said special service call having the converted protocol to said telephone service provider to request validation of said account number. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
- means for obtaining an account number from a subscriber when said subscriber places a special service call;
Specification