Networked telephony central offices

• US 5,907,610 A
• Filed: 03/31/1998
• Issued: 05/25/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Qwest Communications International Incorporated (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: U S West Inc.
• Inventors: Onweller, Arthur E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Harry S.
• Application Number:
  US09/052,892
• Time in Patent Office: 420 Days
• Field of Search: 370/349, 370/352, 370/370, 370/399, 370/401, 370/402, 370/405, 370/407, 370/408, 370/409, 370/410, 370/431, 370/522, 379/1, 379/6, 379/10, 379/12, 379/15, 379/22, 379/26, 379/27, 379/30, 379/32, 379/33, 379/242
• US Class Current: 379/242
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13527 protocols - X.25, TCAP etc.
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13545 monitoring of signaling messages, intelligent network
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13566 mediation
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0062 Provisions for network management

Abstract

A communications networking system is disclosed for controlling and monitoring devices within a telephony central office. The networking system includes a high bandwidth local area network (LAN) within the central office for transferring substantially all communications between each central office network element and remote telephony operational support systems (OSSs) that control and monitor network element performance. The LAN simplifies communications within the central office: (a) by substantially eliminating direct connections, between central office network elements and remote OSSs, and (b) by utilizing at least one standardized communication protocol such as TCP/IP, UDP/IP, or OSI when transferring communications over the LAN. The networking system includes a mediation device(s) for translating between network element specific protocols and a standardized protocol used on the LAN. The networking system further includes redundant routers, each acting as an interface between a wide area network (WAN) connecting to the central office and the central office local area network, wherein the WAN provides substantially all of the communications between the central office and the OSSs. One of the routers is used in securing the central office against undesirable access by agents dialing into the central office via the public telephone lines. This router obtains an ID and password from a dial-in agent, and communicates with a remote security center to determine what central office process interfaces the agent may access. The router also prohibits dial-in users from accessing the WAN and thereby accessing other telephony service control sites.

Claims

1. A method for managing communications with one or more telephony central offices comprising a network, comprising;

providing a local area network within each of said one or more telephony central offices;

determining a plurality of process interfaces within the local area network for each of said one or more telephony central offices, each said process interface being connected via its corresponding local area network to said network;

performing for each of said process interfaces the following steps (A1) through (A2);

(A1) identifying a corresponding set of hardware components wherein network communications with the process interface utilize a corresponding communication channel defined by said hardware components of said set;

(A2) assigning a corresponding network address for routing network communications to the process interface, wherein said corresponding network address comprises an encoded identification of each hardware component of said set of hardware components for the corresponding communication channel;

wherein each of said process interfaces is responsive to its corresponding network address when the corresponding network address is identified in network communications by the process interface; and

providing one or more of said corresponding network addresses for communicating with one or more of said process interfaces on the network, wherein communications with any said one or more of said process interfaces are routed through the local area network corresponding with such process interface.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said network is a wide area network using an Internet Protocol addressing scheme.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein for substantially every first and second process interface of said plurality of process interfaces, said set of hardware components for said first process interface is different from said set of hardware components for said second process interface.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step of identifying includes determining at least one of a communication card and a socket on said communication card as said hardware components of said set of hardware components.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step of assigning includes extending an Internet Protocol address with additional addressing information for encoding said set of hardware components.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1, further including a step of identifying a malfunction on the corresponding communication channel for a first network address using a location of the one or more hardware components in the corresponding set for the first network address.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step of determining includes selecting at least one process interface residing at a telephony data center.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step of performing includes a step of determining an addressing scheme for the plurality of process interfaces wherein each said process interface is assigned a different address from the addressing scheme.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step of performing includes a step of determining network addresses for assigning to the plurality of process interfaces, wherein for at least some of the process interfaces, each corresponding network address includes a network identification portion for identifying a corresponding geographical location.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said network identification portions each include a corresponding identification of the corresponding telephony central office located at each of the corresponding geographical locations.

11. A method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said step of determining network addresses includes providing network communication routing portions for the network addresses having corresponding network identification portions, wherein for at least one of the process interfaces having a corresponding network address with a network communication routing portion, the corresponding network address has a particular one of the network communication routing portions such that the communication channel for the at least one process interface includes a routing device as one of the hardware components of the set of hardware components for the process interface, and the routing device is identified by the particular network communication routing portion.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the routing device is one of a local area network hub and a router.

13. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the particular network communication routing portion has enough bits for uniquely identifying at least two routing devices at the corresponding telephony central office having the process interface.

14. A method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said step of determining network addresses includes establishing a predetermined maximal number of network addresses in a collection of network addresses, wherein each network address in the collection has a same value for the network identification portion and the network addresses in the collection are assignable to process interfaces at a single corresponding telephony central office.

15. A method as claimed in claim 14, wherein said predetermined maximal number is less than a total number of the process interfaces in the corresponding telephony central office.

16. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein said step of determining network addresses includes providing host identification portions for the network addresses having both network identification portions and network communication routing portions, wherein for the at least one process interface, the corresponding network address has a particular one of the host identification portions that uniquely identifies the process interface when both the network identification portion and the particular network communication routing portion are provided for the process interface.

17. A method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said step of determining network addresses includes providing host identification portions for the network addresses wherein for at least one of the process interfaces having a corresponding network address with a host identification portion, the corresponding network address has a particular one of the host identification portions such that the communication channel for the process interface includes a converter as one of the hardware components of the set of hardware components for the process interface, and the converter is identified by the particular host identification portion.

18. A method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the converter translates between communication protocols.

19. A method as claimed in claim 17, wherein said step of determining network addresses includes providing address extension portions for the network addresses having host identification portions, wherein for the at least one process interface, the corresponding network address has a particular one of the address extension portions such that the communication channel for the process interface includes a communication card as one of the hardware components of the set of hardware components for the process interface, and the communication card is identified by the particular address extension portion.

20. A method as claimed in claim 19, wherein the communication card is included in the converter.

21. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step of providing includes storing said network addresses, wherein said stored network addresses are accessible from the network.

22. A method as claimed in claim 21, wherein said step of storing includes associating access permissions with each of said corresponding network addresses.

23. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said local area network corresponding with at least one of the process interfaces utilizes an ethernet based protocol.

24. A method as claimed in claim 23, wherein said ethernet based protocol is one of TCP/IP, UDP/IP and OSI.