Call logging in a wireless telecommunications system

• US 6,026,290 A
• Filed: 11/12/1997
• Issued: 02/15/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel USA Sourcing L.P. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Lamkin, Richard M., Meakes, Gavin J.
• Primary Examiner(s): LOOMIS, PAUL A
• Application Number:
  US08/967,975
• Time in Patent Office: 825 Days
• Field of Search: 455/405, 455/406, 455/408, 455/462, 455/463, 455/465, 455/554, 455/555, 379/112, 379/114, 379/133, 379/134
• US Class Current: 455/405
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/14 WLL [Wireless Local Loop]; RLL [Radio Local Loop]

Abstract

The present invention provides a central terminal, and method of operation of such a central terminal, for logging calls to or from a plurality of subscriber terminals that are arranged to communicate with the central terminal via wireless links, each subscriber terminal being arranged to support one or more lines to subscriber telecommunications equipment. The central terminal comprises a call manager for receiving a call, and for generating a call instance to represent said call, the call instance having a plurality of attribute fields to store attributes defining the call. The central terminal further comprises a call logger for storing a call log of data identifying predetermined attributes of said calls, the call logger being arranged to receive a number of the attributes stored in the call instance for inclusion in the call log.

Claims

1. A central terminal for logging calls to or from a plurality of subscriber terminals that are arranged to communicate with the central terminal via wireless links, each subscriber terminal being arranged to support one or more lines to subscriber telecommunications equipment, the central terminal comprising:

a call manager for receiving a call, and for generating a call instance to represent said call, the call instance having a plurality of attribute fields to store attributes defining the call; and

a call logger for storing a call log of data identifying predetermined attributes of said calls, the call logger being arranged to receive a number of the attributes stored in the call instance for inclusion in the call log.

2. A central terminal as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a storage arranged to store a phone number list associating phone numbers for said subscriber telecommunications equipment with corresponding of said lines to subscriber telecommunications equipment;

comparison logic for comparing a destination phone number contained within the call received by the call manager with the phone numbers maintained in the phone number list; and

routing means, responsive to a match by the comparison logic, to route the call directly to the subscriber terminal to which the telecommunications equipment corresponding to the destination phone number is connected.

3. A central terminal as claimed in claim 2, wherein one of said attributes stored in the call instance is a phone number provided by the call, and the phone number list is accessible by the call instance to enable other attributes of the call to be determined from said phone number provided by the call.

4. A central terminal as claimed in claim 3, wherein if the comparison logic identifies that the destination phone number contained within the call matches a phone number maintained in the phone number list, then the call manager is arranged to create a second call instance to represent the incoming call to the destination subscriber telecommunications equipment.

5. A central terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein upon termination of the call, said number of the attributes in the call instance are passed from the call instance to the call logger for storage as said predetermined attributes by the call logger.

6. A central terminal as claimed in claim 5, wherein the call manager is arranged to retrieve said number of the attributes from the call instance upon termination of the corresponding call for passing to the call logger.

7. A central terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the call logger includes logic to determine, upon receipt of said number of the attributes from a call instance, whether to store said number of the attributes in the call log or not.

8. A central terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein a portion of the call log is reserved for the storage of said predetermined attributes for outgoing calls from said plurality of subscriber terminals.

9. A central terminal as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an interface for receiving requests from an application for data stored in said call log, the call logger being responsive to receipt of such a request to retrieve the required data from the call log, and to pass that data to the interface for transmitting to the application.

10. A central terminal as claimed in claim 9, wherein said application is a billing application.

11. A central terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein said number of the attributes stored in the call instance comprise a duration attribute identifying the duration of the call.

12. A central terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein said number of the attributes stored in the call instance comprise a date stamp attribute identifying the date and time of the call.

13. A central terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein said number of the attributes stored in the call instance comprise an originator attribute identifying whether the call originates from telecommunications equipment connected to a subscriber terminal supported by the central terminal, or whether the call originates from telecommunications equipment not supported by the central terminal.

14. A central terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein said number of the attributes stored in the call instance comprise a type attribute identifying whether the call is an outgoing call or an incoming call.

15. A central terminal as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a call list record accessible by the call manager, for containing a pointer to each call instance created by the call manager.

16. A central terminal as claimed in claim 2, wherein within said phone number list, a single phone number may be associated with one or more of said lines.

17. A central terminal as claimed in claim 2, wherein within said phone number list, one of said lines may be associated with one or more phone numbers.

18. A central terminal as claimed in claim 2, wherein the storage is further arranged to store a line list data element arranged to include a list of pointers to particular line data elements, each line data element identifying a line to subscriber telecommunications equipment.

19. A central terminal as claimed in claim 18, wherein the phone number list includes, for each phone number in the list, a pointer to the line list data element that includes pointers to said line data elements that identify suitable lines to be used to direct a call to the subscriber telecommunications equipment having that phone number.

20. A central terminal as claimed in claim 2, wherein the phone number list is represented by an OOP object.

21. A call logging facility for logging calls handled by a central terminal of a wireless telecommunications system, the central terminal being arranged to communicate with a plurality of subscriber terminals via wireless links, each subscriber terminal being arranged to support one or more lines to subscriber telecommunications equipment, the central terminal having a call manager for receiving a call, and for generating a call instance to represent said call, the call instance having a plurality of attribute fields to store attributes defining the call, the call logging facility comprising:

a log manager for maintaining in a storage a call log of data identifying predetermined attributes of said calls; and

an interface for receiving a number of the attributes stored in the call instance for inclusion in the call log.

22. A call logging facility as claimed in claim 21, further comprising logic to determine, upon receipt of said number of the attributes from a call instance, whether to store said number of the attributes in the call log or not.

23. A call logging facility as claimed in claim 21, wherein a predefined portion of the call log is reserved for the storage of said predetermined attributes for outgoing calls from said plurality of subscriber terminals.

24. A method of operating a central terminal to log calls to or from a plurality of subscriber terminals that are arranged to communicate with the central terminal via wireless links, each subscriber terminal being arranged to support one or more lines to subscriber telecommunications equipment, the method comprising steps of:

generating a call instance to represent a call upon receipt of said call, the call instance having a plurality of attribute fields to store attributes defining the call;

storing a call log of data identifying predetermined attributes of said calls; and

receiving a number of the attributes stored in the call instance for inclusion in the call log.

25. A method as claimed in claim 24, further comprising steps of:

storing a phone number list associating phone numbers for said subscriber telecommunications equipment with corresponding of said lines to subscriber telecommunications equipment;

comparing a destination phone number contained within the received call with the phone numbers maintained in the phone number list; and

routing the call directly to the subscriber terminal to which the telecommunications equipment corresponding to the destination phone number is connected in response to a match by said comparing step.

26. A method as claimed in claim 25, wherein one of said attributes stored in the call instance is a phone number provided by the call, and the phone number list is accessible by the call instance to enable other attributes of the call to be determined from said phone number provided by the call.

27. A method as claimed in claim 26, wherein if it is identified that the destination phone number contained within the call matches a phone number maintained in the phone number list at said comparing step, then the method further comprises a step of:

generating a second call instance to represent the incoming call to the destination subscriber telecommunications equipment.

28. A method as claimed in claim 24, wherein upon termination of the call, the method further comprises a step of:

storing said number of the attributes in the call instance as predetermined attributes in the call log.

29. A method as claimed in any of claim 24, further comprising a step of:

determining whether to store said number of the attributes in the call log or not in response to receipt at said receiving step of said number of the attributes from a call instance.

30. A method as claimed in claim 24, wherein a portion of the call log is reserved for the storage of said predetermined attributes for outgoing calls from said plurality of subscriber terminals.

31. A method as claimed in claim 24, further comprising steps of:

receiving a request from an application for data stored in said call log;

retrieving the required data from the call log in response to receipt of such a request; and

transmitting that data to the application.