Call completion of video telephone/teleconference call as packet voice call

• US 6,262,978 B1
• Filed: 03/20/1998
• Issued: 07/17/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Markowitz, Robert Edward, Rosen, Kenneth H., Robinson, Bethany Scott, Katseff, Howard Paul, OʼNeil, Joseph Thomas, Bruno, Richard Frank
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Huy D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Phan, M.
• Application Number:
  US09/045,352
• Time in Patent Office: 1,215 Days
• Field of Search: 370/260, 370/352, 370/389, 370/392, 370/395, 370/401, 370/413, 370/201, 370/264, 370/259, 370/263, 248/16, 248/12, 248/20
• US Class Current: 370/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/103 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/104 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1095 Inter-network session transfer or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/50 Telephonic communication in combination with video communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/20 hybrid systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1205 where the types of switching equipement comprises PSTN/ISDN equipment and switching equipment of networks other than PSTN/ISDN, e.g. Internet Protocol networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/148 Interfacing a video terminal to a particular transmission medium, e.g. ISDN
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0045 involving hybrid, i.e. a mixture of public and private, or multi-vendor systems

Abstract

A system and method for establishing a communication path for a call between a video telephone/teleconference call and a packet network telephone terminal through a packet network. The call is routed through a multimedia gateway which performs a conversion process between a video telephone/teleconference domain and a packet network telephone domain.

Claims

1. A method of establishing a communication path between a video telephone/teleconference terminal and a packet network telephone terminal comprising the steps of:

receiving a call signal at a multimedia gateway from said video telephone/teleconference terminal;

retrieving a packet network address associated with the packet network telephone terminal from a first database connected to said multimedia gateway;

removing an audio stream from the call signal;

downloading conversion software from a second database connected to the multimedia gateway;

converting the audio stream into packetized form using the conversion software; and

transmitting the audio stream in packetized form to the packet network address associated with said packet network telephone terminal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first database obtains the packet network address associated with the packet network telephone terminal from the packet network telephone terminal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first database obtains the packet network address associated with the packet network telephone terminal from a packet network service provider.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first database obtains the packet network address associated with the packet network telephone terminal from a packet network telephone registry.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first database downloads a plurality of packet network addresses from a plurality of packet network service providers.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

downloading packet network telephone software to the packet network telephone terminal.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the downloaded packet network telephone software is in Java™

computer language.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the packet network address is an IP address.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the packet network is the Internet.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the telephone/teleconference call is transmitted in the H.320 standard.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the telephone/teleconference call is transmitted in the H.324 standard.

12. A method of establishing a communication path between a video telephone/teleconference terminal and a packet network telephone terminal via a packet network comprising the steps of:

routing a video telephone/teleconference call signal from the video telephone/teleconference terminal to a multimedia gateway;

retrieving a packet network address associated with the packet network telephone terminal in a first database;

removing an audio stream from the video telephone/teleconference call signal;

downloading conversion software from a second database connected to the multimedia gateway;

converting the audio stream into packetized form using the conversion software; and

transmitting the audio stream in packetized form to the packet network address associated with the packet network telephone terminal.

13. A communication system for establishing a communication path between a video telephone/teleconference terminal and a packet network telephone terminal comprising:

a multimedia gateway connected with said video telephone/teleconference terminal for receiving a video telephone/teleconference call transmitted from said video telephone/teleconference terminal;

wherein said multimedia gateway is adapted to remove an audio stream from the video telephone/conference call;

a first database connected to said multimedia gateway;

said first database including a packet network address associated with the packet network telephone terminal;

a second database connected to said multimedia gateway and said second database containing conversion software;

wherein said multimedia gateway converts the audio stream to a first packetized stream using said conversion software; and

the packet network telephone terminal located at the packet network address for receiving the first packetized stream.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein

the packet network telephone terminal is adapted to transmit a second packetized stream from the packet network telephone terminal to the multimedia gateway.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the first database obtains the packet network address associated with the packet network telephone terminal from the packet network telephone terminal.

16. The system of claim 13 wherein the first database obtains the packet network address associated with the packet network telephone terminal from a packet network service provider.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the first database is connected to a plurality of packet network telephone registries.

18. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a third database connected to said multimedia gateway and said third database containing routing information.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the telephone/teleconference call is in the H.323 standard.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the telephone/teleconference call is in the H.320 standard.

21. The system of claim 13, wherein the telephone/teleconference call is in the H.324 standard.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein a packet network telephone located at the packet network telephone terminal is downloaded from the packet network for the duration of the video telephone/teleconference call.

23. The system of claim 13, wherein the packet network telephone is a JAVA™

phone.

24. The system of claim 13, wherein the packet network telephone terminal is adapted to signal to the first database that it is capable of downloading a packet network telephone.

25. A communication system for establishing a communication path between a video telephone/teleconference terminal and an Internet telephone terminal comprising:

a multimedia gateway connected with said video telephone/teleconference terminal for receiving a video telephone/teleconference call transmitted from said video telephone/teleconference terminal in H.320 format;

wherein said multimedia gateway is adapted to remove an audio stream from the video telephone/conference call;

a first database connected to said multimedia gateway;

said first database including an IP address associated with the Internet telephone terminal;

a second database connected to said multimedia gateway and said second database containing conversion software;

wherein said multimedia gateway converts the audio stream to a first packetized stream using said conversion software; and

the Internet telephone terminal located at the IP address for receiving the first packetized stream.