Method and apparatus supporting non-geographic telephone numbers

• US 6,463,270 B1
• Filed: 01/26/1996
• Issued: 10/08/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures II LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Telcordia Technologies Incorporated (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Rajagopalan, Subhashini, Chang, Li-Fung, Jain, Ravi Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): CUMMING, WILLIAM D
• Application Number:
  US08/592,212
• Time in Patent Office: 2,447 Days
• Field of Search: 455/403, 379/201, 379/207
• US Class Current: 455/403
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

A communications network may include a translation server containing a NGPN-to-HLR mapping table. The translation server may be a single, centralized translation server; or several TSs may be on the network. When a number of translation servers are used, a VLR or other network entity receiving an NGPN determines which translation server contains the mapping for that NGPN. One way to do this is when a subscriber roams out of his “home” region, his NGPN is presented to the “foreign” service provider'"'"'s TS. The foreign TS broadcasts a query to all other TSs in the network either simultaneously or in stages. Another way is that a VLR receiving a NGPN performs a hash function on the NGPN. The hash function identifies a translation server. The VLR may then query the translation server and obtain the NGPN-to-HLR mapping. Where a hash function is used, an extendable hash function to accommodate the addition of new TSs without changing the VLR operating systems. Alternatively, where translation servers are identified with hash functions, further additional TSs are accommodated by a two stage TS. A TS split into a number of TSs performs a second hash function to determine the location of the TS having the NGPN-to-HLR mapping requested.

Claims

1. A method for mapping non-geographic portable device numbers (NGPN) to a signaling network device address, said method comprising the steps of:

generating a table containing NGPNs and associated signaling network device addresses;

presenting a NGPN to the table, said step of presenting comprising broadcasting the NGPN to a number of tables in the signaling network; and

obtaining the signaling network device address for the presented NGPN.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of broadcasting comprises simultaneously broadcasting the NGPN to the number of tables in the signaling network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of broadcasting comprises broadcasting the NGPN in a number of stages, each stage broadcasting the NGPN to fewer than all of the number of tables in the signaling network.

4. A method for establishing communications in a signaling network to subscribers with non-geographic portable device numbers (NGPN), said method comprising the steps of:

generating tables containing NGPNs with associated signaling network device addresses;

presenting a NGPN to a table, the step of presenting comprising performing a hash function on the NGPN;

using a result of the hash function, obtaining a signaling network address from the table; and

establishing the connection to the signaling network device address for the presented NGPN.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of obtaining the signaling network address for the table further comprises using the hash function result to look up the table address on a mapping table.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of selecting the hash function to be an extendible hash function.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of:

a. before presenting the NGPN to a table, checking a cache memory for the signaling network device address for the presented NGPN;

b. if the signaling network device address for the presented NGPN is not in the cache memory, presenting the NGPN to a table.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of obtaining the signaling network device address for the presented NGPN further comprises the steps of:

a. checking a cache memory for the signaling network device address for the presented NGPN;

b. if the signaling network device address for the presented NGPN is not in the cache memory, obtaining the NGPN from a table.

9. A method for mapping non-geographic portable device numbers (NGPN) to a signaling network device address, wherein a service code is added to the NGPN, said method comprising the steps of:

generating a table containing NGPNs and associated signaling network device addresses;

presenting a NGPN to the table; and

obtaining the signaling network device address for the presented NGPN, the step of obtaining comprising obtaining from the table a signaling network device address for a main network device and obtaining from the main network device a signaling network device address for the presented NGPN and service code.

10. A system for establishing communications in a signaling network to users with non-geographic portable device numbers, said system comprising

a plurality of data bases containing user profiles including information identifying the location of the non-geographic portable devices, each non-geographic portable device number being present in only one of said data bases;

a hash processor for receiving all of said non-geographic device numbers and for producing hash processor results;

a translation server containing translation tables and responsive to said hash processor results for identifying the particular one of said data bases containing mapping information for each non-geographic portable device number; and

means responsive to the output of said translation server for completing a connection to the particular database for that particular non-geographic portable device number.

16. The system in accordance with claim 10 further comprising a cache memory for receiving all of said non-geographic device numbers, said cache memory storing recently called non-geographic device numbers and identification of particular ones of said data bases.

11. A translation server (TS) for mapping a non-geographic number to a signaling network entity, comprising:

an input configured to receive the non-geographic number;

at least two tables containing non-geographic numbers and corresponding signaling network entity addresses;

a TS server hash processor connected to the input; and

a TS internal mapping table connected to an output of the hash processor and containing a mapping of hash processor results with an address of one of at least two tables.

12. The translation server of claim 11, further comprising a cache memory connected between the input and the tables.

13. The TS of claim 11, wherein the hash processor is configured to process an extendible hash function.

14. A method for establishing communications in a signaling network to a subscriber with a non-geographic portable device number, said network having an original translation server containing records of such numbers, comprising the steps of:

splitting said original translation server into a new translation server and the original translation server, said splitting step comprising

applying a dynamic hash function on each non-geographic number contained in the original translation server,

using the result of the dynamic hash function, determining which number records will remain in the original translation server and which number records will be moved to the new translation server,

copying into the new translation server the number records to be moved thereto, and

deleting from the original translation server the copied number records;

presenting a non-geographic portable number to which the communication connection is to be made to the translation servers, said presenting step comprising performing a second hash function on the presented non-geographic portable number;

using a result of the second hash function, obtaining a signaling address from one of the translation servers; and

establishing the connection to the signaling network device address for the presented non-geographic portable number.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the dynamic hash function is an extendible hash function which looks at k bits of the hash function result, further comprising the steps of:

a. the step of determining further comprising examining the (k+1)th bit in determining which number records will be moved;

b. increasing the value of k in the network devices obtaining an address for existing TSs using a dynamic hashing function; and

c. updating the network devices obtaining an address for existing TSs to include the new TS.