Method and apparatus for internet telephony

• US 6,529,501 B1
• Filed: 05/29/1998
• Issued: 03/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: 3Com Corporation (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Dreher, Mark, Zhao, John H., Musiel, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kizou, Hassan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pezzlo, John
• Application Number:
  US09/086,814
• Time in Patent Office: 1,740 Days
• Field of Search: 370/352, 370/353, 370/354-356, 370/400, 370/401, 379/209, 379/88.17
• US Class Current: 370/353
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/10 of different types
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0057 Services where the data services network provides a telephone service in addition or as an alternative, e.g. for backup purposes, to the telephone service provided by the telephone services network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1245 where a network other than PSTN/ISDN interconnects two PSTN/ISDN networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/128 Details of addressing, directories or routing tables

Abstract

A telephony method and apparatus for communicating over a network. The apparatus has a device for receiving a signal representing a telephone number from a digital network. In addition, the apparatus includes a database containing a plurality of telephone numbers and a corresponding plurality of network addresses. The database is coupled to the receiving device. The apparatus also includes a device for transmitting, over the digital network, a signal representing an internet address corresponding to the telephone number. The transmitting device is coupled between the database and the digital network. The telephony method includes configuring a local encoder for internet telephony and querying and address mapping server for a destination address. The telephony method also includes searching a database associated with the address mapping server for the destination address and returning the destination address from the address mapping server to the local encoder. In addition, the telephony method includes establishing a connection between the local encoder and the destination address.

Claims

1. A telephony method for communicating over an internet utilizing a local encoder and a remote encoder that are connected by a public switched telephone network, comprising steps of:

establishing a connection between a user and the local encoder;

placing a call between the local encoder and the remote encoder via a public switched telephone network connection;

transmitting a data packet between the local encoder and the remote encoder over the public switched telephone network connection;

establishing an internet connection between the local encoder and the remote encoder using information within the data packet; and

dropping the public switched telephone network connection between the local encoder and the remote encoder.

2. A telephony method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of placing a local telephone call to a destination telephone number from the remote encoder.

3. A telephony method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of transmitting an address associated with the local encoder to the remote encoder.

4. A telephony method as claimed in claim 3, wherein said establishing step comprises the steps of:

receiving the transmitted address at the remote encoder;

logging into the internet; and

contacting the local encoder using the address.

5. A telephony method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of configuring the local encoder and the remote encoder for internet telephony.

6. A telephony method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the configuration step is performed after the internet connection is established.

7. A telephony method as claimed in claim 5, wherein said configuring step comprises loading an internet telephone compression task.

8. A telephony method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of storing an address associated with the remote encoder in a database coupled to the internet.

9. A telephony method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising, after the internet connection is established, the step of transmitting a time stamped data packet to the local encoder from the remote encoder over the internet connection.

10. A telephony method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of placing a call between the local encoder and the remote encoder via the public switched telephone network comprises placing a call to a standardized public switched telephone network number.

11. A telephony method as claimed in claim 10, wherein a remote central office receives the call to the standardized public switched telephone network number and automatically forwards the call to the remote encoder.

12. A telephony method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data packet comprises an Internet Protocol address associated with the local encoder.

13. A telephony method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data packet further comprises a request for a TCP/IP connection.

14. A telephony method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the step of establishing an internet connection comprises the remote encoder contacting the local encoder over the internet using the Internet Protocol address of the local encoder.