Automatic IP directory number masking and dynamic packet routing for IP phone surveillance

• US 6,560,224 B1
• Filed: 08/18/1999
• Issued: 05/06/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Russell, Jesse Eugene, Wang, Spencer C., Sankalia, Anish, Kung, Fen-Chung
• Primary Examiner(s): Vanderpuye, Ken
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, BRIAN D
• Application Number:
  US09/376,462
• Time in Patent Office: 1,357 Days
• Field of Search: 370/356, 370/352, 370/353, 370/360, 370/395.52, 370/401, 370/390, 370/321, 370/337, 370/347, 370/351, 370/395.1, 370/395.2, 370/442, 370/465, 370/466, 370/389, 379/207.02, 379/211.02, 379/112.61, 379/133
• US Class Current: 370/356
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2281 Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/128 Details of addressing, directories or routing tables

Abstract

Monitored calls are intercepted and rerouted to a changed location number of a called party while appearing to be at the same directory number by intervention of an IP Address Mapping check Point (IP-AMCP) which duplicates the voice to a monitoring location, automatically identifies the types of networks to be traversed to the new location and adapts the duplicated voice message to traverse such network types. Surveillance is enabled to be conducted at more than one monitoring location each of which many are widely separated from the other.

Claims

1. A method of dynamically routing packets intercepted for surveillance purposes of VoIP subscribers moved to a new location and masking directory numbers (DN) of a monitored phone, comprising the steps of:

sending a request for surveillance to enable monitoring of a target IP phone having a particular newly assigned DN but presently known to a caller to telephone as having a previously assigned DN;

intercepting and duplicating voice packets from the target monitored IP phone with an IP address mapping check point (IP-AMCP) in response to a command from a surveillance action;

establishing an IP phone intercept list (IP-PIL) data base which is utilized by the IP-AMCP AMCP to correlate the previously assigned DN to the newly assigned DN;

querying the IP-PIL data base by the IP-AMCP to determined the newly assigned DN to which a call is to be directed;

transmitting the call to the newly assigned DN in response to the IP-AMCP;

determining network types to be traversed from the caller to the newly assigned DN;

directing the intercepted and duplicated voice packets to the newly assigned DN properly formatted in the form needed for the types of networks it traverses, in response to the commands of the IP-AMCP; and

directing the intercepted and duplicated voice packets to the surveillance station properly formatted in the form needed from the types of networks it traverses, in response to commands of the IP-AMCP.

2. The method of claim 1 further including the step of:

masking the newly assigned DN of the surveillanced phone from the caller.

3. The method of claim 2 further including the step of:

initiating the masking in response to a command issued by a remote surveillance agent.

4. The method of claim 3 further including a step of:

protecting an identity of the newly called DN in response to activation of masking by the surveillance agent.

5. The method of claim 1, further including a step of:

converting an IP format to a TDM format when the monitoring station is connected to a PSTN system.

6. A surveillance system for accommodating and masking changes in a directory number DN, comprising:

a subscriber station to be monitored which now has a different DN succeeding a previous DN;

a caller station calling the subscriber station and directing a call to the previous DN which preceded the present different DN;

a monitoring station connected for monitoring voice traffic of the subscriber station to be monitored;

an IP phone intercept list (IP-PIL) database for correlating the different DN with the previous DN; and

an IP-address mapping check point (IP AMCP) connected for intercepting voice packets from the subscriber station being monitored, and connected to query the IP-PIL in order to direct the call to the different DN including formatting the voice packets to accommodate a type of network to be traversed to the different DN and to the monitoring station.

7. The surveillance system of claim 6, further comprising:

means for enabling a masking of the different DN from the caller station.

8. The surveillance system of claim 6, further comprising:

a PSTN check point interconnecting the IP-AMCP to a voice trunk for monitoring the subscriber station connected to a PSTN system.

9. The surveillance system of claim 8, further comprising:

a local directory switch (LDS) interconnecting the voice trunk to the subscriber station.