Automated nodal calling system

• US 6,678,358 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2001
• Issued: 01/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions Connectivity Incorporated (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sigma Communications, Inc. (Mystar Engineering Corporation)
• Inventors: Langsenkamp, Al, Kercheval, Kent E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsang, Fan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chow, Ming
• Application Number:
  US09/845,236
• Publication Number:
  US 20020159570A1
• Time in Patent Office: 988 Days
• Field of Search: 379/69, 379/88.23, 379/40, 379/37, 379/41, 379/42, 379/51, 379/33, 379/45, 379/48, 379/220.01, 379/221.01, 379/221.02, 379/221.03, 379/221.04
• US Class Current: 379/69
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2016 Call initiation by network rather than by subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/46 Arrangements for calling a number of substations in a predetermined sequence until an answer is obtained
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/465 Arrangements for simultaneously calling a number of substations until an answer is obtained

Abstract

An automated nodal calling system comprises a database having a plurality of phone numbers and associated geographic identifiers. In the event of an emergency, an emergency calling area is defined and a message is recorded for delivery to the callees in the emergency calling area. The system generates a call request for all phone numbers having an associated geographic identifiers within the emergency calling area. Each call request contains various pieces of information important to proper completion of the phone call identified in the call request. All of the call requests are stored in a queue and the system determines whether to process each call request from a local node or a remote node. A call request to be processed from a local node is delivered to a template program which connects to the telecommunications system and completes the call request to the identified phone number. After the local node completes the call request, a call response is generated to identify the result of the call request. A call request to be processed from a remote node is delivered to the remote node using a network connection. After the remote node processes the call request, the remote node sends a call response back to the local node using the network connection. In this fashion, the system is capable of efficiently contacting all callees with an emergency message by utilizing both local nodes and remote nodes to place the calls to the callees.

Claims

1. A method of automatically placing phone calls to callees in a calling area, the method comprising the steps of:

a. providing a database comprising a plurality of phone numbers and at least one data field associated with each of the plurality of phone numbers, the at least one data field containing information representing a geographic location;

b. recording a message to be transmitted to the callees;

c. defining a calling area to receive the recorded message, the calling area used to select a subset of phone numbers from the database, each of the subset of phone numbers having information representing a geographic location within the calling area in the at least one data field associated with the phone number;

d. generating call requests and storing the call requests in a queue, each of the call requests containing one of the phone numbers from the subset of phone numbers selected from the database;

e. initiating calls to callees based on a first group of the generated call requests; and

f. sending a second group of the generated call requests to a remote node, the remote node operable to initiate phone calls to callees based on the second group of call requests.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of receiving call requests from the remote node and each call request received from the remote node containing a phone number not contained in the database.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of storing the call requests from the remote node in the queue and initiating phone calls to callees using the call requests from the remote node.

4. The method of claim 1 the calling area is an emergency area, and the emergency area is automatically updated periodically to a new emergency area.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the emergency area is automatically updated based upon the path of a weather event.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein, the new emergency area is used to select a new subset of phone numbers from the database, each of the new subset of phone numbers having information representing a geographic location within the new emergency area in the at least one data field associated with the phone number.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the message to be transmitted to the callees is an audio message.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the message to be transmitted to the callees is a fax message.