Telecommunication services

• US 6,985,722 B1
• Filed: 09/24/1999
• Issued: 01/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Quarterhill Inc. (f/k/a Wi-LAN Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SOMA Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Snelgrove, William Martin, Stumm, Michael, De Simone, Mauricio, Preiss, Bruno R.
• Primary Examiner(s): APPIAH, CHARLES NANA
• Application Number:
  US09/787,759
• Time in Patent Office: 2,300 Days
• Field of Search: 455/67.11, 455/418, 455/420, 455/424, 455/423, 455/403, 370/252, 370/254, 370/255, 703/4, 703/13, 703/14, 703/17, 379/221.07, 379/221.15, 379/243, 379/244
• US Class Current: 455/420
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0081 Network operation, administration, maintenance, or provisioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0058 using service-independent building blocks (SIBBs) or "primitives"

Abstract

The present invention relates generally to telecommunications, and more specifically to a method and system of providing telecommunication services that is flexible and efficient. Existing Public Switched Telephone Network systems suffer from a number of problems including system complexity, access being proprietary and services being implemented on fixed hardware. As a result, new services are complex and costly to develop, so telcos only provide services that appeal very broadly. The invention provides an open and flexible system by describing communications in terms of graph packets which contain pointers to blocks of software code, rather than containing large blocks of executable code. In the preferred embodiment, these graphs identify software filters which are dedicated to particular tasks, and are based on a standard API. This allows third parties to create new filters and make them available, allowing new services to be provided quickly and easily.

Claims

1. A method of implementing a communication over a telecommunication network, comprising the steps of:

(i) initiating a request for a desired communication, the request identifying desired parameters and features for the desired communication;

(ii) determining and constructing a proposed graph representing a proposed selection and arrangement of available filters and connections required to implement the desired communication;

(iii) transmitting the proposed graph to the telecommunication network, the network analyzing the proposed graph to;

(a) correct inconsistencies and/or detected errors in the proposed graph; and

(b) determine and add any additional filters and/or connections required to implement the desired communication on the network to obtain an executable graph;

(iv) transmitting the executable graph to the hardware of the telecommunication network required to implement the desired communication;

(v) each hardware device of the telecommunication network that receives the executable graph determining from the executable graph which filters the device is required to implement and how those filters are to be interconnected in the device and to the network; and

(vi) each device of the telecommunication network executing the respective filters and connections to implement the desired communication.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the additional filters can include filters to perform billing functions.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the additional filters can include filters to perform routing functions.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein, while the desired communication is implemented, the telecommunication network alters the executable graph and steps (iv) through (vi) are re-performed to modify the desired communication.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein a filter required by a device in the telecommunication network is transferred to the device through the telecommunication network.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one filter in the executable graph operates to test for compliance of the communication with a desired parameter identified in step (i).

7. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one filter in the executable graph operates to ensure compliance of the communication with a desired parameter identified in step (i).

8. The method of claim 1 wherein step (iii) further comprises the step (c) of determining an appropriate cost for the communication.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the telecommunication network includes portions using different protocols and step (iii)(b) includes the step of considering the protocols employed on connections to produce the executable graph.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein step (i) is performed by a user interacting with a GUI to create the request for a communication.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the filters comprises a conference bridge and the desired communication comprises a multi-party conference call.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the executable graph includes more than one path and a classifier filter directs data to a suitable path selected from the available paths based on a defined criteria.