System and method for internet protocol telephony advertisement protocol

• US 7,099,306 B2
• Filed: 04/16/2003
• Issued: 08/29/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2003
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Goodman, Lee, Doiron, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chau
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cho, Hong Sol
• Application Number:
  US10/414,825
• Publication Number:
  US 20040208185A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,231 Days
• Field of Search: 370352-356, 370/389, 370/390, 370/392, 370/400, 370/401, 370/475, 370/432, 370/911, 379/88.17, 379/210.01, 379/900, 709/204
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4535 using an address exchange platform which sets up a session between two nodes, e.g. rendezvous servers, session initiation protocols [SIP] registrars or H.323 gatekeepers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4557 Directories for hybrid networks, e.g. including telephone numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and method that provides for call completion of VoIP telephone calls. The method of the present invention comprises receiving a telephony advertisement packet comprising addressing information and storing the telephony advertisement packet. The stored telephony advertisement packet is used to complete a call.

Claims

1. A method for providing call completion of VoIP telephone calls, the method comprising:

a first internet protocol (IP) telephony device receiving a telephony advertisement packet directly from a second IP telephony device, the telephony advertisement packet comprising addressing information of the second IP telephony device;

the first IP telephony device storing the telephony advertisement packet; and

when the first IP telephony device initiates a voice over IP (VoIP) telephone call to the second IF telephony device, the first IP telephony device utilizing the stored telephony advertisement packet to complete the VoIP telephone call.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the telephony advertisement packet comprises storing the telephony advertisement packet in a dynamic dial plan of the first IP telephony device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein storing the telephony advertisement packet comprises storing an E.164 address of the second IP telephony device in the dynamic dial plan.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein storing the telephony advertisement packet comprises storing an IP address of the second IP telephony device in the dynamic dial plan.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving comprises receiving a sequence number with the telephony advertisement packet.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a plurality of telephony advertisement packets from a given telephony device; and

storing the plurality of telephony advertisement packets with a sequence number indicating the most recent telephony advertisement packet of the plurality of telephony advertisement packets.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising recording receipt parameters for the telephony advertisement packet.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising deleting the telephony advertisement packet when the receipt parameters indicate that an aging threshold is exceeded.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing a telephony gateway when the call cannot be completed by utilizing the stored telephony advertisement packet.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second IP telephony devices comprises an IP phone.

11. A method for providing call completion of voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telephone calls, the method comprising:

storing in a direct dial plan contained in memory of a first IP telephony device, a plurality of network addresses of a plurality of internet protocol (IP) telephony devices, the plurality of network addresses received within a plurality of telephony advertisement packets sent directly from the corresponding IP telephony devices;

receiving a call destination from a user of the first IP telephony device, the call destination corresponding to a second IP telephony device of the plurality of IP telephony devices;

querying the dynamic dial plan to determine a network address of the call destination; and

utilizing the network address to complete a call from the first IP telephony device to the second IP telephony device.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising transmitting a telephony advertisement packet from each of the plurality of IP telephony devices at a periodic interval.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising incrementing a sequence number associated with the telephony advertisement packet.

14. A system for providing call completion of voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telephone calls, the system comprising:

a dynamic dial plan associated with a first internet protocol (IP) telephony device, the dynamic dial plan comprising address information for one or more other IP telephony devices on a network, the address information provided directly to the first IP telephony device by the one or more other IP telephony devices; and

VoIP software configured to query the dynamic dial plan based on a call destination provided by a user of the first IP telephony device, retrieve a network address corresponding to the call destination, and complete a call to the network address.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a telephony advertisement packet transmitted from the one or more telephony devices on the network, the telephony advertisement packets stored in the dynamic dial plan.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the telephony advertisement packet comprises a call destination and an associated network address.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the call destination comprises an E.164 address and the network address comprises an IP address.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the telephony advertisement packet comprises a sequence number.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the sequence number identifies the most recent telephony advertisement packet received from one of the one or more telephony devices.

20. The system of claim 15, further comprising receipt parameter information associated with each telephony advertisement packet.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the receipt parameter information is stored in the dynamic dial plan.

22. The system of claim 20 wherein the receipt parameter information is utilized to determine if a given telephony advertisement packet has exceeded an aging threshold indicating that the telephony advertisement packet should be deleted.

23. A method for advertising address information comprising:

a first internet protocol (IP) telephony device generating an advertisement message containing addressing information for the first IP telephony device;

the first IP telephony device transmitting the advertisement message to one or more other IP telephony devices; and

responsive to receiving the advertisement message, the one or more other IP telephony devices storing the addressing information of the first IP telephony device in associated databases, wherein each of the one or more other IP telephony devices can retrieve the addressing information without utilizing a network gateway to resolve addressing information of the first IP telephony device.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the first IP telephony device comprises an IP telephone.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising an IP telephone of the one or more other IP telephony devices utilizing the stored addressing information to complete a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telephone call to the first IP telephony device.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising accessing a telephony gateway when the VoIP call cannot be completed by utilizing the stored addressing information.

27. The method of claim 23, further comprising storing an E.164 address of the first IP telephony device in a dynamic dial plan.

28. The method of claim 27 comprising storing an IP address of the first IP telephony device in the dynamic dial plan.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein the advertisement message includes a sequence number.

30. The method of claim 23, further comprising recording receipt parameters for the addressing information.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising deleting the addressing information when the receipt parameters indicate that an aging threshold is exceeded.

32. A system comprising:

a plurality of internet protocol (IP) telephony devices;

a first group of one or more IP telephony devices of the plurality of IP telephony devices configured to generate advertisement messages containing addressing information and transmit to one or more other IP telephony devices of the plurality of IP telephony devices the advertisement messages; and

a second group of one or more IP telephony devices of the plurality of IP telephony devices configured to receive advertisement messages, store the addressing information, and initiate calls to the first group of one or more IP telephony devices by utilizing the stored addressing information, without accessing a network gateway resource to determine addressing information of the first group of one or more IP telephony devices.