Method and apparatus for providing voice signals to and from a telecommunications switch

• US 7,099,310 B1
• Filed: 01/25/2000
• Issued: 08/29/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Genband US LLC (Ribbon Communications, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Genband Incorporated (Ribbon Communications, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mills, Brendon W., Carew, A. J. Paul, Lutz, Ronald D. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Phunkulh, Bob A.
• Application Number:
  US09/491,299
• Time in Patent Office: 2,408 Days
• Field of Search: 370/352, 370/353, 370/354, 370/355, 370/356, 370/389, 370/400, 370/401, 379/88.17, 379/93.01
• US Class Current: 370/356
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/561 Star, e.g. cross-connect, concentrator, subscriber group equipment, remote electronics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5619 Network Node Interface, e.g. tandem connections, transit switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5671 Support of voice
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/105 ATM switching elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/062 using different frequency bands for speech and other data
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0066 Details of access arrangements to the networks where the access arrangement is a PSTN/ISDN access H04M7/122
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13039 Asymmetrical two-way transmission, e.g. ADSL, HDSL
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13093 Personal computer, PC
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13196 Connection circuit/link/trunk/junction, bridge, router, gateway
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13296 Packet switching, X.25, frame relay
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13298 Local loop systems, access network
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0045 involving hybrid, i.e. a mixture of public and private, or multi-vendor systems

Abstract

A voice gateway (64) includes an input port (70) that receives a voice signal from an unbundled analog line (62) coupled to a Class 5 switch (52). The voice signal is converted to a digital format by an analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converting unit (76). The voice signal is placed into a compressed format by a compressing/decompressing unit (80) using a selected one of a plurality of compression ratios. The voice signal is placed into a transport frame by a packetizing/depacketizing unit (84) according to a selected packet format. The voice signal is multiplexed with other voice signals by an output port (88). The output port (88) places the voice signal onto a selected one of a plurality of output lines in order to transport the voice signal in its transport frame to one of an office customer premises (12) and a residence customer premises (14).

Claims

1. A system for supporting oversubscription, comprising:

a telecommunications switch operable to assign a plurality of telephone numbers to a line, to receive an incoming call for one of the telephone numbers, and to communicate the incoming call associated with the telephone number using the line; and

a voice gateway coupled to the telecommunications switch using the line, the voice gateway operable to receive the incoming call, to detect a unique distinctive ring assigned to the telephone number associated with the incoming call, and to communicate the incoming call according to the distinctive ring;

wherein the voice gateway processes the incoming call into the digital packets according to the distinctive ring by identifying an address associated with the distinctive ring and assigning the address to the digital packets.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the address is an Internet Protocol (IP), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), or Frame Relay address.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice gateway communicates the incoming call by processing the incoming call into digital packets according to the distinctive ring and communicating the digital packets to a customer premises interface for further communication to a customer premises, wherein the customer premises interface is a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) operable to communicate the digital packets over a twisted pair in a local loop using a digital subscriber line.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice gateway is further operable to communicate the incoming call to a selected one of a plurality of output lines according to the distinctive ring.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the telecommunications switch is further operable to assign at least four telephone numbers to the line.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice gateway is further operable to receive an outgoing call originated at a customer premises, to identify an available line from a plurality of lines coupled between the telecommunications switch and the voice gateway, and to communicate the outgoing call to the telecommunications switch using the available line.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the voice gateway communicates the outgoing call by receiving digital packets, processing the digital packets into a voice signal, and communicating the voice signal to the telecommunications switch using the available line.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the plurality of lines is a hunt group.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the telecommunications switch is a Class 5 switch; and

the voice gateway is further operable to couple to the Class 5 switch without using an overlay Class 5 switch or digital loop carrier architecture.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the line is an unbundled analog line.

11. A voice gateway for supporting oversubscription of a line coupled to a telecommunications switch, the voice gateway operable to receive a first incoming call with a first distinctive ring from the line and to communicate first incoming call to a first destination according to the first distinctive ring, the voice gateway further operable to receive a second incoming call with a second distinctive ring from the line and to communicate the second incoming call to a second destination according to the second distinctive ring;

wherein the voice gateway processes the first incoming call into the digital packets according to the first distinctive ring by identifying an address associated with the first distinctive ring and assigning the address to the digital packets.

12. The voice gateway of claim 11, wherein the address is an Internet Protocol (IP), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), or Frame Relay address.

13. The voice gateway of claim 11, wherein the voice gateway communicates the first incoming call by processing the first incoming call into digital packets according to the first distinctive ring and communicating the digital packets to a customer premises, wherein the voice gateway communicates the digital packets to the customer premises using a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) operable to communicate the digital packets over a twisted pair in a local loop using a digital subscriber line.

14. The voice gateway of claim 11, wherein the voice gateway is further operable to communicate the first incoming call to a selected one of a plurality of output lines according to the first distinctive ring.

15. The voice gateway of claim 11, wherein the voice gateway receives the second incoming call after terminating the first incoming call.

16. The voice gateway of claim 11, wherein the voice gateway is further operable to support oversubscription of at least 4:

1.

17. The voice gateway of claim 11, wherein the voice gateway is further operable to receive an outgoing call originated at a customer premises, to identify an available line from a plurality of lines coupled to the telecommunications switch, and to communicate the outgoing call to the telecommunications switch using the available line.

18. The voice gateway of claim 17, wherein the voice gateway communicates the outgoing call by receiving digital packets, processing the digital packets into a voice signal, and communicating the voice signal to the telecommunications switch using the available line.

19. The voice gateway of claim 17, wherein the plurality of lines is a hunt group.

20. The voice gateway of claim 11, wherein:

the telecommunications switch is a Class 5 switch; and

the voice gateway is further operable to couple to the Class 5 switch without using an overlay Class 5 switch or digital loop carrier architecture.

21. The voice gateway of claim 11, wherein the lines are unbundled analog lines.

22. A method for supporting oversubscription of a line coupled to a telecommunications switch, comprising:

receiving a first incoming call with a first distinctive ring from the line coupled to the telecommunication switch;

communicating the first incoming call to a first destination according to the first distinctive ring;

receiving a second incoming call with a second distinctive ring from the line; and

communicating the second incoming call to a second destination according to the second distinctive ring;

wherein processing the first incoming call into the digital packets according to the first distinctive ring further comprises;

identifying an address associated with the first distinctive ring; and

assigning the address to the digital packets.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the address is an Internet Protocol (IP), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), or Frame Relay address.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein communicating the first incoming call to the first destination according to the first distinctive ring further comprises:

processing the first incoming call into digital packets according to the first distinctive ring; and

communicating the digital packets to a customer premises, wherein communicating the digital packets to the customer premises further comprises communicating the digital packets to a customer premises interface for further communications to the customer premises.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the customer premises interface is a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) operable to communicate the digital packets over a twisted pair in a local loop using a digital subscriber line.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein communicating the first incoming call to the first destination according to the first distinctive ring further comprises:

selecting one of a plurality of output lines according to the first distinctive ring; and

communicating the first incoming call using the selected output line.

27. The method of claim 22, further comprising terminating the first incoming call before receiving the second incoming call.

28. The method of claim 22, further comprising providing at least 4:

1 oversubscription of the line.

29. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

receiving an outgoing call from a customer premises;

identifying an available line from a plurality of lines coupled to the telecommunications switch; and

communicating the outgoing call to the telecommunications switch using the available line.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein communicating the outgoing call to the telecommunications switch further comprises:

receiving digital packets from a customer premises interface;

processing the digital packets into a voice signal; and

communicating the voice signal to the telecommunications switch using the available line.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein the plurality of lines is a hunt group.

32. The method of claim 22, wherein:

the telecommunications switch is a Class 5 switch; and

the lines couple to the Class 5 switch without using an overlay Class 5 switch or digital loop carrier architecture.

33. The method of claim 22, wherein the lines are unbundled analog lines.