Home office communication system and method

• US 7,116,762 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2001
• Issued: 10/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Rakuten, Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SBC Properties, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bennett, III, Raymond Walden, Bossemeyer, Jr., Robert Wesley, Heinmiller, Wayne Robert, Light, Jordan Howard
• Primary Examiner(s): Chawan, Vijay B.
• Application Number:
  US09/789,421
• Publication Number:
  US 20030036908A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,051 Days
• Field of Search: 704270-275, 704/500, 704/201, 379 8801- 8814, 379/58, 379/67, 379/89, 370/354, 370/431, 370/352, 370/345, 370/259, 345/462, 345/535, 709/225, 709/206, 358/402
• US Class Current: 379/88.04
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2878 Access multiplexer, e.g. DSLAM generic distributed time multiplexers, e.g. TDM/TDMA H04J3/1694
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/247 Telephone sets including user guidance or feature selection means facilitating their use user interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones H04M1/724
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2478 Telephone terminals specially adapted for non-voice services, e.g. email, internet access centralized arrangements where telephones services are combined H04M7/0024; for recording text messages H04M3/5322; for accessing Internet H04M3/4938
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2535 adapted for voice communication over an Internet Protocol [IP] network Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network equipment and services H04M7/006; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/271 controlled by voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/715 using two or more extensions per line cordless telephones H04M1/725
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/06 Simultaneous speech and data transmission, e.g. telegraphic transmission over the same conductors
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/74 with voice recognition means
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42314 in private branch exchanges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4234 Remote access to features of PBX or home telephone systems-teleworking in a PBX
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53333 Message receiving aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0033 Notification or handling of incoming calls by a computer
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0054 where the data service is an electronic mail service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1205 where the types of switching equipement comprises PSTN/ISDN equipment and switching equipment of networks other than PSTN/ISDN, e.g. Internet Protocol networks

Abstract

A home office communication system (10) has a control and display system (16). A modem (12) is controlled by the control and display system (16) and connected to a telephone line (14). A multiplexer (18) is connected to the modem (12) and multiplexes a plurality of outgoing data streams in a predefined format and demultiplexes an incoming data stream from the modem (12). A speech encoding system (20) generates a plurality of speech packets to form one of the plurality of outgoing data streams. A telephone line control system (22) generates a plurality of control packets forming one of the plurality of outgoing data streams and an information channel (24) forms one of the plurality of outgoing data streams.

Claims

1. A home office communication system wherein a base office comprises:

a router connected to a base modem;

a telephone interface connected to the router; and

a gateway connected to the router, wherein the router, telephone interface and gateway are all customer premises equipment located at a single location.

2. The home office system of claim 1, wherein the base modem is connected through the public switched telephone network to a remote modem.

3. The home office communication system of claim 1, further including a local area network connected to the gateway.

4. The home office communication system of claim 3, further including an email server connected to the local area network.

5. The home office communication system of claim 4, further including an integrated messaging center connected to the local area network the integrated messaging center connected to the email server, a voice mail system and a facsimile server.

6. The home office communication system of claim 5, further wherein the integrated messaging center extracts a header information from the email server, the voice mail system and the facsimile server.

7. The home office communication system of claim 6, further wherein the header information from the facsimile server includes a sender'"'"'s name and a sender'"'"'s telephone number.

8. The home office communication system of claim 3, further including an user'"'"'s computer connected to the local area network, wherein the user'"'"'s computer and the control and display system are capable of running a shared white-boarding application.

9. The home office communication system of claim 3, further including a project server connected to the local area network.

10. The home office communication system of claim 1, further including a telephone switch connected to the telephone interface.

11. The home office communication system of claim 10, wherein the telephone switch is connected to a voice mail system.

12. The home office communication system of claim 10, wherein the telephone switch is connected to a facsimile server.

13. The home office communication system of claim 1, wherein the router routes a packet of the plurality of outgoing data streams to the telephone interface when the packet includes the speech tag.

14. A method of operating a home office communication system comprising the steps of:

(a) establishing a communication link between a home modem and an office modem;

(b) selecting one of a plurality of communication options;

(c) selecting a second of the plurality of communication options;

(d) when the one of the plurality of communication options, is an email request, forming an email query packet;

(e) determining if a speech packet is pending;

(f) when the speech packet is not pending sending the email query packet.

15. The method of claim 14, further including the steps of:

(g) when the one of the plurality of communication options is a telephone conversation, establishing a voice channel over the communication link;

(h) digitizing a user'"'"'s voice to form a digitized voice signal; and

(i) packetizing the digitized voice signal to form a plurality of voice packets, each of the plurality of voice packets including a speech tag.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein step (h) further includes the step of:

(h1) compressing the digitized voice signal.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein step (g) further includes the steps of:

(g1) requesting a directory listing having a plurality of names

(g2) selecting one of the plurality of names;

(g3) dialing a telephone number associated with one of the plurality of names.

18. The method of claim 15, further including the step of:

(j) receiving an email option.

19. The method of claim 14, further including the steps of:

(g) when the second of the plurality of communication options is an incoming telephone call, analyzing a caller'"'"'s speech to recognize the caller;

(h) selecting a file associated with the caller.

20. The method of claim 14, further including the step of:

(g) when the second of the plurality of communication options is a telephone conversation, establishing a second voice channel over the communication link.

21. The method of claim 14, further including the steps of:

(g) when the second of the plurality of communication options is a shared white-boarding application, transmitting a start white-boarding request to a target computer;

(h) receiving an acknowledgement from the target computer.