Internet telephone connection method, bandwidth controller and gate keeper

• US 7,272,134 B2
• Filed: 06/10/2003
• Issued: 09/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Mori, Yuichi, Honda, Ryogo, Sugimoto, Tomohide, Kuroyanagi, Kansuke, Iwama, Etsuko
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, HANH N
• Application Number:
  US10/459,174
• Publication Number:
  US 20030235187A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,561 Days
• Field of Search: 370/352, 370/389, 370/395.41, 370/395.21, 370/398, 370/395.31, 370/468, 370/351, 370/217, 370/218, 370/221, 370/225
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5012 determining service availability, e.g. which services are available at a certain point in time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/55 Testing of service level quality, e.g. simulating service usage
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/724 at intermediate nodes, e.g. resource reservation protocol [RSVP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/745 Reaction in network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/762 triggered by the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/781 Centralised allocation of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/785 among multiple network domains, e.g. multilateral agreements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/801 Real time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/826 Involving periods of time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/103 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/104 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1106 Call signalling protocols; H.323 and related
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/08 Indicating faults in circuits or apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1245 : where a network other than PSTN/ISDN interconnects two PSTN/ISDN networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1285 : Details of finding and selecting a gateway for a particular call

Abstract

In an Internet telephone connection method, a communication bandwidth is managed by using a bandwidth controller, gateway devices and voice relay routers to monitor communication quality under bandwidth reservation. A communication path under bandwidth reservation is preferentially selected by using gate keepers and the voice relay routers, and the connection of the Internet telephone is performed. A problematic device is prohibited from being selected as a connection-destination device at the time of a call setup and the problem restoration is monitored by using the gate keepers and the gateway devices. Further, a device having invalid attribute information is prohibited from being selected as a connection-destination device at the time of call-setup, and the restoration of the attribute information is notified to the overall network. Accordingly, the reservation of the communication bandwidth can be performed under the control of the overall network, fixed communication quality can be maintained and reliability can be enhanced.

Claims

1. An Internet telephone connection method for use on the Internet comprising plural zones, which includes gateway devices each for mutually connecting a PSTN (public switch telephone network) and the Internet, gate keepers each provided for each zone and each for managing the gateway devices in a corresponding zone, and a bandwidth controller for managing the gate keeper in each zone, wherein:

each of said gate keepers have a device status managing table in which status information of the gateway device in the corresponding zone as well as the status information of gateway devices managed by other gate keepers in other zones are registered;

said bandwidth controller has a bandwidth reservation schedule table in which communication bandwidth and two gateway devices using this communication bandwidth for communication are registered with a reservation time zone, so as to determine a communication bandwidth to be reserved and two gateway devices communicating with each other using this communication bandwidth, according to said bandwidth reservation schedule table and information obtained from said device status managing table, said bandwidth controller configured to transmit a bandwidth reservation request for the communication bandwidth thus determined to the two gateway devices thus determined; and

each of said gateway devices reserves the communication bandwidth with a counterpart gateway device according to the bandwidth reservation request, wherein;

when call request is made from a calling side PSTN terminal in a PSTN to a called side PSTN terminal in another PSTN, a calling side gateway device which is connected to the PSTN

at the calling side notifies the telephone number of a call destination to said gate keeper managing the calling side gateway device to determine the corresponding called side gateway device, and

the calling side and called side PSTNs are connected via the Internet by using the communication bandwidth reserved between the calling side gateway device and the called side gateway device, thereby connecting the calling side PSTN terminal to the called side PSTN terminal.

2. The Internet telephone connection method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

when the connection to said gateway device notified from said gate keeper fails due to some problem, congestion or the like, said calling side gateway device notifies to said calling side gate keeper that some problem occurs with respect to connectability to said called side gateway device, and

said calling side gate keeper determines another connectable gateway device when receiving from said calling said gateway device the notification indication the failure of the connection to said called side gateway device, and registers the status of said called side gateway device as a problem state in the device status managing table, and also notifies the problem state to the other gate keepers.

3. The gate keeper used in the Internet telephone connection method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

said gate keeper carries out a test of checking connectability for said called gateway device indicated as “

out of service”

in the device status managing table of said gate keeper while the “

out of service”

continues, and alters the device status of said gateway device to “

in service”

in the device status managing table thereof when the problem is restored while notifying the “

in service”

to the other gate keepers.

4. The gate keeper used in the Internet telephone connection method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

when the connection cannot be established as requested, said gate keeper requests said called side gateway device to notify the attribute information, and compares the attribute

information notified from said called side gateway device with the attribute information of said called side gateway device registered in an attribute management table, and when comparison result shows erroneous of the attribute information, said gate keeper sets the device status of said called side gateway device to “

inappropriate data”

in the device status managing table, excludes said gateway device concerned from selection targets and notifies the “

inappropriate data”

to the other gate keepers.

5. An Internet telephone connection method for use in the Internet comprising plural zones, which includes gateway devices each for mutually connecting a PSTN (public switch telephone network) and the Internet, voice relay routers each for relaying and transferring voice, gate keepers each provided for each zone and each for managing the gateway devices and the voice relay routers in a corresponding zone, and a bandwidth controller for managing the gate keeper in each zone, wherein:

each of said gate keepers have a device status managing table in which status information of the gateway device and the voice relay router in the corresponding zone as well as the status information of gateway devices and the voice relay routers managed by other gate keepers in other zones are registered;

said bandwidth controller has a bandwidth reservation schedule table in which in a first mode of operation a communication bandwidth and two gateway devices and in a second mode of operation a gateway device and a voice relay router using this communication bandwidth for communication are registered with a reservation time zone, said bandwidth controller determining a communication bandwidth to be reserved and said two gateway devices to be used in said first mode of operation and said bandwidth controller determining a gateway device and a voice relay router communicating with each other using this communication bandwidth in said second mode of operation, according to said bandwidth reservation schedule table and information obtained from the device status managing table, said bandwidth controller further configured to transmit a bandwidth reservation request for the communication bandwidth thus determined to the two gateway devices in the first mode of operation and further transmit a bandwidth reservation request for the communication bandwidth to the gateway device and the voice relay router thus determined in said second mode of operation; and

said gateway device reserves the communication bandwidth with a counterpart gateway device according to the bandwidth reservation request, wherein;

when a call request is made from a calling side PSTN terminal in a PSTN to a called side PSTN terminal is another PSTN, a calling side gateway device which is connected to the PSTN at the calling side notifies the telephone number of a call destination to said gate keeper managing the gateway device to determine the corresponding called side gateway device, and

the calling side and called side PSTNs are connected via the Internet by using the communication bandwidth reserved between the calling side gateway device and the called side gateway device, thereby connecting the calling side PSTN terminal to the called side PSTN terminal.

6. The Internet telephone connection method as claimed in claim 5, further including IP terminals which are connected to the Internet to perform voice communications, wherein:

when a call request is made from a calling side IP terminal to a called side PSTN terminal in a PSTN connected to the Internet, said calling side IP terminal notifies the telephone number of the call destination to said gate keeper to determine the corresponding called side gateway device and a calling side voice relay router connected to said calling side IP terminal, and

said calling side IP terminal and said called side PSTN are connected via the Internet by using the communication bandwidth reserved between said calling side voice relay router and the called side gateway device, thereby connecting said calling IP terminal to said called terminal.

7. The Internet telephone connection method as claimed in claim 5, wherein:

when the communication bandwidth is reserved, said gateway device or said voice relay router measures communication quality such as packet transmission probability, transmission delay and variance of delay every fixed time with a counterpart gateway device or a voice relay router, and notifies a monitoring result abnormality to said bandwidth controller if the measured communication quality is out of a predetermined range, and

when the monitoring result abnormality is notified from said gateway device or said voice relay router to said bandwidth controller, said bandwidth controller searches an additional communication path, and transmits a reservation content altering request either the gateway device or another gateway device to reserve a communication bandwidth for the additional communication path.

8. An Internet telephone connection method for use in the Internet comprising plural zones, which includes gateway devices each for mutually connecting a PSTN (public switched telephone network) and the Internet, gate keepers each provided for each zone and each for managing the gateway devices in a corresponding zone, and a bandwidth controller for managing the gate keeper in each zone, wherein:

each of said gate keepers have a device status managing table in which status information of the gateway device in the corresponding zone as well as the status information of gateway devices managed by other gate keepers in other zones are registered, and wherein;

when, for each of said gateway devices, a communication bandwidth is reserved, said gateway device measures communication quality such as packet transmission probability, transmission delay and variance of delay every fixed time with a counterpart gateway device, and notifies a monitoring result abnormality in said communication quality to said bandwidth controller and registers the status of said counterpart gateway device as a problem state in the device status managing table, if the measured communication quality is out of a predetermined range, and when receiving the monitoring result abnormality from said gateway device, said bandwidth controller searches for an additional communication path, and instructs either the gateway device or another gateway device to reserve a communication bandwidth of the additional communication path.

9. An internet telephone connection method for use with the Internet comprising plural zones, which includes gateway devices each for mutually connecting a PSTN (public switched telephone network) and the Internet, voice relay routers each for relaying and transferring voices, gate keepers each provided for each zone and each for managing the gateway devices and the voice relay routers in a corresponding zone, and a bandwidth controller for managing the gate keeper in each zone, wherein:

each of said gate keepers have a device status managing table in which status information of the gateway device and the voice relay router in the corresponding zone as well as the status information of gateway devices and the voice relay routers managed by other gate keepers in other zones are registered, and wherein;

when, for each of said gateway devices, a communications bandwidth is reserved, said voice relay router measure communication quality such as packet transmission probability, transmission delay and variance of delay, every fixed time with a counterpart gateway device or voice relay router, and notifies a monitoring result abnormality in said communication quality to said bandwidth controller if the measured communication quality is out of a predetermined range, and

when the monitoring result abnormality is notified from said voice relay router to said bandwidth controller, said bandwidth controller searches for an additional communication path, and instructs either the gateway device or another gateway device to reserve a communication bandwidth for the additional communication path.

10. A bandwidth controller for use in an Internet telephone system having gateway devices each for mutually connecting a PSTN (public switched telephone network) and the Internet comprising plural zones, voice relay routers each for relaying and transferring speech, and gate keepers each provided for each zone and each for managing said gateway devices and said voice relay routers in a corresponding zone, including:

a status managing means which stores status information of a gateway device in the corresponding zone as well as the status information of gateway devices managed by other gate keepers in other zones,

storage means including a bandwidth reservation condition table for storing a communication bandwidth which is secured through bandwidth reservation processing, and a bandwidth reservation schedule table for storing a condition for starting the bandwidth reservation processing;

means for instructing each gateway device to reserve a communication bandwidth with a counterpart gateway device or voice relay router, cancel the reservation or alter the reservation content, according to the bandwidth reservation condition table and the bandwidth reservation schedule table; and

means for searching an additional communication path when a monitoring result abnormality is notified from said gateway device or said voice relay router, and instructing another gateway device to reserve a communication bandwidth of the additional communication path, thereby managing said gate keeper in each zone.

11. An Internet telephone connection method for use on the Internet comprising plural zones, which includes gateway devices each for mutually connecting a PSTN (public switch telephone network) and the Internet, gate keepers each provided for each zone and each for managing the gateway devices in a corresponding zone, and a bandwidth controller for managing the gate keeper in each zone, wherein:

each of said gate keepers have a device status managing table in which status information of the gateway device in the corresponding zone as well as the status information of gateway devices managed by other gate keepers in other zones are registered;

each of said gate keepers further having a bandwidth reservation schedule table in which communication bandwidth and two gateway devices using this communication bandwidth for communication are registered with a reservation time zone, wherein information stored in said bandwidth reservation schedule table is provided to said bandwidth controller;

said bandwidth controller determines communication bandwidth to be reserved and two gateway devices communicating with each other using this communication bandwidth, according to said bandwidth reservation schedule table and information obtained from said device status managing table, said bandwidth controller is further configured to transmit a bandwidth reservation request for the communication bandwidth thus determined to the two gateway devices thus determined; and

each of said gateway devices reserves the communication bandwidth with a counterpart gateway device according to the bandwidth reservation request, wherein;

when call request is made from a calling side PSTN terminal in a PSTN to a called side PSTN terminal in another PSTN, a calling side gateway device which is connected to the PSTN at the calling side notifies the telephone number of a call destination to said gate keeper managing the calling side gateway device to determine the corresponding called side gateway device, and

the calling side and called side PSTNs are connected via the Internet by using the communication bandwidth reserved between the calling side gateway device and the called side gateway device, thereby connecting the calling side PSTN terminal to the called side PSTN terminal.