VoIP call through tester

• US 7,436,936 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2005
• Issued: 10/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Terpstra, Richard D., Ward, John Thomas, Traylor, Thomas S., Lundgren, Andrew B., Brown, Gregory Keith
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Quynh H
• Application Number:
  US11/064,415
• Publication Number:
  US 20060188080A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,330 Days
• Field of Search: 379/27.01, 370/352, 370/401, 370/467
• US Class Current: 379/27.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/56 for VoIP communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/202 VoIP; Packet switched telephony
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/385 using speech signals
• 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

According to various embodiments of the present invention, systems and methods for verifying the routing of a call through a network, including: generating an outbound call from a test tool in a first network, the outbound call including a test key and a destination number, the destination number being associated with a communication device accessible to first network, routing the outbound call to second network, receiving outbound call from second network in the form of inbound call to first network, the inbound call including the test key and the destination number, accessing the test key, and based at least in part on the test key, routing the inbound call to the test tool. In some instances, call tracking information may be collected, analyzed, and/or displayed.

Claims

1. A method for verifying the routing of a call through a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) network, the method comprising:

generating an outbound call from a test tool in a first network, wherein the first network is a VoIP network, and wherein the outbound call includes a test key and a destination number, and wherein the destination number is associated with a communication device accessible to the first network;

routing the outbound call to a second network;

receiving the outbound call from the second network in the form of an inbound call to the first network, wherein the inbound call includes the test key and the destination number;

accessing the test key; and

based at least in part on the test key, routing the inbound call to the test tool.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second network is a public switched telephone network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the test tool is a computer terminal communicably coupled to the first network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the test tool is a computer terminal communicably coupled to the second network, and wherein the second network is a public switched telephone network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the network resource is selected from a group consisting of:

a session border controller, a gateway, a gateway controller, a softswitch, a proxy server, and a feature server.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the network resource is a softswitch, and wherein the softswitch is configured to route all outbound calls to the public switched telephone network.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the network resource is a softswitch, and wherein the softswitch is configured to route only outbound calls containing the test key to the public switched telephone network.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

making a record that indicates whether the destination number has been properly re-routed back to the test tool.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

collecting tracking information for the inbound call and the outbound call.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the tracking information is selected from a group consisting of signaling system 7 tracking information, internet protocol device control tracking information, and session initiation protocol tracking information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the session initiation protocol tracking information includes signaling latency information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

calculating post-dialing delay.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

providing a graphical output device;

creating a sequence diagram showing the tracking information; and

displaying the sequence diagram on the graphical output device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the graphical output device is communicably coupled to a voice call coordinator.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the test tool is a computer terminal communicably coupled to the first network, and wherein the first network is a Voice over Internet Protocol network.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the test tool is a computer terminal communicably coupled to the second network, wherein the first network is a Voice over Internet Protocol network, and wherein the second network is a public switched telephone network.

5. A system for verifying voice over Internet protocol network provisioning, the system comprising:

a computer, wherein the computer is communicably coupled to a computer readable medium and a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) network, and wherein the computer readable medium includes instructions executable by a microprocessor to;

generate an outbound call, wherein the outbound call includes a test key and a destination number, and wherein the destination number is associated with a communication device accessible to the VoIP network;

provide the outbound call to a routing resource associated with the VoIP network, wherein the routing resource is operable to direct the outbound call to a another network and to receive the outbound call back from the another network, and wherein the routing resource is further operable to access the test key;

receive the outbound call routed to the computer from the routing resource based at least in part on the test key; and

make a record indicating whether the outbound call was properly routed based on receiving the outbound call from the routing resource.

18. A method to verify whether a call has been properly routed in a voice over internet protocol network, the method comprising:

generating an outbound call from a test tool in a voice over internet protocol network, wherein the outbound call includes a destination number;

routing the outbound call to a public switched telephone network;

determining whether the outbound call has been placed to the destination number without being routed back into the voice over internet protocol network; and

ending the outbound call by the test tool based on a determination that the outbound call has been placed to the destination number without being routed back into the voice over internet protocol network; and

based on the determination that the outbound call has been placed to the destination number without being routed back into the voice over internet protocol network, indicating that the outbound call was not correctly routed.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

making a record that indicates that the destination party phone number has not been properly provisioned.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein determining whether the outbound call has been placed to the destination party phone number without coming back into the VoIP network comprises:

determining whether the outbound call rings at the destination party phone number.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

collecting call tracking information for the outbound call from at least one device that handled the outbound call; and

displaying the call tracking information for the outbound call.

29. The method of claim 18, wherein the outbound call includes a test key accessible by one or more network routing resources, each network routing resource configured to determine whether to route the outbound call to another network routing resource or the test tool based on the destination number and the test key.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein each network routing resource is further configured to determine if the network routing resource is a last device to handle the outbound call based on the destination number and the test key.

22. A system for verifying the routing of a voice-over-internet-protocol call through a voice over internet protocol network, the system comprising:

a test tool within a voice over internet protocol network configured to generate an outbound call with a predetermined originating number and a destination number, and wherein the destination number is associated with a communication device accessible to the voice over internet protocol network;

a first network routing resource configured to receive the outbound call, send the outbound call to a public switched telephone network, receive the outbound call back from the public switched telephone network in the form of an inbound call, and route the inbound call through the voice over internet protocol network;

a second network routing resource configured to receive the inbound call, recognize that the inbound call is a test call based on the predetermined originating number, and route the test call back to the test tool.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the first network routing resource and the second network routing resource are each selected from a group consisting of:

a session border controller, a softswitch, a gateway, a gateway controller, a proxy server, and a feature server.

24. The system of claim 22, further comprising a voice call coordinator configured to collect tracking information for the test call, wherein the tracking information is selected from a group consisting of:

signaling system 7 tracking information, internet protocol device control tracking information, and session initiation protocol tracking information.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the voice call coordinator is further configured to calculate post-dialing delay.

26. A system for verifying network provisioning, the system comprising:

a computer, wherein the computer is communicably coupled to a computer readable medium and a first network, and wherein the computer readable medium includes instructions executable by a microprocessor to;

generate an outbound call, wherein the outbound call includes a test key and a destination number, and wherein the destination number is associated with a communication device accessible to the first network;

provide the outbound call to a routing resource associated with the first network, wherein the routing resource is operable to direct the outbound call to a second network and to receive the outbound call back from the second network, and wherein the routing resource is further operable to access the test key;

receive the outbound call routed to the computer from the routing resource based at least in part on the test key; and

make a record indicating whether the outbound call was properly routed based on receiving the outbound call from the routing resource.

27. A system for verifying provisioned access numbers in a voice over internet protocol network, the system comprising:

a softswitch associated with a first network, wherein the softswitch is communicably coupled to a test tool, and wherein the softswitch is operable to;

receive a test call from the test tool, wherein the test call includes a test key and a destination number, and wherein the destination number is associated with a communication device accessible to a first network;

direct the test call to a second network;

receive the test call back from the second network;

access the test key; and

based at least in part on the test key, route the test call to the test tool.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the first network is a voice over internet protocol network, and wherein the second network is a public switched telephone network.