Method and system for preserving service node resources and reducing clipping effect

• US 7,688,962 B1
• Filed: 08/26/1999
• Issued: 03/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Knoerle, Joseph Michael, Nguyen, Hong, Zhang, Zeeman
• Primary Examiner(s): Matar; Ahmad F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): LE, KAREN L
• Application Number:
  US09/383,145
• Time in Patent Office: 3,869 Days
• Field of Search: 379/207.07, 379/207.02, 379/207.04, 379/207.05, 379/207.16, 379/211.01
• US Class Current: 379/211.04
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/12 intelligent networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/206 composed of PSTN and wireless network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42263 where the same subscriber uses different terminals, i.e. nomadism
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/465 Arrangements for simultaneously calling a number of substations until an answer is obtained

Abstract

The present invention provides telephone line subscribers the benefits of simultaneous ringing service without wasting telephone network resources. When a simultaneous ringing service subscriber'"'"'s wireline telephone (the primary telephone) receives an incoming call, a service switching point connected to the primary telephone sends a query to a service control point. The service control point then checks the busy/idle status of the primary telephone as well as the subscriber'"'"'s wireless telephone (the secondary telephone). If the primary and the secondary telephones are idle and can receive the call, the service control point instructs the service switching point to forward the call to a service node. Otherwise, the service switching point is authorized to terminate the call. When the service node receives the call from the service switching point, it generates two calls simultaneously: one to the primary telephone and one to the secondary telephone. As soon as one of the primary and the secondary telephones is picked up, the service node immediately cancels the call to the telephone that has not answered and connects the caller to the telephone that has answered. The service node then remains on the communication link for several seconds before withdrawing from the communication to minimize a “clipping effect” associated with the use of the service node.

Claims

1. A method for making simultaneous ringing calls comprising:

detecting an incoming call to a first telephone by a service switching point;

determining by a service control point associated with the service switching point an operational status of a service node;

checking by the service control point a busy/idle status of a second telephone associated with the first telephone if the service node is operational; and

generating a first outgoing call to the first telephone and a second outgoing call to the second telephone by the service node if, but only if, the first telephone and second telephone are idle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting is performed by a trigger provisioned at the service switching point.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the trigger is a termination attempt trigger.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the checking is performed by the service control point by sending a Monitor_for_Change message to, and by receiving a Status_Reported message from, the service switching point.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising exchanging messages between the service control point and the service node via X.25 interface.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second telephone is a wireless telephone that is served by a home location register.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the checking is performed by the service control point by sending an IS-41 LocationRequest message to, and by receiving an IS-41 LocationRequest Return Result message from, the home location register.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising checking a busy/idle status of the first telephone if the service node is operational.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first outgoing call and the second outgoing call are generated if both the first telephone and the second telephones are idle.

10. A method for providing simultaneous ringing service comprising:

associating telephone numbers of a primary telephone and a secondary telephone in a database;

detecting an incoming call to the primary telephone;

determining an operational status of a service node;

checking busy/idle status of the primary telephone and the secondary telephone if the service node is operational;

generating by the service node a first outgoing call to the primary telephone and a second outgoing call to the secondary telephone if, but only if, both the primary telephone and the secondary telephone are idle; and

upon answering by the primary telephone or the secondary telephone, connecting the incoming call to the telephone that has answered and canceling the call to the other telephone that has not answered.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the database is maintained at a service control point, and wherein the detecting is performed by a trigger provisioned at a first service switching point associated with the primary telephone.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the secondary telephone is a wireline telephone that is connected to a second service switching point.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the checking is performed by the service control point by sending Monitor_for_Change messages to, and by receiving Status_Reported messages from, the first service switching point and the second service switching point.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein said the secondary telephone is a wireless telephone line that is served by a home location register.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the checking is performed by the service control point sending a Monitor_for_Change message to, and receiving a Status_Reported message from, the first service switching point, and sending an IS-41 LocationRequest message to, and receiving an IS-41 LocationRequest Return Result message from, the home location register.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first outgoing call is generated about four seconds after the second outgoing call is generated.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

keeping the incoming call connected through the service node for a predetermined duration; and

upon expiration of the predetermined duration, withdrawing the service node from the incoming call connection.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the predetermined duration is a tunable variable.

19. An advanced intelligent network telecommunication system comprising:

a first service switching point connected to a primary telephone of a subscriber, the primary telephone having a primary telephone number;

a service control point having a database associating the primary telephone number with a secondary telephone number of a secondary telephone of the subscriber;

means for detecting an incoming call to the primary telephone;

means for determining an operational status of a service node associated with the service control point; and

means for checking busy/idle status of the primary telephone and secondary telephone,

wherein when the incoming call to the primary telephone is detected, the service control point determines the operational status of the service node, and the service control point checks the busy/idle status of the primary telephone and secondary telephone if the service node is operational, and the service control point forwards the incoming call to the service node for generating a first outgoing call to the primary telephone and a second outgoing call to the secondary telephone if, but only if, both the primary telephone and the secondary telephone are idle.

20. The telecommunication system of claim 19, wherein the detecting means is performed by a trigger provisioned at the first service switching point.

21. The telecommunication system of claim 20, wherein the trigger is a termination attempt trigger.

22. The telecommunication system of claim 19, wherein the secondary telephone is a wireline telephone connected to a second service switching point.

23. The telecommunication system of claim 22, wherein the busy/idle status checking means is performed by the service control point by sending Monitor_for_Change messages to, and by receiving Status_Reported messages from, the first service switching point and the second service switching point.

24. The telecommunication system of claim 19, wherein secondary telephone is a wireless telephone served by a home location register.

25. The telecommunication system of claim 24, wherein the busy/idle status checking means is performed by the service control point by sending a Monitor_for_Change message to, and by receiving Status_Reported message from, the first service switching point, and by sending an IS-41 LocationRequest message to, and by receiving an IS-41 LocationRequest Return Result message from, the home location register.

26. The telecommunication system of claim 19, wherein the second outgoing call is generated about four seconds before the first outgoing call is generated.

27. A telecommunication system comprising a service node, a first telephone, a switch associated with the first telephone, and a second telephone, wherein when the first telephone receives an incoming call from a caller, the switch forwards the incoming call to the service node if the service node has been determined to be operational, the service node then generates a first outgoing call to the first telephone and a second outgoing call to the second telephone if both the first telephone and the second telephone have been determined to be idle, and when one of the first telephone and the second telephone answers, the service node makes a connection between the caller and the telephone that answers, maintains the connection for a predetermined duration, and withdrawing from the connection after the predetermined duration has expired.

28. The telecommunication system of claim 27, wherein the predetermined duration is a tunable variable.

29. A method for providing simultaneous ringing service comprising:

associating a first telephone number of a wireline telephone and a second telephone number of a wireless telephone in a database accessible by a service control point;

detecting an incoming call to the wireline telephone;

determining by the service control point an operational status of a service node associated with the service control point;

checking by the service control point busy/idle status of the wireline telephone and the wireless telephone if the service node is operational;

generating by the service node a first outgoing call to the wireless telephone and a second outgoing call to the wireline telephone if, but only if, both the wireline telephone and the wireless telephone are available to receive calls; and

after one of the wireline telephone and the wireless telephone answers one of the first outgoing call and the second outgoing call, connecting the incoming call to the telephone that has answered and canceling the remaining one of the first outgoing call and the second outgoing call.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the detecting is performed by a trigger provisioned at a service switching point connected to the wireline telephone.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the trigger is a termination attempt trigger.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the checking is performed by the service control point by sending a Monitor_for_Change message to, and by receiving Status_Reported message from, the service switching point, and by sending an IS-41 LocationRequest message to, and by receiving an IS-41 LocationRequest Return Result message from, a home location register serving the wireless telephone.

33. The method of claim 29, wherein the second outgoing call is generated about four seconds after the first outgoing call is generated.

34. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

keeping the incoming call connected through the service node for a predetermined duration; and

upon expiration of the predetermined duration, withdrawing the service node from the incoming call connection.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the predetermined duration is a tunable variable.

36. A method for making simultaneous ringing calls comprising:

detecting by a switch an incoming call from a caller telephone to a primary telephone of a subscriber;

querying a service control point by the switch for a secondary telephone associated with the subscriber;

determining by the service control point an operational status of a service node associated with the service control point;

checking by the service control point busy/idle status of the primary telephone and the secondary telephone if the service node is operational; and

generating by the service node a first ongoing call to the primary telephone and a second outgoing call to the secondary telephone if, but only if, both the primary telephone and the secondary telephone are idle.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the determining includes exchanging messages between the service control point and the service node.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the messages are exchanged via X.25 interface.

39. The method of claim 36, further comprising:

connecting the caller telephone to one of the primary telephone and the secondary telephone that answers one of the first outgoing call and the second outgoing call;

canceling the remaining one of the first outgoing call and the second outgoing call;

keeping the caller telephone and the one of the primary telephone and the secondary telephone connected through the service node for a predetermined duration; and

upon expiration of the predetermined duration, withdrawing the service node from the connection.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the predetermined duration is a tunable variable.