Local routing management in a telecommunications network

• US 7,738,647 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2008
• Issued: 06/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jordan, Dan, Gualtieri, Greg, Terpstra, Richard, Davis, Matthew K., Saha, Susmita G., Nair, Murli S., Griffin, Janis
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong; Harry S
• Application Number:
  US12/130,632
• Publication Number:
  US 20090074173A1
• Time in Patent Office: 746 Days
• Field of Search: 379/245, 379/246
• US Class Current: 379/220.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13138 Least cost routing, LCR
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13141 Hunting for free outlet, circuit or channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13349 Network management
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13353 Routing table, map memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/66 Traffic distributors

Abstract

An embodiment of a method includes generating one or more route plans, each route plan being associated with a service plan, and provisioning the one or more route plans on a core routing engine accessible by a softswitch for routing calls according to the one or more route plans. The one or more route plans may include an on-net route plan and an off-net route plan. An embodiment of a system includes a local route manager (LRM) configured to generate one or more route plans associated with one or more respective service levels that customers can subscribe to. The system may further include an inventory of trunk groups containing a plurality of trunk group identifiers (IDs), wherein trunk group IDs are marked as either on-net or off-net.

Claims

1. A method for routing calls in a communications network comprising:

generating one or more route plans, each route plan being associated with a service plan; and

provisioning the one or more route plans on a core routing engine accessible by a softswitch,

wherein the softswitch routes calls according to the one or more route plans and the one or more route plans comprise an on-net route plan and an off-net route plan.

16. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising a computer-readable medium configured with instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, perform the steps of claim 2.

2. A method for routing calls in a communications network comprising:

generating one or more route plans, each route plan being associated with a service plan; and

provisioning the one or more route plans on a core routing engine accessible by a softswitch,

wherein the softswitch routes calls according to the one or more route plans, and

wherein generating a route plan comprises;

selecting a trunk group ID from a trunk group inventory, the TGID identifying a trunk group;

associating the trunk group ID with a plurality of local calling area numbers associated with end-office switches connected to the trunk group; and

inserting the TGID in a route plan useable to route calls to the local calling area.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining the plurality of local calling area numbers, wherein determining the plurality of local calling area number comprises:

identifying a tandem switch associated with the selected TGID;

identifying one or more end-office switches associated with the tandem switch; and

identifying local calling area numbers associated with the one or more end-office switches.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein identifying the tandem switch, the one or more end-office switches and the local calling area numbers comprises performing a look-up in a local exchange routing guide (LERG).

5. A method for routing calls in a communications network comprising:

generating one or more route plans, each route plan being associated with a service plan; and

provisioning the one or more route plans on a core routing engine accessible by a softswitch,

wherein the softswitch routes calls according to the one or more route plans and provisioning each of the one or more route plans comprises storing each route plan in a partition associated with the service plan.

6. A method for routing calls in a communications network comprising:

generating one or more route plans, each route plan being associated with a service plan;

provisioning the one or more route plans on a core routing engine accessible by a softswitch,

wherein the softswitch routes calls according to the one or more route plans and each of the one or more route plans comprises a list of TGIDs identifying trunk groups for use in terminating calls.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the TGIDs are prioritized in the list.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the route plan includes one or more of a transit path, a feature group D (FGD) path, or a co-carrier path.

9. A system comprising:

a local route manager (LRM) configured to generate one or more route plans associated with one or more respective service levels that customers can subscribe to; and

an inventory of trunk groups containing a plurality of trunk group identifiers (IDs), wherein the LRM is configured to mark the trunk group IDs as either on-net or off-net.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the LRM generates the one or more route plans by selecting one of the TGIDs of the TG inventory, determining all local calling area numbers that the identified TG can terminate calls to, and associating all the LCA numbers with the selected TGID.

11. The system of claim 9 further comprising a preferred least cost routes database storing off-net least cost carriers in prioritized order of preference.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein groups of the preferred least cost carriers are stored in association with respective LATA-OCNs, wherein a LATA-OCN designates an operating carrier number identifying a carrier associated with a given local access and transport area (LATA).

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the LRM generates off-net route plans by selecting one or more off-net TGIDs from a trunk group inventory based on one or more preferred off-net least cost carriers.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the LRM further generates off-net route plans by identifying the one or more preferred off-net least cost carrier for a given LATA-OCN.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein identifying the one or more preferred off-net least cost carriers comprises indexing the data store by selected LATA-OCNs to look up the one or more preferred off-net least cost carrier in the data store.