Methods and apparatus to perform outdial communication services

• US 7,782,842 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2006
• Issued: 08/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SBC Knowledge Ventures LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Schneider, Marco, Cunetto, Philip Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Ni, Suhan
• Application Number:
  US11/363,479
• Publication Number:
  US 20070086439A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,639 Days
• Field of Search: 370352-356, 37039552- 53, 370/401, 379/90.01, 379 9301- 9302, 379/93.09, 379242-243
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00214 details of transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00217 only involving computer data transmission protocols, e.g. SMTP, WAP or HTTP communication protocol aspects and techniques in packet data networks H04L69/00; network-specific arrangements or communication protocols supporting networked applications H04L67/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00312 with a digital transmission apparatus, e.g. a switched network of teleprinters for the distribution of text-based information, SMS or ISDN device transmitting or receiving via a computer, e.g. using e-mail, a computer network or the internet H04N1/00214; transmission of digital information H04L

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to perform outdial communication services are disclosed. A disclosed method to route an outdial call from a first communication device to a first endpoint comprises receiving an indial call setup from a second endpoint at the first communication device, wherein the call setup contains an access number used to route an indial call associated with the indial call setup from the second endpoint via a second communication device to the first communication device, and selecting, based on the access number, a route for the outdial call that includes the second communication device, wherein the second communication device is configured to communicatively couple the first and the second endpoints.

Claims

1. A method to route an outdial call from a first communication device to a first endpoint, comprising:

receiving an indial call setup from a second endpoint at the first communication device, wherein the indial call setup contains an access number used to route an indial call associated with the indial call setup from the second endpoint via a second communication device to the first communication device; and

selecting, based on the access number, a route for the outdial call from the first communication device to the first endpoint that includes the second communication device, the indial call and the outdial call being separate calls with different call setups including different respective initiation and destination endpoints; and

configuring the second communication device to use the selected route to communicatively couple the first and the second endpoints.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the second communication device is a public switched telephone network (PSTN) switch.

3. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein configuring the PSTN switch to communicatively couple the first and the second endpoints is performed by a gateway.

4. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein the first communication device causes at least one of an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) H.450-2 call transfer message or a session initiation protocol (SIP) message to be sent to the gateway to initiate the configuring of the PSTN switch.

5. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the first communication device is a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) application server, and wherein the VoIP application server is communicatively coupled to the PSTN switch via a gateway.

6. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein, in response to the configuring, the PSTN switch performs a two B-channel transfer (TBCT).

7. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein, selecting, based on the access number, the route for the outdial call that includes the PSTN switch comprises selecting a two B-channel transfer (TBCT) capable trunk group from a list of trunk groups associated with the access number.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the second communication device is configured to communicatively couple the first and the second endpoints without further use of resources between the first and the second communication devices.

9. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the second communication device is at least one of a session border controller, a proxy server, a session initiation protocol (SIP) proxy server, or a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) softswitch implementing proxy server functionality.

10. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the first and the second endpoints are packet-based endpoints, and wherein the at least one of the session border controller, the proxy server, the SIP proxy server, or the VoIP softswitch implementing proxy server functionality form a packet-based bridge between the first and the second endpoints.

11. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first and the second endpoints are packet-based endpoints, and further comprising:

configuring the first endpoint with the second endpoint'"'"'s Internet Protocol (IP) address; and

configuring the second endpoint with the first endpoint'"'"'s IP address, wherein the first and the second endpoints communicate directly via the IP addresses.

12. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein at least one of the first endpoint or the second endpoint is at least one of a packet-based endpoint, a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phone, a VoIP adapter, a VoIP softswitch, a session border controller, a proxy server, a session initiation protocol (SIP) proxy server or a public switched telephone network (PSTN) based endpoint.

13. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the second endpoint corresponds to the initiation endpoint of the indial call setup and the first communication device corresponds to the destination endpoint of the indial call setup, and wherein the first communication device corresponds to the initiation endpoint of the outdial call setup and the first endpoint corresponds to the destination endpoint of the outdial call setup.

14. A method to route an outdial call from a first voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) communication device to a first endpoint, comprising:

receiving an indial call setup from a second endpoint at the first VoIP communication device, wherein the indial call setup contains an access number used to route an indial call associated with the indial call setup from the second endpoint via a second VoIP communication device to the first VoIP communication device; and

selecting, based on the access number, a route for the outdial call from the first VoIP communication device to the first endpoint that includes the second VoIP communication device, the indial call and the outdial call being separate calls with different call setups including different respective initiation and destination endpoints; and

configuring the second VoIP communication device to use the selected route to communicatively couple the first and the second endpoints.

15. A method as defined in claim 14, wherein the second VoIP communication device is at least one of a session border controller, a proxy server, a session initiation protocol (SIP) proxy server, or a VoIP softswitch implementing proxy server functionality.

16. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein the first and the second endpoints are packet-based endpoints, and wherein the at least one of the session border controller, the proxy server, the session initiation protocol (SIP) proxy server, or the VoIP softswitch implementing proxy server functionality form a packet-based bridge between the first and the second endpoints.

17. A method as defined in claim 14, wherein the first and the second endpoints are packet-based endpoints, and further comprising:

configuring the first endpoint with the second endpoint'"'"'s Internet Protocol (IP) address; and

configuring the second endpoint with the first endpoint'"'"'s IP address, wherein the first and the second endpoints communicate directly via the IP addresses.

18. A method as defined in claim 14, wherein at least one of the first endpoint or the second endpoint is at least one of a packet-based endpoint, a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phone, a VoIP adapter, a VoIP softswitch, a session border controller, a proxy server, a session initiation protocol (SIP) proxy server or a public switched telephone network (PSTN) based endpoint.

19. A method as defined in claim 14, wherein the second endpoint corresponds to the initiation endpoint of the indial call setup and the first VoIP communication device corresponds to the destination endpoint of the indial call setup, and wherein the first VoIP communication device corresponds to the initiation endpoint of the outdial call setup and the first endpoint corresponds to the destination endpoint of the outdial call setup.