Local routing management in a telecommunications network

• US 7,929,676 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2008
• Issued: 04/19/2011
• 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, Davis, Matthew K., Saha, Susmita G., Nair, Murli S., Griffin, Janis, Gualtieri, Greg, Terpstra, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong; Harry S
• Application Number:
  US12/130,714
• Publication Number:
  US 20090080630A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,054 Days
• Field of Search: 379/201.01, 379/201.02, 379/201.03, 379/201.05, 379/201.12, 379/219, 379/220.01, 379/221.01, 379/221.02, 379/240, 379/245, 379/246, 370352-356
• US Class Current: 379/201.02
• 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 determining a customer service plan identifier from information associated with a received call, determining a route plan associated with the identified customer service plan, and routing the call on a trunk group identified in the determined route plan. The method may further include determining a jurisdiction of the call based on a dialed number identified in the call, determining a local routing number (LRN) associated with the call, and using a portion of the LRN to determine the trunk group. An embodiment of a system includes a switch operable to select a route for routing a call received on an ingress trunk associated with a customer that subscribes to a service plan, wherein the switch is further operable to select the route based on the service plan subscribed to by the customer associated with the ingress trunk.

Claims

1. A method for servicing calls on a packet-switched network, wherein the packet-switched network is communicatively connected to a plurality of trunk groups, the method comprising:

designating in a database a subset of the plurality of trunk groups for use in local call routing;

receiving a call;

determining whether the received call is entitled to local call routing;

determining a customer service plan from information associated with the received call;

if the received call is determined to be entitled to local call routing, using the customer service plan to select one or more trunk groups from the subset of trunk groups; and

routing the received call on at least one egress trunk group identified from the subset of trunk groups.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using a portion of a local routing number associated with the received call to identify the at least one egress trunk group from the selected one or more trunk groups.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the customer service plan comprises determining an ingress trunk group pseudo-carrier code (PCC).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a dialed number associated with the received call comprises an NPA-NXX, and wherein determining whether the received call is entitled to local call routing comprises looking up the dialed number in a local calling area table that associates NPA-NXX'"'"'s of dialed numbers with NPA-NXX'"'"'s of calling party numbers, wherein NPA identifies a Number Planning Area, and NXX identifies a central office within the Number Planning Area.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the received call is a unidirectional local call.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the subset of trunk groups comprises at least one on-net trunk group and at least one off-net trunk group.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the received call is a telephone call.

7. A system comprising:

a switch operable to select a route for routing a call received on an ingress trunk associated with a customer that subscribes to a service plan, wherein the switch is further operable to select the route based on the service plan subscribed to by the customer associated with the ingress trunk.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a core routing engine (CRE) operable to store a plurality of route plans for each of a plurality of service plans to which customers can subscribe.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of route plans are stored in a plurality of partitions of the CRE in accordance with the plurality of service plans.

10. The system of claim 7, further comprising a local calling area (LCA) data store operable to store combinations of portions of calling numbers and portions of called numbers designating calls that are entitled to local routing.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the portions of the calling numbers and the portions of the called numbers are either 6 digit portions or 7 digit portions.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the LCA data store is operable to be provisioned with data from an HTLT data store.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the switch is operable to access the LCA data store to determine whether calls are entitled to local routing.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the switch is operable to identify a partition for determining a route plan for routing the received call based on the service plan subscribed to by the customer.

15. The system of claim 7, wherein the switch is operable configured to determine the customer based on the ingress trunk.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the ingress trunk is associated with a pseudo carrier code identifying the service plan of the customer.

17. The system of claim 7, wherein the selected route comprises an off-net route.

19. The system of claim 7, wherein the received call is a telephone call.