Methods and apparatus to limit ring trees in voice over internet protocol networks
First Claim
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1. A voice over Internet protocol apparatus comprising:
- a call handler to enforce a parallel ring policy to limit a number of devices rung in response to a call based on parallel ring control information contained in a voice over Internet protocol call control message sent to a called telephone number associated with the call, the parallel ring control information including a parallel ring tree depth of a parallel ring tree associated with the call, the parallel ring tree depth being updateable during the call to indicate how many intervening telephone numbers along a path of the parallel ring tree have been called in response to an original called telephone number being called, the call handler to include an updated parallel ring tree depth in a second voice over Internet protocol call control message to be sent to a second telephone number during the call.
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus to limit ring trees in voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) networks are disclosed. A disclosed example parallel ring policy enforcer comprises a memory to hold parallel ring tree information and a policy checker to enforce a parallel ring policy based on a parallel ring request and the parallel ring tree information.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A voice over Internet protocol apparatus comprising:
a call handler to enforce a parallel ring policy to limit a number of devices rung in response to a call based on parallel ring control information contained in a voice over Internet protocol call control message sent to a called telephone number associated with the call, the parallel ring control information including a parallel ring tree depth of a parallel ring tree associated with the call, the parallel ring tree depth being updateable during the call to indicate how many intervening telephone numbers along a path of the parallel ring tree have been called in response to an original called telephone number being called, the call handler to include an updated parallel ring tree depth in a second voice over Internet protocol call control message to be sent to a second telephone number during the call. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A parallel ring policy enforcer comprising:
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a memory to store parallel ring tree information; and a policy checker to enforce a parallel ring policy based on a parallel ring request and the parallel ring tree information, the parallel ring request including a current parallel ring tree depth of a parallel ring tree associated with a called telephone number, the current parallel ring tree depth included in the parallel ring control information contained in a call control message sent to establish a call to the called telephone number and not available to the policy checker prior to the call control message being sent to the called telephone number, the current parallel ring tree depth being updateable to indicate how many intervening telephone numbers along a path of the parallel ring tree have been called in response to an original called telephone number being called, the policy checker to compare the current parallel ring tree depth to a threshold to enforce a parallel ring tree depth limit. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method comprising:
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receiving a call control message having a header containing parallel ring control information including a parallel ring tree depth of a parallel ring tree associated with the call control message, the parallel ring tree comprising a root called telephone number and a first level associated with a first set of child telephone numbers configured to be rung when the root called telephone number is called, the parallel ring tree depth updateable to indicate that the parallel ring tree further comprises a second level associated with a second set of child telephone numbers when the second set of child telephone numbers is determined to be configured to be rung in response to a first child telephone number included in the first set of child telephone numbers being called; and determining a number of allowed parallel rings based on (i) a comparison of a first threshold and a number of substantially simultaneous parallel rings requested to be performed in response to receiving the call control message, (ii) a comparison of a second threshold and the parallel ring tree depth, the parallel ring tree depth being updateable to indicate how many intervening telephone numbers along a path of the parallel ring tree have been called in response to the root called telephone number being called, and (iii) a comparison of a third threshold and a system-wide number of parallel rings occurring in a time period. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26)
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27. A tangible article of manufacture storing machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
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receive a call control message having a header containing parallel ring control information including a parallel ring tree depth of a parallel ring tree associated with the call control message, the parallel ring tree comprising a root called telephone number and a first level associated with a first set of child telephone numbers to be rung when the root called telephone number is called, the parallel ring tree depth updateable to indicate that the parallel ring tree further comprises a second level associated with a second set of child telephone numbers when the second set of child telephone numbers is to be rung in response to a first child telephone number included in the first set of child telephone numbers being called; and determine a number of allowed parallel rings by (i) comparing a first threshold to a number of substantially simultaneous parallel rings requested to be performed in response to receiving the call control message, (ii) comparing a second threshold to the parallel ring tree depth, the parallel ring tree depth being different from the requested number of substantially simultaneous parallel rings, and (iii) comparing a third threshold to a system-wide number of parallel rings occurring in a time period. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30)
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Specification