System and method for providing requested quality of service in a hybrid network

• US 8,194,646 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2007
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MCI Communications Corporation (Verizon Communications Inc.), Verizon Communications Inc., Verizon Services Corporation (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Elliott, Isaac K., Reynolds, Tim E., Krishnaswamy, Sridhar
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, M.
• Application Number:
  US11/928,153
• Publication Number:
  US 20080095339A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,680 Days
• Field of Search: 370230-352, 370401-474, 379 93-100, 455557-559, 358401-474
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1403 Architecture for metering, charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1428 Invoice generation, e.g. customization, lay-out, database processing, algorithms for calculating the bill or formatting invoices as WWW pages invoicing in general G06Q30/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1439 time-based
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1446 inter-operator billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1453 Methods or systems for payment or settlement of the charges for data transmission involving significant interaction with the data transmission network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1482 involving use of telephony infrastructure for billing for the transport of data, e.g. call detail record [CDR] or intelligent network infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1485 Tariff-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1492 negotiation of tariff
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6456 Channel and bandwidth allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0659 by isolating or reconfiguring faulty entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/18 Delegation of network management function, e.g. customer network management [CNM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5029 Service quality level-based billing, e.g. dependent on measured service level customer is charged more or less
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5067 Customer-centric QoS measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5074 Handling of user complaints or trouble tickets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 : wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 : Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 : Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 : relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 : Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/72 : using reservation actions during connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/724 : at intermediate nodes, e.g. resource reservation protocol [RSVP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/781 : Centralised allocation of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/805 : QOS or priority aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/808 : User-type aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 : Collecting or measuring resource availability data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/83 : based on usage prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 : Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/45 : Network directories; Name-to-address mapping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/04 : for providing a confidential data exchange among entities communicating through data packet networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 : using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0853 : using an additional device, e.g. smartcard, SIM or a different communication terminal cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving additional secure or trusted devices H04L9/3234
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 : Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1043 : Gateway controllers, e.g. media gateway control protocol [MGCP] controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1096 : Supplementary features, e.g. call forwarding or call holding systems providing special services or facilities to telephony subscribers H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 : Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1106 : Call signalling protocols; H.323 and related
• 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: H04L 65/80 : Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 : Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/55 : for hybrid networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8016 : based on quality of service [QoS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/2046 : Hybrid network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7414 : QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 : where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42161 : via computer interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/123 : where the packet-switched network is an Internet Protocol Multimedia System-type network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1275 : Methods and means to improve the telephone service quality, e.g. reservation, prioritisation or admission control

Abstract

Telephone calls, data and other multimedia information is routed through a hybrid network which includes transfer of information across the internet. A media order entry captures complete user profile information for a user. This profile information is utilized by the system throughout the media experience for routing, billing, monitoring, reporting and other media control functions. Users can manage more aspects of a network than previously possible, and control network activities from a central site. The hybrid network also contains logic for responding to requests for quality of service and reserving the resources to provide the requested services.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting a fax call by sensing tones on a line;

determining whether the fax call is directed to at least one of a particular country or city;

routing the fax call over a Public Switched Telephone Network when the fax call is not directed to the at least one of a particular country or city; and

routing the fax call over a data network when the fax call is directed to the at least one of a particular country or city,

where routing the fax call over the data network includes;

routing the fax call to a gateway based on a telephone number associated with a fax machine to which the fax call is destined, and

routing the fax call from the gateway to a destination over the data network.

2. The method of claim 1, where the line includes a trunk group, and

where the detecting is performed using sensing hardware associated with the trunk group.

3. The method of claim 1, where sensing the tones on the line is performed transparently.

4. The method of claim 1, where determining whether the fax call is directed to the at least one of the particular country or city includes:

querying a data access point using a telephone number to which the fax call is destined.

5. The method of claim 1, where sensing the tones is performed using a timer.

6. A system comprising:

a trunk group to transfer voice calls and fax calls;

one or more devices to;

detect that a call on the trunk group is a fax call,

determine whether the fax call is directed to a target destination, and

cause the fax call to be routed over a data network in response to determining that the fax call is directed to the target destination,

where, when causing the fax call to be routed over the data network, the one or more devices are configured to;

route the fax call to a gateway based on a telephone number associated with a fax machine to which the fax call is destined, the gateway being located in the target destination.

7. The system of claim 6, where the one or more devices are further configured to:

cause the fax call to be routed over a Public Switched Telephone Network in response to determining that the fax call is not directed to the target destination.

8. The system of claim 6, where the one or more devices include:

a fax tone detector, and

a data access point.

9. The system of claim 8, where the fax tone detector includes a digital signal processor that causes the fax call to be routed over the data network.

10. The system of claim 8, where the fax tone detector includes a timer to determine whether a tone associated with the call is detected within a period of time.

11. The system of claim 6, where the target destination includes at least one of a country or city.

12. The system of claim 6, where the one or more devices are configured to transparently detect that the call on the trunk group is a fax call.

13. The system of claim 6, where, when determining whether the fax call is directed to the target destination, the one or more devices are configured to:

query a data access point for a gateway using a telephone number to which the fax call is destined.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable memory device having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, the computer-executable instructions comprising:

one or more instructions to detect a fax call by sensing tones on a line;

one or more instructions to determine whether the fax call is directed to at least one of a particular country or city;

one or more instructions to route the fax call over a Public Switched Telephone Network when the fax call is not directed to the at least one of a particular country or city; and

one or more instructions to route the fax call over a data network when the fax call is directed to the at least one of a particular country or city,

where the one or more instructions to route the fax call over the data network include;

one or more instructions to route the fax call to a gateway based on a telephone number associated with a fax machine to which the fax call is destined, and

one or more instructions to route the fax call from the gateway to a destination over the data network.

15. The non-transitory memory device of claim 14, where the line includes a trunk group, and

where the one or more instructions to detect include one or more instructions to use sensing hardware associated with the trunk group.

16. The non-transitory memory device of claim 14, where sensing the tones on the line is performed transparently.

17. The non-transitory memory device of claim 14, where the one or more instructions to determine whether the fax call is directed to the at least one of the particular country or city include:

one or more instructions to query a data access point using a telephone number to which the fax call is destined.