Limiting processing of calls as text telephony calls

• US 9,226,123 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2013
• Issued: 12/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Yue, Peter, Ma, Hung, Grecki, Emmanuel, Gendron, Pierre
• Primary Examiner(s): Hu, Jinsong
• Assistant Examiner(s): GLOMAH, TABLA K
• Application Number:
  US13/772,921
• Publication Number:
  US 20140235214A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,041 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/185 wireless packet-switched
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42382 Text-based messaging services in telephone networks such as PSTN/ISDN, e.g. User-to-User Signalling or Short Message Service for fixed networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42391 where the subscribers are hearing-impaired persons, e.g. telephone devices for the deaf
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0042 where the data service is a text-based messaging service H04M7/0054 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/00 Connection management

Abstract

A communication node processes a call supported over a voice coded channel in a wireless communication network. The node tentatively designates the call as a voice call as soon as the call is initiated. While the call is designated as a voice call, the node limits processing of the call as a text telephony call to passively monitoring for one or more partial or complete text characters in the call. Responsive to detecting one or more partial or complete text characters in the call via this passive monitoring, the node designates the call as a text telephony call. While the call is designated as a text telephony call, the node fully processes the call as a text telephony call by passively detecting one or more complete text characters in the call, and conditioning and de-conditioning signals of the call for reliable transmission and reception over the voice coded channel.

Claims

1. A method performed by a communication node for processing a call supported over a voice coded channel in a wireless communication network, the method comprising:

tentatively designating the call as a voice call as soon as the call is initiated;

while the call is designated as a voice call, limiting processing of the call as a text telephony call to passively monitoring for one or more partial or complete text characters in the call;

responsive to detecting one or more partial or complete text characters in the call via said passive monitoring, designating the call as a text telephony call; and

while the call is designated as a text telephony call, fully processing the call as a text telephony call by passively detecting one or more complete text characters in the call as well as conditioning and de-conditioning signals of the call for reliable transmission and reception over the voice coded channel;

wherein the communication node is configured to process multiple calls, and wherein the method further comprises, responsive to said detection via said passive monitoring, releasing resources at the communication node performing said limited processing and selecting a resource for performing said fully processing from a pool of shared resources that are available at the communication node for fully processing a subset of the multiple calls processed by the communication node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the pool of shared resources is a pool of shared Cellular Text Telephone Modem (CTM) modem resources.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein resources at the communication node comprise processing resources instantiated by one or more digital signal processors at the communication node.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising setting an initial state of the passive detection to be performed while the call is designated as a text telephony call with a final state of the passive monitoring already performed while the call was designated as a voice call.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein passively monitoring for one or more partial or complete text characters in the call consists of:

for each of multiple sets of blocks of discrete-time samples from the call, determining whether that set of blocks conveys a bit of a text character, and if so determining the value of that bit, based on the number of blocks in the set that contain a first text telephony tone, the number of blocks in the set that contain a second text telephony tone, and the number of blocks in the set that do not contain any text telephony tone; and

determining whether said multiple sets of blocks collectively convey a partial or complete text character based on one or more rules that define a structure for the bit values of a text character.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein passively monitoring for one or more partial or complete text characters in the call comprises passively monitoring for a partial text character from a signal of the call received over the voice coded channel by the communication node.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein passively monitoring for one or more partial or complete text characters in the call comprises passively monitoring for a partial text character from a signal of a text telephony call that has leaked through the voice coded channel to the communication node without having been conditioned for reliable transport over that channel.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said passively monitoring comprises:

estimating a sequence of tones respectively associated with a sequence of frames of the voice coded channel from noisy discrete-time samples of the signal; and

estimating a sequence of bit values corresponding to the sequence of tones and determining, based on one or more rules that define a structure for the bit values of a text character, whether the sequence of bit values is characteristic of a partial text character.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein one of the rules defines a rigid structure for the bit values of a text character assuming correct estimation of the sequence of bit values despite the signal leaking through unconditioned, and another one of the rules defines a flexible structure for the bit values of a text character assuming incorrect estimation of at least some bit values in the sequence due to the signal leaking through unconditioned.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein passively monitoring for one or more partial or complete text characters in the call while the call is designated as a voice call comprises passively monitoring for a complete initial text character in the call.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein designating the call as a text telephony call responsive to said detection via said passive monitoring comprises tentatively designating the call as a text telephony call pending confirmation during full processing of the call as a text telephony call.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said conditioning comprises encoding Baudot characters of the call into a 4-tone frequency shift keying (FSK) format with interleaving and convolutional encoding, and said deconditioning comprises recovering the Baudot characters from the 4-tone FSK format.

13. A communication node configured to process a call supported over a voice coded channel in a wireless communication network, the communication node comprising:

one or more communication interfaces configured to transmit and receive signals of the call over the voice coded channel; and

one or more processing circuits configured to;

tentatively designate the call as a voice call as soon as the call is initiated;

while the call is designated as a voice call, limit processing of the call as a text telephony call to passively monitoring for one or more partial or complete text characters in the call;

responsive to detecting one or more partial or complete text characters in the call via said passive monitoring, designate the call as a text telephony call; and

while the call is designated as a text telephony call, fully process the call as a text telephony call by passively detecting one or more complete text characters in the call as well as conditioning and de-conditioning signals of the call for reliable transmission and reception over the voice coded channel;

wherein the communication node is configured to process multiple calls, and wherein the one or more processing circuits are configured, responsive to said detection via said passive monitoring, to release resources at the communication node performing said limited processing and select a resource for performing said fully processing from a pool of shared resources that are available at the communication node for fully processing a subset of the multiple calls processed by the communication node.

14. The communication node of claim 13, wherein the pool of shared resources is a pool of shared Cellular Text Telephone Modem (CTM) modem resources.

15. The communication node of claim 13, wherein resources at the communication node comprise processing resources instantiated by one or more digital signal processors at the communication node.

16. The communication node of claim 13, wherein the one or more processing circuits are further configured to set an initial state of the passive detection to be performed while the call is designated as a text telephony call with a final state of the passive monitoring already performed while the call was designated as a voice call.

17. The communication node of claim 13, wherein passive monitoring for one or more partial or complete text characters by the one or more processing circuits consists of:

for each of multiple sets of blocks of discrete-time samples from the call, determining whether that set of blocks conveys a bit of a text character, and if so determining the value of that bit, based on the number of blocks in the set that contain a first text telephony tone, the number of blocks in the set that contain a second text telephony tone, and the number of blocks in the set that do not contain any text telephony tone; and

determining whether said multiple sets of blocks collectively convey a partial or complete text character based on one or more rules that define a structure for the bit values of a text character.

18. The communication node of claim 13, wherein the one or more processing circuits are configured to passively monitor for one or more partial or complete text characters in the call by passively monitoring for a partial text character from a signal of the call received over the voice coded channel by the communication node.

19. The communication node of claim 13, wherein the one or more processing circuits are configured to passively monitor for a partial text character from a signal of a text telephony call that has leaked through the voice coded channel to the communication node without having been conditioned for reliable transport over that channel.

20. The communication node of claim 19, wherein the one or more processing circuits are configured to passively monitor for a partial text character by:

estimating a sequence of tones respectively associated with a sequence of frames of the voice coded channel from noisy discrete-time samples of the signal; and

estimating a sequence of bit values corresponding to the sequence of tones and determining, based on one or more rules that define a structure for the bit values of a text character, whether the sequence of bit values is characteristic of a partial text character.

21. The communication node of claim 20, wherein one of the rules defines a rigid structure for the bit values of a text character assuming correct estimation of the sequence of bit values despite the signal leaking through unconditioned, and another one of the rules defines a flexible structure for the bit values of a text character assuming incorrect estimation of at least some bit values in the sequence due to the signal leaking through unconditioned.

22. The communication node of claim 13, wherein the one or more processing circuits are configured to passively monitor for one or more partial or complete text characters in the call during limited processing of the call as a text telephony call by passively monitoring for a complete initial text character in the call.

23. The communication node of claim 13, wherein the one or more processing circuits are configured to designate the call as a text telephony call responsive to said detection via said passive monitoring by tentatively designating the call as a text telephony call pending confirmation during full processing of the call as a text telephony call.

24. The communication node of claim 13, wherein the one or more processing circuits are configured to condition signals of the call by encoding Baudot characters of the call into a 4-tone frequency shift keying (FSK) format with interleaving and convolutional encoding, and to decondition signals of the call by recovering the Baudot characters from the 4-tone FSK format.