Telecommunications system having separate switch intelligence and switch fabric

• US RE43,361 E1
• Filed: 01/24/2002
• Issued: 05/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MCI Communications Corporation (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Cardy, Douglas R., Rambo, Ken, Waller, Carol
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Joseph T
• Application Number:
  US10/054,245
• Time in Patent Office: 3,757 Days
• Field of Search: 379/88.17, 37922108-22111, 379/219, 379/88.18, 379/88.19, 379/201.01, 379/201.02, 379/201.03, 379/201.12, 379/207.02, 379/210.02, 379/211.02, 379/220.01, 370/360
• US Class Current: 379/201.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1305 Software aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13504 client/server architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13516 agents or brokers - user, terminal etc., also OSI agent/managers
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13533 multivendor and hybrid, e.g. public/private, networks, inc. international
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0029 Provisions for intelligent networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/5455 Multi-processor, parallelism, distributed systems

Abstract

The present invention is a telecommunications system having separate switch fabric and switch intelligence. The system comprises a switch fabric, a switch intelligence, and a feature processor. The switch intelligence is logically separated from the switch fabric and comprises a switch fabric proxy, a facility service, a connection manager service, and a call segment instance service. The switch fabric proxy is coupled to the switch fabric via a vendor-specific first Application Programming Interface (API). The switch fabric proxy supports a second API, which is common across all vendors, representing functions supported by the switch fabric. A facility instance, which is instantiated by a facility service using a facility model, represents the bearer and signaling facilities of a party to a call, and interacts with the switch fabric proxy via the second API to communicate with the switch fabric. The connection manager service represents the connectors for a party to a call, and interacts with the switch fabric proxy via the second API to communicate with the switch fabric. A call segment instance, which is instantiated by a call segment instance service using a call model, represents the call logic and call data for a party to a call, and interacts with the connection manager service via a third API and with the facility instance via a fourth API. The feature processor interacts with the call segment instance via a fifth API to provide the telecommunications feature.

Claims

1. An apparatus for decentralizing communication services in a telecommunications system, comprising:

a switch fabric which provides bearer functions;

a switch intelligence which provides control functions for said a switch fabric, said switch intelligence being logically separated from said switch fabric and being implemented in a separate network element from said switch fabric, the switch intelligence being configured to;

process information received from the switch fabric, the information comprising a facility related event associated with a call,

maintain a call state associated with completing the call in accordance with a call model, the call model indicating how the information will be processed,

identify at least one point in call associated with completing the call, and

forward a request for a telecommunications function in response to the identified at least one point in call;

a switch fabric proxy service for providing a normalized interface between said switch fabric and said switch intelligence for all communications involving said switch fabric by interfacing to said switch fabric with any one of a plurality of application program interfaces and interfacing to said switch intelligence with a uniform application program interface, wherein the normalized interface comprises any one of a plurality of vendor-specific interfaces associated with the switch fabric; and

a feature processor, said feature processor configured to;

receive the request for the telecommunications function, and

executing at least oneexecute the telecommunications function, for interacting with said switch intelligence to thereby provide said telecommunications featurein response to the received request.

2. The system apparatus of claim 1, wherein said switch intelligence further comprises:

at least one facility instance instantiated by a facility service using a facility model, said facility instance representing the logic configured to represent bearer and signaling facilities of a party to a the call, for interacting with said switch fabric proxy service to communicate with said switch fabric, the facility service logic configured to receive the facility related event and perform protocol processing on the information received from the switch fabric, wherein the facility related event comprises at least one of an off-hook indication, an on-hook indication or a wink.

3. The system apparatus of claim 2, wherein said switch intelligence further comprises:

a connection manager service representing the connectors for said party to a call for interacting with said switch fabric proxy service to communicate with said switch fabric logic configured to forward connection information to the switch fabric, the connection information instructing the switch to establish physical connections to complete the call.

4. The system apparatus of claim 3 1, wherein said switch intelligence further comprises:

at least one call segment instance instantiated by a call segment instance service logic configured to;

represent a status of at least two call halves associated with completing the call in accordance with the call model, and

using a call model, said call segment instance representing the call logic and call data for said party to a call, for interacting with said feature processor, said connection manager service, and said facility instanceperform call processing for each of the at least two call halves.

5. The system apparatus of claim 2 1, wherein said switch intelligence further comprises:

a first call processing creation environment, said first call processing creation environment interacting with said facility service, switch intelligence for modifying said facility call model without modifying the switch fabric.

6. The system apparatus of claim 4, wherein said switch intelligence further comprises:

a second call processing creation environment, said second call processing creation environment interacting with said call segment instance service logic, for modifying said call model.

7. The system apparatus of claim 2, wherein said switch intelligence further comprises:

a third call processing creation environment, said third call processing creation environment interacting with said facility service, logic for creating new facility models.

8. The system apparatus of claim 4, wherein said switch intelligence further comprises:

a fourth call processing creation environment, said fourth call processing creation environment interacting with said call segment instance service logic, for creating new call models.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a switch-fabric proxy service for providing a normalized interface between a switch fabric and a switch intelligence for communications involving said switch fabric by interfacing to said switch fabric with any one of a plurality of application programming interfaces, wherein the switch fabric and the switch intelligence are implemented in separate network elements; and

the switch intelligence, the switch intelligence being configured to;

receive notification of a facility related event associated with a call from the switch fabric, wherein the facility related event is received from the switch fabric as raw or unprocessed data which is associated with user activity at a telephone device,

perform call processing in accordance with a call model and in response to the notification,

maintain a status of at least two call halves associated with completing the call in accordance with the call model, and

direct the switch fabric to make physical connections for each of the at least two call halves to complete the call.

10. An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said plurality of application programming interfaces is at least one of vendor-specific or switch-fabric-specific.

11. An apparatus comprising:

switch intelligence configured to;

receive notification of a facility related event associated with a call from a switch fabric, wherein the switch intelligence is implemented in a separate network element from a network element implementing the switch fabric and the facility related event is received from the switch fabric as raw or unprocessed data which is associated with user activity at a telephone device,

execute a call state machine, the call state machine being responsive to the notification of the facility related event and representing processing of the call as at least one call segment, wherein the at least one call segment corresponds to a call half,

provide an association between the at least one call segment and at least one physical device associated with completing the call, and

provide connection information to the switch fabric based on the association.

12. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said network element implementing the switch intelligence is physically separated from said network element implementing the switch fabric and is coupled to the network element implementing the switch fabric via a communications network.

13. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the network element implementing said switch intelligence is logically separated from the network element implementing said switch fabric.

14. An apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising:

a switch-fabric proxy service for providing a normalized interface between said switch fabric and the switch intelligence for communications involving said switch fabric, wherein said switch-fabric proxy service interfaces to said switch fabric with any one of a plurality of application programming interfaces and interfaces to said switch intelligence with a uniform application programming interface.

15. An apparatus according to claim 14 wherein each of said plurality of application programming interfaces comprises at least one of a vendor-specific application programming interface or a switch-fabric-specific application programming interface.

16. An apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising:

a switch-fabric proxy service for providing a normalized interface between said switch fabric and the switch intelligence for communications involving said switch fabric, wherein said switch-fabric proxy service translates switch-fabric communications into switch-intelligence communications.

17. An apparatus according to claim 16 wherein said switch-fabric communications are at least one of vendor-specific or switch-fabric-specific.

18. An apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising:

a switch-fabric proxy service for providing a normalized interface between said switch fabric and the switch intelligence for communications involving said switch fabric, wherein said switch-fabric proxy service translates switch-intelligence communications into switch-fabric communications.

19. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said switch-fabric communications are at least one of vendor-specific or switch-fabric-specific.

20. An apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising:

a switch-fabric proxy service for providing a normalized interface between said switch fabric and the switch intelligence for communications involving said switch fabric, wherein said switch-fabric proxy service translates switch-fabric communications into communications defined according to a uniform interface.

21. An apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising:

a switch-fabric proxy service for providing a normalized interface between said switch fabric and a switch intelligence for communications involving said switch fabric, wherein said switch-fabric proxy service translates communications defined according to a uniform interface into switch-fabric communications.

22. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the facility related event comprises at least one of on-hook, off-hook or wink.

23. An apparatus comprising:

a switch intelligence for providing control functions to at least one switch fabric and being implemented in a network element separate from the at least one switch fabric, the switch intelligence comprising;

processing logic configured to;

receive information from the at least one switch fabric, the information including a facility related event associated with a call, wherein the facility related event is received from the at least one switch fabric as raw or unprocessed data which is associated with user activity at a telephone device,

process the received information,

maintain call states in accordance with a call model for at least one party involved in the call, and

provide connection information to the at least one switch fabric for completing the call.

24. An apparatus according to claim 23 wherein said switch intelligence is one of logically separated or physically separated from said at least one switch fabric, the processing logic being further configured to:

identify at least one point in the call where a telecommunications function is required, and

send a request for the telecommunications function to a processor in response to the identified at least one point in the call.

25. An apparatus according to claim 24, further comprising:

a processor executing the telecommunications function in response to the request.

26. An apparatus according to claim 23, further comprising:

a switch fabric proxy for providing a plurality of application programming interfaces for communications between the at least one switch fabric and the switch intelligence, wherein each of said plurality of application programming interfaces comprises at least one of a vendor-specific application programming interface or a switch-fabric-specific application programming interface.

27. An apparatus according to claim 23 wherein said switch intelligence provides control functions to a plurality of switch fabrics.

28. An apparatus according to claim 23 wherein said switch intelligence further comprises at least one of a facility service, a call connection manager service, or a call segment instance service.

29. An apparatus according to claim 28 wherein said at least one of a facility service, a call connection manager service, or a call segment instance service comprises a call segment instance service, the call segment instance service configured to maintain the call states for the at least one party involved in the call.

30. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the facility related event comprises at least one of on-hook, off-hook or wink.

31. An apparatus, comprising:

means for receiving switch-fabric communications from a switch-fabric the means for receiving being implemented in a network element separate from the switch-fabric, and the switch-fabric communications including a facility related event associated with a call, wherein the facility related event is received from the switch-fabric as raw or unprocessed data which is associated with user activity at a telephone device;

means for processing the switch-fabric communications, wherein the means for processing is configured to maintain call states in accordance with a call model for at least one party involved in the call and generate connection information for completing the call; and

means for translating the connection information into switch-fabric communications for use by a switch fabric.

56. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the facility related event comprises at least one of on-hook, off-hook or wink.

32. An apparatus, comprising:

means for translating switch-fabric communications into communications defined according to a uniform switch-intelligence interface, the means for translating being implemented in a network separate from a switch-fabric;

means for processing the switch-fabric communications comprising facility related event information associated with a call, wherein the facility related event is received from the switch-fabric as raw or unprocessed data which is associated with user activity at a telephone device, the means for processing being configured to;

maintain call states for at least one party involved in the call in accordance with a call model, and

execute the call model to generate connection information for completing the call; and

means for translating the communications defined according to the uniform switch-intelligence interface into switch-fabric communications.

33. The apparatus according to claim 32, further comprising:

means for translating communications defined according to the uniform interface into switch-intelligence communications; and

means for translating switch-intelligence communications into communications defined according to a uniform interface.

34. An apparatus comprising:

a switch-fabric proxy service that is capable of at least one of translating switch-fabric communications into switch-intelligence communications, translating the switch-intelligence communications into the switch-fabric communications, translating the switch-fabric communications into communications defined according to a uniform switch-intelligence interface, or translating the communications defined according to a uniform switch-intelligence interface into the switch-fabric communications; and

a switch intelligence implemented in at least one network element, the at least one network element being a separate network element from a network element implementing a switch-fabric that is coupled to the switch-fabric proxy service, the switch intelligence being configured to;

receive notification of a facility related event associated with a call from a switch-fabric, wherein the facility related event is received from the switch-fabric as raw or unprocessed data which is associated with user activity at a telephone device,

execute a call model to generate connection information for completing the call in response to the notification,

maintain call states for at least one party involved in the call in accordance with the call model, and

forward the connection information to the switch-fabric via the switch-fabric proxy service.

35. An apparatus according to claim 34, wherein said switch-fabric proxy service includes a normalized interface between the switch fabric and the switch intelligence.

36. The apparatus according to claim 34, wherein said at least one network element implementing the switch intelligence is one of logically separated or physically separated from the network element implementing the switch fabric and is coupled to the network element implementing the switch fabric via a communications network.

37. An apparatus according to claim 34, wherein the switch fabric includes said switch-fabric proxy service.

38. An apparatus according to claim 34, wherein the switch intelligence is further configured to:

maintain the call model, the call model affecting how calls received by the switch fabric will be processed and wherein the call model is modifiable at the switch intelligence without modifying the switch fabric.

39. An apparatus according to claim 34, wherein said switch-fabric proxy service includes an application programming interface for interfacing with the switch fabric.

40. An apparatus according to claim 37, wherein said application programming interface is at least one of a vendor-specific interface or a switch-fabric-specific interface.

41. An apparatus according to claim 34, wherein said switch-fabric proxy service includes an application programming interface for interfacing with the switch-intelligence.

42. An apparatus comprising:

a switch intelligence network element for controlling a switch fabric network element, the switch intelligence network element being implemented in a network element separate from the switch fabric network element and wherein said switch intelligence network element comprises;

processing logic configured to;

receive notification information comprising a facility related event associated with a call from the switch fabric network element, wherein the facility related event is received from the switch fabric network element as raw or unprocessed data which is associated with user activity at a telephone device, and

perform call half processing for at least one party associated with the call in response to the notification information and in accordance with a call model.

43. An apparatus according to claim 42, wherein said processing logic is further configured to:

perform the call half processing in accordance with a call model, the call model representing at least one of an Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) call model, an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) call model or a call model created by a service provider.

44. The apparatus according to claim 42, wherein said switch intelligence network element includes at least one of a first application programming interface communicable with a switch-fabric proxy service or a second application programming interface communicable with a feature processor that executes at least one telecommunications function.

45. The apparatus according to claim 42, further comprising at least one application programming interface communicable between at least one of a facility service, a call connection manager service, or a call segment instance service and another of said at least one of a facility service, a call connection manager service, or a call segment instance service.

57. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the facility related event comprises at least one of on-hook, off-hook or wink.

46. An apparatus comprising:

a feature processor for executing at least one telecommunications function; and

switch intelligence configured to;

receive facility related event data associated with a call from a switch fabric, wherein the facility related event is received from the switch fabric as raw or unprocessed data which is associated with user activity at a telephone device,

perform call half processing associated with at least one party to the call in response to the facility related event data and in accordance with a call model, and

provide connection information to an entity that received the call, wherein the connection information identifies physical connections to complete the call, wherein the switch intelligence is implemented in at least one network element, the at least one network element being a separate network element from the entity that received the call.

47. A non-transitory apparatus for controlling a switch fabric, the apparatus being implemented in at least one network element, the at least one network element being separate from the switch fabric, the apparatus comprising:

logic for processing a facility related event received from the switch fabric in accordance with a call model, wherein the facility related event is received from the switch fabric as raw or unprocessed data which is associated with user activity at a telephone device,

logic for performing call half processing for at least one party involved in the call in response to the facility related event and in accordance with the call model, and

logic for forwarding connection information to the at least one switch fabric.

48. The apparatus of claim 47, further comprising:

interface logic including a first interface for communications between the apparatus and the switch fabric.

58. The apparatus of claim 47, wherein the facility related event comprises at least one of on-hook, off-hook or wink.

49. An apparatus, comprising:

a call completion device for providing bearer functions, said call completion device performing communications with a switch intelligence that is implemented in a separate network element from said call completion device, wherein the call completion device comprises a switch fabric, the call completion device being configured to;

forward a facility related event associated with a call to the switch intelligence, wherein the facility related event is received from the call completion device as raw or unprocessed data which is associated with user activity at a telephone device, and

receive bearer connection information from the switch intelligence in accordance with a call model executed by the switch intelligence.

50. The apparatus of claim 49, wherein the switch intelligence comprises a call state model, and wherein the call completion device communicates with the switch intelligence to affect a call state.

51. The apparatus of claim 50, wherein the call state is represented in the call state model.

52. The apparatus of claim 49, further comprising:

a switch fabric proxy service for providing an application programming interface for communications between the call completion device and the switch intelligence.

53. A non-transitory apparatus, comprising:

logic configured to receive information from a switch fabric that received a request for making a call, the logic being implemented in a network element separate from the switch fabric, the information comprising a facility related event, wherein the facility related event is received from the switch fabric as raw or unprocessed data which is associated with user activity at a telephone device;

logic configured to perform call half processing for at least a first party or a second party associated with the call in response to the facility related event and in accordance with a call model;

logic configured to generate connection information for the entity that received the request; and

logic configured to forward the connection information to the entity that received the request.

54. The apparatus of claim 53, wherein the apparatus is implemented in a network element that is separate from the entity that received the request.

55. The apparatus of claim 53, wherein the logic configured to perform call half processing maintains call states associated with completing the call in accordance with a call model.