Voice over internet protocol

• US 20020114318A1
• Filed: 02/17/2001
• Published: 08/22/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitel Incorporated (MLN TopCo Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Inter-Tel (Delaware) Incorporated (Mitel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Rines, Clark C.
• Granted Patent: US 6,999,431 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/203 composed of PSTN and data network, e.g. the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4935 Connection initiated by DAS system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

A voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) directory service for communications users of an enterprise locates a telephone or work station of a called party for the purpose of setting up real-time communication, either from a pulse code modulation (PCM) telephone or from an Internet protocol (IP) telephone, or a computer by way of the world wide web, using a common directory database. Once the directory entry has been found, it may be immediately called through use of translated addresses assigned to the selected called party device.

Claims

1. A voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) system for supporting real time communications for both pulse code modulation (PCM), telephone networks and Internet protocol (IP) telephone packet networks in an enterprise including in combination:

a directory of PCM and IP addresses in an enterprise including a translation address database for members of the enterprise having IP terminals, addresses for IP telephones with Internet connectivity, and addresses of other VOIP gateways on the Internet;

a VOIP gateway linked with the directory and connected to receive requests from both PCM and IP telephones, the VOIP gateway providing voice prompts and responses to calling party requests in the form of either DTMF digits or voice signals; and

the VOIP gateway further operating in response to calling party approval to automatically process a link between the calling party and a called party using a translated address assigned in the directory translation address database to the called party.

2. The VOIP system according to claim 1 wherein the voice prompts and responses of the VOIP gateway are provided by a voice response unit (VRU) built into the VOIP gateway.

3. The VOIP system according to claim 2 wherein the directory is in the form of a dedicated directory server linked with the VOIP gateway over a local area network (LAN).

4. The VOIP system according to claim 3 wherein the directory includes fields to uniquely identify a member of the enterprise by name and number codes required to translate between PCM (PSTN) and LAN (IP) environments.

5. The VOIP system according to claim 1 wherein the voice prompts and responses are provided by a voice response unit (VRU) coupled over a local area network (LAN) to the VOIP gateway.

6. The VOIP system according to claim 5 wherein the directory is in the form of a dedicated directory server linked with the VOIP gateway over a local area network (LAN).

7. The VOIP system according to claim 6 wherein the directory includes fields to uniquely identify a member of the enterprise by name and number codes required to translate between PCM (PSTN) and LAN (IP) environments.

8. The VOIP system according to claim 1 wherein the directory is in the form of a dedicated directory server linked with the VOIP gateway over a local area network (LAN).

9. The VOIP system according to claim 1 wherein the directory includes fields to uniquely identify a member of the enterprise by name and number codes required to translate between PCM (PSTN) and LAN (IP) environments.

10. A method for supporting real time communications for and between both pulse code modulation (PCM) telephone networks and Internet protocol (IP) telephone packet networks in an enterprise including the steps of:

providing a gateway responsive to calls from calling parties on either an IP telephone network or a PCM telephone network for answering calls;

playing directory prompt messages to the calling party;

responding to DTMF or voice recognition signals from the calling party for obtaining the closest match of a name found in a directory database;

negotiating an acceptable name with the calling party;

looking up an address translation in a directory database in response to a name selected by the calling party; and

attempting a real time call to the called party utilizing a translated address if required.

11. The method according to claim 10 wherein the directory prompts are obtained from an IP gateway.

12. The method according to claim 10 wherein the step of negotiating an acceptable name includes responses by the gateway for finding the next name and finding the previous name for allowing a calling party to accurately access a desired name.

13. The method according to claim 12 wherein the directory prompts are obtained from an IP gateway.