Voice quality on a communication link based on customer feedback

• US 20060073786A1
• Filed: 10/06/2004
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Wireless Services Incorporated (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sarkar, Falguni
• Granted Patent: US 7,542,761 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2236 Quality of speech transmission monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0084 Network monitoring; Error detection; Error recovery; Network testing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic

Abstract

Architecture that facilitates initiation of a user feedback signal during a telephone call when perceiving reduced voice quality. In response to receiving the feedback signal, the telephone network performs a number of measurements on the system and related to the user device that can be analyzed to determine the problem, and potentially resolve the problem. The feedback signal can be initiated by any number of user input means, including selection of a key or combination of keys on a cell phone keypad that generate signals which can be interpreted by the telephone network as the feedback signal, e.g., a DTMF signal.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates management of audio signal quality of a communications link, comprising:

a communications component that facilitates communication over the communications link; and

a feedback component that facilitates generation of a user feedback signal when the communications link is active.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the audio signal is a voice signal transmitted over the communications link, which is a telephone call.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications link is established between a wireless telephone and a wired telephone.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications link is established between at least two cellular telephones.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a user input component which receives user input that initiates generation of the user feedback signal.

6. The system of claim 5, the user input component includes a keypad which facilitates manual generation of the user feedback signal, which user feedback signal is a DTMF (Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency) signal.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the user input is a voice signal that initiates generation of the user feedback signal.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the user feedback signal is a DTMF signal that is generated by a party to the communications link.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a location tracking component that facilitates determining a geographic location of the user feedback signal.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein in response to generation of the user feedback signal, one or more parameters of a communications system are measured and recorded.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more parameters include at least one of a cell site identification, a calling telephone number, a called telephone number, and a current time.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more parameters include at least one of a signal strength value, a bit-error rate (BER), a type of codec employed, and number of codec conversions.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more parameters include at least one of packet loss data, local exchange carrier (LEC) information, competitive LEC (CLEC) information, incumbent LEC (ILEC) information, and long distance (LD) carrier information.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more parameters include a device type of a wireless communications device of a party to the communications link, which link is a telephone call.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more parameters include load information of a cell site when the communications link is active.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein in response to generation of the user feedback signal, a communications system that facilitates the communications link provisions additional communications equipment.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein in response to generation of the user feedback signal, a communications system that facilitates the communications link adjusts signal strength of the communications link.

18. A telephone that includes the system of claim 1.

19. A mobile communications device that includes the system of claim 1.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the feedback component automatically generates the user feedback signal in response to detection of a degraded voice signal.

21. A multimode cellular telephone that employs the system of claim 1.

22. A system that facilitates management of voice signal quality, comprising:

a communications component that communicates a telephone call; and

a feedback component that facilitates generation of a quality feedback signal during the telephone call.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the telephone call is established between a mobile wireless device and at least one of a wired telephone and a cellular telephone.

24. The system of claim 22, further comprising a user input component that facilitates generation of the quality feedback signal.

25. The system of claim 22, further comprising a user input component that facilitates generation of the quality feedback signal, which quality feedback signal is a DTMF signal.

26. The system of claim 22, further comprising a location tracking component that facilitates the determination of a geographic location of a mobile device from which the quality feedback signal was transmitted.

27. The system of claim 22, wherein in response to generation of the quality feedback signal, a measurement system performs measurement one or more parameters.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the one or more parameters include at least one of a cell site identification, a calling telephone number, a called telephone number, a current time, a signal strength value, a bit-error rate (BER), a type of codec employed, and number of codec conversions.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the one or more parameters include at least one of packet loss data, LEC information, CLEC information, ILEC information, LD carrier information, load information of a cell site, and device type information of a wireless communications device of a party to the telephone call.

30. The system of claim 22, wherein a user of a mobile terminal initiates the quality feedback signal via the mobile terminal.

31. The system of claim 22, wherein in response to generation of the quality feedback signal, a telephone communications system provisions and controls additional communications equipment.

32. A mobile terminal that facilitates management of voice signal quality of a telephone call, comprising:

a communications component that communicates the telephone call; and

a feedback component that facilitates generation of a voice quality feedback signal during the telephone call by a user of the mobile terminal.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the telephone call is established between the mobile terminal and a telephone network node.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the telephone network node is one of a network testing system and another telephone user.

35. The system of claim 32, further comprising a user input component that facilitates generation of the voice quality feedback signal one of manually and automatically.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the voice quality feedback signal is generated automatically by,

configuring the mobile terminal according to one or more predetermined voice signal criteria;

and

generating and transmitting the voice quality feedback signal when the voice signal criteria are met.

37. The system of claim 32, further comprising a GPS tracking component that facilitates the determination of latitude data and longitude data associated with a location of the mobile terminal when the voice quality signal was transmitted.

38. The system of claim 32, wherein in response to generation of the voice quality feedback signal, a measurement is performed, and associated measurement data is stored in the mobile terminal.

39. The system of claim 38, the stored measurement data is transmitted to a telephone network entity for processing.

40. A PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) that embodies the system of claim 32.

41. A method of managing signal quality of a communications link, the method comprising:

monitoring the communications link during communication of data over the communications link; and

manually initiating a signal during communication of the data, which signal is transmitted over the communications link when integrity of the communications link has changed.

42. The method of claim 41, further comprising initiating the signal when integrity of the communications link is reduced.

43. The method of claim 41, further comprising initiating the signal as a DTMF signal.

44. The method of claim 41, the communications link facilitates text messaging.

45. The method of claim 41, the communications link facilitates voice signals associated with a telephone call.

46. The method of claim 41, further comprising establishing the communications link between a wireless telephone and another wired or wireless entity.

47. The method of claim 41, further comprising establishing the communications link between at least two wireless messaging-centric devices.

48. The method of claim 41, further comprising establishing the communications link between at least two wireless devices.

49. The method of claim 41, further comprising initiating the signal via a user input that is a voice signal.

50. The method of claim 41, further comprising initiating the signal via a graphical user interface.

51. The method of claim 41, further comprising determining a geographic location via a location tracking component.

52. The method of claim 41, further comprising measuring one or more parameters in response to generation of the signal.

53. The method of claim 41, further comprising the acts of,

determining at least one of a cell site identification, a calling telephone number, a called telephone number, and a current time;

determining at least one of a signal strength value, a BER, a type of codec employed, and number of codec conversions;

determining at least one of packet loss data, local exchange carrier (LEC) information, competitive LEC (CLEC) information, incumbent LEC (ILEC) information, and long distance (LD) carrier information;

determining a device type of a wireless communications device of a party to the communications link; and

determining load information of a cell site when the communications link is active.

54. A method of managing signal quality of a telephone call, the method comprising:

participating in the telephone call; and

initiating a voice quality signal during the telephone call, which voice quality signal is transmitted over a network when signal integrity of the telephone call is reduced.

55. The method of claim 54, further comprising initiating the voice quality signal when roaming near a cellular communications hole.

56. The method of claim 54, the telephone conversation is conducted over a VoIP network.

57. The method of claim 54, further comprising transmitting the voice quality signal over at least one of an IP network and a telephone network.

58. A telephone communications system, comprising:

a core communications component that facilitates telephone communications between at first user and a second user; and

a voice quality management system that processes a user signal transmitted during the telephone communications.

59. The system of claim 58, wherein the first user initiates the user signal during the telephone communications in response to perceiving degradation in voice quality.

60. The system of claim 58, wherein a plurality of measurements are performed and stored in response to receiving the user signal during the telephone conversation.

61. The system of claim 58, wherein one or more directional antennas are provisioned for providing increased coverage of a communication hole when the user signal is received.