SELECTIVE FEATURE BLOCKING IN A COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

• US 20080031228A1
• Filed: 06/15/2007
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Business Global LLC (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: GALLANT, John
• Granted Patent: US 8,811,164 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways

Abstract

In the context of a communications system, means are disclosed for ensuring that invocation of redirect features, such as call forwarding, do not circumvent call blocking settings. User profile information associated with a party controls the invocation of features for the party and controls the screening of redirect contacts resulting from feature invocation. The behavior of feature-associated contact screening for the party is configurable independently of the originating calling permissions of the party.

Claims

1-15. -15. (canceled)

16. A network device comprising:

a communication interface for receiving a routing request;

a memory for storing a plurality of screening criteria; and

logic configured to;

obtain at least one contact based on the received routing request,

determine a type of address of the at least one contact,

apply at least one screening criterion of the plurality of screening criteria to the at least one contact based on the determined type of address of the at least one contact, to determine whether the at least one contact is permitted to be used for establishing a communications session, and

cause the communications session to be established when the at least one contact is determined to be permitted to be used.

17. The network device of claim 16, wherein, when causing the communications session to be established, the logic is configured to:

transmit a routing response including the at least one contact if the at least one contact is determined to be permitted to be used for establishing the communications session.

18. The network device of claim 17, wherein the memory stores a plurality of contacts associated with a destination party.

19. The network device of claim 17, wherein the logic is further configured to:

transmit a routing response that does not include the at least one contact if the at least one contact is not permitted to be used for establishing the communications session.

20. The network device of claim 16, wherein the routing request includes a routing feature and information relating to identification of a requesting and destination parties.

21. The network device of claim 20, wherein the routing feature comprises at least one of:

find me, call forwarding, conditional call forwarding, call blocking, do not disturb or call screening.

22. The network device of claim 16, wherein the logic is further configured to:

obtain the at least one screening criterion from a first screening table if the determined type of address corresponds to a telephone number or from a second screening table if the determined type of address corresponds to an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

23. A network device comprising:

a memory for storing a first screening table and a second screening table wherein each screening table contains a plurality of screening criteria used to determine if a contact may be used to establish a communications session; and

logic configured to;

obtain at least one contact based on a received routing request,

determine a type of address of the at least one contact,

select either one of the first or second screening tables based on the determined type of address of the at least one contact, to determine whether the at least one contact is permitted to be used for establishing a communications session, and

cause the communications session to be established when the at least one contact is determined to be permitted to be used.

24. The network device of claim 23, wherein the logic is further configured to:

apply at least one screening criterion from the selected screening table to the at least one contact to determine if the at least one contact is permitted to be used to establish the communications session.

25. The network device of claim 23, wherein the logic is further configured to:

select the first screening table if the determined type of address corresponds to a telephone number or select the second screening table if the determined type of address corresponds to an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

26. The network device of claim 23, wherein, when causing the communications session to be established, the logic is configured to:

transmit a routing response including the at least one contact if the at least one contact is permitted to be used for establishing the communications session.

27. The network device of claim 23, wherein the logic is further configured to:

transmit a routing response that does not include the at least one contact if the at least one contact is not permitted to be used for establishing the communications session.

28. The network device of claim 23, wherein the routing request includes a routing feature and information relating to identification of requesting and destination parties.

29. The network device of claim 28, wherein the routing feature comprises at least one of:

find me, call forwarding, conditional call forwarding, call blocking, do not disturb or call screening.

30. A method comprising:

determining a type of address associated with a contact, wherein the contact may be used to establish a communications session;

applying at least one screening criterion to the contact, based on the determined type of address, to determine whether the contact is permitted to be used for establishing a communications session; and

causing the communications session to be established when the contact is determined to be permitted to be used.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

transmitting a routing response that does not include the contact if the contact is not permitted to be used for establishing the communications session.

32. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

selecting either a first screening table or a second screening table based on the determined type of address of the contact.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the at least one screening criterion is determined from the selected screening table.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the first screening table is selected if the determined type of address corresponds to a telephone number or the second screening table is selected if the determined type of address corresponds to an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the first and second screening tables are associated with a user profile.