Method and apparatus for establishing and facilitating a voice call connection from a client computer to a PSTN extension

• US 6,144,670 A
• Filed: 08/06/1998
• Issued: 11/07/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: ITXC IP Holdings SARL (Tata Sons Pvt Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: eFusion, Inc. (Tata Sons Pvt Ltd.)
• Inventors: Cassezza, Jason T., Mirashrafi, Mojtaba, Keeler, Kenneth L., Simon, Al J., Pendse, Ajit B., Sponaugle, Jeffrey B., Crutcher, Paul D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kizou, Hassan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pezzlo, John
• Application Number:
  US09/130,301
• Time in Patent Office: 824 Days
• Field of Search: 370/352, 370/354, 370/355, 370/356, 370/401, 395/200.79, 709/204, 379/100.15
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4061 Push-to services, e.g. push-to-talk or push-to-video
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42323 PBX's with CTI arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42348 Location-based services which utilize the location information of a target
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/527 Centralised call answering arrangements not requiring operator intervention
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/003 Click to dial services
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1205 where the types of switching equipement comprises PSTN/ISDN equipment and switching equipment of networks other than PSTN/ISDN, e.g. Internet Protocol networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1225 Details of core network interconnection arrangements

Abstract

An apparatus for establishing a voice call to a PSTN extension for a networked client computer, and routing the voice call off of the network, is provided. In a first embodiment, the apparatus comprises a storage medium having stored therein a plurality of programming instructions coupled to an execution unit to execute the plurality of programming instructions to implement a set of communication services facilitating the establishment of the voice call to the PSTN extension. The set of communication services include services for receiving a request from the networked client computer requesting the voice call, determining the PSTN extension and controlling a computer telephony interface to route the voice call from the packet switched network to the PSTN extension.

Claims

1. A bridging apparatus comprising:

a storage medium having stored therein a plurality of programming instructions; and

an execution unit, coupled to the storage medium, to execute the plurality of programming instructions implementing a set of communication services on the bridging apparatus for establishing and facilitating a voice call for a client computer, including a service for receiving a notification from the client computer denoting the client computer'"'"'s acceptance of an offer by a server to establish a voice communication session, said offer being electronically extended to said client computer by said server, and said notification being generated in response to a user of said client computer interacting with said electronically extended offer,

the set of communication services further including a service for dynamically determining a destination PSTN extension associated with the offeror server in accordance with one or more attributes of the offeror server, and a service for controlling a computer telephony interface to establish a connection from the bridging apparatus to the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension for the client computer to route said voice call off of a packet switched network.

2. The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer telephony interface is located within the bridging apparatus and communicatively coupled with the execution unit via a bus.

3. The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer telephony interface is remotely located, communicatively coupled to the bridging apparatus via a packet switched network.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the computer telephony interface is remotely located in an Integrated Remote Access Server (IRAS).

5. The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the notification includes identification information of the offeror server, and

the communication services dynamically determine the destination PSTN extension in accordance with the identification information.

6. The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the communication services further include services for providing the client computer with a network address of the bridging apparatus, and receiving a supplemental voice call request from the client computer, including a network address and one or more attributes of the client computer, and

the communication services perform said dynamic determination of the destination PSTN extension further in accordance with one or more of the included attributes of the client computer.

7. The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication services further include services for soliciting inputs from one or more other bridging apparatuses on one or more operating characteristics associated with establishing the voice call to the destination PSTN extension, selecting either itself or one of the other bridging apparatuses to place the voice call to the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension, and identifying the selected bridging apparatus to the client computer.

8. The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication services further include services for causing a packet based telephony application to be launched on the client computer.

9. The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication services further include services for receiving a packet based phone call from the client computer, placing the voice call to the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension, and bridging the packet based and voice calls.

10. The bridging apparatus of claim 9, wherein the bridging services include services for converting and delivering call signals between the client computer and the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension.

11. The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication services further include telephony services for cooperating with telephony equipment coupled to the bridging apparatus.

12. In a bridging apparatus, a method for placing a voice call to a PSTN extension comprising:

(a) receiving a notification from a client computer denoting the client computer'"'"'s acceptance of an offer by a server to establish a voice communication session, the offer being electronically extended from the offeror server to the client computer, and the notification being generated in response to a user of the client computer interacting with the electronically extended offer;

(b) dynamically determining a destination PSTN extension associated with the offeror server in accordance with one or more attributes of the offeror server; and

(c) controlling a computer telephony interface to establish a connection to the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension to facilitate the voice call.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein controlling the computer telephony interface (c) comprises issuing control commands to a remotely located computer telephony interface via a packet switched network.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein controlling the computer telephony interface (c) comprises issuing control commands to a co-located computer telephony interface accessible via an operating system.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein

said receiving of a notification includes receiving identification information of the offeror server, and

said determining of the destination PSTN extension is performed in accordance with the received identification information of the offeror server.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein

the method further comprises providing the client computer with a network address of the bridging apparatus, and receiving a supplemental voice call request from the client computer, including a network address and one or more attributes of the client computer, and

said dynamically determining of the destination PSTN extension is performed further in accordance with one or more of the included attributes of the client computer.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further includes

soliciting inputs from one or more other bridging apparatuses on one or more operating characteristics associated with establishing the voice call to the destination PSTN extension;

selecting the bridging apparatus itself or one of the other bridging apparatuses to place the voice call to the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension; and

identifying the selected bridging apparatus to the client computer.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further includes

receiving a packet based phone call from the client computer,

placing the voice call to the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension, and

bridging the packet based and voice calls.

19. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions for programming a bridging apparatus to implement a set of communication services for establishing and facilitating a voice call for a client computer, wherein the communication services include services for receiving a notification from the client computer denoting the client computer'"'"'s acceptance of an offer by a server to establish a voice communication session, the offer being electronically extended from said server to said client computer, and the notification being generated in response to a user of the client computer interacting with the electronically extended offer,

the communication services further include a service for dynamically determining the destination PSTN extension associated with the offeror server in accordance with one or more attributes of the offeror server, and a service for controlling a computer telephony interface to establish a connection to the destination PSTN extension for the client computer operative to route said voice call off of a packet switched network.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the services for controlling a computer telephony interface includes services for controlling a remotely located computer telephony interface accessible via the packet switched network.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the services for controlling a computer telephony interface includes services for controlling a co-located computer telephony interface accessible via an operating system.