Method for call establishment

• US 7,158,626 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2001
• Issued: 01/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Parttimaa, Marko, Karjalainen, Pasi J., Bajenov, Alexander, Salmi, Ari J., Kummu, Kari, Kelloniemi, Kirsi
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Quynh H.
• Application Number:
  US10/024,083
• Publication Number:
  US 20020086701A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,842 Days
• Field of Search: 379/221.01, 379/221.02, 455/445, 455/417
• US Class Current: 379/221.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27485 Appending a prefix to or inserting a pause into a dialling sequence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/20 Manipulation of established connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements

Abstract

A call establishment method and corresponding communications terminal for a trunked radio network such as TETRA (708, 709) to establish a call from one network (700) to another network (711, 712, 730, 741) through a gateway (701, 713, 733, 740). A target telephone number is dialled at the calling communications terminal storing unique associations between telephone numbers and call types. Alternatively the call type is requested from a user of the calling communications terminal in case no call type is stored with the target telephone number. The gateway (701, 713, 733, 740) through which the target telephone number can be reached is then selected on the basis of the call type.

Claims

1. A method for requesting a telecommunications link between a calling terminal having a memory, the calling terminal being in connection with a first telecommunications network and being used by a user, and a target terminal associated with a target telephone number, the target terminal being in connection with a second telecommunications network, where the first telecommunications network and the second telecommunications network are interconnected using a gateway wherein establishing the telecommunications link is initiated by the user dialling the target telephone number associated with the target terminal, the method being characterised by the steps of:

associating the target telephone number with a single call type;

the association being made in the memory of the calling terminal;

extracting from the memory a gateway address of the gateway associated with the call type, and;

requesting the telecommunications link through the gateway using the gateway address.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of associating further comprises the steps of:

comparing the target telephone number with numbers stored in the memory, and;

in the event that a match is found, extracting the call type from the memory.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of associating further comprises the steps of:

comparing the target telephone number with numbers stored in the memory, and;

in the event that no match is found, prompting the user to select the call type and storing the target telephone number with the call type in the memory.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein dialling the target telephone involves a step of entering the target telephone number digit-by-digit using a keyboard of the calling terminal.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein dialling the target telephone involves a step of entering the target telephone number digit-by-digit by using speech recognition.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein dialling the target telephone involves a step of extracting the target telephone number from the memory.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein in the event that no call type associated with the target telephone number is found in the memory, the user is prompted to select the call type to be associated with the target telephone number and the call type is stored with the target telephone number in the memory.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the call type is stored in a phone book in the event that the phone book contains an entry for the target telephone number and in a list of most recently dialled numbers in the event that the phone book does not contain an entry for the target telephone number.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the call type is selected from a group consisting of a TETRA call, a Non-TETRA call, a PABX call, an FSSN call and an IP call.

10. A method according to claim 1 wherein in the event that the first character of the target telephone number is a hash-sign (#) the call type is considered to be an FSSN call.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein in the event that the first character of the target telephone number is a plus-sign (+) the call type is considered to be a Non-TETRA call.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein the first communications network is a TETRA network.

13. A method according to claim 1, wherein the second communications network is selected from a group consisting of a TETRA network, a PLMN, a PSTN, an ISDN, a private network connected to a PABX and a packet network.

21. A calling terminal according to claim 13, wherein the calling terminal is a terminal according to the TETRA standard.

28. The method of claim 1 further comprising the calling terminal automatically associating the target telephone number with the call type without further interaction by the user.

29. The method of claim 1 further comprising more than one gateway being available to be used for routing the telecommunications link.

14. A communications terminal comprising:

a transceiver for two way information exchange with a first telecommunications network;

a memory, and;

data processing means for controlling the transceiver and the memory, wherein the terminal is used to establish communication with a target telephone number associated with a second telecommunications network, the first telecommunications network and the second telecommunications network being interconnected by a gateway, wherein the data processing means associates the target telephone number with a single call type, the association being made in the memory, compares the target telephone number with a stored telephone number stored in the memory, extracts the call type from the memory, extracts a gateway address of the gateway associated with the call type which interconnects the first telecommunications network and the second telecommunications network and operates the transceiver to establish communication with the target telephone number through the gateway by sending a message containing the target telephone number and the gateway address to the first telecommunications network.

15. A communications terminal according to claim 14, wherein the data processing means further comprises comparing means connected to the memory for extracting the stored telephone number from the memory and comparing the stored telephone number with the target telephone number and as a response to a match between the target telephone number and the stored telephone number extracting the call type related to the stored telephone number from the memory.

16. A communications terminal according to claim 15, further comprising a user interface wherein as a response to the comparing means not finding any stored telephone number matching the target telephone number the data processing means operates the user interface to display available call types for a user to operate the user interface to select the call type.

17. A communications terminal according to claim 16, the memory further comprising a phone book and a list of most recently dialled numbers wherein in the event that the target telephone number is found in the phone book the call type is stored with the target telephone number in the phone book, and in the event that the target telephone number is not found in the phone book the call type is stored with the target telephone number in the last dialled numbers memory.

18. A communications terminal according to claim 14, wherein the call type is selected from a group consisting of a TETRA call, a Non-TETRA call, a PABX call, a FSSN call and an IP call.

19. A communications terminal according to claim 14, wherein the comparing means further checks the first character of the target telephone number and as a response to the first character being a hash-sign (#) the call type is associated as an FSSN call.

20. A communications terminal according to claim 14, wherein the comparing means further checks the first character of the target telephone number and as a response to the first character being a plus-sign (+) the call type is associated as a Non-TETRA call.

22. A telecommunications system with a plurality of gateways for offering interconnection between a first telecommunications network and a second telecommunications network, wherein a communication link can be established between a first communications terminal being in connection with the first telecommunications network and a second communications terminal being in connection with the second telecommunications network through one of the plurality of gateways, the second communications terminal being associated with a target telephone number wherein the target telephone number is associated with a single call type in the memory of the first communications terminal and the communication link from the first communications terminal to the second communications terminal is established over the one of the plurality of gateways related to the call type.

23. A telecommunications system according to claim 22, wherein the target telephone number is associated with the call type on the basis of data extracted from the first communications terminal.

24. A telecommunications system according to claim 22, wherein the call type is selected from a group consisting of a TETRA call, a Non-TETRA call, a PABX call, an FSSN call and an IP call.

25. A telecommunications system according to claim 22, wherein the first telecommunications network is a TETRA network and the second telecommunications network is selected from a network group consisting of a TETRA network, a PLMN, a PSTN, an ISDN, a private network connected to a PABX and a packet network.

26. A computer program product for establishing a telecommunications link from a first telecommunications network to a target telephone number in a second telecommunications network through a gateway the computer program product comprising:

computer executable code means to compare the target telephone number with numbers stored on a storage medium;

computer executable code means to associate the target telephone number with a single call type, the association being made in a memory of a calling terminal in the first telecommunications network;

computer executable code means to extract a gateway address of the gateway associated with the call type, and;

computer executable code mans to establish the telecommunications link through the gateway.

27. A computer program product according to claim 26, wherein the computer executable code means to associate is associating the target telephone number with a call type on the basis of contact data.