Patent Application
20070002776
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multicast call processing unit for telecommunications devices, and more particularly the establishment of a multicast phone call that is triggered by a request from a telecommunications device to an exchange for the establishment of a communication link.
2. Description of the Related Art
Systems are available in the market which allow more than two people to listen, or to talk and listen, to each other simultaneously over communication links. Examples of such systems are audio bridging, parallel ringing, telephone line tapping systems. Audio bridging systems require a group of people to dial a special number. In parallel ringing systems, the authenticity of a person listening to a conversation is not guaranteed.
Typically, when a telecommunications device is used for communication, a particular number is dialed and a communication link is established between the calling phone and a recipient phone associated with a dialed number. If a person desires to talk to more than one individual, then the person has to call each individual using a separate phone call, employing a unique phone number for each individual. Alternately, all the individuals dial into a conference bridge using the same phone number, and they all talk to each other and listen to each other. This requires each individual to be able to dial in, and they need to be given the common bridging number, perhaps even a conference identification number, requiring a significant level of coordination and logistics.
It is an object of this invention to overcome the drawbacks of the above-described conventional network devices and methods. The present invention is directed to methods and systems for processing a request for establishing audio, video or data communication links that substantially obviate one or more of the problems of the art. By way of example, a request receiver receives a request from a requester entity for setting up a communication link. The communication link carries multimedia data including one or more of the following, but not limited to, audio, video, graphics, image, text and data. A determining unit determines if the request is associated with a multicast function. An identifying unit identifies multicast destinations defined by the multicast function and a communication unit establishes communication links with the multicast destinations if the determining unit determines that the request is associated with the multicast function and establishes communication links with a single destination if the determining unit determines that the request is not associated with the multicast function.
A requester entity and the multicast destinations can be one or more of, but not limited to a wired phone, a cellular phone, a wireless phone, a video phone, a computer, and an Internet phone. In one embodiment of the method described here, the determining unit employs a requester identification sent by the requester entity and the identifying unit employs the requester identification and a lookup table. A supervisory destination is determined. The supervisory destination is one of the multicast destinations. Optionally, the requester entity can be one of the multicast destinations. The supervisory destination is authenticated by the system, followed by authentication of the multicast destinations other than the supervisory destination. The authentication mechanism includes any possible authentication mechanism such as, username-password based, digital certificate based, GPS based, voice recognition based and secure ID based.
A call processing unit can include, one or more of the following: a request receiver, a determining unit, an identifying unit, a lookup table and a communication unit. In one variant of the method, the call processing unit solicits approval from the supervisory destination for connecting the requester entity with the multicast destinations, receives approval from the supervisory destination and establishes communication links between the requester entity and the multicast destinations. The call processing unit is an intelligent unit. It handles the processing of the request in real time. In one variant, the requester entity has no option to identify that the request sent by it to the network is associated with the multicast function. Optionally, the requester entity can be made aware of being connected to and communicating with the multicast destinations other than the supervisory destination.
These and other objects of the present invention will be described in or be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments.
For the present invention to be easily understood and readily practiced, preferred embodiments will now be described, for purposes of illustration and not limitation, in conjunction with the following figures:
The request receiver 103 is configured to receive a request from the requester 113 for setting up a communication link. The communication link carries multimedia data including at least one of, but not limited to, audio, video, graphics, image, text and data. The requester 113 communicates a requester identification to the request receiver 103. The determining unit 105 is configured to determine if the request from the requester 113 is associated with a multicast function. The determination is accomplished, in this example, by employing the requester identification. The requester identification comprises a multicast function indicator. An identifying unit 107 employs the requester identification and a lookup table 109 to identify the multicast destinations 117 defined by the multicast function. The lookup table 109 comprises a mapping of the requester identification to the multicast destinations 117. In one variant, the multicast destinations 117 comprises of at least one of a landline phone, a cellular phone, a video phone, a computer and an Internet phone.
Optionally, the multicast call processing unit 131 comprises the requester 113, the request receiver 103, the determining unit 105, the identifying unit 107, the lookup table 109 and the communication unit 111 which is configured to establish communication links with the multicast destinations 117. The multicast call processing unit 131 processes a communication request and causes the multicast destinations 117 to be incorporated into a multicast communications link such that the requester 113 and the multicast destinations 117 can communicate with each other. The request receiver 103, the determining unit 105, the identifying unit 107, the lookup table 109 and the communication unit 111 are communicatively coupled to each other in such a way so as to optimize the processing of the communication request.
In one variant, the communication unit 111 establishes a communication link with a single destination 115, if the determining unit 105 determines that the request from the requester 113 is not associated with the multicast function. The single destination 115 can be selected from the group of terminal units which can include a landline phone, a cellular phone, a video phone, a computer or an Internet phone. In addition, the communication unit 111 establishes a communication link with the multicast destinations 117, if the determining unit 105 determines that the request from the requester 113 is associated with the multicast function.
The multicast call processing unit 131 makes it possible for one requester 113 to communicate simultaneously with a plurality of destinations, collectively termed as the multicast destinations 117. The requester 113 is shown to be connected to the multicast destinations 117 using a solid line while the requester 113 is shown to be connected to the single destination 115 using a broken line. This convention illustrates the fact that the call processing unit 131 establishes communication link between the requester 113 and either of the single destination 115 and/or the multicast destinations 117. In one embodiment of the invention, the requester 113 belongs to group of multicast destinations 117.
The switching entity 205 determines a supervisory destination 211. The supervisory destination 211 is one of the plurality of destinations 209 and manages one or more of the others of the plurality of destinations 209. The switching entity 205 can, in one embodiment, authenticate the supervisory destination 211. Authentication mechanism can include any possible authentication mechanism including but not limited to one or more of the following: username-password based, digital certificate based, GPS based, voice recognition based and secure ID based. If the supervisory destination 211 is not authenticated by the switching entity 205, communicating with the plurality of destinations 209 is not permitted in one variant of the invention. Only after successful authentication of the supervisory destination 211, the rest of the plurality of destinations are authenticated. The plurality of destinations 209 hence communicate with the initiator 203 via the switching entity 205. In one variant of the invention, the initiator 203 is one of the plurality of destinations 209. Embodiments without the authentication function are also within the scope of this invention.
In one embodiment, a supervisor 212 is associated with and authenticated by the supervisory destination 211. The supervisor 212 manages the plurality of destinations 209. In a related embodiment of the call processing unit and system, the initiator 203 is made aware of the steps of determining the supervisory destination 211 and subsequent authenticating of the plurality of destinations 209.
In another embodiment of the system, the initiator 203 is unaware of being connected to and communicating with the plurality of destinations 209 other than the supervisory destination 211. In yet another variant of the system, the plurality of destinations 209 cease to communicate with the initiator 203 when the initiator 203 terminates communication with the switching entity 205. In yet another variant of the system, the plurality of destinations 209 continue to communicate among themselves when the initiator 203 terminates communication with the switching entity 205. In yet another version of the system, the initiator 203 and the supervisory destination 211 remain communicatively coupled when all or any one of the plurality of destinations 209 other than the supervisory destination 211 terminate communications between them and the initiator 203. Communication links between all the entities of the multicast call processing unit 221 carry multimedia data including one or more of the following but not limited to, audio, video, graphics, image, text and data.
The call processing unit finds out whether the requester has stopped communicating in block 809, after it learns that the supervisory destination has not stopped. If the requester stops, the call processing unit jumps to block 825 and breaks the communication link. If the requester does not stop, then the call processing unit keeps the supervisory destination communicatively connected with requester when all of the plurality of destinations other than the supervisory one stop communication. This is evident from the blocks 811, 813 and 815.
In one embodiment of the method, the requester entity is unaware of being connected to and communicating with the multicast destinations other than the supervisory destination. In another variant of the method, the requester entity is aware of the steps of determining and authenticating the supervisory destination followed by authenticating the rest of the multicast destinations. The requester entity has no option to identify that the request sent by it is associated with the multicast function. The requester entity is made aware of being connected to and communicating with the multicast destinations other than the supervisory destination optionally. The information flowing through a communication link between any two communicatively connected entity is one or more of the following, but not limited to, audio, video, graphics, image, text and multimedia data.
Although the invention has been described based upon these preferred embodiments, it would be apparent to those of skilled in the art that certain modifications, variations, and alternative constructions would be apparent, while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention. In order to determine the metes and bounds of the invention, therefore, reference should be made to the appended claims.
