Patent Application
20080144793
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The present invention generally relates to telecommunications devices, and specifically to an intelligent multi-functional electronic device.
The telecommunications industry continues to witness rapid changes in the way people and organizations communicate. Many of these changes spring from the explosive growth of the Internet and from applications based on Internet Protocol (IP). The Internet has become an omnipresent means of communication, and the total amount of packet-based network traffic has quickly surpassed traditional voice (circuit-switched) network traffic, such as PSTN's (Public Switched Telephony Networks) and the like.
Technological advancements have helped telecommunication service providers, users, and suppliers realize that voice traffic and services may be one of the next major inroads to take full advantage of IP. This expectation is based on the impact of a new set of technologies generally referred to as Voice over IP (VoIP) or IP telephony.
Network administrators or customers who use Voice over IP (VoIP) or IP telephony face challenges in deploying IP phones to end-users. In particular, administrators and customers need to provide an IP phone with a configuration appropriate or correct for each individual user and including a variety of parameters, such as phone numbers and particular feature sets for each phone. For example, an IP phone that is deployed at a reception desk might require an entirely different feature set and configuration than a phone deployed to a conference room. Different individuals can also require different phone numbers and/or feature sets depending on the roles of the individuals in an organization.
In some conventional approaches, VoIP phones are shipped to the customer with pre-programmed menus according to the customer's anticipated needs. For example, a business customer may anticipate a need for one receptionist phone, two conference room phones, and seven general-user phones, where the menus of available functions for each of the different types of phones (i.e., receptionist, conference room, and general user) are different. The business will order ten phones, where one phone is provided with a receptionist menu, two phones with conference-room menus, and seven phones with general-user menus. If the phone needs of the business later changes, for example such that it actually needs eight general-user phones and only one conference-room phone, the options would be to order a new general-user phone (and leave the extra conference-room phone unused), give the eighth general-user a conference-room phone (which may be an inconvenience for the user), or have the extra conference-room phone re-programmed by a technician, which would require either shipping the phone to the technician or having the technician physically present at the phone to do the necessary re-programming.
What is needed is an improved system and method for management of provisionable menuing in an intelligent electronic device.
The present invention discloses a method and system for designing a dynamic menu structure, that at the time of provisioning, an administrator can remotely manage VoIP phone menuing for each, or a group of, VoIP phone customers by sending both a default configuration file and a customized configuration file to designated IP phones.
Therefore, in accordance with the previous summary, objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent to a person of the ordinary skill in the art from the subsequent description and the appended claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The present disclosure can be described by the embodiments given below. It is understood, however, that the embodiments below are not necessarily limitations to the present disclosure, but are used to describe a typical implementation of the invention.
The present invention provides a unique method and system for remote management of menuing in an intelligent electronic device. It is understood, however, that the following disclosure provides many different embodiments, or examples, for implementing different features of the invention. Specific examples of components, signals, messages, protocols, and arrangements are described below to simplify the present disclosure. These are, of course, merely examples and are not intended to limit the invention from that described in the claims. Well known elements are presented without detailed description in order not to obscure the present invention in unnecessary detail. For the most part, details unnecessary to obtain a complete understanding of the present invention have been omitted inasmuch as such details are within the skills of persons of ordinary skill in the relevant art. Details regarding control circuitry described herein are omitted, as such control circuits are within the skills of persons of ordinary skill in the relevant art.
The phone 100 utilizes VoIP technology. The phone 100 has a first line key 110 that operates a first line (extension 3337 in this example), a second line key 112 that operates a second line (extension 3129 in this example), and a third line key 114 that operates a third line (extension 3555 in this example). The phone 100 also includes a display screen 116 for displaying information about options and lines for the user. The display screen 116 can include an electronic display device such as a monochrome or full-color liquid crystal display device. The phone 100 also includes a navigation toggle key 118, which can serve a variety of purposes such as navigating icons on the screen 116. The phone 100 also includes a first function key 120, a second function key 122, and a third function key 124. The phone also includes a handset 126, which can be corded or cordless, a first set of additional feature keys 128, a traditional number pad 130, and a second set of additional feature keys 132.
The configuration server 310 includes a set of databases and/or files for remotely managing and provisioning IP phone services. The configuration server 310 contains one or more phone-configuration files 311 and one or more custom phone menu files 312. In this embodiment, the phone-configuration files 311 are files for remotely setting up default configuration settings for each of the VoIP phones 301-303.
The custom phone menu files 312 include information regarding configuration settings for the phones 301-303, including information that can be interpreted by the phones 301-303 for setting up respective customized menus. According to one embodiment of the present invention, an administrator of the network can manage the menus for each phone 301-303 by sending the appropriate custom phone menu file 312 to each of the phones 301-303 from the configuration server 310. In another embodiment, the administrator of the network, at the time of provisioning, can manage each VoIP phone menuing by sending both the phone-configuration file 311 to each of the IP phones (301, 302, and 303) via the configuration server 310 and a specific custom phone menu file 312 to one or a plurality of designated IP phones (301, 302, and 303) via the configuration server 310. In this setting, the administrator of the network is capable of changing the functions and options of each of the IP phones (301, 302, and 303) coupled to the configuration server 310.
Some examples of the kind of custom menuing that can be added or removed include: access to configuration data, status, test data, etc. Other kinds of menuing can be added or removed depending on the privileges and/or needs of the individual users.
A few Voice Mail settings 404 can also be changed through this menu hierarchy 400. For example, Do Not Disturb can be turned on or off. Additionally, the number of rings before a call goes to Voice Mail can be changed. Further, a Personal Identification Number can be changed.
The last example shown is Network settings 406. This function allows the user to see the IP address assigned to this phone.
Another example menu hierarchy shown in this figure is an Admin Level Menu 408. The Admin menu 408 also has a phone settings function 410. This example of phone settings 410 allows an Admin to set a codec, to perform an audio selftest, and to reset the phone. The Admin menu 408 also has network settings feature 412. The network settings 412 allow an Admin to display IP address, the enable DHCP, and also to configure a VoIP gateway address.
A Dummy Level menu 414 is also shown. This Dummy menu 414 has phone settings feature 416 with just the ability to change the handset volume.
Other phone systems that communicate via the IP stack 516 with remote entities include the file retrieval mechanism 508 and the VoIP mechanism 518. The file retrieval mechanism 508 retrieves (e.g., from configuration server 310) the provisional menu data 506 (e.g., in the form of a custom phone menu file 312) and the configuration data 510 (e.g., in the form of a phone-configuration file 311) In the present embodiment, the file retrieval mechanism 508 uses Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) for retrieving the data 506 and 510 from a remote server; however, other protocols can be used. A dynamic menu interpreter 504 detects the presence of new or modified provisional menu data 506 and generates menus for the user interface 500 according to the contents of the provisional menu data 506. A provisioning interpreter 514 detects the configuration data 510 and passes the data 510 to a provisioning mechanism 512, which in turn configures the VoIP mechanism 518 according to the contents of the configuration data 510.
The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided to enable those skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art and generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.
