This invention relates to arrangements for controlling telecommunications calls from customer premises equipment.
In the telecommunications field, there are many arrangements available for directing calls to an appropriate destination within a group of associated destinations. In most cases, a computer is used to direct incoming calls, received with an identity of a caller, to the most appropriate destination. One such system is described in Gechter et al.: U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,535, issued Jul. 30, 1991.
A problem with such systems is their high expense. In many cases, a digital connection is required between the system and a serving central office switch; this limits the distance between the system and a serving central office.
The above problem is alleviated in accordance with this invention wherein the customer premises equipment comprises a single data line for transmitting either analog data or voice and one or more conventional (Plain Old Telephone Services (POTS)) lines. Calls may be received in either the data/voice station or one of the POTS stations depending on the number called by the caller. If the call is for the number associated with one of the POTS stations, the call is not completed until a query has been made by the serving switch to the control station and the data station has generated a response for completing the call to the initial station, completing the call to another telephone number, or rejecting the call. The service is used in conjunction with incoming caller line identification so that the data station can use the identity of the caller to decide whether to accept the call at the dialed station, redirect the call to another station, or reject the call. Advantageously, only the control station connected to the data line needs to have an intelligent station. Advantageously, inexpensive voice band analog signaling arrangements can be used between the control station and the switch, e.g., dual tone multifrequency (DTMF) or frequency shift keying (FSK).
In accordance with one preferred embodiment, the data line and therefore the control intelligent station is informed whenever one of the other stations makes a call. For outgoing calls the intelligent station can block the calls, redirect the outgoing call to another telephone number, disconnect a call if a time threshold is exceeded, and, if desired, notify the caller. On these outgoing calls and incoming calls, the station associated with the data line can accumulate usage statistics and statistics concerning calling and called numbers for each of the POTS stations. Advantageously, this arrangement allows for monitoring and control of the POTS lines at very low cost.
In one embodiment, responsive to receipt of a call for the control station connected to the data line, the call can be redirected to one of the other stations. For such calls, the control station can request that the switch apply a distinctive ring. The call to the control station can also be automatically forwarded to another station if the call is not answered before the lapse of a predetermined interval. The control station's telephone number is, preferably, unpublished.
In accordance with one preferred embodiment of Applicants' invention, each of the POTS lines has a pointer to the data line and the data line has a linked list of the POTS lines which it controls. The data station keeps track of which POTS stations are connected to which telephone numbers both in order to maintain traffic statistics and in order to route incoming calls to an alternate station.
The control station uses voice band analog signaling (frequency shift keying (FSK) or dual tone multifrequency (DTMF)) to communicate with switch 30.
1. completing the call as dialed from POTS port 12 to a called station 42;
2. reroute the call to an alternative number;
3. block further action on the call (action block 207).
If the call is completed, then POTS process 22 notifies control station 1 of the completion of the call of the time that the called station answers and of the disconnect time of the call. This information is used by control station 1 to route calls only to an available POTS station and to accumulate statistics about call usage by POTS station 2 (action block 209). If POTS station 2 is allowed to complete the call but is not allowed to call the called station for more than a predetermined length of time, then the control station transmits messages to cause a tone to be applied to POTS station 2 some time, such as 15 seconds, before the limit is reached; if POTS station 2 has not yet disconnected when the time limit is reached, the control station sends another message to cause a disconnect when the maximum time is reached.
All control messages are sent by switch under a guard timer. If there is no reply (e.g., control station down) then the switch proceeds to complete the call in a default manner by ringing the dialed number if idle.
For reliability, the switch periodically sends a timed busy/idle status refresh of all POTS stations to the control station in the event the control station was offline for some time (e.g., computer malfunction). Control station could also request this by dialing a special reserved control DN on the switch.
For calls with no caller identification or suppressed caller identification, special treatment such as an announcement can be provided.
The call treatment can be made a function of the time of day and/or day of the week, so that, for example, calls outside business hours can be routed to voice mail.
For calls to a busy POTS station which has call waiting service, a distinct call waiting tone can be provided under the control of the control station. Alternatively or in addition, all calls to the busy station except priority calls can be sent to busy tone.
For calls for which no further control messages are received by the switch, the switch can itself provide default treatment such as routing to voice mail after a timeout in ringing.
1. attempt to complete as dialed by attempting to complete the call from POTS port 12 to POTS station 2;
2. redirect the call to an alternative station identified by an alternative telephone number; or
3. block the call and send busy tone or an announcement to the caller.
The attempted call completion may be done with distinctive ringing applied from the serving switch in response to a message from the control station. If the attempted call is not completed within x seconds, then another query is sent to the control station 1, which may provide a new call routing, may simply allow the call not to be completed, or route the call to a voice mail number stored in the switch.
The database 23 of the control processor system 32 contains the data which allows the control process 21 to identify the control port 12 and vice versa. The data for control port 11 includes a linked list of the identities of all the POTS ports associated with control port 11 and the data for POTS port 12 includes the identity of the control port 11. This allows the control process 22 to respond to an incoming call by identifying the control port 11 and its associated control process 21. If the control station wishes to reroute an incoming call to another POTS port, the identities of all the POTS ports are stored in a linked list in the database 23.
An arrangement wherein one control station serves a single POTS station is desirable when the control station is used primarily for computer access (e.g., ISP). If V.92 is used between the computer and ISP, the busy call can be given call waiting treatment; the control station can then send a brief set of call completion instructions. This can be useful at night to screen all but a selected group of priority business callers, while sending other callers to voice mail. It can also be useful for applying distinctive ringing signals, selected by the control station, to alert a user of the POTS station as to the type of caller.
The control station 1 can update the database 23, for example, to change routing among the POTS stations. For example, if POTS station 3 is not to receive any calls not dialed directly to the number of that POTS station, the database 23 can be modified by a message from control station 1 to eliminate alternate routing to that station. This would be done in response to an FSK or DTMF message sent from control station 1 to switch 30.
The control station 1 can keep call logs for all of the POTS stations and for itself. This allows system administrators to monitor the performance of agents staffing the individual POTS lines.
When the control station sends an incoming call to a voice messaging system (not shown), it can send a request to the control processor system 32 to send a message to the appropriate POTS station to turn on a message waiting lamp.
The above description is of one preferred embodiment of Applicants' invention. Other embodiments will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. The invention is limited only by the attached claims.