A telecommunications system serving a calling party 10 is shown in
As shown in the associated call flow diagram of
In certain instances, it may be advantageous for the ongoing call to subsequently invoke the same IN service that was enabled following a previous encounter of a trigger detection point. This may be accomplished by establishing one or more additional trigger detection points. As the call proceeds, should the call trigger these additional trigger detection points, the SSP 20 again queries the SCP 30, invoking the same IN service.
A second trigger detection point encounter is shown in the fifth segment in
Once the current and prior requests for IN service have been correlated, the SCP 30 can access the content of both of the dialogs, e.g., data and parameters such as the CLI, the CSN, routing, and other telephone numbers. Next, the SCP 30 provides further call processing instructions to the SSP 20, based on the information received at the SCP 30, or a combination of information gathered from other SSP-SCP interactions that follow trigger detection point encounters.
In the call flow diagram of
The foregoing procedure may be used to optimize routing for a call ultimately routed to voice mail. In this example, illustrated in
For the purpose of discussion, some of the designations of components and signaling employed are those associated with SS7 switching and GSM networks. For example, the SSP 20 is realized in
During initial call set up, the calling party 10 seeks to contact the called party 12 based on the latter's mobile subscriber's telephone number (the CSN). In accord with currently-employed protocols for a network of mobile subscribers, the MSC/SSP 20 queries a home location register (HLR) 50 associated with the MSC/SSP 22 to determine the status and location of the called party 12.
Since the called party 12 is roaming in a network in another country, the HLR 50 responds with a routing number such as an international routing number (IRN) for the called party, which supplants the CSN. The international routing number (IRN) is used to route the call to another mobile switching center—the visited MSC 60, located in the network where the called party 12 is now registered, and ultimately to the called party 12. When the mobile subscriber, i.e., the called party 12, initially registered with the visited MSC 60, the particulars associated with that subscriber, such as the CSN, were entered in a visitor location register (VLR) 70 associated with the visited MSC 60.
Using the international routing number (IRN) of the called party 12, the MSC/SSP 22 then initiates the call, encountering a trigger detection point responsive to international routing numbers and commencing a first dialog with the SCP 30 (
The SCP 30 responds with call processing instructions, directing the MSC/SSP 22 to proceed with the call and begin setting up an outbound international call leg 80. Also, the SCP 30 directs the MSC/SSP 22 to arm an event detection point (EDP) for a “busy” condition. As discussed below, this will enable the MSC/SSP 22 to maintain the original call leg from the calling party 10.
Should the called party 12 not answer, after a predetermined period of time the visited MSC 60 will forward the call, i.e., redirect the call, to the called party's home network (MSC/SSP 22) over a return international call leg 82. Since the forwarded call is returning to the called party's home network, it now contains the called party's number—the CSN (recovered from the visited MSC 60), as well as the number for voice mail as the destination, arbitrarily designated here as the “forward to number” (FTN, e.g., the voice mail group number). (Although
The MSC/SSP 22 queries the SCP 30, again invoking the intelligent network service, providing the SCP 30 with the voice mail group number (the FTN), the calling party's CLI, and the called party's CSN. Previously not available to the MSC/SSP 22 after the call was first initiated since the HLR 50 replaced it with the international routing number (IRN), the CSN was extracted from the call forwarded by the visited MSC 60.
Utilizing the calling party's CLI, the SCP 30 then correlates this second dialog with the first. In this second dialog, the SCP 30 instructs the MSC/SSP 22 to tear down (i.e., release with reason “busy”) the two international call legs 82 (the return) and 80, back to the MSC/SSP 22. The process of tearing down the international call legs encounters the previously-armed event detection point at the MSC/SSP 22, suspending further call processing, leaving the circuit from the calling party 10 to the MSC/SSP 22 intact and relinquishing the second dialog (note dashed lines 80 and 82 in
The SCP 30 now resumes the first dialog, instructing the MSC/SSP 22 to the route the call directly to the voice mail service 90 on call leg 84, providing the MSC/SSP 22 with the voice mail group number (the FTN) as the destination and the called party's number (the CSN) used to identify the specific subscriber's voice mail box within the voice mail service 90.
The foregoing procedure may also be used to avoid roaming charges that are incurred within the same country. For example, a wireless provider may offer service within a relatively small geographical area, perhaps within a single state. Should one of provider's subscriber be roaming in an area served by another carrier, an unanswered call to the subscriber would be forwarded to voice mail. Although there would be no charges for international call legs, the subscriber would incur roaming charges and perhaps long distance charges as well.
To avoid such roaming and long distance charges, the provider could establish trigger detection points that invoke intelligent network service and prevent call completion through the remote switch (