• 专利附录
  • 专利说明
  • 权利要求
  • 类似技术
  • 同族专利
  • 引用文献
  • 法律状态
  • 优先权
    • 专利摘要:
    A new intelligent network feature that provides switch based voice mail systems with the same dial up toll saver indications as the better customer premises answering machine equipment. If there are no messages, the tollsaver feature will have the voice mail system pick up after the normal number of rings, typically four or five. If there are messages, the voice mail system will pick up after fewer rings, typically two or three. Thus, if the subscriber calls in remotely he or she can and should hang up after three rings to avoid an unnecessary toll charge for an empty voice mail box. However, if the subscriber calls in and waits for three rings and hears the system start to pick up, then the subscriber knows that the call will be worth the connect charge because there is a message to playback. Thus, by this method and apparatus switch based voice mail has the same tollsaver feature as home answering machines.
    公开号:CA2296941A1
    申请号:C2296941
    申请日:2000-01-21
    公开日:2000-09-24
    发明作者:Nicholas Michael Devito
    申请人:Nokia of America Corp；
    IPC主号:H04M3-537
    专利说明:
    N. M. DeVito C, NETWORK BASED VOICE MAIL SYSTEM WITH TOLLSAVER FEATURE CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION: This application claims priority of Provisional Application Serial No.60/125,862 which was filed March 24, 1999. TECHNICAL FIELD: This invention relates to public switched telephone network based voice mail systems and more particularly to a toll saver feature that can save the voice mail customer the cost of completing a call to his or her empty voice mail box.1o BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION: Customer premises answering machines have been in existence for a number of years. These machines typically have one or more audio tapes, tape recording/playback circuitry, line interface circuits and control circuits. These answering machines go off hook if unanswered after a selected number of rings; play 15 an announcement, such as prompting a caller to leave a message; record the message and return to the on-hook condition. Besides just the simple taking of messages and local playback, many customer premises answering machines can be accessed remotely via telephone for playback. To accomplish a remote access playback, the user of the answering machine (e.g. an owner or an employee of the owner) dials his 20 or her own telephone number and waits for the answering machine to answer. When the answering machine answers, a sequence of Dual Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF) tones are entered on the remote station as a personal identification number (PIN) to enable and initiate the playback of any messages. If there are messages on the answering machine, the messages are played back to the remote user. A common 25 problem with early remote access customer premises answering machines was that the remote user could not tell whether or not there were any messages on the machine. It was an expensive and frustrating nuisance to call in remotely, enter a PIN and then not have any messages to playback. To prevent this, a tollsaver feature was added to some customer premises answering machines. The tollsaver feature of the answering 3o machine shortens the number of rings required for the answering machine to go off hook whenever it has a message to playback. This shortening typically is two rings.The tollsaver works because when there are messages to playback the machine will complete the call quickly, when there are no messages to playback the ringing will go one or more rings longer to go off hook. This longer answering period by the 35 answering machine indicates that there are no messages and gives the remote user time to hang up before the call is completed and a call and/or toll charge is incurred. N. M. DeVito 4 This valuable tollsaver feature of customer premises answering machines has not found a way into the somewhat similar switch based voice mail systems. Part of the reason that a switch based tollsaver has not been provided for switch based voice mail systems is the logistics and coordination of all the units that are involved in recording a voice mail message. It is much simpler logistically when all the circuitry and logic can be in one local answering machine assembly. It is desirable to have a method and apparatus that would provide a tollsaver feature for a switch based voice mail system. It is desirable to have a method and apparatus that would provide a tollsaver feature for a switch based voice mail system as an advanced intelligent network (AIN) service. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION: Briefly stated, in accordance with one aspect of the invention the aforementioned problems are solved by providing in an advanced intelligent network, ~ 5 a method for a tollsaver feature. This method includes the steps of initiating a call from station A to station B which is a station of a subscriber to a tollsaver feature;ringing station B's line with a plurality of rings without an answer; firing a Terminating NoAnswer trigger after said plurality of rings of station B's line;launching a TerminatingBusy Query to a SCP; forwarding by the SCP of the call to a 2o Voice Mail System; collecting a message for subscriber from a caller using station A;the voice mail system notifying SCP that a message has been left in the voice mail system for subscriber. and SCP sending update message to SSP requesting that station B's terminating NoAnswer timer value be changed to at least one fewer rings to indicate that at least one message has been received.25 In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the aforementioned problems are solved by providing in an intelligent network, a method for a tollsaver feature. This method including the steps of: initiating a call from station A to station B which is a station of a subscriber to a tollsaver feature; firing a Terminating Attempt Trigger at station B's line; sending a Termination Attempt Query to a SCP; SCP30 responding with AuthorizeTernination and NoAnswer NEL which has a plurality of rings as a default; Station B 12 is not answered; firing Terminating NoAnswer event after said plurality of rings have occurred on station B's line; sending TerminatingBusy event notification to SCP; SCP forwarding the call to voice mail system ; collecting a message for subscriber from a caller using station A; the voice mail system notifying 35 SCP that a message has been left in the voice mail system for subscriber; and SCPservice logic recognizing that station B's terminating NoAnswer timer value should be N. M. DeVito 4 3 changed to at least one fewer rings to indicate that at least one message has been received. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a tollsaver feature for a switch based voice mail system that uses AIN triggers.FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a tollsaver feature for a switch based voice mail system that uses AIN events. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the 1 o invention. Shown in FIG. 1 are telephone stations A, B and C designated 10, 12 and 14 respectively. Station A 10 and station C 14 are remote stations and station B 12 is the local telephone station of a voice mail subscriber. Telephone stations A, B and Care connected by service switching point (SSP) 20. SSP 20 also connects voice mail system 30 to stations A 10 or C 14 whenever one of those stations calls station B 12 and Station B 12 is not answer within the preselected number of rings. SSP 20 also connects to service control point (SCP) 40. Service control point 40, as its name implies, controls AIN based services, such as call waiting, call forwarding and voice mail. This invention uses an AIN defined call-forwarding service to vary the number of ring cycles that a caller hears before the call is forwarded (to a Voice Mail System for this application). Currently, the number of rings that a caller hears before being forwarded is a switch-based feature and may not be varied on a per call basis. AINdefined call-forwarding allows service providers to vary the number of rings that a caller hears before being forwarded on a per call basis. In a preferred embodiment of the invention SSP 20 and SCP 40 are parts of an AIN. SSP 20 and SCP 40 both use SS7 switch signaling to communicate data and control commands. Thus, link 22 is an SS7 link. This arrangement of equipment is a standard AIN arrangement. Further, there must be a link 42 between SCP 40 and Voice Mail System 30. This link may be a separate line as shown in FIG. 1, or it may 3o be through existing lines 22, 24 and SSP 20 (not shown). This is the basic equipment required to practice a tollsaver feature. A tollsaver feature is in essence a method for indicating (via AII~ to a telephone subscriber calling in from a remote station, such as station C, that there is a voice-mail (or other) message for the subscriber in voice mail system 30 by varying the number of rings encountered when the subscriber (or any other caller) calls the subscriber's line. N. M. DeVito 4 4 The tollsaver feature is a method of operating parts of the arrangement 100 shown in FIG. 1. An example of the method is shown in the following call flow which uses AIN triggers: Call Flows using AIN triggers Caller at A 10 calls subscriber at B 12. B 12 does not Answer. Terminating NoAnswer trigger fires after 24 seconds (e.g. 4 rings, default value) at B's line. TerminatingBusy Query launched to SCP 40 SCP 40 forwards call to Voice Mail System 30. Caller at A 10 leaves message for subscriber of line to B Voice Mail System 30 notifies SCP 40 that A has left a message for subscriber. SCP 40 sends Update message to SSP 20 requesting that B's terminating NoAnswer timer value be changed to 12 2o seconds (2 rings, indicating B has a message) Subscriber at station C calls in to Retrieve Message If there is a Message Subscriber calls his or her line B (to see if they have any messages) station B is not answered (not at home) Terminating NoAnswer trigger fires after 12 seconds (2 rings) @ B's line.3o TenninatingBusy Query launched to SCP 40 SCP 40 forwards call to Voice Mail System 30. Subscriber knows that he or she has a message (only two rings) and enters PIN of voice mail box to get messages. If there is no Message Subscriber calls his or her line B (to see if they have any messages) N. M. DeVito 4 station B is not answered (not at home) Terminating NoAnswer trigger fires after 24 seconds (4 rings) @ B's line. Subscriber knows that he or she does not have a message (more than two rings) and hangs up. TerminatingNoAnswer Query launched to SCP 40 SCP 40 forwards call to Voice Mail System 30. Caller (subscriber) abandoned, so arrangement 100 cleans up as it would after any incomplete call attempt. Alternatively, a different embodiment of the tollsaver feature is a method of operating parts of the arrangement 200 shown in FIG. 2. The SSP 20', voice mail system 30', SCP 40', and links 22', 24' and 42' will have slightly different programming and carry slightly different signals than FIG. 1. An example of the method is shown in the following call flow which uses AIN events: Caller at A 10 calls subscriber at B 12. Terminating Attempt Trigger (TAT) fires at B's line 2o Termination Attempt Query goes to SCP 40' SCP 40' responds with AuthorizeTernination and NoAnswer NEL (24 seconds - 4 rings, default value) Station B 12 is not answered. Terminating NoAnswer event fires after 24 seconds @ B's line. TerminatingBusy event notification is sent to SCP 40' SCP 40 forwards call to Voice Mail System 30' Caller at station A leaves message for subscriber 3o Voice Mail System 30' notifies SCP 40' that A has left subscriber a message. SCP 40' service logic realizes that station B's terminating NoAnswer timer value should be changed to 12 seconds (2 rings, indicating subscriber has a message) Subscriber calls in to Retrieve Message N. M. DeVito 4 6 There is a Message Subscriber calls his or her line of station B (to see if they have any messages) Terminating Attempt Trigger (TAT) fires at B's line Termination Attempt Query goes to SCP 40' SCP 40' knows that there is a message for subscriber SCP 40' responds with AuthorizeTernination and NoAnswer NEL ( 12 seconds - 2 rings, there is a message) Station B 12 is not answered (not at home) Terminating NoAnswer NEL fires after 12 seconds (2 rings) @ B's line. TerminatingBusy event notification is sent to SCP 40' SCP 40' forwards call to Voice Mail System 30'. Subscriber knows that he or she has a message (only two rings) and enters PIN on Voice Mail System 30' to get messages. There is not a Message Subscriber calls his or her line to station B 12 (to see if they have any messages) Terminating Attempt Trigger (TAT) fires at B's line Termination Attempt Query goes to SCP 40' SCP 40' responds with AuthorizeTernination and NoAnswer NEL (24 seconds - 4 rings, default value) Station B 12 is not answered. Terminating NoAnswer event fires after 24 seconds @ B's line.3o Subscriber knows that he or she does not have a message (more than two rings) and hangs up. SCP 40' forwards call to Voice Mail System 30'. Caller abandoned, so arrangement 200 cleans up as after any incomplete call attempt.Although this invention has been described with respect to preferred embodiments, i.e.intelligent networks that use triggers and intelligent networks that use events, those N. M. DeVito 4 skilled in the art may devise numerous other arrangements without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the following.
    权利要求:
    Claims (6)
    [1] 1. In an advanced intelligent network, a method for a tollsaver feature comprising the steps of:initiating a call from station A to station B which is a station of a subscriber to a tollsaver feature;station B ringing a plurality of rings without an answer;firing a Terminating NoAnswer trigger after said plurality of rings of station B's line; TerminatingBusy Query launched to SCP SCP forwarding the call to a Voice Mail System; Caller at station A leaving a message for subscriber; Voice Mail System notifying SCP that a message has been left in the voice mail system for subscriber; and SCP sending update message to SSP requesting that station B's terminating NoAnswer timer value be changed to at least one fewer rings.
    [2] 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one fewer rings is actually two fewer rings.
    [3] 3. The method of claim 1 or 2, fiirther comprising the steps of:the subscriber at station C calling in station B to check for and retrieve a message;station B ringing without an answer;firing a Terminating NoAnswer trigger after 2 rings of station B's line;in response to said Terminating NoAnswer trigger firing, launching a TerminatingBusy Query to SCP; SCP forwarding the call to the Voice Mail System; and indicating by the at least one fewer rings to subscriber that there is a message awaiting retrieval so completing the call will not be a waste of time or telephone expenses.
    [4] 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the steps of:entering a PIN to the voice mail system to authorize playback of at least one message;subscriber receiving the at least one message on the voice mail system.
    [5] 5. The method of claim 1, 2, 3, or 4, using AIN events.
    [6] 6. The method of claim 1, 2, 3, or 4, using AIN triggers.
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    同族专利:
    公开号 | 公开日
    MXPA00002834A|2002-03-08|
    引用文献:
    公开号 | 申请日 | 公开日 | 申请人 | 专利标题
    法律状态:
    2000-01-21| EEER| Examination request|
    2004-01-21| FZDE| Dead|
    优先权:
    申请号 | 申请日 | 专利标题
    US12586299P| true| 1999-03-24|1999-03-24||
    US60/125,862||1999-03-24||
    US38238599A| true| 1999-08-24|1999-08-24||
    US09/382,385||1999-08-24||
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