WO2003028355A1

WO2003028355A1 - Automatic routing of telephone calls using a caller id number

Info

Publication number: WO2003028355A1
Application number: PCT/US2001/030032
Authority: WO
Inventors: Joseph Brongo; Thompson Chu; J. Mark Fraser; John Mcdermott; Chi Wai Wong
Original assignee: Fish & Associates, Llp
Priority date: 2001-09-24
Filing date: 2001-09-24
Publication date: 2003-04-03

Abstract

The present invention provides systems and methods for routing a telephone call (115) to at least one of a plurality of destinations associated by a telephone services provider (120) with a single public switched telephone number (PSTN). A caller id number (CID) is used to determine to which of the destinations to route the call.

Description

AUTOMATIC ROUTING OF TELEPHONE CALLS USING A CALLER ID

NUMBER

Field of The Invention

The field of the invention is telephony.

Background of The Invention

One common way of routing a telephone call is to route a call based on a request to speak to a recipient. Such a request is typically made to a person or a device that answers the call. A request to a person is more than likely a verbal request while a request to a device is typically entry of an extension number or a series of characters associated with the recipient's name. The extension number or series of characters may be entered using the keypad of the phone or it may be spoken, but in any case, the call usually takes relatively more time because of human interaction involved in requesting a recipient. Additionally, human error on the part of a phone operator or phone caller may lead to a call that is routed to the wrong recipient.

Routing a call without human interaction is often referred to as transparent call discrimination. One type of transparent call discrimination involves routing a call as a function of a tone associated with a particular device type (e.g. a tone associated with a fax machine). This method lacks universal applicability, however, because not all calls have a tone. Moreover, this type of routing often requires that the call be routed after the call is answered. Thus, a call is still likely to take longer and cost more money than if the call were routed before being answered (i.e. an off-hook state).

U.S. Patent 5974130 to Sadri et al. (October 1999) is a method of transparent call discrimination that routes a call prior to the call being answered. The type of call, which may include a voice, fax, modem, etc., is sent within a caller id number or automatic number identification (ANI) message. The type of call is then used for routing purposes. One notable disadvantage of routing calls as a function of the type of call is a lack of scalability in that calls of the same type are not discriminated from each other. Thus, all voice calls would likely be routed to the same destination. To circumvent at least some of the problems associated with routing calls based on a call type, U.S. Patent 5923745 to Hurd (July 1999) uses a caller id number of the call initiator to route calls to call centers. While the teachings of Hurd may add a degree of scalability as compared to routing based on a type of call, it does not solve some problems associated with routing a call to a final destination. A particularly significant problem is the lack of available phone numbers for final destinations.

Routing a call to a final destination is often accomplished by giving each final destination its own phone number. However, the quantity of available phone numbers is rapidly decreasing. Available phone numbers are being used by relatively new devices (e.g. cell phones, pagers, and faxes) that have separate phone numbers. Furthermore, people are increasingly using more than one device to communicate.

In U.S. Patent 5644629 to Chow (July 1997), a device at the call recipient's site is used to route calls to various outputs based on stored caller identification numbers that have been established by the call recipient. A disadvantage of the system taught by Chow is that the call recipient is required to maintain the hardware, software, and data to do the routing. Another disadvantage is that the number of final destinations is limited to the number of physical ports that the routing device can support. A less obvious, but nonetheless longstanding, problem is that calls cannot be routed to e-mail addresses in accordance with the teachings of Chow. It is known to forward phone calls, and conceivably a call could be forwarded to a phone number associated with an e-mail address, however, to give a separate phone number to each e-mail address would exacerbate the existing problem of too few phone numbers.

Thus, there is a need for methods and devices where calls can be routed to final destinations without the need to have equipment at a final destination's site and without using a unique phone number for each final destination.

Summary of the Invention

The present invention provides for routing a telephone call to at least one of a plurality of destinations associated with a single public switched telephone number (PSTN). A caller id number (CID) is used to determine which of the destinations to route the call to. Another aspect of the invention involves a device for routing a telephone call to a final destination in which a microprocessor is programmed to use a combination of a CID and a PSTN to access a record. The record, which is controlled by a telephone service provider, comprises at least one of the final destination addresses that are associated with a PSTN.

A further aspect of the invention includes a telephone service provider assigning a

PSTN to a plurality of final destination addresses, determining a particular one of the final destination addresses of the telephone call using the PSTN number and a CID number, and routing the telephone call to the particular one of the final destination address.

Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention, along with the accompanying drawings in which like numerals represent like components.

Brief Description of The Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic of a system for routing a telephone call.

Fig. 2 is a schematic of a device for routing a fax to an e-mail address.

Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a method of routing a telephone call.

Detailed Description

Referring first to Fig. 1, a system 100 for routing a telephone call generally comprises a telephone call 110, and a telephone service provider 120, and a destination address 130.

A telephone call 110 should be interpreted herein as broadly as possible while remaining with the overall inventive concept. As such, a telephone call may include any communication that can have an associated public switched telephone network number (PSTN number) 112, a caller-id number (CID number) 114, and a message 115.

A telephone call 110 may be initiated on any device that is capable of making a telephone call 110. For example, a telephone call 110 may be made using a conventional corded telephone, a mobile telephone, a computer having a modem, a fax, and a fax-modem. Computer initiated calls may be made using computer generated dialing. A contemplated variation of this includes phone calls placed over the Internet (e.g. VoIP (Voice over IP), FoIP (Fax over IP)). A telephone call 110 is advantageously made using a fax machine or a computer and a fax-modem. Preferably, a telephone call 110 has a message 115 that comprises a fax document. Of course, the document being faxed may include a letter, picture, map, and so on. It will be obvious to one skilled in the art that the contents of a message 115 will vary depending on the device used to initiate a telephone call 110. For example, if a telephone call is made using a telephone, an associated message 115 will likely comprise voice data.

A PSTN number 112 is defined as a set of characters that is associated with the entity that is to receive the telephone call 110. Dialing of the telephone call may not involve the actual dialing of a PSTN number 112 (i.e. some form of abbreviated dialing may be used), however, even in embodiments that do not involve the actual dialing of a full PSTN number, the full PSTN number is preferably communicated to the telephone service provider 120.

The PSTN number 112 is typically communicated to the telephone service provider 120 by means of DNΪS (Dialed Number Information Service), DID (Direct Inward Dialing) or other available signaling services.

While the typical PSTN number is a standard phone number having a three-digit area code, a three-digit prefix, and a four-digit suffix, it should be appreciated that the format of the PSTN is not limited to just standard telephone number formats and characters. That is, the PSTN number may include country codes, region codes, non-standard characters, and so on. For example, Internet telephony and other technologies may involve different mechanisms to define a destination for a telephone call. Thus, the destination may even include an Internet Service Provider designation.

A CID number 114, often referred to as a Calling Line ID (CLID) or an automatic number identification (ANI), is defined broadly herein as a set of characters that are associated with the entity making the telephone call 110. Again, it is contemplated that the format of the CID number may vary considerably from the typical formats currently known, and as such may include non-standard characters (e.g. a, v, J, *, ^Λ, @, and ~) and non- standard formats (e.g. a two digit state code + a one digit county code + a three digit city code + a three digit suffix). A telephone service provider 120 receives a telephone call 110. A telephone service provider is an entity that is responsible for providing a telephone related service and may include a known telephone company (e.g. Pacific Bell, Southern Bell, GTE, and Verizon.) or a local or regional Application Service Provider (ASP) or Internet Service Provider (ISP) offering some form of telephony related communications service. According to at least one aspect of the invention, a telephone service provider 110 associates a PSTN number with a plurality of destination addresses, and is generally responsible for the process of routing the telephone call to at least one of the final destination addresses at least partially using a CID number. Records 122 may be accessed by the telephone service provider 120 in order to determine where to route the telephone call 110. A preferred record 120 comprises the fields of PSTN number, CID number, and destination address. A preferred record 120 has a key field of CID number. A telephone call may thus be routed to a destination address 130 by finding records that match both the PSTN number and the CID number, then routing the call to the associated destination address 130 or addresses. The physical and virtual location of the records 122 may vary. For example, records may exist on a plurality of geographically distributed storage devices or records may be distributed over a plurality of storage devices located in the same or different physical location (e.g a RAID device). While responsibility of the records may be delegated to other entities by the telephone service provider 120, the telephone service provider 120 generally has the ultimate responsibility for establishing and maintaining the records.

A preferred destination address 130 is an e-mail address, however it is contemplated that a destination address 130 may map to a variety of physical or virtual destination addresses such as a fax machine address, a pager address, a voice mailbox address, a watch, a PDA, or some other location that is capable of receiving a message portion 115 of a telephone call. Of course, a message 115 portion of a telephone call 110 will likely be digitized and converted before being routed to the final destination address 130. A message portion 115 of a telephone call 110 that maps to an e-mail address, for example, may be digitized by a codec, vocoder, or other device at the telephone service provider's location, and the digitized output maybe MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) or S/MME (i.e. to support encrypted messages) encoded so they can be transmitted over the Internet to an e-mail address. Digitized output may typically be encoded for 'SMTP' (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) compatibility. It is further contemplated that a message 115 may be inserted into a packet that will traverse the Internet using TCP/IP or FTP for file transfer.

h Fig. 2, a device 200 for routing a document 212 to a destination address of an e- mail address 270 is depicted. A fax machine 210 reads a document 212, and communicates a representation of the document 212 to a processor 220.

A processor 220 is generally controlled, directly or indirectly, by a telephone service provider, however, control of a processor by a telephone service provider is not to be construed as a limitation. A processor 220 may be any appropriate commercially available processor that is capable of receiving a fax transmission and being programmed to access a record 230 that points to a final destination or e-mail address 270. A processor 220 preferably uses a combination of PSTN number and CID number to access a record 230. A key to a record 230 may optionally be CID number, PSTN number, or even a concatenation of both. A router 240 is programmed to route a telephone call, a fax, or other message portion thereof (not shown) at least partially based on the final destination address in a record 230. Routing may also be based on a determination of an efficient path from the telephone service provider to the final destination address. An efficient path will typically have relatively few hops, or a more reliable backbone. A path may traverse a wireless or wired network, a private (e.g. a VPN) or public network (e.g. the Internet 250).

An e-mail address 270 is a final destination address in that a message may be received at many different interim locations (e.g. a call routing center), but the final destination address refers to an address of an intended recipient, not an interim location. Thus, in Fig. 2, the final destination address 270 is an e-mail address of the intended recipient. With respect to the e- mail address 270, it is generally contemplated that a recipient (not shown) will access the e- mail by using a desk top computer 260. However, an e-mail may be accessed by a recipient using other appropriate devices such as a PDA, mobile phone, etc.

A method of routing a telephone call is depicted in Fig. 3. hi step 10 a telephone service provider assigns a PSTN number to a plurality of final destination addresses. The step of assigning preferably includes associating more than one e-mail address with a particular PSTN number. By assigning more than one e-mail address to each PSTN number, phone numbers are saved and communications to e-mail addresses are facilitated. The step of assigning 10 is preferably followed by a step 20 of receiving signals associated with the telephone call. The receipt of the signals typically, but not necessarily, takes place at telephone service provider's location. Step 30 involves determining a particular one of the final destination addresses using the PSTN number and CID number to determine at least one final destination address. The determination of final destination addresses may include additional steps (not shown) related to accessing a record on a database controlled by a telephone service provider. In accordance with one aspect, the determination of the final address may include forwarding to a subsequent PSTN number and determining the final address using the subsequent PSTN number along with the CTD number. Step 40, digitizing signals associated with a telephone call advantageously involves a process of formatting the signals and storing them in an electronic file. An electronic file may be converted, as in step 50, into a format that is readily transportable such as by encoding the file for SMTP compatibility. The electronic file may be any appropriate file type such as 'TIFF, GIF, WAV, MP3, etc. In step 60, the telephone call is routed to at least one final destination address that was determined in step 30.

Thus, specific embodiments and applications of automatic routing of telephone calls using a caller id number have been disclosed. It should be apparent, however, to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those already described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subject matter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims. Moreover, in interpreting both the specification and the claims, all terms should be interpreted in the broadest possible manner consistent with the context. In particular, the terms "comprises" and "comprising" should be interpreted as referring to elements, components, or steps in a non-exclusive manner, indicating that the referenced elements, components, or steps may be present, or utilized, or combined with other elements, components, or steps that are not expressly referenced.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A system for routing a telephone call wherein: the telephone call has a PSTN number and a CID number; a telephone service provider associates the PSTN number with a plurality of destination addresses; and the system is programmed to route the telephone call to at least one selected destination address of the plurality of destination addresses, at least partially using the CID number.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the telephone service provider uses the CID number and the PSTN number to access a record.

3. The system of claim 2; wherein the record comprises at least one of the selected destination addresses.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the selected destination addresses comprises an e-mail address.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the selected destination addresses comprises a fax machine address.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the selected destination addresses comprises a pager address.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the selected destination addresses comprises a voice mailbox address.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the CID number is associated with a fax machine.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the CDD number is associated with a mobile phone.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the telephone call is routed to at least two of a fax machine, an e-mail address, a pager, and a PDA.

12. A device for routing a telephone call comprising: a processor programmed to use a combination of a CTD number and a PSTN number to access a record, which is controlled by a telephone service provider and which comprises a final destination address, wherein each of a plurality of final destination addresses is associated with the PSTN number; and a router programmed to route the telephone call at least partially based on the final destination address of the record.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein copies of the record exist on a plurality of geographically distributed storage devices.

14. The device of claim 12, wherein the record is a member of a set of records that is distributed over a plurality of storage devices.

15. The device of claim 12, wherein the telephone call is routed as a function of a device type of the final destination address of the record.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the final destination of the record comprises an Internet Service Provider designation.

17. A method of routing a telephone call comprising: a telephone service provider assigning a PSTN number to a plurality of final destination addresses; determining a particular one of the final destination addresses of the telephone call using the PSTN number and a CID number; and routing the telephone call to the particular one of the final destination addresses.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of determining further comprises accessing a record comprising the PSTN number, the CID number, and the particular one of the final destination addresses.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of determining a path to the particular one of the final destination addresses.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the path traverses a wireless network.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the path traverses a private network.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the path traverses a public packet switched network.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising the ordered steps of: receiving signals associated with the telephone call; digitizing the signals; and converting the digitized signals before routing the telephone call to the particular one of the final destination addresses.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of converting further comprises encoding for 'SMTP' compatibility._.