Context-dependent call-feature selection

[54] CONTEXT-DEPENDENT CALL-FEATURE SELECTION

[75] Inventors:

[73] Assignee:

[21] [22]

[51] [52]

[58] [56]

Appl. No.: Filed:

Frank J. Bogart, Boulder; Bruce D.
Butterfield, Denver; David L.
Chavez, Jr., Northglenn; Henry C.
Dittmer, Westminster; Frederick R.
Fix, Arvada; Larry J. Hardouin,
Westminster; Nancy K. Schmidt,
Broomfield; Linda L. Thomson,
Westminster, all of Colo.

AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray
Hill, N.J.

786,323

Oct. 31, 1991

Int. C1.5 H04M 3/42; H04M 7/00

U.S. CI 379/201; 379/207;

379/220; 379/243

Field of Search 379/242, 243, 201, 207,

379/67, 88, 89, 92, 112, 219, 220, 221

References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

4,256,926 3/1981 Pitroda et al 179/18 ES

4,259,549 3/1981 Stehman 179/18 ES

4,314,342 2/1982 McNeir et al 364/468

4,577,066 3/1986 Bimonte et al 179/18 B

4,600,812 7/1986 Gerlits 179/18 AD

4,695,977 9/1987 Hansen et al 364/900

4,706,212 11/1987 Toma 364/900

4,878,240 10/1989 Lin et al 379/67

4,899,373 2/1990 Lee et al 379/201 X

4,987,587 1/1991 Jolissaint 379/94

5,017,917 5/1991 Fisher et al 340/825.79

5,021,943 6/1991 Grimes 364/200

5,095,505 3/1992 Finucane et al 379/207 X

5,193,110 3/1993 Jones et al 379/88 X

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

G. J. Roberts et al., "An Introduction to the Analogue Derived Services Network", British Telecommunications Engineering, vol. 4, Oct. 1985, pp. 129-138. "Definity Communications System, Generic 2 and Sys

201

tem 85, Feature Descriptions," AT&T Co. document No. 555-104-301 (Aug. 1989) pp. 15-1 to 15-4, 21-1 to 21-12.

"Definity Communications System, Generic 2, New Capabilities of the Definity Generic 2 Switch", AT&T Co. document No. 555-104-401 (Issue 1, Feb. 1989) pp. 8-177 to 8-244.

"Notes on the Network", AT&T Co. (1980) Section 2, pp. 1-16, and Section 3, pp. 8-10 and Appendices 1 and 2.

"Notes on Distance Dialing, Section 2, Numbering Plan
and Dialing Procedures", AT&T Co. (1975) pp. 1-19.
D. Talley, Basic Telephone Switching Systems, 2d. ed.,
Hayden Book Co., Inc. (1979) pp. 6-8.

Primary Examiner—James L. Dwyer
Assistant Examiner—Harry S. Hong
Attorney, Agent, or Firm—John C. Moran

Which call feature module, if any, is invoked in response to a user's input of a feature access code is made dependent upon the context in which the feature request is made, in a call-processing arrangement (200) that uses stored definitions of syntax (320, 350) and grammar (400, 410) of the network numbering plan. The syntax definitions are definitions (312) of individual symbol strings, including the feature access codes, and include the string's associated virtual node-point identifier (VNI 334) which indicates the string's influence on feature selections. A VNI (254) resulting from the VNIs of symbol strings included in the entire symbol sequence input by a user serves, along with parameters (1230,1231,1232) of the context, as a multi-dimensional pointer into a matrix (1202) of feature numbers (1203). The feature module (205) which corresponds to the feature number pointed to in the matrix by the pointer is then invoked and executed to provide a corresponding call feature.

8 Claims, 15 Drawing Sheets

_, FUTURE

C| MODULES 205 '—T-—