Method of and an arrangement for forwarding a customer order

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. For use in a telephone switching system having a switching network for serving a plurality of customer lines and also having processor means for controlling establishment of connections through said network, an order entry arrangement for forwarding to a vendor data link a customer order received from a requesting one of said lines, said order indicating a desired selection, comprising:

receiver means for receiving customer signals including said customer order from said requesting line, and

wherein said processor means is responsive to said customer order received by said receiver means for sending said customer order to said vendor data link for the provision of said desired selection in response thereto without establishing a connection through said network to said vendor data link.

2. The invention of claim 1 wherein each of said lines has an identity, wherein said processor means includes means for driving the identity of said requesting line, and wherein said processor means is for sending the derived identify of said requesting line and said customer order to said vendor data link.

3. For use in a telephone switching system having a switching network for serving a plurality of customer lines and also having processor means for controlling establishment of connections through said network, an order entry arrangement for forwarding to a vendor data link a customer order received from a requesting one of said lines, said order indicating a desired selection, comprising:

receiver means for receiving customer signals including said customer order from said requesting line, and

wherein said processor means is responsive to said customer order received by said receiver means for sending said customer order to said vendor data link for the provision of said desired selection in response thereto without establishing a connection through said network to said vendor data link and wherein said processor means includes means responsive to a predetermined algorithm for detecting an incorrectly entered customer order received from said requesting line.

4. The invention of claim 1 further comprising means for returning to said requesting line a configuration signal indicating the receipt of said customer order.

5. The invention of claim 1 wherein said processor means includes means for sending said customer order to a designated one of a plurality of vendor data links.

6. For use in a telephone switching system having a switching network serving a plurality of lines, an order entry arrangement for forwarding to a data link a customer order entered on a requesting one of said lines, said order indicating a desired section, comprising:

processor means of said switching system for controlling said network to establish a connection for a signal from said requesting line to said processor means; and

wherein said processor means includes means responsive to a customer order signal including said customer order received from said requesting line via said network for sending said customer order from said processor means to said data link for the provision of said desired selection in response thereto without establishing a connection through said network to said data link.

7. The invention of claim 6 wherein each of said lines has an identity, wherein said processor means further includes means for deriving the identity of said requesting line, and wherein said processor means is for sending the derived identity of said requesting line and said customer order to said data link.

8. For use in a telephone switching system having a switching network serving a plurality of customer lines, an order entry arrangement for forwarding to a vendor data link a customer order received from a requesting one of said lines, said order indicating a desired selection, comprising:

receiver means for receiving customer signals including said customer order from said requesting line via said network;

processor means of said switching system for controlling said network to interconnect said requesting line and said receiver means; and

wherein said processor means includes means responsive to said customer order received from said receiver means for sending said customer order from said processor means to said vendor data link for the provision of said desired selection in response thereto without establishing a connection through said network to said vendor data link.

9. The invention of claim 8 wherein each of said lines has an identity, wherein said processor means further includes means for deriving the identity of said requesting line, and wherein said processor means is for sending the derived identity of said requesting line and said customer order to said vendor data link.

10. The invention of claim 8 wherein said processor means further includes means for sending said customer order to said vendor data link over a path independent of said network and said receiver.

11. For use with a telephone switching system having a processor for controlling a switching network serving a plurality of lines and also having a customer signal receiver for serving said lines, a method of forwarding to a vendor data link a customer order received from a requesting one of said lines, said order indicating a desired selection, comprising the steps of:

collecting at said processor said customer order received from said requesting line via said network and said receiver in response to a customer order entry request received from said requesting line via said network and said receiver,

deriving at said processor the identity of said requesting line, and

sending said customer order and the identity of said requesting line from said processor to said vendor data link for the provision of said desired selection in response thereto without establishing a connection through said network to said vendor data link.

12. For use with a telephone switching system having a processor for controlling a switching network serving a plurality of lines and also having a customer signal receiver for serving said lines, a method of forwarding to a vendor data link a customer order received from a requesting one of said lines, said order indicating a desired selection, comprising the steps of:

collecting at said processor said customer order received from said requesting line via said network and said receiver in response to a customer order entry request received from said requesting line via said network and said receiver,

deriving at said processor the identity of said requesting line,

checking with a predetermined algorithm said customer order for entry errors, and

sending said customer order and the identity of said requesting line from said processor to said vendor data link for the provision of said desire selection in response thereto without establishing a connection through said network to said vendor data link, only if no entry errors are detected.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of designating one of a plurality of vendor data links for carrying said customer order and the derived identity of said requesting line in response to a vendor code received from said requesting line via said network and said receiver indicating said designated vendor data link.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of sending a confirmation signal to said requesting line indicating the receipt of said customer order.

15. A switching system comprising:

switching means serving a plurality of lines and operable for establishing a call connection for a requesting one of said lines,

processor means responsive to a call on said requesting line for controlling the operation of said switching means, and

an order entry arrangement comprising,

a vendor data link, and

said processor means including

means responsive to said call for deriving a number identification for said requesting line, and

means responsive to the receipt of customer order entry request and order signals indicative of a desired selection received via said requesting line and said call connection during said cell for sending customer order information including said derived number identification from said processor means to said vendor data link for the provision of said desired selection in response thereto without establishing a connection through said switching means to said vendor data link.

16. The invention of claim 15 wherein said number identification comprises a directory number and said deriving means comprises means for storing said directory number and means responsive to said call on said line for retrieving said directory number from said storing means.

17. The invention of claim 16 wherein said customer order information comprises order data signified by said customer order signals and said directory number and said sending means sends said customer order data and said retrieved directory number directly from said processor means to said data link.

18. The invention of claim 17 further comprising receiver means connected to said switching means via said call connection to said line in response to said call for receiving said customer order entry request and order signals and

means for communicating said request and order signals to said sending means and

wherein said sending means sends said order data and said retrieved directory number from said processor means to said data link over a path independent of said receiver means.

19. The invention of claim 16 further comprising receiver means connected to said switching means via said call connection to said line in response to said call for receiving said customer order entry request and order signals and

means for communicating said request and order signals to said sending means and

wherein said sending means sends said order data and said retrieved directory number from said processor means to said data link over a path independent of said receiver means.

20. The invention of claim 15 further comprising receiver means connected to said switching means via said call connection to said line in response to said call for receiving said customer order entry request and order signals and

said customer order information comprises said directory number and order data signified by said customer order data and said sending means sends said customer order signals and said retrieved directory number directly from said processor means to said data link over a path independent of said receiver means.

21. An order entry arrangement for use in a telephone switching system having a switching network and processor means for controlling said network, receiver means for receiving customer order entry and order signals, and data link, means for communicating customer order data entry signified by said order signals;

the invention comprising:

said processor means including means responsive to said request and order signals received by said receiver means for deriving a customer identification number, and

said processor means including means responsive to said derived customer identification number for sending said derived number plus said customer order data to said data link means without establishing a connection through said network to said data link means.

22. For use in a telephone switching system having a switching network for serving a plurality of customer lines and also having processor means for controlling establishment of connections through said network, an order entry arrangement for forwarding to a vendor data link a customer order received from a requesting one of said lines, said order indicating a desired selection, comprising

receiver means for receiving customer signals including said customer order from said requesting line, and

wherein said processor means is responsive to said customer order received by said receiver means for sending said customer order to said vendor data link for the provision of said desired selection in response thereto without establishing a completed call connection through said network interconnecting said requesting line and said vendor data link.

23. For use in a telephone switching system having a network for establishing connections, an order entry arrangement for sending to a data link an order indicating a desired selection and received from a requesting one of a plurality of lines, comprising:

processor means of said switching system responsive to a call from said requesting line for controlling establishment of a completed call connection through said network for connecting said requesting line and another of said lines, and

wherein said processor means includes means responsive to said order received from said requesting line via said network for sending said order from said processor means to said data link for the provision of said desired selection in response thereto without establishing a completed call connection through said network interconnecting said requesting line and said data link.

24. For use in a telephone switching system having a switching network serving a plurality of customer lines, an order entry arrangement for forwarding to a vendor data link a customer order received from a requesting one of said lines, said order indicating a desired selection, comprising:

receiver means for receiving customer signals including said customer order from said requesting line via said network;

processor means of said switching system for controlling said network to interconnect said requesting line and said receiver means; and

wherein said processor means includes means responsive to said customer order received from said receiver means for sending said customer order from said processor means to said vendor data link for the provision of said desired selection in response thereto without establishing a completed call connection through said network interconnecting said requesting line and said vendor data link.

25. For use with a telephone switching system having a processor for controlling a switching network serving a plurality of lines and also having a customer signal receiver for serving said lines, a method of forwarding to a data link an order received from a requesting one of said lines, said order indicating a desired selection, comprising the steps of:

collecting at said processor said order received from said requesting line via said network and said receiver in response to an order entry request received from said requesting line via said network and said receiver,

deriving at said processor the identity of said requesting line, and

sending said order and the identity of said requesting line from said processor to said data link for the provision of said desired selection in response thereto without establishing a completed cell connection through said network interconnecting said requesting line and said vendor data link.

26. An order entry arrangement for use in a telephone switching system having a switching network and processor means for controlling said network, receiver means for receiving customer order entry request and order signals, and data link means for communicating customer order data signified by said order signal;

the invention comprising:

said processor means including means responsive to said request and order signals received by said receiver means for deriving a customer identification number, and

said processor means including means responsive to said derived customer identification number for sending said derived number plus said customer order data to said data link means without establishing a completed call connection through said network to said data link means.

27. For use in a telephone switching system having a network for establishing connections and also having processor means for controlling establishment of completed call connections through said network for selectively interconnecting a plurality of customer lines, an order entry arrangement for sending to a data link an order indicating a desired selection and received from a requesting one of said lines, comprising:

receiver means for receiving signals including said order from said requesting line, and

wherein said processor means is responsive to said order received by said receiver means for sending information indicative of said desired selection to said data link for provision of said desired selection in response thereto without establishing a completed call connection through said network interconnecting said requesting line and said data link.

28. A telephone system comprising:

switching means for establishing connections and

processor means responsive to a call from a requesting one of a plurality of lines for controlling said switching means for establishing a completed call connection for interconnecting said requesting line and another one of said lines, wherein said processor means is responsive to an order for a desired selection from said requesting line, for sending information indicative of said desired selection from said processor means to a data link for provision of said desired selection in response thereto without establishing a completed call connection through said switching means interconnecting said requesting line and said data link.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates generally to telecommunications systems and particularly to a method of and an arrangement for forwarding to a vendor data link a customer order received from a requesting customer line.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Most cable television vendors provide subscribing customers a predetermined number of viewing channels for a basic monthly fee. Such vendors typically also offer customers the opportunity to subscribe to and receive one or more premium channels of movie, sports, and entertainment selections for an additional monthly fee. This additional monthly fee is commonly based on the number of premium channels subscribed to by the customer. Many times the same program selections are transmitted on different premium channels, but at different times of the day. Thus, by subscribing to a greater number of premium channels, the customer has greater viewing time flexibility.

Cable TV vendors utilizing addressable converter/decoders at the customer's television also offer customers special program selections on a pay per view basis. These special program selections commonly involve a recent movie release or a live concert or sporting event for which the customer pays an extra individual charge to receive each selection. A customer desiring to receive a special program selection telephones the cable TV vendor to order the desired selection. The vendor takes the order, charges the customer a fee for the selection, and addresses the customer's converter/decoder to enable the customer to receive the selection at a designated viewing time. Vendors can manually take customer telephone orders or utilize an automatic pay per view (PPV) order taking arrangement.

In one prior art automatic PPV order taking arrangement, disclosed in Cable and Telcos: From Confrontation to Derente, Report No. 83-1, The Yankee Group, Boston, Mass., June, 1983, pages 163-167, a "black box" is connected to an automatic number identification (ANI) type trunk at a telecommunications switching system office to receive the order from the customer and the identity of the requesting customer line from the office ANI system. The "black box" sends the customer order and the identification of the requesting customer line to the vendor's data processing equipment over a dedicated data channel.

It is anticipated that 75% of the PPV order requests are received in the last half hour before a scheduled event starts. Manual order taking is too slow and would be very expensive, if not impossible, to receive and process a large number of order requests in this peak demand period. The automatic "black box" is much faster than the manual order-taking, but has several drawbacks. First, the telephone company or vendor must purchase and maintain a sufficient number of complicated "black boxes" along with one or more dedicated data channels to handle peak demands. Second, the cable vendor must pay for the plurality of long-distance ANI type trunks connected to the "black boxes".

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The foregoing problems are solved and a technical advance is achieved by a novel order entry arrangement illustratively integrated into a central processor of a telephone switching system and advantageously without the use of multiple individual "black boxes" and plural ANI type trunks in a telephone switching system office. The arrangement includes a receiver, such as a customer signal receiver of the telephone office, for receiving customer signals including a customer order from a requesting customer line. The processor of the arrangement is equipped to collect customer order data from the receiver and to derive the identity of the requesting customer line. The processor thereafter formulates the order and requesting line identity for transmission over a vendor data link to enable the vendor to act on the customer order.

In the illustrative embodiment of the invention, a central processor of a program-controlled switching system controls the establishment of call connections through the system switching network and, advantageously, in response to a customer entered order entry request code, utilizes an input/output processor to send to a designated vendor data link a customer order dialed or keyed into the system. The order is received by the switching system with a customer signal receiver which commonly serves both dial pulse and dual-tone multifrequency signaling. In response to the order entry code from the receiver, the central processor abandons normal call processing, and collects order information including the desired vendor, and derives requesting customer line identification. The central processor then activates the input/output processor for sending the collected order information and the identity of the requesting customer line over a data link to the desired vendor's processing equipment. A call store memory of the telephone system maintains line translations information for the identity of customers served by the switching system. A call store memory order entry table maintains the identity of the data link to a desired vendor that is accessed with the order entry code and any customer entered vendor code. This order entry table information is required to identify the data link to a desired vendor particularly when a number of different vendors provide the same type of service. After the customer order is received from the requesting customer line, an announcement system illustratively returns an order confirmation signal to the requesting customer line.

Without any action on the part of the customer, the identity of the requesting customer line is forwarded over the vendor data link along with the customer order to identify the requesting customer line to the vendor processing equipment. Optional customer identification may also be entered when required by the vendor for billing and order security purposes, but is not required for the operation of the order entry arrangement.

When different vendors provide the same type of service, a customer identifies a desired vendor by entering a vendor code in conjunction with the order entry request code or the order information. The processor performs a table look-up translation with the vendor code to identify a designated vendor data link to the desired vendor processing equipment.

The method of forwarding a customer order includes collecting at the processor the customer order received from a requesting customer line by a customer signal receiver. The processor then derives the identity of the requesting line and sends that identity and the received customer order over a designated data link to the desired vendor processing equipment.

A feature of the invention is the checking of the customer order for customer entered errors by the use of a check-sum algorithm.

Another feature is that the method for forwarding customer orders may be implemented in a switching system without the use of "black boxes" connected to additional ANI type trunks.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The invention is more fully understood from the following detailed description when read with reference to the drawing in which:

FIG. 1 depicts the illustrative order entry arrangement;

FIG. 2 depicts the layout of an illustrative temporary call register for the arrangement of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 depicts the layout of an illustrative order entry table for the arrangement of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4-6 depict an illustrative flow diagram for the arrangement of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative embodiment of an order entry arrangement 131 for forwarding to a vendor data link a customer entered order received from a requesting telecommunications line. The order entry arrangement is integrated into a switching system 101 that serves a plurality of customer telecommunication lines, such as 150 and 151. The order entry arrangement includes a central processor 112 which advantageously controls a switching network comprising line and trunk link networks 110 and 111. The processor also controls the sending of customer entered orders from requesting customer lines via the network and customer signal receivers 114, 115 through processor 112 over respective data communications channels 157, 158; data units 123, 132; and data links 154, 161 to vendor equipment 100, 122. The central processor also derives the identity of the requesting line from stored translations information and sends the derived line identity along with the customer order to the desired vendor equipment. Customer lines 150 and 151 are connected to respective telephones 102 and 103 at customer premises 104 and 105, respectively. In this illustrative embodiment, vendor equipment 100 transmits customer ordered cable television program selections to customer televisions 106 and 107 via well-known coaxial TV cables 152 and 153 and addressable converters 108 and 109, respectively.

A customer places an order for a desired program selection with a cable TV vendor by entering at his or her telephone an order entry request code and the order to the order entry arrangement. After collecting the order from the requesting customer line, the order entry arrangement returns an announcement signal to the requesting line to confirm the receipt of the order. The order entry arrangement then sends the order and the identity of the requesting line, such as the directory number of the requesting line, to cable TV vendor equipment 100 via dedicated data link 154. Additional customer entered identification that may be required by the vendor for billing and order security purposes is also sent to the vendor equipment along with the order and the identity of the requesting line. In response, the cable TV vendor equipment transmits the ordered program selection to the requesting customer's television at a designated time and charges the identified customer for the ordered program selection.

Switching system 101 is suitably an electronic program-controlled switching system of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,570,008 to R. W. Downing et al. of Mar. 9, 1971, and also disclosed in The Bell System Technical Journal, Volume 43, No. 5, Parts 1 and 2, Sept., 1964. An updated central processor suitable for use in this switching system and order entry arrangement is described in The Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 56, No. 2, Feb., 1977. These cited references may be consulted for a more comprehensive understanding of the construction and operation of an electronic program-controlled switching system.

Switching system 101 includes line link network 110 and trunk link network 111 under the