Method and apparatus for communications monitoring

We claim:

1. In an intelligent switched telephone network, a method for allowing a communication in said intelligent switched telephone network from a calling party to a called party to be monitored by a monitoring party through said intelligent switched telephone network, regardless of the respective locations of said calling party, said called party or said monitoring party, comprising the steps of:

receiving said communication in said intelligent switched telephone network;

reading identification information associated with said communication for a calling line or called party number;

searching for a matching entry to said calling line or called party number in a monitoring list maintained by said intelligent switched telephone network, said searching being conducted to determine whether communications to or from said calling line or called party number are to be monitored;

routing said communication through said intelligent switched telephone network from said calling party to said called party; and

only in response to finding said matching entry, establishing a bridge from said communication to said monitoring party, said bridge allowing said monitoring party to monitor said communication through said intelligent switched telephone network regardless of the respective locations of said calling party, said called party or said monitoring party.

2. The method of claim 1 or 3, wherein said matching entry comprises an identifier for said monitoring party, and

wherein said step of establishing said bridge comprises routing said communication to said monitoring party at a location specified by said identifier.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said identifier comprises a port number, and

wherein said step of routing said communication to said monitoring party comprises establishing said bridge using said port number.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said identifier comprises a monitor calling line number, and

wherein said step of routing said communication to said monitoring party comprises establishing said bridge using said monitor calling line number.

5. In an intelligent switched telephone network, a method for allowing a communication in said intelligent switched telephone network from a calling party to a called party to be monitored by a monitoring party through said intelligent switched telephone network, regardless of the respective locations of said calling party, said called party or said monitoring party, comprising the steps of:

receiving said communication in said intelligent switched telephone network;

reading identification information associated with said communication for a calling line number or a called party number;

searching for a matching entry to said calling line number or said called party number in a monitoring list maintained by said intelligent switched telephone network, said searching being conducted to determine whether communications to or from said calling line number or said called party number are to be monitored;

routing said communication through said intelligent switched telephone network from said calling party to said called party;

only in response to finding said matching entry,

(a) advising said monitoring party of said communication;

(b) receiving disposition information regarding said communication, said disposition information compromising an indication to monitor said communication; and

(c) establishing a bridge from said communication to said monitoring party, said bridge allowing said monitoring party to monitor said communication through said intelligent switched telephone network regardless of the respective locations of said calling party, said called party or said monitoring party.

6. The method of claim 5, after said step of advising said monitoring party, further comprising the step of requesting said disposition information from said monitoring party.

7. In an intelligent switched telephone network, a method for allowing a communication in said intelligent switched telephone network from a calling party to a called party to be monitored by a monitoring party through said intelligent switched telephone network, regardless of the respective locations of said calling party, said called party or said monitoring party, comprising the steps of:

receiving said communication in said intelligent switched telephone network;

reading identification information associated with said communication for a calling line number or a called party number;

searching for a matching entry to said calling line number or said called party number in a monitoring list maintained by said intelligent switched telephone network, said searching being conducted to determine whether communications to or from said calling line number or said called party number are to be monitored;

routing said communication through said intelligent switched telephone network from said calling party to said called party;

only in response to finding said matching entry, establishing a bridge from said communication to said monitoring party, said bridge allowing said monitoring party to monitor said communication through said intelligent switched telephone network regardless of the respective locations of said calling party, said called party or said monitoring party;

monitoring for an indication from said monitoring party to tear down said bridge; and

responding to said indication by tearing down said bridge.

8. The method of claim 1 or 3, after said step of establishing said bridge, further comprising the step of recording said communication.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said step of recording said communication comprises recording authentication information.

10. An apparatus in an intelligent switched telephone network for connecting a communication in said intelligent switched telephone network from a calling party to a called party and allowing said communication to be monitored by a monitoring party through said intelligent switched telephone network, regardless of the respective locations of said calling party, said called party or said monitoring party, comprising:

means for receiving said communication in said intelligent switched telephone network;

means for reading identification information associated with said communication for a calling line number or a called party number;

means for searching for a matching entry to said calling line number or said called party number in a monitoring list maintained by said intelligent switched telephone network, said searching being conducted to determine whether communications to or from said calling line number or said called party number are to be monitored;

means for routing said communication through said intelligent switched telephone network to said called party; and

means responsive to finding said matching entry for establishing a bridge from said communication to said monitoring party, said bridge allowing said monitoring party to monitor said communication through said intelligent switched telephone network regardless of the respective locations of said calling party, said called party or said monitoring party.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

means for monitoring for an indication from said monitoring party to disconnect said bridge; and

means responsive to said disconnect indication for causing said means for establishing to discontinue said bridge.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said means for establishing said bridge comprises means for recording said communication.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

means for recording said communication.

14. A communications system in an intelligent switched telephone network for allowing a communication in said intelligent switched telephone network from a calling party to a called party to be monitored by a monitoring party through said intelligent switched telephone network, regardless of the respective locations of said calling party, said called party or said monitoring party,, comprising in combination:

a switch operative to receive said communication in said intelligent switched telephone network from said calling party and to read identification information associated with said communication; and

a service node functionally connected to said switch, said service node having a database containing monitoring instructions;

said switch being responsive to said identification information to provide said communication and said identification information to said service node; and

said service node being responsive to said communication and said identification information to obtain said monitoring instructions for said communication from said database and to cause said switch to route said communication through said intelligent switched telephone network to said called party and to establish a bridge from said communication to said monitoring party, said bridge allowing said monitoring party to monitor said communication through said intelligent switched telephone network regardless of the respective locations of said calling party, said called party or said monitoring party.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein said identification information comprises at least one of a calling line number of said calling party or a calling line number of said called party and said switch provides at least one said calling line number to said database.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein said database is operative to search for said calling line number in a monitoring list to obtain said monitoring instructions.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein said monitoring instructions comprise a port number and said service node causes said switch to establish said bridge to said monitoring party using said port number.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein said monitoring instructions comprise a monitor calling line number and said service node causes said switch to establish said bridge to said monitoring party using said monitor calling line number.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein said service node is operative to receive an indication from said monitoring party to tear down said bridge and to respond to said indication by tearing down said bridge.

20. In an intelligent switched telephone network, a method for allowing a communication in said intelligent switched telephone network from a calling party to a called party to be recorded by a monitoring party through said intelligent switched telephone network, regardless of the respective locations of said calling party, said called party or said monitoring party, comprising the steps of:

receiving said communication in said intelligent switched telephone network;

reading identification information associated with said communication for a calling line number or a called party number;

searching for a matching entry to said calling line number or said called party number in a monitoring list maintained by said intelligent switched telephone network, said searching being conducted to determine whether communications to or from said calling line number or said called party number are to be recorded;

routing said communication through said intelligent switched telephone network from said calling party to said called party; and

only in response to finding said matching entry, establishing a bridge from said communication to a recorder and recording said communication, said bridge allowing said monitoring party to record said communication through said intelligent switched telephone network regardless of the respective locations of said calling party, said called party or said monitoring party.

21. The method of claim 20, after said step of reading said identification information, further comprising the steps of:

advising a monitoring party of said communication; and

receiving disposition information regarding said communication from said monitoring party, said disposition information comprising an indication to record said communication.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein said step of recording said communication comprises recording authentication information.

Description Submit all comments and votes

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention generally relates to telecommunications systems, and more particularly, relates to a method and apparatus for monitoring telecommunications.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Impolite receptionists, discourteous reservationists and rude operators are fast disappearing because of increased attention paid to consumer services, and especially because of increased employer monitoring of consumer telecommunications services performed by employees. For example, the telecommunications performance by a receptionist may be monitored by a supervisor to insure the receptionist projects the proper image of the employer. Myriad employers, including the airline, auto rental, hotel/motel and restaurant industries, have realized that poor telephone performance can drive a customer directly into the hands (and to the telephones) of the competition.

Similarly, the performance of telemarketing personnel often is monitored to evaluate and improve sales performance with the hope of resultant sales increases. Thus, your next telephone conversation with a salesperson selling an insurance policy, a pest control service, or a set of steak knives may include a third (albeit silent) participant in the form of a sales supervisor monitoring the salesperson's techniques.

In addition, selective monitoring of telecommunications is carried out by law enforcement personnel. The aim of such monitoring is to gain information of a kind much different from an evaluation of telephone manners or sales performance. Yet, the technical difficulties in telecommunications monitoring encountered by law enforcement personnel are the same as the difficulties in monitoring faced by the sales and service industries.

In particular, a major disadvantage slowing the increased use of telecommunications monitoring systems is the limitation of prior art monitoring systems to localized area monitoring. Generally, prior art systems require the monitoring telephone line and the monitored telephone line to be close enough so that a mechanical connection or bridge between the lines can be set up. Based on this act of mechanically tapping into the monitored fine; the term "wiretapped" was coined. For most prior art systems, the bridge between the monitoring and monitored lines is set up at a local switch within the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or the private branch exchange (PBX) where both lines are present. The necessity of the mechanical connection between the monitoring and monitored lines limits the monitoring lines to those present in the local switch, and also limits the monitoring lines to those lines serving the local area.

Prior art localized monitoring has been sufficient for businesses having the monitoring and monitored lines routed through the same local switch. For example, the sales supervisor of a mail-order business having two or more telephone fines can monitor a sales line through the establishment of a bridge between the sales line and the supervisory line at the local switch or in the company's PBX. However, there is little flexibility in changing this monitoring set-up at the local switch. To monitor the other sales lines of the business, the sales supervisor must have a mechanical connection made between the monitoring line and each of the other lines to be monitored. Some telephone marketing systems have an integral PBX or can interact with the customer's PBX. In these telephone marketing systems the supervisor's workstation typically has a computer terminal so that the supervisor can specify which salesperson is to be monitored. With training, the supervisor then can instruct the system as to the salesperson to be monitored.

Prior art localized monitoring systems are insufficient in situations where the monitoring line and the monitored line are not both present at the local switch or otherwise in close proximity. Using the previous example, if the salesperson for the mail-order business works out of a sales office different from the office of the sales supervisor, the sales and supervisory lines may not be serviced by the same PBX or local switch. The sales supervisor is thus unable to monitor this outside sales line because a mechanical connection or bridge cannot be established between the sales and supervisory lines. As a result of this drawback, the sales supervisor does not have the flexibility to monitor more than the local sales force. Thus, a great disadvantage of prior art monitoring systems is that the monitoring of calls must take place at a location close to the monitored line. This may be impossible for businesses having a sales office in one part of the country and a supervisory office in another part. Further, monitoring calls in the close proximity of the monitored line may not be desirable or safe for law enforcement personnel.

In addition, the prior art requirement of a mechanical connection between each of the monitoring and monitored lines increases the labor and, hence, the time and cost of installing and maintaining such systems.

Moreover, the restrictions of prior art systems to localized area monitoring results in only partial monitoring services. For example, if the monitored party handles telephone calls on several different telephone fines, each of these fines must be monitored. Such monitoring can be accomplished with prior art systems only through the connection of each of the monitored lines to a monitoring fine. However, the monitored party can speak generally to only one person at a time, and the time and effort used to set up and monitor the unused fines is wasted.

In addition, prior art systems are unable to monitor effectively all of the communications received by a person having a personal number service. Generally, a personal number service provides a personal number to each subscriber of the service. Communications such as telephone calls are directed (dialed) using the personal number. The personal number service locates the subscriber based on a predetermined fist of locations. The communication is routed to the subscriber at the location determined by the service according to the list of locations. Thus, a subscriber may receive a call dialed to the subscriber's personal number at home, at the office, or at any other location designated by the subscriber.

Unless there is a mechanical connection between each of the monitored lines and a monitoring fine, prior art systems are unable to monitor communications dialed to a personal number. In order to make a connection with each monitored line, the operators of prior art systems must know which fines will be used by the monitored party. Without such advance information, prior art systems are unable to track and monitor a person having personal number service as that person moves from place to place. Thus, a monitored party may defeat prior art systems by simply designating an unmonitored location to receive communications. For example, prior art systems may be used to monitor communications directed to a person's home or office by establishing a mechanical connection between the monitored and monitoring lines. However, a person having a personal number service can designate some other unmonitored location such as a customer's office, a drugstore, or even the corner telephone booth as a location for receiving communications. Communications received at these locations cannot be monitored by prior art systems unless the system operators are aware that the person uses such locations for receiving communications. Once the prior art system operators become aware of the use of a particular location to receive calls, a monitoring connection can be made. However, the monitored person can change the reception location with little effort using the personal number service. Thus, a party is able to change the location for receiving personal number communications more quickly than the monitoring party can set up a wiretap for a particular location.

Accordingly, there is a need for a communications monitoring system which provides a centralized system for controlling the monitoring of communications. In particular, there is a need for a system which provides for a network-based solution to communications monitoring so as to provide monitoring of communications regardless of the physical locations of the monitoring and monitored lines. There is also a need for a monitoring system which does not require a mechanical connection between the monitored and monitoring lines. In addition, there is a need for a system which allows for effective monitoring of communications to a called party having a personal number service. Further, there is a need for a system which provides for communications monitoring that is relatively inexpensive, that does not require additional on-premises equipment, and that is easy to maintain and to service.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

As will be seen, the present invention satisfies the foregoing criteria. Stated generally, the communications monitoring system of the present invention allows a communication from a calling party to a called party to be monitored by a monitoring party. The present invention reads identification information associated with a communication, routes the communication to the called party, and establishes a bridge from the communication to the monitoring party in accordance with the identification information.

In particular, the present invention receives a communication directed to a called party, and reads the identification information associated with the communication. The identification information may comprise the calling line number of the calling line on which the communication was received, or may comprise the called party number such as the telephone number of the called party. The present invention obtains the identification information and searches for a matching entry to the identification information in a monitoring list.

Preferably, the monitoring list comprises an identifier for the monitoring party. The identifier may be a port number or a monitor calling line number. Based upon the identifier, the present invention routes the communication to the called party and establishes a bridge to the monitoring party. The communication may be monitored through this bridge without the calling party or the called party being aware of the monitoring. In one embodiment, the communication may be recorded through a bridge without the calling party or called party being aware of the recording. In another embodiment, the communication may be monitored as well as recorded through bridges without the calling party or called party being aware of the monitoring or of the recording.

In an embodiment, the present invention also provides, prior to establishing the bridge from the communication, for advising the monitoring party of the communication, for requesting disposition information regarding the communication from the monitoring party and for receiving the disposition information from the monitoring party. The disposition information may include an indication with respect to the monitoring of the communication and/or with respect to the recording of the communication. Based on this disposition information, the present invention provides for establishing a bridge from the communication to the monitoring party and/or to a recorder.

The method of the communications monitoring system of the present invention also provides for discontinuation of the monitoring of the communication. In response to receiving an indication from the monitoring party to disconnect, the present invention tears down the bridge. However, the communication remains connected between the called and calling party. Neither the calling party nor the called party will have been aware of the monitoring of the communication or of the discontinuation of the monitoring.

Stated generally, the present invention also provides a communications monitoring system apparatus which is based on a centralized system to allow a communication to a called party to be monitored by a monitoring party. The system generally comprises a switch, a database and a service node. The switch receives a communication, reads the identification information associated with the communication, and provides the identification information to the system database. This identification information may include the calling line number of the communication and/or the called party number.

The system database is functionally connected to the switch. In response to the receipt of identification information, the system database provides routing instructions to the switch, which in turn, provides the communication as well as the identification information to the system service node. The service node is also functionally connected to the switch. The service node obtains monitoring instructions for the communication from the service node's internal database. The monitoring instructions include an identifier for the monitoring party. The identifier may include a port number or a monitor calling line number. Based upon the monitoring instructions, the service node routes the communication to the called party. Using the identifier, the service node also establishes a bridge from the communication to the monitoring party so that the communication routed to the called party may be monitored by the monitoring party through the one-way connection. If the monitoring instructions provide for recording the communication, the service node also establishes a bridge from the communication to the recorder.

In an embodiment, prior to establishing the bridge from the communication, the service node advises the monitoring party of the communication, requests disposition information regarding the communication from the monitoring party and receives the disposition information. The disposition information may include an indication with respect to the monitoring of the communication and/or with respect to the recording of the communication. Based on this disposition information, the service node establishes a bridge from the communication to the monitoring party and or to a recorder.

The communications monitoring system apparatus of the present invention also provides for the discontinuation of monitoring. In response to receiving an indication from the monitoring party to disconnect, the service node has the bridge torn down. However, the communication remains connected between the called and calling party. Neither the calling party nor the called party will have been aware of the monitoring of the communication or of the discontinuation of the monitoring.

Advantageously, the present invention provides a centralized system allowing a communication to a called party to be monitored by a monitoring party. In particular, the present invention provides a network-based solution to communications monitoring so that a communication may be monitored regardless of the physical locations of the monitoring and monitored lines within the network. In addition, the present invention obviates the necessity of a mechanical connection or bridge between the monitored and monitoring lines. As a result, the present invention provides a flexible monitoring system wherein any line within the network may be readily designated for monitoring and wherein communications on that line may be monitored. The flexibility of the monitoring system of the present invention allows for effective monitoring of communications to a called party having a personal number service. In addition, the present invention provides a system for communications monitoring that is relatively inexpensive, that does not require additional on-premises equipment, and that is easy to maintain and to service.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved communications monitoring system.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a centralized system for controlling the monitoring of communications.

It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a network-based solution to communications monitoring.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system for monitoring communications from a location outside the local area to which the communications are directed.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a system which allows for effective monitoring of communications to a called party having a personal number service.

It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a monitoring system which does not require a mechanical connection between the monitored and monitoring lines.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a monitoring system that is relatively inexpensive, that does not require additional on-premises equipment, and that is easy to maintain and to service.

That the present invention and the preferred embodiment thereof overcome the drawbacks set forth above and accomplish the objects of the invention set forth herein will become apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiment to follow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the preferred environment of the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating the preferred general method of updating the monitoring instructions pursuant to the preferred embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating the general method of processing a communication pursuant to the preferred embodiment.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are a flow chart illustrating a detailed portion of the general method of the preferred embodiment as illustrated in FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to the drawings, in which like numerals indicate like elements throughout the several figures, FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a part of the Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) of a typical local exchange carrier, which is the preferred environment of the preferred embodiment