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Description  |
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TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates in general to the field of communications and
information management systems and more particularly to an improved
network-based voice messaging and multimedia communications and directory
system and method for private addressing plans using community addressing.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Currently available communications facilities include voice communication,
electronic mail communication, facsimile communication and video
communication. These communications facilities are augmented by storage
and retrieval facilities such as voice mail facilities, bulletin board
services and the like. These various communications facilities have
largely been operated on independent platforms, interconnected into
private networks, and through independent and disparate channels of
communication.
While local area network (LAN) based mail systems such as cc: Mail or large
private electronic mail providers such as MCI Mail have facilitated some
networking capability in electronic mail content, other communications
facilities such as voice messaging and facsimile transmissions are largely
localized facilities. For example, typical messaging systems are
constrained within a single organization such as a company or at the
broadest within a single local exchange carrier facility. In light of the
largely local nature of messaging facilities and the incompatibility of
proprietary messaging protocols, there has been little effort to supply
large scale integrated network functionality to these communications
services. In addition, most of these facilities are limited to a single
media such as only voice, only electronic mail, or only facsimile
transmissions.
Additionally, in particular, voice messaging systems have not provided
large scale integrated network functionality due to the following
limitations:
1) Their terminal equipment is usually a telephone, which can only
communicate with audio signaling such as Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF)
signals.
2) The methods of addressing are frequently short, fixed length numerical
addresses and currently deployed numbering schemes.
3) Messages are typically large, spanning several minutes of digitized
analog audio signals.
4) Identity confirmation of the sender or recipient must be a spoken
identification such as a mailbox number or a name.
5) Directory type functions such as lookup can not be done with ASCII type
inputs but again are restricted to DTMF inputs.
6) Communications protocols associated with voice messaging systems do not
provide the facilities necessary to request or specify special services
such as media translation, subject matter identification and routing, and
the like.
A further complication in the growth of existing messaging systems and
networks is the parallel increase in the complexity of managing the
directory and addressing information associated with the network. Existing
directory facilities are usually limited to a single system or, at most, a
single organization. It is difficult, if not impossible with current
systems, to acquire and use effectively directory information from other
facilities as the integrated system increases in complexity as other
facilities are added to the network. These large scale directories are
more complicated to deal with in voice messaging systems due to the fact
that any functionality, such as retrieval or lookup, provided to the user
is restricted to DTMF inputs.
The isolated nature of present messaging systems provides for little
standardization that may be used to effect the communications between
disparate systems that must occur for effective networking of systems. As
such, even messaging systems that are working in the same media, for
example, two voice messaging systems, may be incapable of transferring
information and messages between the systems due to the differences in the
protocols used by the systems to process and transfer messages.
The management of message traffic in a networked environment creates
additional concerns. As a message passes out of the control of a local
messaging system and into the network, the responsibility for routing and
delivery of the message must also pass to the network. This responsibility
creates a need for a network with significant message tracking and
management capabilities. The complexity of this management task grows
enormously as the size of the network increases. This complexity further
increases with voice messaging systems due to the addressing being
numerical, and limited in size most often to the sender/recipient's phone
number or some other local private numbering plan, and to the size of the
addressing fields in any of the local networking protocols.
Further complications result from the desire for parties owning individual
messaging systems to network those systems. Current messaging systems can
employ convenient short form addressing among the members of the entity
that use the voice messaging system. However, the short form addresses are
problematic in a large shared network such as that in this invention
because they do not provide globally unique addressing for all members of
the widely-networked community.
Accordingly, a need has arisen for an integrated communications system
which supplies network-based voice and multimedia communication
facilities, and further supplies the ability to network messaging systems
which use a variety of disparate private addressing schemes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a communications
system is disclosed which substantially eliminates or reduces
disadvantages associated with prior systems and solutions.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a
communications system is provided that includes a network hub that is
coupled to a messaging system through at least two communication paths.
One of the communication paths comprises a public communication path for
public messaging traffic to and from the messaging system. The second
communication path comprises a private communication path for messaging
traffic within a messaging community. The network hub is operable to treat
the single messaging system as two virtual messaging systems with each
communication path associated with a single virtual messaging system. The
network hub comprises translation tables which associate users of the
messaging systems with the communities to which they belong and the
addresses associated with the users within those communities.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
A more complete understanding of teachings of the present invention may be
acquired by referring to the accompanying drawings in which like reference
numbers indicate like features and wherein:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the multimedia communications system of the
present invention;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the modular software architecture which is
used in the network hubs of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a data flow diagram illustrating the flow of messages and control
information between the software modules used in the network hubs of the
present invention;
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an analog connection processor used in the
communications system of the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a state diagram of the analog connection processor, the digital
connection processor and the network processor used in the communications
system of the present invention;
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the digital connection processor used in the
communications system of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the network processor used in the
communications system of the present invention;
FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the event processor used in the communications
system of the present invention;
FIG. 9 is a state diagram of the event processor used in the communications
system of the present invention;
FIG. 10 is a block diagram of the control processors, management processor,
event processor, and databases used in the communications system of the
present invention;
FIG. 11 is a block diagram of the management processor used in the
communications system of the present invention;
FIG. 12 is a data flow diagram of the media translator used in the
communications system of the present invention;
FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the network center used in the communications
system of the present invention;
FIG. 14 is an example of the address translation operation of the
communications system of the present invention;
FIG. 15 is a schematic illustration of the system and method used by the
present invention to implement private addressing plans;
FIG. 16 is an illustration of a translation table used by the present
invention;
FIGS. 17a through 17e are examples of the translations performed to
accomplish private messaging; and
FIG. 18 is an illustration of an example of messaging using the Internet.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Network Structure
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a multimedia network-based communications
system, indicated generally at 10, comprising a number of network hubs 12,
14 and 16. Network hubs 12, 14 and 16 are coupled to one another through a
communications network 18 that may comprise, for example, high speed
datalinks, frame relay links or other suitable high speed data
communication facilities. Communications system 10 operates to process and
route communications traffic from a wide variety of message sources and to
a wide variety of message destinations. For example, hub system 12 is
shown coupled to a telephone 22, a messaging system 24, a conventional
voice mail system 26 which is coupled to a large number of telephone
terminals represented by telephone 38, a facsimile transmission system 28
and a public messaging network 30. Public messaging system 30 may
comprise, for example, messaging services provided to the public by local
exchange carrier. In addition, network hub 14 is shown coupled to a
private system 32 that itself contains a number of messaging systems and
to an electronic mail facility 34. Network hub 14 is also shown coupled
directly to a telephone 20 and to a conventional voice mail system 36
which is coupled to a large number of telephone terminals represented by
telephone 38. It should be understood that telecommunications connections
that are shown as direct connections may actually include intermediate
switching facilities such as private branch exchanges or central office
switches that are part of private and public telecommunications networks.
Network hub 14 is also shown coupled to a private local area network,
indicated generally at 31, which communicates with network hub 14 using a
communications gateway 33. Local area network 31 may be used to support a
wide variety of messaging operations and may connect user stations having
electronic mail capability, facsimile capability, voice capability or
video capability. The communications system 10 may be used to connect all
these systems with other messaging systems through gateway 33 and network
hub 14.
Similarly, network hub 16 is shown coupled to a messaging system 40, a
private system 42 comprising a number of messaging systems, and a
facsimile transmission and receive facility 44. The network hub systems
12, 14 and 16 are also coupled through the communications network 18 to a
network center 37. The network center 37 monitors the operation of the
network 10 as will be discussed more fully herein. Information providers
39 are also provided a gateway into the communications system 10 for data
and message traffic from information providers 39. Information providers
39 may provide, for example, bulletin board information or mass
distributed information services or advertising messages that are
distributed to users of the communications system 10 based on the
preferences or demographics of the users and the content of the
information.
As will be discussed more completely herein, communications system 10
operates to integrate and interconnect disparate sources and technologies
of communication traffic and to translate messages between them. The
communications system 10 maintains a universal database of all users of
the communications system and their individual communications profiles
including the various media in which the users can send and receive
messages. For example, a single user may control and receive
communications using an electronic mail facility, a voice mail facility, a
facsimile facility and a video facility. All of these facilities are
identified in a user profile record associated with that user within the
network database associated with system 10. As will be discussed herein, a
copy of that database is maintained in each network hub within system 10
exemplified by network hubs 12, 14 and 16 in FIG. 1. For large scale
integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems
introduces further complications for maintaining individual user profiles
in that large distributed network directories must be built and maintained
based upon numerical addressing and accessed utilizing DTMF signaling and
the native protocols of the user system. The communications system 10
further includes media, protocol, and language translation capabilities
such that, for example, messages sent in one media can be received in a
different media. For example, an electronic mail message might be sent to
a destination user that does not have an electronic mail facility but does
have a facsimile facility or prefers the receipt of a facsimile
transmission over an electronic mail transmission. Accordingly, the
communications system 10 will translate the electronic mail message into a
facsimile message and deliver the message to the designated facsimile
facility. For large scale integrated network functionality, interfacing
with voice messaging systems introduces a further complication for the
processing of multimedia messages and the alternate routing in that large
distributed network directories must be built containing the numerical
addresses for the different media destinations and accessed by the
numerical addresses of the users of the communications system, and
delivered utilizing DTMF signaling and the native protocols of the user
system. In addition, the communications protocols associated with voice
messaging systems do not have the ability to request and specify special
handling for multimedia messages.
For purposes of describing the advantages of the present invention, all the
various sources of and destinations for data traffic coupled to and
serviced by the communications system 10 are referred to as "messaging
systems" whether they comprise voice mail systems, electronic mail
systems, facsimile transmission facilities, video transmission facilities
or other data transmission or receipt facilities. As such, for purposes of
this description, the data received from such a messaging system is
referred to herein as a "message" regardless of its composition. For
example, a message received, processed and delivered by the communications
system 10 may comprise a voice message, an electronic mail message, a
facsimile or video transmission or any combination of medium to form a
compound message. As used herein, the "media" of a message refers to the
manner in which the message is received or delivered. For example, various
message media may comprise voice, electronic mail, facsimile or other
graphic images, or video. Further, the "protocol" of a message refers to
the manner in which the data comprising the message is encoded by the
messaging system from which the message originates to the communications
system 10, the manner in which the data comprising a message is encoded as
it passes through communications system 10, and the manner in which the
data comprising a message is encoded prior to its delivery in order for a
destination messaging system to comprehend the message. The term "user"
will be used herein to refer to human beings interfacing to the
communications system 10 either directly or through messaging systems
coupled to communications system 10.
The network hubs such as network hubs 12, 14 and 16 shown in FIG. 1 operate
as protocol translation facilities to allow for the connection of the
communications system 10 to any of a large number of disparate messaging
systems employing differing protocols. Currently, there are a great number
of communication protocols which are used by private and public
telecommunications and data transmission facilities to interconnect
messaging systems. The communications system 10 operates to receive
messages and administrative information from messaging systems using the
protocol native to that system. The messages and administrative
information can then be transmitted to the destination facility using the
protocol associated with the destination facility. Certain companies
maintain proprietary information delivery protocols that can, if such
protocols are made available, be supported by the communications system
10. Further, public domain protocols such as X.400 messaging, SS7
signalling and both digital and analog versions of the audio message
interchange specification (AMIS) are also supported by communications
system 10. For example, the X.400 protocol includes support for virtually
all communications features currently in use. A particular feature set is
ordinarily dependent on the features used by a particular messaging system
and will usually comprise a subset of the features supported by the X.400
protocol. The communications system 10 is flexible enough to support
whatever features are implemented by messaging systems connected to the
communications system 10. Additionally, for large scale integrated network
functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems introduces a
further complication for the providing of multi-protocol translation
capabilities in that messages are delivered utilizing DTMF signaling and
numerical addresses. In addition, the communications protocols associated
with voice messaging systems do not have the ability to request or specify
a translation to a disparate protocol.
The communications system of the present invention also works with a
variety of public and proprietary protocols for directory information. As
will be discussed more fully herein, some messaging systems may only use
the communications system of the present invention as a source of
addressing and routing information. In these cases, the messaging system
provides the communications system 10 with some information about the
intended destination. The communications system 10 then returns specific
routing information to the messaging system so that the messaging system
can independently contact the destination and deliver the message. In
these contexts, the directory information passed between the
communications system 10 and the messaging system may use any number of
public or proprietary directory information protocols understood by the
communications system 10. For large scale integrated network
functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems introduces further
complications for providing directory addressing services in that large
distributed network directories must be built and maintained containing
address and delivery information which must be accessed based upon
numerical addressing and that this information is delivered to the
requesting system utilizing DTMF signaling and the native protocols of the
user's messaging system.
In operation, a network hub such as network hub 12 will receive a message
through, for example, messaging system 24 shown in FIG. 1. By way of
example, suppose messaging system 24 utilizes the analog AMIS protocol
form of DTMF signaling. Further, assume that the message from messaging
system 24 is intended for a party serviced by private system 42 which
utilizes a proprietary digital communication protocol. Accordingly,
network hub 12 would receive the message from messaging system 24 in the
analog AMIS protocol. Network hub 12 then transforms the information in
the message to conform to a network transmission format and transmits the
transformed message through the communications network 18 to hub 16.
Network hub 16 then uses the proprietary communication protocol understood
by private system 42 to transmit the information to private system 42. In
this manner, communications system 10 not only acts to translate the media
in which the messages are sent to the destination messaging system, but
also acts to provide messaging between dissimilar, proprietary messaging
systems by supporting disparate communication protocols. The
communications system of the present invention uses a shared internal
protocol for all routing and processing of messages. As such, the
communications system of the present invention can easily be adapted as
new communications protocols, such as Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension
(MIME) or the like, become popular. The network hubs that are required to
interface with systems utilizing these new protocols need only translate
the new protocol to the internal protocol. As such, the operation of the
communications system as a whole can support the addition of unlimited new
protocols.
The network hub systems within communications system 10 are in constant
communication with one another and with the network center 37 to provide
updates as to the status of messages within the communications system 10
and further updates as to the user profile information stored in the user
database in each network hub. The network center 37 receives these
database and status updates and transmits those updates to the remaining
hubs in the communications system 10. Due to the constant communication
between the hubs, these updates provide for a universal directory of user
profiles and a constantly changing body of information as to the status of
all messages within the communications system 10. For large scale
integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems
introduces further complications for access and update of user profile
information and message tracking in that large distributed network
directories must be built and accessed by the numerical addresses of the
users of the communications system.
As will be discussed herein, the interconnected network hubs within the
communications system 10 also provide for a large amount of virtual
storage that is available to the messaging systems which are attached to
the communications system 10. In this manner, large bulletin boards or
other bodies of shared information can be stored on any of the network
hubs and be instantaneously available to any messaging system connected to
the communications system 10. For large scale integrated network
functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems introduces further
complications for providing bulletin boards or other bodies of shared
information services in that large distributed network directories must be
built and maintained containing numerical address and access/delivery
information for the requesting system utilizing DTMF signaling, numerical
addressing and directory information and delivered in the native protocols
of the user system.
Network Hub Architecture
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the interrelationship of the various software
modules used in the network hubs of the present invention. FIG. 2
illustrates the various modules functioning within a particular network
hub such as network hubs 12, 14 and 16 described with reference to FIG. 1
previously. Referring to FIG. 2, connection processors 52 and 54 interact
with messaging systems connected to the particular network hub. For
example, an analog connection processor 52 communicates with external
messaging systems that use analog communication protocols such as an
analog communication protocol utilized by a voice messaging system that
uses DTMF signaling. Similarly, a digital connection processor 54
communicates with external messaging systems that use digital
communication protocols. Although only connection processors 52 and 54 are
illustrated in FIG. 2, it should be understood that there are a sufficient
number of each of these connection processors for the number of messaging
systems coupled to a particular network hub. Connection processors 52 and
54 communicate with the remainder of the software system using, for
example, the Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) through
internal interface 56 shown in FIG. 2. Internal interface 56 serves as the
main communication link between all of the modules within the software
system operating within a particular network hub. Internal interface 56 is
also coupled to a file server 59 that provides access to a message store
facility 58 which may comprise, for example, a large scale digital storage
media such as a hard disk drive. Message store 58 houses the messages
received from and to be sent to messaging systems coupled to the network
hub. When the media or format of a message must be converted, a media
translator 69 is used. Media translator 69 performs media and other forms
of translation on messages stored in message store 58. For large scale
integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems
introduces a further complication for providing media and other
translation services, in that translation parametrics must be accessed
from distributed network directories utilizing numerical addressing
methods and that communications protocols associated with voice messaging
systems are not able to request or specify media translation services.
A network processor 60 is also coupled to internal interface 56. Network
processor 60 is also coupled to a external interface 62 which couples a
particular network hub to other network hubs and to the network center 37.
Network processor 60 is responsible for collecting and distributing
messages to other network hubs. In order to communicate with the other
network hubs, the network processor 60 may use, for example, the simple
message transport protocol (SMTP) and the MIME protocols.
A management processor 64 is also coupled to both internal interface 56 and
external interface 62. Management processor 64 communicates with the
network center 37 and the particular network hub and operates to monitor
and manage message traffic within the particular network hub. For large
scale integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging
systems introduces a further complication for tracking of user messages
and information, in that messages must be accessed and tracked by the
numerical addresses of the users of the voice messaging system.
A group of control processors 66 is coupled between the external interface
62 and a hub database 68. As will be described more completely with
reference to FIG. 3, the control processors include a message router 72, a
connection manager 74, a data replicator 76 and an administrative event
manager 78. In general, the control processors 66 operate to control the
operation of the network hub and to manage and manipulate the information
stored in the hub database 68. The hub database 68 is also manipulated and
coupled to the remainder of the communications system including the
internal interface 56 through an event processor 70. The event processor
70 provides the real time control of the network hub components. Event
processor 70 responds to directory service requests, identification
confirmation requests, analog, digital and network connection requests,
message delivery events and administration event queues. For large scale
integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems
introduces further complications for the operations of the control
processors, such as message routing, and the operations of the event
processor, such as directory service requests, in that large distributed
network directories must be built and maintained containing numerical
address of the users of the voice messaging system.
Network hubs may be implemented using a variety of hardware platforms
depending on the quantity of traffic to be serviced by a particular
network hub. In general, the connection processors reside in personal
computer platforms serviced by telecommunications peripheral cards. The
control processors and database facilities may be implemented on a
suitable workstation platform. All of these various discrete hardware
platforms may communicate with one another using local area or wide area
network systems.
FIG. 3 is a dataflow diagram which illustrates the routing and exchange of
various types of data within the various software modules that operate
within a network hub. Many of the facilities described with reference to
FIG. 2 are shown in more detail in the dataflow diagram of FIG. 3. For
example, the control processors 66 are broken out into constituent
components. FIG. 3 illustrates the message router 72, the connection
manager 74, the data replicator 76 and the administrative event manager
78. As shown in FIG. 3, each of these control processors 66 interacts with
the hub database 68 through database access procedures which may comprise,
for example, SQL/stored procedures. Essentially, the various software
modules may interface with the control processors 66 through
communications mechanisms that may comprise, for example, TCP/IP sockets
or remote procedure calls.
Event processor 70 interacts with network processor 60, analog connection
processor 52, media translator 69, and digital connection processor 54
using a suitable hub control protocol. The hub control | | |
