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Claims  |
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We claim:
1. In a telecommunications network including a plurality of switching
systems, one or more of which having one or more conference bridges, a
method of accessing a conferencing service to effect a conference,
comprising the steps of:
maintaining subscription information including predetermined primary
authorization codes associated with respective subscribers;
receiving, from a first call, an input subscriber identification;
providing, responsive to correlating the input subscriber identification to
a particular subscriber identified from the maintained subscription
information, a secondary authorization code to the first call;
maintaining an association pairing the primary authorization code of the
particular subscriber with the secondary authorization code;
receiving, from a second call, an input primary code;
selecting an available bridge from the one or more bridges;
maintaining, responsive to correlating the input primary code to the
primary authorization code of the particular subscriber, an association
between the selected bridge and the particular subscriber;
connecting the second call through the network to the selected bridge
whereby the second call initiates a conference;
receiving, from a third call, an input secondary code; and
connecting, responsive to correlating the input secondary code to the
secondary authorization code paired with the primary authorization code of
the particular subscriber, the third call through the network to the
selected bridge whereby the third call joins the initiated conference.
2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of selecting the
available bridge includes:
maintaining availability information with respect to the one or more
bridges;
selecting a particular bridge which the availability information indicates
is available; and
updating the availability information associated with the particular bridge
to indicate that the particular bridge is not available.
3. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the input subscriber
identification is the primary authorization code of the particular
subscriber.
4. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the input subscriber
identification includes a predetermined identification code.
5. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the input subscriber
identification includes the primary authorization code of the particular
subscriber.
6. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the third call includes a
plurality of calls initiated by respective participants.
7. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the telecommunications network
includes an intelligent network having a service control point (SCP) and
one or more service switching points (SSPs).
8. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the step of connecting the
second call to the selected bridge includes the SCP instructing one of the
SSPs, which triggers in processing of the second call, to route the second
call to a first directory number which provides call connections thereto
with control over conference initiation at the selected bridge.
9. A method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the step of connecting the third
call to the selected bridge includes the SCP instructing one of the SSPs,
which triggers in processing of the third call, to route the third call to
a second directory number which enables call connections thereto to join
initiated conferences at the selected bridge.
10. A method as claimed in claim 9, wherein the first directory number and
the second directory number are the same.
11. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the secondary authorization
code has a validity limit.
12. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the validity limit includes a
predetermined number of conferences.
13. A method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the secondary authorization
code is valid for a single conference.
14. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the validity limit includes a
predetermined conference size.
15. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the validity limit is an
absolute time period.
16. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the secondary authorization
code is permanently paired with the primary authorization code, and the
second call from which the primary authorization code is received occurs
prior to the third call from which the secondary authorization code is
received.
17. In a telecommunications network including a plurality of switching
systems, one or more of which having one or more conference bridges, a
system for effecting a conferencing service, comprising:
means for maintaining subscription information including predetermined
primary authorization codes associated with respective subscribers;
means for receiving, from a first call, an input subscriber identification;
means for providing, responsive to correlating the input subscriber
identification to a particular subscriber identified from the maintained
subscription information, a secondary authorization code to the first
call;
means for maintaining an association pairing the primary authorization code
of the particular subscriber with the secondary authorization code;
means for receiving, from a second call, an input primary code;
means for selecting an available bridge from the one or more bridges;
means for maintaining, responsive to correlating the input primary code to
the primary authorization of the particular subscriber, an association
between the selected bridge and the particular subscriber;
means for connecting the second call through the network to the selected
bridge whereby the second call initiates a conference;
means for receiving, from a third call, an input secondary code; and
means for connecting, responsive to correlating the input secondary code to
the secondary authorization code paired with the primary authorization
code of the particular subscriber, the third call through the network to
the selected bridge whereby the third call joins the initiated conference.
18. A system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the means for selecting the
available bridge includes:
means for maintaining availability information with respect to the one or
more bridges;
means for selecting a particular bridge which the availability information
indicates is available; and
means for updating the availability information associated with the
particular bridge to indicate that the particular bridge is not available.
19. A system as claimed in claim 18, wherein the input subscriber
identification is the primary authorization code of the particular
subscriber.
20. A system as claimed in claim 18, wherein the input subscriber
identification includes a predetermined identification code.
21. A system as claimed in claim 20, wherein the input subscriber
identification includes the primary authorization code of the particular
subscriber.
22. A system as claimed in claim 18, wherein the third call includes a
plurality of calls initiated by respective participants.
23. A system as claimed in claim 18, wherein the telecommunications network
includes an intelligent network having a service control point (SCP) and
one or more service switching points (SSPs).
24. A system as claimed in claim 23, wherein the means for connecting the
second call to the selected bridge includes means for instructing by the
SCP one of the SSPs, which triggers in processing of the second call, to
route the second call to a first directory number which provides call
connections thereto with control over conference initiation at the
selected bridge.
25. A system as claimed in claim 24, wherein the means for connecting the
third call to the selected bridge includes means for instructing by the
SCP one of the SSPS, which triggers in processing of the third call, to
route the third call to a second directory number which enables call
connections thereto to join initiated conferences at the selected bridge.
26. A system as claimed in claim 25, wherein the first directory number and
the second directory number are the same.
27. A system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the secondary authorization
code has a validity limit.
28. A system as claimed in claim 27, wherein the validity limit includes a
predetermined number of conferences.
29. A system as claimed in claim 28, wherein the secondary authorization
code is valid for a single conference.
30. A system as claimed in claim 27, wherein the validity limit includes a
predetermined conference size.
31. A system as claimed in claim 27, wherein the validity limit is an
absolute time period.
32. A system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the secondary authorization
code is permanently paired with the primary authorization code, and the
second call from which the primary authorization code is received occurs
prior to the third call from which the secondary authorization code is
received. |
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Claims |
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Description |
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This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.
60/009,224, filed Dec. 26, 1995.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is related to copending U.S. patent application Ser. No.
08/723,080, entitled "CENTRALIZED MANAGEMENT AND ALLOCATION OF BRIDGES IN
A TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK FOR A MEET-ME CONFERENCING SERVICE", which
was filed concurrently herewith on Sep. 30, 1996 and is incorporated
herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to telephony conferencing services
and, in particular, to a secure, on-demand, meet-me conferencing service
based on an advanced intelligent network (AIN) infrastructure.
Prior art telephony conferencing systems have been either switch-based or
centralized in conference nodes. With switch-based systems, conferencing
bridges are local to the switch and are available for use only to the
community served by the switch. For a fixed grade of service, these
implementations suffer from lower efficiency in the use of conferencing
bridges than can be achieved by pooling of resources across the network.
In case of centralized conference nodes, audio conferencing bridges are
centrally located and serve a multiplicity of switches. The main drawback
of the centralized conference nodes is that it leads to trunking
inefficiency. Accordingly, conference services are relatively expensive
and require facility reservation in advance of the conference, which
constitutes an impediment to their use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved
conferencing service.
The invention, therefore, according to a first broad aspect provides in
respect of a telecommunications network including a plurality of switching
systems, one or more of which having one or more conference bridges, a
method of accessing a conferencing service to effect a conference,
comprising the steps of: maintaining subscription information including
predetermined primary authorization codes associated with respective
subscribers; receiving, from a first call, an input subscriber
identification; providing, responsive to correlating the input subscriber
identification to a particular subscriber identified from the maintained
subscription information, a secondary authorization code to the first
call; maintaining an association pairing the primary authorization code of
the particular subscriber with the secondary authorization code;
receiving, from a second call, an input primary code; selecting an
available bridge from the one or more bridges; maintaining, responsive to
correlating the input primary code to the primary authorization code of
the particular subscriber, an association between the selected bridge and
the particular subscriber; connecting the second call through the network
to the selected bridge whereby the second call initiates a conference;
receiving, from a third call, an input secondary code; and connecting,
responsive to correlating the input secondary code to the secondary
authorization code paired with the primary authorization code of the
particular subscriber, the third call through the network to the selected
bridge whereby the third call joins the initiated conference.
In accordance with a second broad aspect of the invention, there is
provided in respect of a telecommunications network including a plurality
of switching systems, one or more of which having one or more conference
bridges, a system for effecting a conferencing service, comprising: means
for maintaining subscription information including predetermined primary
authorization codes associated with respective subscribers; means for
receiving, from a first call, an input subscriber identification; means
for providing, responsive to correlating the input subscriber
identification to a particular subscriber identified from the maintained
subscription information, a secondary authorization code to the first
call; means for maintaining an association pairing the primary
authorization code of the particular subscriber with the secondary
authorization code; means for receiving, from a second call, an input
primary code; means for selecting an available bridge from the one or more
bridges; means for maintaining, responsive to correlating the input
primary code to the primary authorization of the particular subscriber, an
association between the selected bridge and the particular subscriber;
means for connecting the second call through the network to the selected
bridge whereby the second call initiates a conference; means for
receiving, from a third call, an input secondary code; and means for
connecting, responsive to correlating the input secondary code to the
secondary authorization code paired with the primary authorization code of
the particular subscriber, the third call through the network to the
selected bridge whereby the third call joins the initiated conference.
The invention, as a particular embodiment, manifests a secure, on-demand
meet-me conferencing service that may be implemented within a
telecommunications network having an advanced intelligent network (AIN)
infrastructure. Centralized management and allocation of provisioned
conferencing bridges located in network switches is effected at a service
control point in the AIN, thereby overcoming the resource efficiency
limitations and corresponding costs of the prior art systems. In addition,
it enables a local exchange carrier (LEC) to offer a new type of telephony
conferencing service at a lower cost where prior reservation of
conferencing facilities is no longer necessary and which possesses other
advantages with respect to ease of use, ease of administration,
availability and security.
The AIN infrastructure may be characterized as a telecommunication network
(i.e., public switched telephone network or PSTN) comprising a signaling
system 7 (SS7) signaling network which may connect service switching
points (SSPs) equipped with an AIN call model, signal transfer points
(STPs) and service control points (SCPs) together through an SSP-SCP
TCAP-based AIN signaling. The SSP AIN call model and SSP-SCP AIN signaling
refer to Bellcore AIN 0.1 and following releases. A conferencing bridge is
a well known hardware element that permits multiple users to conference
telephone calls, and associated with each bridge are two predetermined
directory numbers (DNs) whereby calls to either are routed by the
telecommunications network to the corresponding bridge. One of the two DNs
(i.e., chairperson DN) enables a call connected thereto to initiate a
conference at the corresponding bridge and the other DN (i.e., participant
DN) enables calls connected thereto to join the initiated conference at
that bridge. A chairperson may be a valid end-user who initiates a
conference, and a participant or conferee may be any valid end-user who
dials in a living conference initiated by the chairperson.
Other advantages of the conferencing service include that all valid
end-users may initiate a conference at any time, prior reservation of a
bridge not being necessary. The bridges available within the network are
centrally managed and allocated thereby offering practically unlimited
conferencing service in respect of users and duration. The service also
provides security, confidentiality, billing flexibility, and is may be
used by various types of end-users. Furthermore, the method of the present
invention provides much latitude in the ways a local exchange carrier may
configure its particular conferencing service.
To initiate a conference, a valid end-user only needs to dial the directory
number to access the conferencing service, and identify himself or
herself. After validation, the end-user is connected to a conferencing
bridge. The end-user becomes the chairperson of the conference.
Due to the dynamic conferencing bridge allocation mechanism, introduced by
the invention, the service does not need to know in advance which bridge
would be used for a given conference. Consequently, there is no need to
control conference duration and limit conferencing bridge usage. The
conferencing bridges are used on a first come, first served basis. The LEC
needs not to impose any limit on the participants of the conference, for
which size is only dependent upon the conferencing bridges' capability and
port availability.
All conferencees (i.e., the chairperson and participants) are ensured
complete confidentiality and security. Only valid and authorized conferees
are allowed access to the conference. The service allows for various ways
to access a conference, for example, by having end-users subscribe to the
service and utilizing paired authorization codes which include a primary
and a secondary code. The secondary code may be predetermined and
permanently paired with the primary code, or it may be dynamically paired
to the primary code and have an associated validity period after which it
perishes. The secondary perishable authorization code's validity period
can be limited in different ways, for example, to a pre-determined number
of conferences (e.g., a single conference), an absolute time (i.e., for a
limited time period, for example, from May 5th to May 10th), conference
time, conference size (i.e., predetermined number of conferencees), and
any combinations of the previous.
This conferencing service in which conferencing bridges are not booked in
advance but rather are used only when and for the duration required, gives
significant flexibility in how the LEC may bill for the service. In
addition to the conventional conference services billing models, the
system and its method allow to bill for the real port-time usage by
end-users. That is, if a participant hasn't attended the whole conference,
the port usage can be billed only for the duration it has been used.
A universal service is achieved in that end-users may be of any type, for
example, residential or business, calling from any line or trunk type
including but not limited to POTS, CLASS, Centrex, cellular or PCS,
calling from a PBX or Key system, homing or not on a particular
manufacturer's switching product. Also, the conferencing bridges may be
shared with other switch-based conferencing services, for example,
three-way calling.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention will be better understood from the following description of a
conferencing service together with reference to the accompanying drawing,
in which:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram representation of elements within a telephone
network defining an embodiment for implementing the conferencing service;
and
FIG. 2 is a block diagram representation of functions effected by a service
control point in the telephone network.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The methodology, in accordance with the present invention, for providing a
secure, on-demand meet-me conferencing service is premised on the
utilization of a AIN infrastructure of a telecommunications network to
centrally manage and allocate conference bridges distributed throughout
network switches to calls originating anywhere in the network. The
distributed conferencing facilities are now viewed by the whole network as
a common pool of conferencing resources available for use to all network
calls, originating and/or terminating anywhere therein, whereby the
available resources within the pool are shared for more efficient use. A
LEC can thereby provide additional conferencing services in terms of
geographical diversity and thus serve a larger population without adding
further conferencing facilities to service specific geographic regions and
without any impediment to the current conferencing services.
Referring to FIG. 1, depicted to exemplify the conferencing service is a
representation of a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 10 comprising
various switching elements and network facilities which are shown exterior
to the PSTN 10 simply for purposes of illustration. The switching elements
consist of end offices 12, 14, 16 and 18, and AIN SSPs 20 and 22 which are
communicatively coupled through a SS7 network 24 to an AIN SCP 26. Each
switching element may have connected thereto a plurality of telephone sets
which are represented in FIG. 1 by telephone sets 28, 30, 32 and 34
connected to end offices 12, 14, 16 and 18, respectively, and telephone
sets 36 and 38 connected to AIN SSPs 20 and 22, respectively. The AIN SSPs
20 and 22 constitute switching elements equipped with the AIN call model
while the end office 12, 14, 16 and 18 constitute switches which may not
be equipped with such a model. The SS7 network 24 provides signaling links
between the SSPs and between the SSPs and SCPs within the PSTN 10 which,
of course, includes further facilities to link the various switching
elements depicted.
End offices 16 and 18 are each equipped with a plurality of conferencing
bridges 40 and 42, respectively, which together define a network pool 44
of bridge resources. The bridge pool 44 may be shared throughout the PSTN
10 and utilization thereof is not limited to users at telephone sets 32
and 34 which are directly connected to the offices 16 and 18. An end-user
may originate a call from any switch and connect to the on-demand meet-me
conferencing service. The AIN SCP 26 executes the method whereby this
service is implemented. Moreover, it noted that the conferencing bridges
of the bridge pool 22 may be provisioned in any of the switching elements
within the PSTN 10, including AIN SSPs and that only end offices 16 and 18
are shown having conferencing bridges 40 and 42 for simplicity.
The AIN infrastructure of the PSTN 10 provides a platform on which the
telephony conference service is based and, specifically, the AIN SCP 26
which is programmed with the logic to implement the method for effecting
the service. Functions introduced by the method and provided by the AIN
SCP 26, as identified in FIG. 2, include a Conference Controller 50,
Audioconferencing Bridge Database Server 52, Audioconferencing Port Server
54, Audioconferencing Bridge Allocation Server 56, Authorization Code
Generator 58, Validation Server 60, Active Connection Counter 62, End-user
Interaction Manager 64, Configuration Server 66 and Billing Server 68
processes.
The Conference Controller 50 is invoked by the SCP 26 upon recognizing
calls from end-users are to the conferencing service and co-ordinates, for
a given conference, the accesses to the other functions of this method.
The Audioconferencing Bridge Database Server 52 maintains routing and
availability information in respect of the bridge pool 44. The routing
information for each bridge 40, 42 may include a first DN (i.e., a
chairperson meet-me conferencing DN or C-DN.sub.mm) whereby a user
constituting the chairperson controls initiation and subsequent
termination of a conference at the corresponding bridge, and a second DN
(i.e., a participant meet-me conferencing DN or P-DN.sub.mm) whereby users
may join an initiated conference at that bridge. Alternatively, each
bridge may be associated with a single DN, whereby a conference is
initiated at a particular bridge by the first call connected to the
corresponding DN. The availability information may indicate status of the
bridges 40, 42 within the bridge pool 44, for example, whether a
particular bridge is in use or free. It receives its usage information
from the Audioconferencing Bridge Allocation Server 56 and the Conference
Controller 50.
The responsibility of the Audioconferencing Port Server 54 is to keep track
of the port usage by the conferencing service, for each bridge in the pool
44 on a switch basis. This functionality can be enhanced to include an
up-to-date network image of the port usage by the conferencing service and
all the other services (e.g., 3-way call, centrex conferencing) in order
to minimize, if not eliminate, the possibility of blockage at conference
time. A blocking situation, for example, is when a chairperson can not
establish a conference due to unavailability of bridges or circuits, or
participants can't dial in a living conference for the same reason.
The Audioconferencing Bridge Allocation Server 56 implements the algorithm
that, upon receiving a conference request from the Conference Controller
50, selects and allocates an available bridge from the list of free
conferencing bridges which is obtained from the Audioconferencing Bridge
Database Server 52. In doing this, it takes into account the port usage
figures that it receives from the Audioconferencing Port Server 54.
The Authorization Code Generator 58 has the responsibility to generate the
paired primary and secondary authorization codes by which the chairperson
and the participants, respectively, may access a particular conference
through this service. The primary authorization and the secondary
authorization may be respective predetermined codes that are permanently
paired. Alternatively, the predetermined primary code may be paired with a
perishable secondary authorization code which has a predetermined validity
limit. The Authorization Code Generator is responsible for maintaining all
valid authorization code pairs.
The Validation Server 60 authorizes the various accesses to the service,
for example, by validating an input primary code and an input secondary
code received from calls by a chairperson and participants, respectively,
of a conference. Furthermore, the Validation Server 60 may maintain
subscription information for users having authorization to access the
service. The subscription information may include predetermined
identification codes for respective subscribers, each identification code
being associated to the primary authorization code for the corresponding
subscriber. Input subscriber identification received from calls to the
conferencing service are validated against the maintained subscription
information.
The Active Connection Counter 62 keeps track of the number of active
connections in a conference.
The End-user Interaction Manager 64 implements the end-user interface. It
manages the prompt and collect sessions through interaction with a service
switching point within the AIN infrastructure, using conventional SS7
signaling and commands.
The Configuration Server 66 is an optional function that provides the
Audioconferencing Bridge Allocation Server 56 with network topology
information that can be used to allocate the bridges to optimize the use
of network transmissions.
The Billing Server 68 stores all pertinent usage information on a
conference basis. The times for initiation and termination of the
conference by the chairperson may be recorded by the Billing Server 68
and, furthermore, the times at which each participant joins and leaves the
conference may also be recorded. This information may be subsequently used
by the LEC to perform the appropriate billing. For instance, the automatic
number identification (ANI) or calling line identification (CLID) of the
chairperson's call may be used for billing. Alternatively, the Chairperson
may provide a calling card or credit card number.
Turning now to the operation of the conferencing service, with reference
again to FIG. 1, the following describes a particular implementation of a
method for effecting the service to which access is gained through
subscription and paired authorization codes having a perishable secondary
code. A typical sequencing of events is provided which illustrates how the
method uses functionality existing within the elements of the PSTN 10 and
particularly the AIN infrastructure. However, it should be understood that
various sequencing combinations of the meth | | |
