A dynamically configurable telephone 10 has an intelligent controller 42 which implements a communication protocol to receive commands and parameters and to transmit status indicative of particular phone features. Upon receipt of the parameters, the controller translates the parameters into configuration settings for the telephone and also stores the parameters in a non-volatile memory 44 if such is installed. The telephone accommodates many different country-specific requirements without hardware or firmware changes being made to the phone itself. The controller returns solicited or unsolicited status messages, or events, to a PABX 14 over a bit serial digital data link 12. An event can be indicative of error conditions, such as data packet errors, timeouts, or data storage errors. An event can also be a reply to a previously received command, such as configuration status, internal test results, a phone serial number or a controller firmware revision level.
A video controller has one or more shared pins coupled to respective configuration signals. The shared pins are also coupled to other devices external to the video controller. Responsive to a reset signal, the configuration signals are stored in a configuration register. At other times, the external devices can overcome the configuration signals such that the shared pins may be used for other operations of the video subsystem.
A method is disclosed for distributing operating program data stored in a common memory area of a digital telephone system, to a plurality of digital telephone system controllers. The method includes transmitting the operating program data from the common memory via a control/data bus to remotely located digital facility test card. The digital facility test card receives and stores a load image of the operating program in random access memory (RAM). A PCM network connection is established from the digital facility test card to each of the plurality of digital telephone controllers through the digital telephone system. The stored load image from the digital facility test card RAM is then transmitted to each of the digital telephone system controllers via the PCM network connection.
A telephonic console (10) having a visual display (12) and a keyboard (14) for making manual entries to control the console (10) to perform different functions in conjunction with an automatic call distribution system (14) interconnecting telephonic units (16) of an external network (18) with a plurality of telephone consoles (10), a console personality programming apparatus having a nonvolatile memory (32) within the console storing a personality code associated with one of a plurality of different personalities, a microprocessor (20) for reading the personality code and for controlling the console (10) to function in accordance with the one personality associated with the read code.
Determining in a wireless telecommunication switching system a base station on which a wireless handset is registered and using information concerning background noise at the location of the base station to automatically adjust the ringer and voice volumes for each call received by the wireless handset while registered on that base station. Further, the wireless telecommunication switching system automatically adjusts the voice volume when a call is handed off from one base station to another base station. Each base station may automatically determine the amount of background noise and transmits this information to the wireless telecommunication system controller which stores this information for future use. Also, each time a user of a wireless handset adjusts the volume of the handset, this information may be transmitted to the wireless communication switching system controller which stores the information as a preference for the user in the area served by that particular base station. In addition, the system administrator may determine the background noise for each base station and does so for different times of day. Finally, the system administrator may determine the noise level for the different areas of the building and as base stations are added to the wireless telecommunication system, they inherit the attributes of the area where they are placed.
An apparatus and method are provided for determining the activity status of a PCM channel in a telecommunications system. The method (600-680) and apparatus (400) utilize a codec (220) within the PCM channel which converts an analog signal to a digital signal and converts a digital signal to an analog signal. Within the apparatus (400), a memory register (402) is coupleable to the codec (220) to repeatedly obtain and store a digital byte of a plurality of digital bytes from the PCM channel. A processor (404) coupled to or containing the memory register (402) repeatedly, for a predetermined period of time, determine whether an ordered arrangement of bits of a digital byte has a predetermined bit pattern and accumulate a count of digital bytes having the predetermined bit pattern. The processor (404) then determines whether the accumulated count is greater than a predetermined value and provides a notification indicating the status of the PCM channel.
