US 5,329,308 A · Bidirectional video telephony between cable television and switched telephone systems

Abstract

In a video telephony system, a coaxial cable network, which is preferably a part of an existing cable television system, provides a local link for the transmission of the video telephone signals between each originating and destination location and a respective "head end" located on the cable company premises. Each of the head ends is connected to a "point of presence" of a telephone interexchange carrier so that a connection between pairs of head ends, and thus between a pair of video telephone locations, can be made via a switched digital network maintained by the carrier. Certain of originating and destination locations comprise a standard television set, serving as the audio/video display, and a consumer-type camera or camcorder, serving as the audio/video source. Others of the originating and destination locations comprise ISDN video telephones which are connected to the various points of presence of the interexchange carrier via local exchange carrier telephone networks. The video telephone number for cable subscriber locations are administered to be the same as the standard ten-(i.e., area code plus seven-) digit telephone number used for regular telephone calls directed to those locations.

Claims27

Dependent claims

A system for establishing a video telephone call, said system comprising

originating means for communicating a video telephone signal from an originating video telephone location to a first point of presence,
a switched digital telephone network for routing said signal from said first point of presence to a second point of presence, and
destination means for communicating said video telephone signal from said second point of presence to a destination video telephone location,
one of said originating and destination means comprising a cable television distribution network and the other of said originating and destination means comprising a facility other than a cable television distribution network.

1 more element

Apparatus for use in a telephone network, said apparatus comprising

means for receiving video telephone signals from a plurality of originating video telephone locations, and
means for routing a video telephone signal received from a particular one of said originating video telephone locations to any selected one of a plurality of destination video telephone locations,
ones of said originating and destination video telephone locations being cable subscriber locations connected to respective points of presence within said telephone network via respective associated cable television distribution network connections and others of said video telephone locations being non-cable subscriber locations connected to respective points of presence within said telephone network via respective associated telephone facilities that do not include cable television distribution network connections.

A method for use in a telephone network, said method comprising the step of

routing a video telephone signal received from a particular one of a plurality of originating video telephone locations to any selected one of a plurality of destination video telephone locations,
ones of said originating and destination video telephone locations being cable subscriber locations connected to respective points of presence within said telephone network via respective associated cable television distribution network connections and others of said video telephone locations being non-cable subscriber locations connected to respective points of presence within said telephone network via respective associated telephone facilities that do not include cable television distribution network connections.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Bidirectional video telephony between cable television and switched telephone systems

Life of this patent

Bidirectional video telephony between cable television and switched telephone systems

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims27