Management of calling name delivery in telephone networks providing for telephone number portability

In a plurality of telephone networks including a plurality of switches assigned a plurality of telephone number series, each of said telephone number series represented by a unique multi-digit sequence which identifies a switch in one of said networks, at least one of said telephone number series being used as a portable number series and including telephone numbers assigned to a switch in one network but connected to a switch in another network, each of said networks including a calling name (CNAM) database (CNAM DB) for storing the telephone numbers and respective names of subscribers that are connected to a switch in that network, each of said CNAM DBs being operative to provide the name of a subscriber whose telephone number is stored in that CNAM DB in response to a CNAM query containing that telephone number, and each of said CNAM DBs being further operative when in overload condition to order gapping of CNAM queries containing telephone numbers in a particular number series represented by a particular multi-digit sequence, a method for managing the CNAM DBs in said networks comprising the steps of:

• detecting a call from a calling party to a called party in said networks;
• sending a CNAM query to the CNAM DB in the network of the called party, said CNAM query containing the calling party number (CgPN);
• determining whether the CgPN is in the CNAM DB in the network of the called party;
• if said CgPN is in the CNAM DB of the called party, generate a result message containing the calling party name corresponding to said CgPN in the CNAM DB of the network of the called party;
• if said CgPN is not in the CNAM DB of the network of the called party, determining whether said CgPN belongs to a portable number series;
• if said CgPN does not belong to a portable number series, save said CgPN as a gapping number;
• if said CgPN belongs to a portable number series, fetch a location routing number (LRN) which includes a multi-digit sequence identifying the switch and the network to which the calling party is connected, and save said LRN as a gapping number;
• determine whether gapping is activated for the multi-digit sequence in said gapping number;
• if gapping is activated for the multi-digit sequence in said gapping number, generate an error message;
• if gapping is not activated for the multi-digit sequence in said gapping number, generate a CNAM requery containing said CgPN, and route said CNAM requery to the CNAM DB of another network identified by the multi-digit sequence in said CgPN or, if said CgPN belongs to a portable series, the multi-digit sequence in said LRN;
• determine the contents of a response received from the CNAM DB of the other network;
• if the response received from the CNAM DB of the other network contains gapping instructions, activate or deactivate gapping for the multi-digit sequence in said gapping number in accordance with the received gapping instructions;
• if the response received from the CNAM DB of the other network does not contain the calling party name, generate an error message;
• if the response received from the CNAM DB of the other network contains the calling party name, generate a result message containing the received calling party name;
• determine whether the CNAM DB in the network of the called party is in overload condition;
• if the CNAM DB in the network of the called party is in overload condition, include gapping instructions in said error message or said result message;
• and
• send said error message or said result message to an originator of said CNAM query for delivery to said called party.

In a plurality of telephone networks comprising a plurality of subscribers each having a telephone number in a predetermined number series associated with a particular switch in one of the telephone networks, at least one of said number series being designated as a portable number series and including telephone numbers assigned to a switch in one network but capable of being connected to a switch in another network, each of the other number series including non-portable telephone numbers assigned to a switch in one network and connected to that same switch in that same network, and each of said networks including a calling name (CNAM) database (CNAM DB) for storing a plurality of telephone numbers and corresponding names of subscribers connected to the switch in that network, a method for managing said CNAM DBs comprising the steps of:

• detecting a call from a calling subscriber in one of said networks to a called subscriber in another one of said networks;
• determining whether the telephone number of said calling subscriber is a portable number or a non-portable number;
• if the telephone number of said calling subscriber is a portable number, obtaining a location routing number (LRN) associated with the telephone number of said calling subscriber, said LRN being used to identify the switch and the network of said calling subscriber;
• if the telephone number of said calling subscriber is a non-portable number, using the telephone number of said calling subscriber to identify the switch and the network of said calling subscriber;
• sending from the network of said called subscriber to the CNAM DB in the network of said calling subscriber a CNAM query containing the telephone number of said calling subscriber;
• receiving at the network of said called subscriber in response to said CNAM query a gapping order from the network of said calling subscriber specifying the gapping of subsequent CNAM queries containing telephone numbers belonging to the same number series as the telephone number of said calling subscriber;
• if the telephone number of said calling subscriber was determined to be a portable number, gapping at the network of said called subscriber subsequent CNAM queries containing either portable numbers that are associated with said LRN or non-portable numbers belonging to the same number series as said LRN;
• and
• if the telephone number of said calling subscriber was determined to be a non-portable number, gapping at the network of said called subscriber subsequent CNAM queries containing non-portable numbers belonging to the same number series as the telephone number of said calling subscriber.