US 6,611,501 B1Granted

Process management system

AssigneeBritish Telecommunications public limited company

InventorsMartin John Owen, Satya Patel, Ben Strulo, Stephen Leslie Corley

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Abstract

In a connection management system for setting up connections in a communications network, run-time negotiation is carried out to avoid feature interaction. Users of the network are provided with user agents (intelligent software) which have access to user profiles. When a calling user wants to set up a particular connection configuration, which may involve service features such as ring back later on busy, their user agent sends a connection configuration proposal to the user agent for a called user. The two user agents then negotiate to establish a mutually acceptable connection configuration, if one is available. The negotiation is based on alternative connection configurations stored in order of preference in the respective user profiles. These are proposed and counter-proposed by the user agents in descending preference order until the mutually acceptable configuration is reached or the connection fails.

Claims25

Dependent claims

A method of establishing a connection over a communications network, for service provision between first and second users of the network, there being provided respective connection set-up means for said users, which method comprises:

i) storing for each of said users data defining at least one connection configuration, said connection configuration comprising at least one operation of the communications network in combination with an operation to be implemented at least in part by functionality of the connection set-up means;
ii) storing in respect of data defining a connection configuration for the second user, data defining at least one alternative connection configuration;
and
iii) storing in respect of said data defining a connection configuration for the second user, and in respect of the data defining the or each of its alternative connection configuration(s), a respective priority indicator;
the method further comprising a negotiation process for the establishment of a connection by means of:
iv) transmitting data defining a proposed connection configuration from the connection set-up means for the first user to the connection set up means for the second user, said proposed connection configuration comprising at least one of an operation of the communications network and an operation to be implemented at least in part by functionality of the connection set-up means for the first user;
v) reviewing the data defining the proposed configuration at the connection set-up means for the second user by accessing the data defining configurations and the respective priority indicators stored in respect of the second user;
and
vi) selecting and transmitting a response to the connection set-up means for the first user, the response being determined at least in part by the result of the review step v) above, and selected from acceptance or rejection of the proposed connection configuration, or comprising data defining a counter-proposed connection configuration, without having access to the stored data defining at least one connection configuration in respect of the first user.

6 more elements

An apparatus for use in establishing a communications connection between a first access point and at least one further access point of a communications network, the apparatus comprising connection set-up means associated with said first access point, the apparatus further comprising:

an interface to the communications network for activating network operations available at said first access point;
a data store for storing data defining at least one connection configuration and an associated priority indicator in respect of said first access point, said connection configuration comprising at least one operation of the communications network in combination with an operation to be implemented at least in part by functionality of said connection set-up means;
wherein said connection set-up means comprise:
means to implement a negotiation process, in co-operation with connection set-up means associated with said at least one further access point, to agree a set of operations of the communications network and of said connection set-up means for implementing said communications connection;
and
means to implement said agreed set of operations in respect of said first access point;
said negotiation process comprising the steps of:
(i) receiving data defining a proposed connection configuration;
(ii) reviewing the received data in comparison with connection configuration data and priority indicators stored in the data store;
and
(iii) selecting and transmitting a response to said received proposal, the response being determined at least in part by the result of the review step (ii) and selected from acceptance or rejection of the proposed connection configuration or comprising data defining a counter-proposed connection configuration.

8 more elements

A method of operating a control apparatus, wherein the control apparatus is arranged to trigger an agreed set of operations comprising at least one of a plurality of operations external to the apparatus and an operation comprising functionality of the control apparatus in combination with at least one of said plurality of operations external to the apparatus, the method comprising the steps:

i) storing a set of data elements, at least one of said data elements comprising data defining an attribute of an operation of the control apparatus in combination with data defining an operation external to the control apparatus;
ii) allocating to each data element a weighting factor;
iii) receiving an input signal representative of a proposed set of operations, expressed in terms of at least one data element;
iv) for each data element in the input signal, searching for that data element in the stored set of data elements;
v) for each data element of the input signal which is found by the search in the stored set of data elements, reviewing the weighting factor allocated to that data element;
and
vi) generating an output signal, determined by the reviewed weighting factors and representative of a response to the proposal, the response being selected from agreement or rejection of the proposal or comprising at least one data element representing a counter-proposed set of operations.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/043,417Filed 19 Mar 1998
Priority: EP 9630588712 Aug 1996
Granted: 26 Aug 2003
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

H04Q 3/0041
Provisions for intelligent networking: involving techniques for avoiding interaction of call service features
H04M 3/4217
Administration or customisation of services: managing service interactions
H04Q 2213/13103
Indexing scheme relating to selecting arrangements in general and for multiplex systems: memory
H04Q 2213/13109
Indexing scheme relating to selecting arrangements in general and for multiplex systems: initializing, personal profile