US 6,898,199 B1Granted

Architecture for providing flexible, programmable supplementary services in an expandable telecommunications system

AssigneeExcel Switching Corporation

InventorsMichael C. Silva, Mark P. Hebert

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

This invention relates to a supplementary services layer (SSL) application in the switching node for the development and execution of subscriber-based supplementary services. The SSL communicates with the L4 application through an L4-L5 interface. Therefore, a system operator may configure the switching node to execute supplementary services without intervention from a host application and without modification to the current L4 application. The SSL also communicates with the L5 application in order for that application to integrate supplementary services without further modifications. The SSL comprises a Database Interface Service, a Service Object Manager (SOM) and one or more instances of a Supplementary Service Object (SSO). The database interface service provides connection to an external database which stores each subscriber's profile. Each SSO instance implements one or more supplementary services for a call. The SOM exercises overall control over these SSO instances.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A switching system comprising:

A) a plurality of switching nodes each of which contains:
1. a programmable switch that includes a software protocol application that manages calls in that particular switching node, and that performs call-processing operations defined by a system operator;
2. a plurality of line cards with ports for connections between the system and one or more external networks, said line cards including a line card software protocol application that manages calls in the line card, and that exchanges data between the switching system and one of said external networks;
and
3. a supplementary services application for the development and execution of supplementary services for each call processed in the switching system;
B) an internodal switching network interconnecting each of the plurality of switching nodes for conveying switched telecommunications data between them;
C) a host computer that includes a software protocol application that manages calls in the host, and which host software protocol application exercises supervisory control over the plurality of switching nodes;
D) a host network linking the host computer and the switching nodes for supervisory and informational communications;
and
E) host-switch interface means for communicating and passing information between:
1. the software protocol application that manages calls in a switching node, and the supplementary services application, and
2. the host software protocol application, and the supplementary services application.

9 more elements

A method for developing and executing supplementary services in a switching system which comprises a plurality of switching nodes that each include a software protocol application for managing calls in that particular switching node, and line cards with associated ports, and a line card software protocol application for exchanging messages between the line cards of the switching system and external networks and/or subscribers served by the associated ports, an internodal network interconnecting the switching nodes, at least one host computer for running a supervisory software application, a host network linking each host computer with the switching nodes, a supplementary services application in each switching node, the supplementary services application implementing supplementary services for calls processed on the system, said method comprising the steps of:

A) transmitting a call from one of said associated ports through the line card software protocol application running on the line card with which that port is associated, to a software protocol application that manages calls in the switching node on a given switching node having the supplementary services application;
B) mapping time slots for the call to a trunk group by using a time slot table;
C) identifying the trunk group type by using a trunk group table;
D) obtaining a profile identifier for the trunk group;
E) associating the profile identifier with a profile record in a profile table;
and
F) creating and executing an instance of a supplementary service object that corresponds with that profile record.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.