Patent ID: 6167043
Filing Date: 2000-12-26
Classification: H04L,H04M

Abstract:
A method for allowing a small-office/home-office (SOHO) private branch exchange (PBX) to receive an inbound telephone call and an active Internet client to simultaneously use a single telephone line, comprising the steps of:an Internet user commanding his personal computer (PC) to establish a dial-up connection with an Internet Service Provider Point-of-Presence (ISP POP), at which time said PC seizes a first telephone line of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), thus occupying said telephone line and blocking it from inbound calls, said PC being equipped with multimedia means, Internet browsing and communication means, Internet Telephony means, and line-sharing SOHO PBX control and communications means;said PC thereby establishing a communications path to an Internet via said ISP POP;said PC Internet communications means receiving an Internet address from said ISP POP;said PC communicating to an Internet Voice Gateway said Internet address via said Internet communications path, said Internet Voice Gateway being communicably connected to said Internet and a second telephone line of said PSTN, said Internet Voice Gateway having capability to transcode Internet audio messages to PSTN audio and PSTN audio to Internet audio message, said received Internet address being stored in a local memory associated with telephone number of said first telephone line to the PSTN;said PSTN then forwarding all calls originally destined for said first telephone line to the Internet Voice Gateway via said second telephone line, said transfer of call being accompanied by information indicating the original destination telephone number of said first telephone line;said Internet Voice Gateway retrieving said Internet address from memory associated with the telephone number of said first telephone line;said Internet Voice Gateway sending a line-ringing control message to said PC software using the Internet address retrieved from memory when a transferred call is received which was originally destined for said first telephone line;said PC Internet communications means receiving said line-ringing control message and generating in response to receipt thereof a ring-all-phones control message to a line-sharing SOHO PBX via said SOHO PBX control and communications means, thereby causing a plurality of extension telephones of a SOHO PBX to ring;said PC Internet communications means receiving an extension-answered control message from said SOHO PBX via said SOHO PBX control and communications means;said PC communicating full-duplex audio via said PC multimedia means to a line-sharing SOHO PBX modulation interface device, said modulation interface device being capable of full-duplex audio communications with the SOHO PBX extension telephones over said first telephone line; andestablishing a full-duplex audio communications path between said second telephone line from the PSTN at the Internet Voice Gateway and a SOHO PBX telephone.