Patent ID: 6711160
Filing Date: 2004-03-23
Classification: H04L,H04M,Y10S

Abstract:
A packet network telephone interface system for enabling communications with plain old telephone sets over a plurality of telecommunications networks, said system comprising:telephone input/output units for receiving signals from and transmitting signals to a plain old telephone set and a public switched telephone network; a network connection input/output unit for receiving data packets directly from and transmitting data packets directly to a data packet based network having a defined network protocol; a processing subsystem including a network interface card, located in series between the network connection unit and the telephone input/output units, for converting signals from the plain old telephone set into data packets in accordance with said defined network protocol for transmission over the data packet based network, and for converting data packets from the data packets based network into signals suitable for transmission to the plain old telephone set, the processing subsystem including; at least one dual coder/decoder connected to the input/output units for converting analog signals into digital signals, and for converting digital signals into analog signals; switching means to determine whether signals from the plain old telephone are transmitted to the telephone network, or to the network interface card for conversion into data packets for transmission to the data packet based network.