Abstract:
Telecommunications switches for connecting circuits across a network and having an emergency notification system that allows access to customer premise equipment, such as a telephone, mobile telephone, VOIP telephone, or any other type of customer premise equipment, and delivers to that CPE an alarm or another message. The telecommunication switch may include a dial plan server that will allow a security officer or other user to develop a dialing plan that controls telecommunication switch such that identification numbers, typically telephone numbers, can be dialed by the switch to call CPE throughout the telecommunication network. Additionally, the dialing plan allows the security officer to divide and organize an institution into different sectors, and these different sectors may be delivered different messages. The sectors may be geographic, they may be organized based on the classification of individuals within the institution, or they may be based on some other characteristic.

Description:
REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/962,290, filed on Jul. 27, 2007, and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    This invention relates to data communications and in particular to communications switches and features thereof. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    Today, security is a serious issue for the general population. To address the current heightened concern over security, law enforcement officials, government agencies and engineers have worked together to develop several emergency notification systems and alarm systems that deliver warnings and security related information to a large portion of the population and over large geographic areas. 
         [0004]    For example, one well known system is the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) that allows a government agency to employ the broadcast networks communicating with consumer television and radio sets to deliver a message to the public across these major broadcast mediums. The EBS was put in place around 1963 as part of a plan to support the government&#39;s civil defense efforts and to provide the nation with an emergency warning system. The EBS can be activated regionally or nationally and offers an effective way to deliver general information to the public. 
         [0005]    Although the EBS can work quite well, it requires the government to take command of local broadcast networks, both radio and television, and thus is not a system that is readily available to local governments or private individuals for giving an emergency warning. 
         [0006]    Recently, security officers at large enterprises such as universities, hospitals, and large corporations have been charged with increasing the security of the installation for which they are responsible. As many of these institutions are quite large and geographically distributed, it is difficult for these security officers to provide warning messages and information using conventional tools and systems. To address this deficiency, security companies have developed notification systems that are essentially a network of alarm systems. These alarm systems can be distributed throughout an institution such as a campus or a hospital and network back to a main security system that will allow a security officer to activate and deactivate selected ones of these alarms. In this way, the security officer can provide notification and messages to the individuals located across the institution, as well as to any emergency responders that are addressing the security issue at the institution. Further, these system can provide an intelligent network system that allows the security officer to deliver different messages to different alarm devices, thereby allowing for one part of the population to receive a message that is different from another part of the population. 
         [0007]    Although these security systems can work quite well, they may be costly to install and they require that the security officers constantly adjust the location and distribution of the distributed alarms such that the alarms are kept proximate to the population, even as the population relocates over time from one location at the facility to another. As the facility is expanded or as areas of the facility are retasked, the security officers must make sure that the appropriate number of alarms are placed close enough to the population that the population be confident that they will receive the alarms and messages when they are generated. This can be a time consuming and labor intensive process. 
         [0008]    Accordingly, there is a need in the art for systems and methods that provide emergency notification and alarms to the working or residential population of a general institution. Further, there is a need in the art for systems that provide the effective coverage of the EBS with the ability to tailor and control the messages being delivered to different sections of the population. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    The systems and methods described herein provide telecommunications switches that enable notification systems. 
         [0010]    In particular, the systems and methods described herein include, among other things, telecommunication switches for connecting circuits across a network to allow for communications between two entities on the network. The telecommunication switches may include an emergency notification system that allows for a security officer or other user to access equipment coupled to a communications network. Such equipment is typically, but not always, customer premises equipment or customer provided equipment (CPE), such as a telephone, mobile telephone, VOIP telephone, cable modem, set top box, DSL modem or any other type of equipment that may connect with a carrier&#39;s telecommunication channel or the to a separate channel operated by a facility or other institution. The systems through its hierarchical intelligent dialing plan enable the CPE to receive an alarm or another message generated by the security officer or other user. 
         [0011]    The telecommunication switch may include a dial plan function that will support development of a dialing plan that controls the telecommunication switch such that identification numbers, typically telephone numbers, can be dialed by the switch to call CPE throughout the telecommunication network. Additionally, the dialing plan allows a security officer or other user to divide and organize an institution into different sectors, and these different sectors may be delivered different messages. The sectors may be geographic, they may be organized based on the classification of individuals within the institution, or they may be based on some other characteristic. In any case, the telecommunication switch allows the security officer to divide the institution into different sectors and enable the delivery of a message to a particular sector or deliver different messages to different sectors. 
         [0012]    The dialing plan will be acted on by the telecommunication switch to deliver out to the CPE associated with the different sectors, the messages selected and for the respective sectors. In this way, a security officer can employee the telecommunication network installed at a local institution to provide improved security through early warnings and messages that have been tailored to different sectors and regions of the institution. 
         [0013]    In particular, the systems herein provide telecommunication servers for switching calls between equipment on a communication network. The telecommunications server may comprise a switch for connecting two or more circuits together as a function of an identifying number representative of certain equipment on the communications network. A dial plan server may be present in a telecommunications server and may have an overlay processor for maintaining a list of equipment on the communications network and associated the equipment into one or more pre-defined sectors. The dial plan server may also have a message server for associating a message with a trigger condition and responsive to the trigger condition, operating the switch to automatically deliver a message to one or more of the pre-defined sectors by employing the associated identifying numbers of the equipment classified into the pre-defined sectors. 
         [0014]    The telecommunications server may include a message server that provides the identifying numbers to the switch in sequential order or in parallel order or in any order suited to the application. The telecommunications server may have a memory that stores at least two messages wherein a first message is associated with a first sector and a second message is associated with a second sector. 
         [0015]    In alternate embodiments the telecommunications server may comprise of a second switch and the message server provides the identifying numbers to the first and second switches in parallel. In a further optional embodiment the telecommunications server may have a user interface for allowing a user to generate the message to send to a sector and for implementing a dialing plan or a dial plan for calling to sectors selected by the user. The switch may support TDM, or VOIP service or any other kind of service suitable for a voice communication between one or more entities on a network. 
         [0016]    The telecommunication server can also have a message server that includes an alarm processor for generating an alarm message for activating a visual display and an audio display for indicating an alarm condition. 
         [0017]    The telecommunication server may also include means for classifying individuals into the pre-defined sectors as a function of equipment identifying numbers associated with the individuals. 
         [0018]    In a further embodiment the invention provides a notification system for use on a campus having multiple sectors or being capable of being divided into multiple sectors. The system may comprise a telephone system that has an exchange and a plurality of telephone lines distributed across the campus, multiple sets of telephone equipment connected to the distributed telephone lines and each having at least one associated telephone number and a message server that is coupled to the exchange. The message server can have an overlay process for mapping sectors of the campus to at least one telephone number associated with a telephone equipment set located within the respective campus sector, and the system can also include a user interface for allowing a user to generate a message to send to a campus sector and for implementing a dial plan for calling to telephone devices or equipment within the campus sector that has been selected by the user. 
         [0019]    Optionally in this embodiment the telephone equipment can include a visual or audio alarm or some other kind of warning alarm to alert users or people in a sector in an event taking place and to optionally to provide instructions or directions. To this end, the message server can have a memory for storing at least two messages wherein a first message is associated with a first sector and a second message is associated with a second sector. The first sector may be associated with equipment on the campus and a second sector may be associated with equipment that is off the campus. The dialing plan allows for communicating with a pre-selected category of campus staff individuals as well as locations on that campus. The user interface may include a message builder or generator for creating a message capable of being delivered over a phone system and for activating at least one on the telephone equipment sets. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
         [0020]    The present disclosure may be better understood and its numerous features and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art by referencing the accompanying drawings. 
           [0021]      FIG. 1  depicts one embodiment of an emergency notification system employing a telecommunications switch as described herein; 
           [0022]      FIG. 2  depicts pictorially the generation of a dialing plan for use with the system depicted in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0023]      FIG. 3  depicts pictorially the generation of a sector map; 
           [0024]      FIG. 4  depicts one process according to the invention for using the system depicted in  FIG. 1  to generate a contingency dialing plan; 
           [0025]      FIG. 5  depicts the use of the system depicted in  FIG. 1  for delivering an alarm or other warning to sectors of an institution. 
           [0026]      FIGS. 6   a  and  6   b  depict one example of a digit translation table. 
       
    
    
       [0027]    The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0028]    The systems and methods described herein provide, among other things, systems that allow security officers and other users to develop and implement dialing plans for sectors that exist or can be defined within an institution. The systems will use one or more telecommunication switches to carry out a dialing plan and to make calls, optionally with a security message developed by the security officer. The systems may be integrated into a telecommunication switch thus providing an installed switch with an emergency notification system. As will be described in more detail below, the switches may organize an institution or group of institutions into sectors and develop a dialing plan including routing information for different calls, digit translations and other steps all being prepared ahead of time to facilitate the rapid (for example up to about 100 simultaneous calls per second) dialing of numbers associated with a selected sector. 
         [0029]    The systems and methods described herein may be used at a campus, a business, a city, a hospital, a city or any kind of institution, enterprise or other entity, that has need for a security system and that provides telecommunication equipment within that area. For the purpose of clarity the systems and methods described herein will be described with reference to a system deployed on a campus or a university. However, this embodiment is merely for the purpose of illustration and it will be understood that the systems and methods described are not so limited and that in other embodiments and practices may be realized without departing from the scope hereof. 
         [0030]      FIG. 1  depicts a first embodiment, and shows a system  10  that includes a telecommunication switch having an emergency notification system. In particular,  FIG. 1  shows a system  10  having an overlay processor  14 , a dial plan server  18 , a telecommunication switch  12 , three regions within an institution  20 ,  22  and  24  respectively, a data/Voice network  28 , a telephone network  30 , a sub-sector  32 , multi floor buildings  34 A- 34 G, and residential homes  38 . 
         [0031]    The dialing plan server  18  depicted in  FIG. 1  creates and/or stores one or more dialing plans that may be executed by action of the telecommunication switch  12 . In one embodiment, the dialing plan server  18  employs information generated by the overlay processor  14  to create a set of files, such as XML files that may be employed by the switch  12  to dial to the customer premise equipment (CPE) within the identified sectors. In the depicted embodiment the dialing plan server  18  is shown as a separate data processing platform of the type commonly employed for implementing server software. The data processing platform may be a UNIX platform executing a computer software program that allows an security officer to generate alert messages ready for transmission when triggered by the dial plan. However, it will be understood by those of skill in the art that in alternate embodiments the dialing plan server  18  may be integrated within the telecommunication switch  12 . In such an embodiment, the telecommunication switch  12  may export or provide a user interface that may be accessed by a person, such as a security officer, to develop a dialing plan that may be implemented by the telecommunication switch  12 . Other embodiments and configurations may also be practiced without departing from the scope of the invention. 
         [0032]    The overlay processor  14  depicted in  FIG. 1  is shown as a separate data processing platform that is capable of generating and creating sectors based on classes. It is noted that the overlay processor  14 , like the dialing plan server  18 , may be integrated into the telecommunications switch  12  in certain embodiments. Optionally, the overlay processor  14  may be integrated into the dialing plan server  18  and this integrated dialing plan server/overlay processor may be operated on a data processing platform that is separate from the telecommunications switch  12 . In either case though, the system will include an overlay processor that typically will be a piece of software executing on a data processing platform and that will identify a set of sectors within an institute or region. The overlay processor  14  organizes identification numbers, typically telephone numbers or NBA/NXX numbers, into categories such as the phone numbers associated with the buildings  34 A- 34 G in the sector  20  depicted in  FIG. 1 . Alternatively, the overlay processor  14  may organize into a category or a sector a category of personal, such as students or professors, that are associated with the institution, which in this case is a campus. 
         [0033]    One example of the operation of the overlay processor  14  is presented in  FIG. 3 . The depicted overlay processor  14  in  FIG. 3  allows a user to classify the institution into different sectors. In this example, the overlay processor  14  is organizing the buildings on campus into different sectors. For example,  FIG. 3  illustrates that the overly processor  14  has created divided at least some of the buildings on campus into three sectors, one of which exists as a sub-sector within another sector. In particular, the overlay processor  14  is shown as having divided the campus into a first sector, sector  20 , that includes the multi-resident housing complexes on campus. A second sector, sector  22 , is defined that includes the residential homes on campus. A third sector, sector  32 , exists as a sub-sector within sector  20  and may, for example, represent women&#39;s only multi-residential housing existing on the campus. As further shown in  FIG. 3 , the overlay processor  14  identifies the telephone numbers associated with the CPE located within the service areas that fall within the defined sectors. The telephone numbers are assigned to geographical locations and coupled with physical ports in distinct structures (buildings, floors, etc.). Each telephone is assigned a physical address and in the case of an IP phone, an IP address is also assigned. Thus, the overlay processor  14  generates a set of telephone numbers that are associated with CPE within respective sectors. In the embodiment and practice depicted in  FIG. 3 , the campus has been divided into sectors based on the type of residences across the campus. In alternative practices, the campus may be divided based on the function of different rooms, such as sectors that contain dormitories and sectors that contain cafeterias. Further, the system may be employed to create sectors that contain the telephone numbers for all faculty or freshman woman. Further, some sectors may be created for night time use, and other sectors for day time use. Still other methods by which the campus, or other institution may be sectorized may be practiced and will vary according to the application and security issues being addressed. As will be described in more detail hereinafter, the notification system may provide one message to the equipment in the sector  20  and a second additional and/or different message to the equipment within the sub-sector  32 . 
         [0034]    The CPE in the sectors may be contacted through the switch  12 . The depicted telecom switch  12  may be any suitable communication switch of the type capable of establishing a connection between two or more devices on a communications network. In the embodiment depicted in  FIG. 1 , the system  10  includes a single telecommunication switch  12 . However, in alternate embodiments there may be a plurality of telecommunication switches  12 , each of which is capable of dialing phone numbers within a sector and thus providing parallel dialing operations for the notification system depicted in  FIG. 1 . 
         [0035]    As further shown in  FIG. 1 , the telecommunication switch may couple to a data network  28 . Typically the data network  28  will be the internet data network that interconnects the telecommunication switch  12  with other devices coupled to the internet. Also shown in  FIG. 1 , is a telephone network, in this case, the PSTN telephone network  30 . In the embodiment depicted in  FIG. 1  the telephone network  30  couples through the data network  28  to the switch  12 . However in alternate embodiments, the telecommunication switch  12  may couple directly to the telephone network  30 . In either way, it is understood from  FIG. 1  that the telecommunication switch  12  can couple through the data network  28  to certain equipment coupled to the communications network and may use the telephone network  30  to couple to and communicate with equipment on the telephone network. 
         [0036]      FIG. 1  further depicts that the data network  28  may couple to a second sector  22 . In this case the separate sector  22  may include a plurality of homes  38  which represent off-campus housing associated with the university. Additionally, the phone network  30  may be employed to communicate with a separate sector  24  depicted in  FIG. 1  as comprising residential and multi-residential buildings. The sector  24  may represent off-campus buildings and residences associated with home addresses of students presently resident in sub-sector  32 . Thus, as described in more detail hereinafter, the notification system  10  may be employed for delivering messages to on campus CPE and to off campus CPE as well. 
         [0037]    The emergency notification system that includes the telecommunications switch  12 , the overlay processor  14  and the dial plan server  18  is capable of communicating across both the data network  28  and to areas served by the telephone network  30 . Thus, in the embodiment in  FIG. 1 , the dial plan server  18  and overlay processor  14  may be employed for generating a dialing plan that provides warnings and notification to equipment stored in sectors that are part of the facility, such as sectors  20  and  22 , as well as to sectors that exist outside of the facility, such as the depicted sector  24 . Thus, a user can employ the system  10  to generate a dialing plan that provides notice to any communication equipment coupled to either the data network or the telephone network,  28  and  30  respectively. 
         [0038]      FIG. 2  depicts pictorially the generation of a dialing plan by the dialing plan server  18 . In particular,  FIG. 2  depicts the switch  12 , the dialing plan server  18 , and the data network  28 . Further shown in  FIG. 2  is that the dialing plan server  18  generates, in this embodiment, four data files that organize the information that is used by switch  12  to carry out the dialing plan. In the depicted embodiment the dial plan server  18  generates a home exchange profile data file  40 , a digit translation profile  42 , a number plan configuration file  44  and a translation route data file  48 . In one embodiment, the data files  40 ,  42 ,  44  and  48  are XML data files of the type employed for exchanging information between servers. In this embodiment, the telecommunications switch  12  may be any server capable of processing XML data files to dial phone numbers to connect communication devices over a network. In one particular embodiment, the telecommunications switch  12  is the SAFARI telecommunications switch manufactured and sold by the assignee hereof. However, it will be apparent to those of skill in the art that any suitable telecommunication switch may be employed as long as that telecommunication switch is capable of responding to stored instructions representative of a plan for dialing to equipment located in the service area of the switch or for connecting to another switch within the service area to reach equipment outside of the respective switches service area. 
         [0039]    The home exchange profile data file  40  defines the serving area of the telecommunications switch  12 , or in embodiments where multiple telecommunications switches are being employed, the home exchange profile data file  40  may define the service areas supported by all the telecommunication switches. Table 1 presents an example of the home exchange profile data file. 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
               
               
               
               
               
             
               
               
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 1 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 id 
                 homeID_fname 
                 XLR_tableID 
                 RC_fname 
                 LATA_fname 
                 locale 
               
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
               
             
          
           
               
                 1 
                 ASHLAND_HANO 
                 1 
                 ASHLAND 
                 248 
                 HANO 
               
               
                 2 
                 BETHIA_CHES 
                 1 
                 BETHIA 
                 248 
                 CHES 
               
               
                 3 
                 CHESTER_CHES 
                 1 
                 CHESTER 
                 248 
                 CHES 
               
               
                 4 
                 SUSPEND_CHES 
                 5 
                   
                 248 
                 CHES 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0040]    The digit translation file  42  contains the information needed to translate between different phone numbers. The digit translation file  42  contains that information that may be used by telecommunications switch  12  to substitute one telephone for another telephone number in those circumstances where the phone numbers have been changed or redirected. One example of a digit translation file is set out in exhibit A appended hereto. 
         [0041]    The number plan configuration file  44  defines the local NPA/NXX bindings to the rate centers and therefore provides the switch with the local exchange bindings required to carry out the dialing plan proposed by the dialing plan server  18 . 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
               
               
               
             
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 2 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 id 
                 filename 
                 pattern 
                 tableTYPE 
               
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
               
             
          
           
               
                 1 
                 248 
                 434 
                 LATA 
               
               
                 2 
                 248 
                 804 
                 LATA 
               
               
                 3 
                 ASHLAND 
                 804365 
                 RC 
               
               
                 4 
                 ASHLAND 
                 804368 
                 RC 
               
               
                 5 
                 ASHLAND 
                 804412 
                 RC 
               
               
                 6 
                 ASHLAND 
                 804459 
                 RC 
               
               
                 7 
                 ASHLAND 
                 804496 
                 RC 
               
               
                 353 
                 ASHLAND 
                 804507 
                 RC 
               
               
                 354 
                 ASHLAND 
                 804795 
                 RC 
               
               
                 355 
                 ASHLAND 
                 804899 
                 RC 
               
               
                 356 
                 BETHIA 
                 804494 
                 RC 
               
               
                 357 
                 BETHIA 
                 804561 
                 RC 
               
               
                 750 
                 BETHIA 
                 804506 
                 RC 
               
               
                 751 
                 BETHIA 
                 804507 
                 RC 
               
               
                 752 
                 BETHIA 
                 804795 
                 RC 
               
               
                 753 
                 BETHIA 
                 804899 
                 RC 
               
               
                 754 
                 CHESTER 
                 804365 
                 RC 
               
               
                 758 
                 CHESTER 
                 804496 
                 RC 
               
               
                 1154 
                 CHESTER 
                 804795 
                 RC 
               
               
                 1155 
                 CHESTER 
                 804899 
                 RC 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0042]    The translation route data file  48  is an XML data file that contains information for the switch  12  which will define the call routing based on carrier, called, or locale routing processes. Thus, the routing data file  48  contains information for the switch  12  for routing data through the data network and through the telephone network to different sectors defined by the user. 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
             
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 3 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 id 
                 tableName 
                 routePattern 
                 group_num1 
                 exactlen 
                 group_num2 
                 group_num5 
               
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
               
             
          
           
               
                 1 
                 LOCALE 
                 CHES 
                 8 
                 3 
                 9 
                   
               
               
                 2 
                 LOCALE 
                 COLO 
                 10 
                 3 
                 11 
               
               
                 3 
                 LOCALE 
                 DINW 
                 12 
                 3 
                 13 
               
               
                 4 
                 LOCALE 
                 GOOC 
                 10 
                 3 
                 11 
               
               
                 5 
                 LOCALE 
                 HENR 
                 14 
                 3 
                 15 
               
               
                 6 
                 LOCALE 
                 HANO 
                 12 
                 3 
                 13 
               
               
                 7 
                 LOCALE 
                 LOUI 
                 9113 
                 3 
                 9114 
               
               
                 8 
                 LOCALE 
                 PETE 
                 9115 
                 3 
                 9116 
               
               
                 9 
                 LOCALE 
                 POWH 
                 9999 
                 3 
                 9999 
               
               
                 10 
                 LOCALE 
                 RICH 
                 18 
                 3 
                 19 
               
               
                 11 
                 CARRIER 
                 0386 
                 7 
               
               
                 12 
                 CALLED 
                 0 
                 20 
                 1 
               
               
                 20 
                 CALLED 
                 08 
                 20 
               
               
                 21 
                 CALLED 
                 09 
                 20 
               
               
                 22 
                 CALLED 
                 011 
                 7 
               
               
                 23 
                 CALLED 
                 800 
                 6 
                 10 
                 4 
               
               
                 27 
                 CALLED 
                 888 
                 4 
                 10 
                 5 
               
               
                 28 
                 CALLED 
                 8002017882 
                 7 
                 10 
               
               
                 32 
                 CALLED 
                 8046810993 
                 55 
                 10 
               
               
                 33 
                 CALLED 
                 8049189960 
                 55 
                 10 
               
               
                 34 
                 CALLED 
                 434210 
                 1 
                 10 
                 7 
               
               
                 266 
                 CALLED 
                 804427 
                 2 
                 10 
                 7 
               
               
                 581 
                 CALLED 
                 804997 
                 2 
                 10 
                 7 
               
               
                 582 
                 CALLED 
                 804998 
                 2 
                 10 
                 7 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0043]      FIG. 2  thus shows that the dialing plan server  18  is capable of pre-configuring the data necessary to implement a dialing plan and stores the information as a set of pre-configured files that can be rapidly executed by the telecommunications switch  12  as the information necessary for completing the calls is pre-computed, pre-defined and readily available to the telecommunications switch  12 .  FIG. 2  depicts one set of data files representative of the data files for one dialing plan. However, in normal use, the dialing plan server  18  will be used for developing multiple and hierarchical dialing plans and these multiple dialing plans can be stored in a data base (not shown) for later use as needed. 
         [0044]    Turning to  FIG. 4 , the system  10  depicted in  FIG. 1  is illustrated with a user operating a message generating server  50 . The messenger application server  50  provides a user interface that a security officer or other system administrator may use to develop messages that may be delivered according to a dialing plan such as the dialing plans depicted and described with reference to  FIG. 2 . In operation, the messenger application server  50  allows the security officer to enter a message to be delivered as part of the dialing plan. This message may be transmitted to the telecommunications switch  12  along with the dialing plan and the switch  12  can institute the dialing plan and deliver the message as each call is made. As shown in  FIG. 4 , the switch  12  can communicate across the data network  28  to SIP-enabled phones such as the phone  60  and to proprietary alarm devices such as the devices  52 A and  52 B. The device  52 A communicates through the INTEGRATED ACCESS DEVICE (IAD)  56 . This is a device that is used to accommodate all kinds of access elements communicating with the switch and receives and sends data through the data network  28  from the switch  12 . The proprietary alarm device  52 B couples to the telephone network  30  and receives data from the switch  12  delivered through the data network  28  and through a gateway to the telephone network  30 .  FIG. 4  further shows that the telephone gateway may be employed for delivering messages to the mobile phone  54  and to the home analog phone  58 . Thus,  FIG. 4  shows that the messenger application server allows a security officer to select a dialing plan and to develop a message for delivery with that dialing plan. 
         [0045]    The order in which the steps of the present method are performed is purely illustrative in nature. In fact, the steps can be performed in any order or in parallel, unless otherwise indicated by the present disclosure. 
         [0046]    The methods may be performed in hardware, software, or any combination thereof, as those terms are currently known in the art. In particular, the present method may be carried out by software, firmware, or microcode operating on a computer or computers of any type. Additionally, software embodying the present invention may comprise computer instructions in any form (e.g., source code, object code, microcode, interpreted code, etc.) stored in any computer-readable medium (e.g., ROM, RAM, flash memory, magnetic media, punched tape or card, compact disc (CD) in any form, DVD, etc.). Furthermore, such software may also be in the form of a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave, such as that found within the well-known Web pages transferred among devices connected to the Internet. Accordingly, the present invention is not limited to any particular platform, unless specifically stated otherwise in the present disclosure. 
         [0047]    While particular embodiments have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from this invention in its broader aspect and, therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit of this invention.