Intelligent PBX in-building and out-of-building personal reach communications system

A call placed by a calling party from within the local office or campus area served by an intelligent PBX of a called party who is a subscriber to a personal reach service is held at that PBX for determination of whether the called party/subscriber is within or outside the local area served by the PBX. This determination is made using two-way paging technology through which a pager-carrying called party/subscriber is determined to be within the local area if the two-way pager carried by the called party/subscriber is registered within the area. If the called party/subscriber is determined to be within the local area, then a local page is broadcast to the called party/subscriber and a return call to the PBX by the called party/subscriber is bridged with the call being held from the calling party at the PBX. If the called party/subscriber is determined to be outside the local area, then the calling party's call is connected over the telephone network to the called party/subscriber's personal reach service network platform. A nationwide page is broadcast and a return call from the called party/subscriber to the network platform is bridged with the calling party's call to complete the connection between the calling and called parties.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
This application relates to subject matter described in U.S. patent 
application No. 8/590,237, filed Jan. 23, 1996, for M. J. Foladare, S. B. 
Goldman, D. P. Silverman, and R. P. Weber, co-inventors herein, and 
assigned to the assignee hereof, and entitled "Personal Mobile 
Communications System With Two Points of Entry"; and in U.S. patent 
application Ser. No. 08/668,661, filed simultaneously herewith, for S. 
Bala, M. J. Foladare, S. B. Goldman, D. P. Silverman, and R. P. Weber, and 
assigned to the assignee hereof, and entitled "In-Building and 
Out-of-Building Personal Reach Communications System". 
TECHNICAL FIELD 
This invention relates to personal communications and, more particularly, 
to systems for setting up communications between a caller and a called 
individual using a combination of paging and call bridging. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
A problem with setting up telecommunications connections today is the 
difficulty of locating called individuals who are highly mobile. This 
problem is partially alleviated by mobile telephone technology and radio 
paging systems. In copending applications Ser. No. 08/316,613 and 
08/497,060 Personal Reach Systems (PRS) are described in which a page to a 
subscriber is initiated in response to a telephone call from a caller to a 
subscriber's special personal reach telephone number, and the subscriber 
in response to the page places a telephone call, namely a "return 
telephone call" to a meet-me bridge of a bridging and signaling unit 
within a PRS network platform at which the caller's telephone call is held 
for connection to the return telephone call. Upon receipt of the return 
telephone call at the bridging and signaling unit, the caller's telephone 
call and the return telephone call are bridged, i.e., connected together 
at the meet-me bridge holding the caller's call, so that the caller and 
the called party may communicate. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
In accordance with the invention, when a caller calling from within the 
local office or campus area served by an intelligent PBX of a called 
party/subscriber to a personal reach service attempts to reach that called 
party/subscriber either by dialing the subscriber's extension or by 
dialing the subscriber's special personal reach telephone number, the 
intelligent PBX first determines whether the subscriber is within the 
local area served by the PBX using, for example, two-way paging 
technology. If the called party/subscriber is determined not to be within 
the local area, then the PBX launches an outbound call over the public 
switched telephone network that connects the caller to the Personal Reach 
System network platform to which the called party is a subscriber. A 
return call by the called party/subscriber to the PRS network platform in 
response to a nationwide page launched by the platform is bridged to the 
caller, thereby connecting the caller and the called party. If the called 
party/subscriber is determined to be within the local PBX area, then a 
local page is initiated and a return call to the PBX from the called 
party/subscriber in response to the local page is bridged by the PBX to 
the caller's call, the latter remaining at the PBX rather than being 
connected to the PRS network platform.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
FIG. 1 shows an arrangement for providing telecommunications services in 
accordance with the present invention. A caller from within the local area 
102 served by PBX 103 places a telephone call from the calling telephone 
101, which is connected to PBX 103, to reach a subscriber to a personal 
reach telephone service whose home PBX is also PBX 103. That called 
party/subscriber is associated with a pager 104 that in the preferred 
embodiment described herein has two-way paging capabilities. The caller, 
in attempting to reach the called party/subscriber may dial either the 
local extension normally associated with that called party/subscriber, or 
may dial a number associated with the subscriber's personal reach service 
located on a network platform, which in a preferred embodiment is an 800 
type of telephone number, but which is not required to be such a telephone 
number. 
It is assumed initially that the caller from telephone 101 dials the local 
extension on PBX 103 of the called party/subscriber's telephone 110. 
Although shown as originating from within the PBX system, such call placed 
to the called party/subscriber's local extension could originate from a 
calling party outside the PBX system. In accordance with the present 
invention, PBX 103 is an intelligent PBX incorporating meet-me bridging 
capabilities for bridging a caller's call and a return call placed by a 
called party to PBX 103 in response to a page that signals the called 
party that a personal reach telephone call is waiting. PBX 103 also has 
signal processing capabilities. A custom programmed Intuity.TM. based PBX 
available from Lucent Technologies could be used as PBX 103. In accordance 
with the invention, PBX 103, upon receiving a call directed to a called 
party/subscriber associated with the PBX, determines whether at that time 
the called party/subscriber is within or outside its local serving area 
102. In addition, PBX 103 directs and processes an incoming telephone call 
in accordance with the number or extension dialed. Specifically, as will 
be described hereinafter, in response to the extension dialed by the 
caller at telephone 101, PBX 103 determines whether or not the called 
party associated with that extension is in fact a subscriber to a personal 
reach telephone service. Such determination is made by accessing a record 
associated with the extension of telephone 110 in a database 105. If the 
called party is a subscriber and if the called party is determined to be 
within local area 102, then PBX 103 rings the called party's local 
telephone 110 extension and/or initiates a local page within the local 
office or campus area 102 through local paging tower 106 to the 
subscriber's pager 104. The signal sent by PBX 103 to paging tower 106 
identifies the frequency and capcode of the two-way pager 104 carried by 
the called party/subscriber. Such identifying information is retrieved 
from the called party/subscriber's record in database 105 by PBX 103 in 
accordance with the called party/subscriber's dialed local extension. From 
any telephone, such as 111, from within the local area 102, the called 
party/subscriber may thereupon place, a return call into PBX 103. Such 
call can be to a special extension assigned to the subscriber, which 
identifies the subscriber and associates the return call with the waiting 
call for the called party/subscriber. Alternatively, the called 
party/subscriber may dial a extension commonly used for return calls by 
all personal reach subscribers associated with PBX 103. Upon answer, the 
subscriber thereupon enters a personal identification code via a sequence 
of touch-tone inputs. From this ID code, stored in database 105, PBX 103 
is able to associate the return call with the waiting call from the 
calling party on telephone 101. Upon associating the return call via 
telephone 111 within the local area and the waiting call from telephone 
101, PBX 103 bridges the two calls together and completes the connection 
between the calling and called parties locally within the environment of 
PBX 103. 
As noted, PBX 103 may ring the called party's local telephone extension of 
telephone 110 on PBX 103, or any other predetermined telephone number, if 
at the time of the call the called party/subscriber is determined to be 
within local area 102. Such ringing can be effected either prior to 
initiating the local page to the called party/subscriber, or 
contemporaneously therewith. Thus, if the called party is determined to 
within area 102, an initial attempt to reach the called party at his or 
her extension and thus usual "domicile" within-the office or campus 
environment, minimizes the use of the bridging and paging equipment 
associated with PBX 103, thereby freeing such facilities to handle other 
calls for other called parties/subscribers within area 102. 
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the determination of 
whether the called party/subscriber is within or outside local area 102 is 
made using two-way paging technology, which is well known in the art. In 
accordance with such well known paging technology, the pager 104 
associated with a called party/subscriber can be determined to be 
registered within the local area 102 by periodically transmitting a 
polling signal to the pager. The pager 102, if within the local area, 
detects the polling signal and automatically transmits a response signal 
which is received by transmitting tower 106, and processed by PBX 103, 
thereby identifying the pager 104 as being registered within area 102 of 
PBX 103. Alternatively, the pager 104 can be determined to be registered 
within local area 102 through the detection of a response that is 
automatically generated by the pager upon receipt of the paging signal 
transmitted by local tower 106, which is initiated by PBX 103 in response 
to the call to the called party/subscriber's local extension. In either 
case, if a response from pager 104 is not detected by PBX 103, then pager 
104 is out of the range covered by the local paging system, and the called 
party/subscriber is determined to be outside the local office or campus 
environment 102 serviced by PBX 103. If PBX 103 determines that pager 104 
is in fact registered, then the called party/subscriber is within the 
office or campus environment 102 serviced by the PBX. 
If upon receiving a call for called party/subscriber, PBX 103 determines 
that the called party/subscriber is not within the local office or campus 
environment 102, then database 105 is accessed to retrieve the personal 
reach telephone number of that called party/subscriber's Personal Reach 
System network platform in order to initiate a nationwide page. Thus the 
retrieved 800-type of number personal reach telephone number of the called 
party/subscriber is out-dialed by PBX 103, passing the call through the 
central office 112 to associated toll switch 113 on the inter-exchange 
network 122. Network Control Point (NCP) database 114 translates the 
dialed 800-type of telephone number into a destination number to route the 
call through toll switch 115 to bridging and signaling unit 116 of the PRS 
network platform. Bridging and signaling unit 116 in turn retrieves from 
its associated database 117 the necessary paging information for the 
called party/subscriber, determined by the number out-dialed by PBX 103 to 
reach the PRS network platform. This paging information, as in the local 
situation described above, includes the frequency and capcode that 
uniquely identifies the called party/subscriber's pager 104, which paging 
information is retrieved from database 117 from the called 
party/subscriber's identity. In a preferred embodiment, the capcode and 
frequency used for the nationwide page may be different than that used for 
the local page due to the different frequency bandwidths that might be 
available for nationwide and local paging purposes. Pagers with the 
capability of operating at different frequencies and different capcodes 
are known in the art. As shown in FIG. 1, the same pager 104 is shown as 
being both within the local area 102 of PBX 103 or outside the local area 
102 to illustrate both alternative locations of a called party/subscriber. 
For the nationwide page, paging node 118 initiates the broadcast of a 
paging signal containing the paging information from paging tower 119. 
Upon detection of the nationwide paging signal, pager 104 alerts the called 
party/subscriber carrying the pager. In response to being alerted by the 
nationwide page, the subscriber places a return call from the nearest 
telephone station 120 to a particular predetermined telephone number if he 
or she desires to respond to the call. Central office 121 receives the 
return call and routes it to toll switch 123 within the inter-exchange 
network 122. 
The telephone number of the return telephone call is translatable, i.e., a 
database lookup is performed to determine the routing telephone number to 
which the call is actually completed. For example, the return telephone 
call is placed to an 800-type of telephone number. Thus, NCP database 114 
translates the dialed 800-type of telephone number into a destination 
number to route the return call to the bridging and signaling unit 116. An 
advantage of using an 800-type of telephone number for the return call is 
that the called party/subscriber holding pager 104 can place the return 
telephone call without needing to have any information about the area code 
of the telephone line being used. A database 125, associated with central 
office 121, provides routing information of the return call to the proper 
inter-exchange carrier. 
The subscriber's return telephone call routed to bridging and signaling 
unit 116 is bridged by a meet-me type of bridge (not shown) within unit 
116 with the call from telephone 101 that has been routed from PBX 103. 
Bridging of the return call of the subscriber to the originating call of 
the caller is effected by associating the telephone number of the called 
party as out-dialed by PBX to reach the Personal Reach Service network 
platform with the telephone number dialed by the subscriber in placing the 
return telephone call from telephone 120. Specifically, the PRS telephone 
number out-dialed by PBX 103 is forwarded by the inter-exchange network 
over a signaling channel to bridging and signaling unit 116. 
Alternatively, such number may be obtained by bridging and signaling unit 
116 using in-band or out-of-band signaling. Database 127 includes a record 
that also associates a subscriber's called number with a return telephone 
number. By properly associating the telephone number dialed by the 
subscriber in placing the return call from telephone 120, with the number 
out-dialed by PBX 103 as per the record in database 127, bridging and 
signaling unit 116 effects the bridging together of the return call and 
the calling party's call. 
If the called party/subscriber fails to respond to the nationwide page, 
then the calling party's call is directed to a voice-mailbox associated 
with the subscriber so that a message may be left for the subscriber's 
later retrieval. 
In the discussion of the invention heretofore, it has been assumed that the 
calling party from telephone 101 dialed the called party/subscriber's 
local extension. The calling party from telephone 101 may alternatively 
attempt to reach the subscriber by directly dialing the called 
party/subscriber's personal reach telephone number using, as 
afore-described, that subscriber's 800-type of personal reach telephone 
number. In the event that the calling party from telephone 101 dials the 
called party/subscriber's 800-type of PRS number, PBX 103, by accessing 
database 105, associates that dialed number with one of its local 
subscribers. PBX 103 thereupon determines whether that called 
party/subscriber is at that time within the local office or campus 
environment 102 in the same manner previously described. It the called 
party/subscriber is determined to be within area 102, then PBX 103, rather 
than out-dialing the dialed 800 PRS number, launches a local page within 
area 102 to the subscriber's pager 103, while ringing the local extension 
of the subscriber's telephone 110 or any other predetermined number 
associated with the subscriber. Then, as previously described, if the 
called party/subscriber responds to the page with a return call, the 
calling party's call and the return call are bridged together within PBX, 
without a connection ever needing to be established to the dialed PRS 
network platform. 
If the called party/subscriber is determined to outside the office or 
campus environment 102, then the nationwide 800 PRS number dialed by the 
calling party is out-dialed by PBX 103 to the bridging and signaling unit 
116 and a nationwide page is initiated in the manner previously described. 
The flow charts in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 together show the call flow process of 
establishing a connection between a calling party and a called 
party/subscriber in a Personal Reach System in accordance with the present 
invention. At step 201 the in-building (or on campus) caller dials the 
called party/subscriber's Personal Telephone Number (PTN), which can 
either be the called party/subscriber's local extension or his or her 
800-type PRS telephone number. At step 202, the call reaches the PBX 103. 
The PBX may at that time request the called to identify him or herself. At 
step 203, the PBX determines whether the subscriber is in the building or 
within the local campus area. If determined to be within the building or 
campus environment, then at step 204, and if the PTN dialed is the called 
party/subscriber's 800-type PRS number, then the PTN is translated to a 
local extension. At step 205, if not already obtained in step 202, 
identification information is requested of the caller, which will be 
provided to the called party/subscriber with the page that signals a 
waiting call. At step 206, the PBX launches a local page, while in 
parallel at step 207, the PBX dials the subscriber's local extension. At 
step 208, if the called party/subscriber answers, the connection is 
completed. If the called party/subscriber does not answer the ringing 
local extension, then in response to the local page, the subscriber at 
step 209, either does of does not dial into the PBX. If yes, at step 210, 
the caller call and the called party/subscriber's return call are bridged 
together, thereby completing the connection. If the subscriber does not 
dial into the PBX in response to the page, then at step 211, the caller's 
call is sent to the subscriber's voicemail, which completes the call. 
Returning to step 203, if the subscriber is determined to be outside the 
building or campus environment, then at step 212, if the PTN dialed by the 
caller is the called party/subscriber's local extension, then the PTN is 
translated to the called party/subscriber's 800-type of PRS telephone 
number. At step 213, the subscriber's 800-type of PRS telephone number is 
out-dialed over the inter-exchange network. At step 214, if the PBX has 
not captured the caller's identification, then at step 215, the network 
platform queries the caller for his or her identity, or in absence of such 
information being provided, uses the caller's ANI as his or her identity. 
If the PBX captured the caller's identification information, then at step 
216, that information is forwarded by the PBX to the PRS network platform. 
At step 217, a nationwide page is broadcast to the called 
party/subscriber. If, at step 218, the called party/subscriber answers the 
page, then at step 219 the called party/subscriber's return call and the 
calling party's call are bridged, thereby completing the connection. If 
the called party/subscriber does not answer the page at step 218, then at 
step 220, the calling party's call is sent to the subscriber's voicemail 
for later retrieval of a message by the subscriber. 
In the embodiment of the present invention described hereinabove, two-way 
paging is the methodology used for determining whether a called 
party/subscriber is within the local area served by his or her "home" PBX. 
Other methods could also be used to determine whether the called 
party/subscriber is within the PBX's local area. For example, any 
methodology which requires the called party/subscriber to manually or 
automatically check into and out of a local area which registers the party 
as being within or outside the local area could be used. For example, in 
an office building environment in which employees register themselves by 
means of a smart-card upon their entry and exit through either a door or a 
parking garage could also be used, whereby the information associated with 
each employees entry and exit is passed from the smart-card system to the 
local PBX. 
The above-described embodiment is illustrative of the principles of the 
present invention. Other embodiments could be devised by those skilled in 
the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present 
invention.