Multi-system network addressing

Abstract: Storage locations, such as voice mailboxes are addressed on a plurality of widely distributed host systems, connect via a network, by defining logical domains each of which may include storage locations on more than one host system. The domains are defined by address tables which indicate which host systems provide ranges of address locations. Transfer of data between domains is simplified by the use of translation tables. One type of translation table is an alias table which has entries containing a range in the originating domain, a new domain and a starting point for a range in the new domain, thus defining a one-to-one correspondence between the ranges in the two domains. Another translation table is a gateway table which defines a gateway to a new domain when an input address has characteristics matching a prefix, number of digits, or both, of an entry in the gateway table. Upon finding the closest possible match in the gateway table, the portion of the input address after the prefix, if any, is used as the address in the new domain.

Description: The present invention is directed to addressing in a network formed by a plurality of data processing systems and, more particularly, to an addressing system for voice mailboxes provided by telephone systems throughout the world. In recent years, telephone companies, particularly in North America, have begun providing a number of information services to subscribers. A common service is to store and forward voice mail messages. Examples of systems which enable public telephone companies to provide such services are disclosed in U.S. Patents 4,371,752; 4,580,012; 4,581,486; 4,585,906; and 4,602,129, all assigned to VMX, Inc. (U.S. Patent 4,371,752 was originally assigned to ECS Telecommunications, Inc.). Other systems are described in U.S. Patent 5,029,199 and US-A-5193110 which are assigned to Boston Technology, Inc. These systems are connected to a central office of a local telephone company or to a private branch exchange or other system handling calls for a large number of telephones. When one of the telephones serviced by the central office or other system is not answered, the calling party is given an opportunity to leave a telephone message which is stored for later reproduction by the user of the called telephone. The mailbox owner is given the ability to reproduce, store or dispose of the message. One of the ways in which a message may be disposed is to forward the message to another user. EP-A-0295904 discloses an address management system which provides for address management in a message system comprising a base station and a plurality of node stations. An address mapping table is used to define how addresses are to be translated or interpreted, this table being searched by an address search module on receipt of a desired address from a user. Several of these systems may be connected at various nodes in a telephone network. The nodes may be all within a single local telephone company, or in several different local telephone companies, such as those within one or more of the regional Bell companies. At the present time, a user may forward a message to another user on the same data processing system, i.e., at the same node, but no method currently exists for easily transferring messages from a user on one data processing system to a user having a voice mailbox on another data processing system at a different node of the telephone system. According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of operating a control and information system for a subscriber telephone system, the control and information system including a plurality of host systems having processors and storage units containing storage locations, at least two of the host systems being located at different physical sites, the method including the steps of: (a) assigning to each subscriber at least one logical domain corresponding to selected storage locations, the or each logical domain being independent of any specific storage unit; (b) storing at least one translation table identifying domains for input addresses; and (c) identifying an address location for each of the input addresses by determining the addressed domain and then determining the addressed location within the addressed domain. According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of addressing in a distributed data processing system having storage units and processors, comprising the steps of: (a) defining domains of storage locations in the storage units without requiring any physical relationship between the domains and the storage units containing the storage locations; (b) storing at least one translation table to identify the domains for input addresses; and (c) identifying an address location for each of the input addresses by determining an addressed domain and then the addressed location within the addressed domain. The present invention provides a method for addressing storage locations throughout a widely distributed data processing network. Preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a method for easily transferring voicemail messages from one data processing system to another data processing system via a telephone network. The invention is of particular use in a widely distributed data processing network in which local data processing systems are connected via a telephone network and handle processing of services for telephone subscribers. For example, the storage locations may be voice mailboxes which exist on data processing systems connected to several modes of one or more telephone networks. The voice mailboxes are organized by domains of users. Each domain is a logical organization defining a group of subscribers which typically will be expected to communicate to one another fairly often, such as a single company, a social organization (e.g., a Lions Club) or other group of individuals. Since the users within a domain may be physically separated, as well as for other reasons involving how information services equipment is added to the telephone system, it is desirable to permit a single domain to include voice mailboxes on more than one data processing system. This is accomplished by defining unique names for each domain anywhere in the world and then defining how a user in one domain can communicate with any of the users in another domain. This definition of communication method may use an alias table in which one number gets converted to another number in a different domain, or a gateway table in which the prefix of a number or the number of digits in a number, or both tables, to translate a number entered in one domain into a number identifying a voice mailbox in another domain. Examples of systems embodying the present invention will now be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout. In the drawings:- Figure 1 is a block diagram of domains used for addressing according to the present invention; Figure 2 is a block diagram of a data processing system for providing information services which may use addressing according to the present invention; Figure 3 is a flow chart of a method according to the present invention; and, Figure 4 is a module visibility diagram of software that may be used to implement the present invention. In existing telephone networks, dialling a series of digits on one communication device, such as a telephone or facsimile machine, identifies another communication device at a specific physical location. The digits dialled inform the telephone network of the physical location of the called device and switches in the network connect the calling device to that physical location. The network used may be the public telephone network, largely provided by local Bell operating companies in the United States, or a private network or a leased line direct from one location to another location of a single large corporation. Newer information services which are being made available by telephone companies do not require the same physical relationships as conventional telephone devices. For example, a voicemail subscriber may have a voice mailbox provided by a data processing system hundreds or thousands of meters from the telephone whose calls are routed to that voice mailbox. Furthermore, the subscriber may be able to access that mailbox from any telephone, not only the telephone whose calls are routed to that voice mailbox. As the number of subscribers to services, such as voicemail, increase, an efficient widely distributed network of data processing systems is highly desirable. To enable a plurality of widely distributed data processing systems to provide information services, transfer of data from one system to another generally requires the actual transfer of the data. Furthermore, efficient use of resources may mean that two telephones sitting on adjacent desks may have voice mailboxes associated therewith provided by data processing systems which may be several kilometres apart and several kilometres from the telephones. Presumably, the adjacent telephones have a logical relationship, that is, the owner of the telephones is a company which may have 100 or more telephones nearby the two adjacent telephones and hundreds or thousands more at other sites. The voice mailboxes associated with all of these telephones thus have a logical relationship, i.e., they are subscribed for by the same company. According to the present invention, this logical relationship is termed a domain or logical domain. As an example, Figure 1 depicts the domains of mailboxes of the ABC company with less than a thousand voice mailboxes in four logical domains 11-14. Other logical domains in Figure 1 are represented by ovals 16, 18 for voice mailboxes assigned to telephone numbers in numbering plan area (NPA) codes 617 and 508, respectively. The NPA domains 16 and 18 serve as parent domains for the ABC domains 11-14. An oval 20 representing a North American dialling plan (NADP) routing domain provides a central place to define relationships to all area code domains, but does not include any voice mail boxes. Similarly, oval 22 represents a routing domain for the entire ABC company which enables voice mail messages to be sent from, e.g., the ABCl domain 11 to the ABC4 domain 14 by outdialling "84nnn" where "nnn" represent any number in the range 100-400. In a similar manner, a subscriber in the NPA508 domain 18 uses the NADP routing domain 20. Further explanation of how voice mail messages are handled using logical domains will be provided below. Voice mailboxes and other types of storage locations of course have a physical manifestation in addition to the logical relationships illustrated in Figure 1. In the case of voice mailboxes, the voice data or messages must actually be stored in some physical device. The type of device will depend upon the type of data processing system being used, and will be referred to as simply a storage unit. As known in the art, the storage unit may be provided by magnetic disks, optical data storage, etc. The storage units are connected to data processing systems which will be referred to as host systems, or simply "hosts". A relationship between the logical storage locations and the physical devices providing storage for those locations is defined according to the present invention in an address table. One example of an address table is provided below for a portion of the NPA617 domain 16. A range of address locations having a scope, or number of locations, of at least one, is defined by the first two columns of the address table. The third column contains a host identifier of the host system providing physical storage for the storage locations or voice mailboxes within the range. Alternative ways of defining the address table include using a starting point of a range and length of the range and any other known method of identifying storage locations provided by a host system. ADDRESS TABLE Start of Range End of Range Host Name Network Account 2210000 2219999 WALTHAM 2230000 2275999 BOSTON1 XYZ Co. 2290000 2299999 WALTHAM 2310000 2319999 WAKEFIELD 2320000 2329999 BOSTON2 2330000 2339999 WAKEFIELD 2360000 2369999 BOSTON1 2370000 2399999 BOSTON2 XYZ Co. 2410000 2449999 BOSTON3 2450000 2469999 WAKEFIELD The network account column is used as described in US-A-5659599 to indicate that the mailboxes within the specified range are associated with a different account than the default network account for the NPA617 domain 16. Two entries are shown with a network account for XYZ Company which, unlike the ABC Company, has not had its own domain assigned. The address tables for the ABC domains 11-14 may use the network account field to separate voice mailboxes within a domain into different accounts based on administrative divisions within the company. As indicated in the address table above, the NPA617 domain 16 has storage locations on at least five different host systems and if the XYZ Company was defined as a logical domain, instead of only a network account, even this small domain would have storage locations provided by two different host systems. When a voice mail message is sent from one voice mailbox to another voice mailbox within a single domain or transfer is made from other types of application accounts, such as automated attendant accounts, it is only necessary to provide the name of the destination voice mailbox within that domain. For example, in the domains illustrated in Figure 1, the ABC3 domain 13 has voice mailboxes with three digit names. If a user with a voice mailbox in the ABC3 domain 13 wishes to send a voicemail message to another user in the same domain, the three digit name of the destination mailbox is entered at an appropriate time in response to a prompt provided by the host system. Due to the naming conventions and translation tables provided according to the present invention, it is also possible to easily address an account or mailbox in another domain. Two types of translation tables are provided in the preferred embodiment for the purpose of accessing other domains. The first is a gateway table. An example of the gateway table in the ABC3 domain 13 is provided below. In a gateway table, there are two fields indicating when access is to be made to another domain. The first field identifies a prefix or initial part of an address. The second field indicates a minimum number of digits identifying another domain. These two fields may be used individually or in combination. GATEWAY TABLE FOR ABC3 Prefix # digits Domain 8 4 ABC 9 7 NPA508 The first entry in the gateway table example above provides access from the ABC3 domain 13 to the ABC routing domain 22. When the prefix "8" is detected and at least four additional digits are received, further processing is performed in the ABC routing domain 22. The second digit (the digit following the "8") identifies one of the ABC domains 11-14 and the remaining three digits are used as the voice mailbox name in the identified ABC domain. A prefix alone may be sufficient to identify a new domain, in which case the number of digits field would be "1". The number of digits field alone can also indicate access to another domain. If 10 or more digits are entered from either NPA domain 16, 18 the NADP routing domain 20 is accessed. To permit access to other domains using 10 or more digits from within the NPA domains 16, 18, the closest match is always chosen first. Thus, if there is an entry in a gateway table with a prefix of more than 7 digits, that entry will be checked first, followed by any entries with 7 digit prefixes, 6 digit prefixes, etc. Only then is access available using the entries in the gateway table which do not have prefixes, such as an entry for the NADP routing domain from the NPA617 domain 16. When no matches are found in the gateway table, an alias table is checked, as described below. The second type of translation table is an alias table. The alias table maps addresses in one domain to addresses in another domain with a one-to-one correspondence. As indicated in the example, a range of several address locations can be mapped, but the range may also have a scope of one, e.g., 7321201-7321201. The address codes defining the beginning and end of the range are used to translate an input address into an addressed location in another domain. A portion of the alias table for the NPA617 domain 16 is provided below. ALIAS TABLE FOR NPA617 Start of Range End of Range Domain Start Address 7321100 7321200 ABCl 100 7321800 7321999 ABC2 201 The primary use of aliases is to define groups of voice mailboxes associated with CENTREX lines. Within an area code different companies may have CENTREX phone numbers with the same first three or four digits. Within a CENTREX group, e.g., ABC1, only the last three (or four) digits are dialled to access a telephone or its associated voice mailbox, but to reach the same voice mailbox from the parent domain, e.g., NPA617, all seven digits are required. If a voice mailbox or other application account is outside an originating domain having three digit mailboxes, a three digit number may be used to identify another domain in an alias table. For example, the ABC1 domain 11 may have an alias table identifying a range between 400 and 499 as a range of addresses of voice mailboxes in XYZ Company. A host system according to the present invention may be constructed as illustrated in Figure 2. Control of the system is provided by a processor (CPU) 58 which is connected via a passive blackplane 63 to hard drives 64, 66 via a disk controller 68. The host system is connected via digital switches 74 and a T-1 interface 76 to a telephone network. The storage locations or voice mailboxes are physically provided by the hard drive units 64, 66 and the translation tables and address table are also stored on these hard drive units 64, 66. The CPU 58 is programmed to provide services to subscribers including identifying an address location for each input address based on the tables stored in the hard drives 64, 66. The system illustrated in Figure 2 may be only a single processor system or a locally distributed host system having a plurality of such processor systems, as disclosed in more detail in U.S. Patent 5,029,199 and U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 07/594,648. An overview of how the processor 58 in the system illustrated in Figure 2 is programmed to operate is illustrated in Figure 3. As described above, the physical manifestation of the domains and the relationships between the domains are defined 80 by storing address, alias and gateway tables. When an input address is received 82, the entries in the gateway table are checked 84, starting with the longest prefixes and ending with the shortest entry containing a number of digits only. If the input address matches 84 the characteristics of one of the entries in the gateway table, the input address is translated 86 into a new domain via the gateway defined in the table. If there is no match 84 of a gateway characteristic, the input address is compared 88 with the entries in the alias table. If the input address fits in one of the ranges defined in the alias table for the originating domain, the input address is translated 90 into an addressed location in an alias domain. In either case, translation then continues in the new domain. The storage location identified by the remainder of the input address, which would be all of the input address if not translated via the alias or gateway tables, is accessed 92 to perform the service requested by the user. A more detailed description of the software used in the preferred embodiment will be provided with reference to Figure 4. A module visibility diagram is illustrated in Figure 4 for the software executed by the system illustrated in Figure 2. Each bubble in the diagram illustrated in Figure 4 represents a software object, i.e., procedure(s) and data related to each other. The higher level objects are at the top of Figure 4 and the lower level objects are at the bottom of Figure 4. The highest level objects illustrated in Figure 4 are addressing domain administration program 102 and applications 104. The addressing domain administration program 102 is used to create and maintain the address, alias and gateway tables discussed previously. The corresponding name for the addressing domain administration program is adadmin. The applications object 104 represents all of the applications, i.e., programs, such as voicemail, which use these three tables to locate a mailbox address on a host system. The applications bubble 104 corresponds to any application, such as voicemail, that uses the addressing services to translate and validate account and mailbox numbers. Underneath the applications bubble 104 are two modules. The address module 106 provides addressing services for any application requiring translating, resolving or validating of a mailbox or account address. The addressing domain cache 108 represents a cache of addressing domain data and the procedures used to access that data. The addressing domain data cache of module 108 is preferably maintained in shared memory by procedures which provide data needed for the operations performed by the address module 106. The addressing domain administration program 102 is formed of four modules: admin addressing domain 110, admin address table 112, admin aliases 114 and admin gateways 116. These objects include administrative screens and the data accessed by these screens. The procedures in these objects load data from a database, validate input received from an administrator and save the result to the database. As indicated in Figure 4, the admin addressing domain module 110 has access to the screens and data in each of the other three programs at this level, in addition to the direct access of all four modules from the addressing domain administration program 102. The admin addressing domain module 110 also accesses an addressing domain module 118. The addressing domain module 118 represents all addressing domains administrated by the addressing domain administration program 102, including basic configuration information and procedures to create, delete, access and update the addressing domain(s). As illustrated in Figure 4, some applications, such as voicemail administration, may have direct access to the addressing domain module 118 and in addition, the address program 106 and addressing domain cache module 108 each directly access the addressing domain module 118. Software objects for the three tables used in the present invention are represented at the next level. The address table 120, alias table 122 and gateway table 124 represent the component objects of an addressing domain. Each module includes procedures to access and update the respective tables. In the preferred embodiment, the addressing domain cache 108 and the addressing domain module 118 access the address table 120, alias table 122 and gateway table 124 which in turn access lower level objects that perform certain common operations more efficiently. It would be possible for the tables 120, 122, 124 to be the lowest level objects; however, in the preferred embodiment a table program 126 provides common facilities for access to and update of the respective tables which are maintained as part of a table object. A reference list module 128 maintains a list of referenced objects, in particular addressing domains referred to in the gateway and alias tables. The reference list module 128 maintains a reference count for objects in a database and updates the reference count when references to the object are added or removed from a database. To delete an object from the database, there must be no other objects which refer to that object, i.e., the reference count must be zero. In addition to maintaining addressing domain reference counts, the reference list module 128 may be used as a low level object for other administration objects, such as network accounts, hosts, carriers, etc. The lowest level object is the database object 130 which maintains the bulk of the data accessed by the application programs 104 and addressing domain administration program 102, as well as other programs, such as network accounts, etc. which are not illustrated in Figure 4. The database object 130 is capable of performing database operations that are common regardless of object type. The database object 130 may be implemented using a commercially available database manager with custom routines to provide the interface between the other objects illustrated in Figure 4 and the database manager. Alternatively, the database object 130 may be formed from custom routines and data structures, with or without some commercially available library functions. The preferred embodiment uses a software product named JAM from JYACC, Inc. of New York, New York to implement the man-machine interface in the higher level programs. JAM provides screen-building and execution flow control.

Claims: A method of operating a distributed data processing system providing information services for a subscriber telephone system, the processing system including a plurality of host systems having processors (58) and storage units (64,66) containing storage locations, at least two of the host systems being located at different physical sites, the method including the steps of: (a) assigning to each subscriber at least one logical domain corresponding to selected storage locations, the or each logical domain being independent of any specific storage unit; (b) storing at least one translation table identifying domains for input addresses; and (c) identifying an address location for each of the input addresses by determining the addressed domain and then determining the addressed location within the addressed domain. A method of addressing in a distributed data processing system having storage units and processors, comprising the steps of: (a) defining domains of storage locations in the storage units without requiring any physical relationship between the domains and the storage units containing the storage locations; (b) storing at least one translation table to identify the domains for input addresses; and (c) identifying an address location for each of the input addresses by determining an addressed domain and then the addressed location within the addressed domain. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the storage locations include application accounts and the distributed data processing system provides information services to subscribers using at least two computer systems separated by at least 100 meters and connected by a telephone switching system. A method according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the storage is formed of host systems each including at least one of the storage units and at least one of the processors, and wherein said defining in step (a) comprises the step of (al) storing an address table for each logical domain included in the domains in at least one of the storage units accessible to all of the processors, the address table defining physical locations of the storage locations within the logical domain, such that each of the storage locations is defined as located on one of the host systems and more than one of the host systems may provide the storage locations within the logical domain. A method according to claim 4, wherein said storing in step (al) includes storing a range of the address locations having a scope of at least one and a host identifier for each entry in the address table, and wherein said defining in step (a) further comprises the step of (a2) copying the address table for each of the domains to all of the host systems. A method according to claim 4 or 5, further comprising the step of (b) receiving the input addresses to identify the storage locations to be accessed, wherein said storing in step (d) comprises the step of storing in at least one of the storage units entries in an alias table providing one of the at least one translation table for the logical domain included in the domains, each entry in the alias table defining a one-to-one correspondence between a range of address codes and a range of address locations in one of the domains, the ranges of address codes and address locations each having a scope of at least one, and wherein said identifying in step (c) comprises the steps of: (cl) comparing the input addresses with the address codes in the alias table for the logical domain; and (c2) identifying the addressed locations as one of the storage locations having a one-to-one correspondence with a selected address code in the range of address codes in one of the entries of the alias table if the selected address code matches one of the input addresses. A method according to claim 4 or 5, further comprising the step of (d) receiving the input addresses to identify the storage locations to be accessed, wherein said storing in step (b) comprises the step of storing, in at least one of the storage units, entries in a gateway table providing one of the at least one translation table for the logical domain included in the domains, each entry defining a relationship between characteristics of the input addresses and one of the domains, and wherein said identifying in step (c) comprises the steps of: (cl) comparing the input addresses with each entry in the gateway table; and (c2) identifying the address location as within an addressed domain in one of the entries in the gateway table for each of the input addresses having a match with the characteristics in the one of the entries. A method according to claim 7, wherein said storing in step (b) comprises the step of (bl) storing prefixes of the input addresses as one of the characteristics, and wherein said identifying in step (c) identifies the addressed location as within the addressed domain if one of the prefixes matches an initial part of one of the input addresses. A method according to claim 8, wherein said storing in step (b) further comprises the step of (b2) storing a number of digits as another of the characteristics, and wherein said identifying in step (c2) identifies the addressed location as within the addressed domain if the number of digits in the one of the entries equals the number of digits in one of the input addresses and none other of the entries provide a closer match to the one of the input addresses. A method according to claim 9, wherein each of the entries in the gateway table includes space for both the prefixes and the number of digits, and wherein said comparing in step (cl) compares each of the input addresses with both the prefixes and the number of digits in the entries for the entries having both and with only one of the prefixes and the number digits for the entries otherwise. A method according to claim 7, wherein said storing in step (b) comprises the step of storing a number of digits as one of the characteristics, and wherein said identifying in step (c2) identifies the address location as within the addressed domain if the number of digits in the one of the entries equals the number of digits in one of the input addresses and none other of the entries provide a closer match to the one of the input addresses. A method of operating a distributed data processing system providing information services for a subscriber telephone system, the processing system including a plurality of host systems having processors and storage units containing storage locations, with at least one kilometre separating at least two of the host systems, said method comprising the steps of: (a) assigning at least one domain to each of the subscribers, each domain having a unique name within the telephone system; (b) storing for each of the domains:- (bl) an address table having entries, each entry containing an identifier of one of the host systems, a first range of the storage locations provided by the one of the host systems and a second range of addresses within the domain of the address table, corresponding to the range of the storage locations, the first and second ranges having a scope of at least one; (b2) an alias table having entries, each entry containing a first name of an alias domain, a third range of the addresses in the alias domain and a fourth range of address codes in the domain of the alias table, the third and fourth ranges having a one-to-one correspondence and a scope of at least one; and (b3) a gateway table having entries, each entry containing a second name of an alternate domain and at least one of a prefix and a number of digits; (c) receiving an input address from a user of the telephone system currently assigned an originating domain; (d) translating the input address into a first storage location corresponding to an alias address in the address table for the alias domain if the input address contains one of the address codes in the fourth range in one of the entries in the alias table; (e) translating the input address into a second storage location corresponding to an alternate domain address in the address table for the alternate domain if the input address does not include the address codes in the fourth range in any of the entries in the alias table and has a closest match with the prefix, if any, and the number of digits, if any, in one of the entries in the gateway table; (f) identifying a third storage location corresponding to the input address using the address table for the originating domain if said translating in steps (d) and (e) is not performed; and (g) accessing one of the first, second and third storage locations in dependence upon which of steps (d), (e) and (f) was performed. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein the storage locations include voice mail boxes, and wherein said method further comprises the steps of copying the address, alias and gateway tables for each domain for access by all of the host systems in the telephone system and in any other telephone system having access to the voice mail boxes. A distributed data processing system, comprising: a plurality of storage units (64,66) having storage locations, at least one of the storage units storing an address table defining domains of the storage locations in said storage units without requiring any physical relationship between the domains and said storage units containing the storage locations within the domains and at least one translation table to identify the domains for input addresses; and processors (58) to provide services to subscribers of said distributed data processing system and to identify an address location for each of the input addresses by determining an addressed domain and then the addressed location within the addressed domain.

Inventors: ARUMAINAYAGAM ALLEN THEIVENDRA, CAPO JOSE, DEIGH ANTHONY NICHOLAS, PENFIELD ROBERT FLAGG, ARUMAINAYAGAM, ALLEN THEIVENDRAN, CAPO, JOSE, DEIGH, ANTHONY NICHOLAS, PENFIELD, ROBERT FLAGG, Capo, José
Applicants: COMVERSE NETWORK SYST INC, COMVERSE NETWORK SYSTEMS, INC.
Application year: 1993
Main classification: H04M3
IPC codes: H04M7, H04L12, G06F13, H04M3