Abstract:
A device and method for interconnecting the wires of a monitored alarm system into a telephone network interface without disturbing preexisting telephone line connections. The device is a connector assembly that is adapted to engage one of the connector modules present in a telephone network interface. The connector assembly electrically interconnects to a telecommunications pathway that passes through the telephone network interface. The connector assembly contains a wire connector that receives wires from the monitored alarm system. By connecting the alarm system wires to the connector assembly and connecting the connector assembly to the telephone network interface, the monitored alarm system is connected to external telephone lines without requiring existing telephone wire connections to be compromised.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of the Invention 
   In general, the present invention relates to devices that are used to interconnect wires within the confines of a telephone network interface. More particularly, the present invention relates to devices that facilitate the interconnection of wires from a monitored alarm system with telephone wires within a telephone network interface. 
   2. Description of the Prior Art 
   When telephone wires enter a private home or a small commercial building, the wires typically terminate in a telephone network interface. The telephone network interface is typically a small waterproof junction box that is mounted to the exterior of the home or building. Telephone wires from within the facility also terminate within the telephone network interface. Within the telephone network interface, the telephone wires from within the facility are interconnected to the incoming telephone wires from the telecommunications provider. Common telephone network interfaces are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,559 to Collins, entitled Telephone Network Interface Apparatus, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,220 to Garver, entitled, Network Interface Device. 
   Typically, the telephone network interface also represents the line of demarcation between property that is owned by the telecommunications provider and property that is owned by the customer facility. If a telephone wire needs repair at any point prior to the telephone network interface, the repair is the responsibility of the telecommunications provider. However, if a telephone wire needs repair at any point after the telephone network interface, the repair is typically the responsibility of the customer facility. 
   Many businesses and private homes have remotely monitored security systems and/or medical alert systems. In such systems, an alarm signal is sent to a remote monitoring station when the system is triggered. Most commonly, such systems send alarm signals to the remote monitoring station using the telephone lines within the monitored facility. In order to connect a security system or a medical alert system to a facility&#39;s telephone lines, wires from the system must be interconnected with the telephone wiring of the monitored facility. The most common place used to interconnect wires from a monitored alarm system to a facility&#39;s telephone lines is within the telephone network interface. 
   When a monitored alarm system is added to a facility, that alarm system must be able to send an alarm signal to a monitoring center regardless to the status of the telephones within that facility. For instance, if a person is talking on the telephone or if the telephone is off-the-hook when a alarm signal needs to be sent, the monitored alarm system must have the ability to close the open telephone line and reestablish a dialing tone so that the alarm signal can be successfully transmitted. In the field of monitored alarm systems, this is commonly accomplished by placing the monitored alarm system in series with the customer telephones, in between the customer&#39;s telephones and the telephone network interface. 
   Referring to  FIG. 1 , a schematic of a prior art monitored alarm system installation is shown. Within the telephone network interface  10  for a facility, a pair of external wires  20  is received from the telephone pole for each telephone exchange used within that facility. If a facility uses multiple exchange numbers, multiple pairs of external wires  20  are received. 
   Within the telephone network interface  10  are provided a set of wire mounting screws  28  for each telephone exchange, wherein the wire mounting screws  28  are interconnected with the incoming external wires  20  for that exchange. If no monitored alarm system were present, wires  34  from within the facility would be connected to the wire mounting screws  34  within the telephone network interface  10 , thereby completing the interconnection between the facility&#39;s telephones and the external telephone lines  20  of the telecommunications provider. 
   When a monitored alarm system is installed in a facility, a four wire cable  17  is typically run into the telephone network interface  10 . The wires  34  that lead to the facility&#39;s telephones are disconnected from the wire mounting screws  28  and are attached to two of the wires in the four wire cable  17 . The wire-to-wire interconnection  15  is commonly made using mechanical crimps, or taped wire twisting. The other two wires of the four cable wire  17  are connected to the wire mounting screws  28  in place of the facility&#39;s telephone wires  34 . Accordingly, in order for a telephone to be interconnected with an external telephone line  20 , signals between the external telephone lines  20  and the facility&#39;s internal telephone wires  34  must pass through the monitored alarm system. Such an installation enables the monitored alarm system to disconnect any open telephone line, reestablish a dial tone and transmit an alarm signal to a remote monitoring station. 
   Since the wire-to-wire interconnection  15  of the facilities telephone wires  34  and the four wire cable  17  are made using mechanical crimps, it is not uncommon for wire connections to fail or short within the telephone network interface. Once a wire connection fails or shorts, a facility&#39;s telephone service may become compromised. The facility owner then typically calls the telephone company for service. When, a telephone company serviceman checks the telephone network interface, he/she often perceives the alarm wires as having caused the problem. The telephone serviceman therefore often disconnects the alarm wires and directly reconnects the telephone wires. The facility owner must then call the alarm company for service to reconnect the alarm wires. 
   A need therefore exists for a better way to integrate alarm wires into a telephone network interface so that the quality of connections between telephone wires and monitored alarm system wires is improved. This need is met by the present invention as is described and claimed below. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention is a device and method for interconnecting the wires of a monitored alarm system into a telephone network interface without disturbing preexisting telephone line connections. The device is a connector assembly that is adapted to engage one of the connector modules present in a telephone network interface. The connector assembly electrically intersects at least one telecommunications pathway that passes through the telephone network interface. The connector assembly contains a wire connector that receives wires from the monitored alarm system. By connecting the alarm system wires to the connector assembly and connecting the connector assembly to the telephone network interface, the monitored alarm system is connected to external telephone lines without requiring existing telephone wire connections to be compromised. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     For a better understanding of the present invention, reference is made to the following description of exemplary embodiments thereof, considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic of a prior art installation of a monitored alarm system; 
       FIG. 2  is a perspective view of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention device shown in conjunction with a telephone network interface and wires from a monitored alarm system; 
       FIG. 3  is schematic of the embodiment of the connector assembly shown in  FIG. 2 ; 
       FIG. 4  is front view of an alternate embodiment of connector assembly in accordance with the present invention; and 
       FIG. 5  is a perspective view of an alternate embodiment of the present invention device shown in conjunction with a telephone network interface and wires from a monitored alarm system. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   Although the present invention device and method can be used to interconnect many different system wires within a telephone network interface, the present invention device is particularly well suited for interconnecting monitored alarm system wires to external telephone lines within the telephone network interface. Accordingly, the illustrated examples of the present invention device will show applications where it is being used to interconnect monitored alarm system wires to telephone wires within a telephone network interface. 
   Referring to  FIG. 2 , an exemplary telephone network interface  10  is illustrated. The telephone network interface  10  contains a plastic housing  12  that mounts to the exterior of a home or business. Within the housing  12  are two separate chambers  14 ,  16  that are accessible with two swinging doors  18 ,  19 . External telephone wires  20  from the telecommunications provider enter the first chamber  14 , wherein they are coupled to mounting connectors  22 . The mounting connectors  22  are set in pairs so as to receive matched pairs of telephone wires from the telecommunications provider. 
   In the second chamber  16  of the telephone network interface  10  are located a plurality of connection modules  24 . Each of the connection modules  24  contains a female connector port  26  and a pair of wire mounting screws  28 . The number of connection modules  24  corresponds to the number of mounting connectors  22  in the second chamber  14  of the telephone network interface  10 . Within the housing  12  of the telephone network interface  10 , the female connector ports  26  in the connection modules  24  are electrically interconnected to the mounting connectors  22  in the second chamber  14 . 
   A patch cord  30  is attached to each of the connection modules  24 . The patch cord  30  contains wires. At one end of the patch cord  30 , the wires of the patch cord are electrically connected to the wire mounting screws  28 . The opposite end of the patch cord  30  is terminated with a modular connector  32  such as a model RJ-11 modular telephone connector. The modular connector  32  is sized to engage the female connector port  26  on the connection module  24 . 
   Telephone wires  34  from the facility are directed into the housing  12  of the telephone network interface  10 . A pair of wires is provided for each telephone exchange provided for that facility. Each wire pair is attached to the wire mounting screws  28  of a connector module  24 . When the modular connector  32  on the patch cord  30  is inserted into the female connector port  26 , a connection is made between the internal telephone wires  34  of the facility and the external telephone wires  20  of the telecommunications provider. 
   A connector assembly  40  is provided to interconnect alarm system wires  42  with the external telephone wires  42  without disrupting the connection of internal telephone lines in the telephone network interface  10 . The connector assembly  40  contains a wire receptacle connector  44 . The wire receptacle connector  44  contains four ports  46  that receive the four wires from a typical monitored alarm system. The wire receptacle connector  44  positively engages the monitored alarm system wires  42  using a crimp, clamp, mounting screws, or the like. In the shown embodiment, set screws are present in the wire receptacle connector  44  to positively engage the monitored alarm system wires  42 . 
   Two cable leads extend into the wire receptacle connector  44 . The first cable lead  48  terminates with a female connector port  50 . The female connector port  50  is adapted to receive the modular connector  32  at the end of a patch cord  30  on one of the connector modules  24  in the telephone network interface  10 . The second cable lead  52  terminates with a male modular connector  54 . The male modular connector  54  is adapted to engage the female connector port  26  on one of the connector modules  24  in the telephone network interface  10 . 
   Referring to  FIG. 3 , it can be seen that the two wires contained within the first cable lead  48  and the two wires contained within the second cable lead  52  all lead to separate ports of the wire receptacle connector  44 . The wire receptacle connector  44  acts as a junction, wherein an electrical interconnection between with the female connector port  50  and the male modular connector  54  can be had through the monitored alarm system. Accordingly, by connecting the monitored alarm system wires  42  to the wire receptacle connector  44 , the monitored alarm system wires  42  are interconnected with both the female connector port  50  and the male modular connector  54  without disturbing any other wire interconnection that is present within the telephone network interface. 
   Returning to  FIG. 2 , it can be seen that modular connector  32  of the patch cord  30  interconnects with the female connector port  50  of the connector assembly  40 . Similarly, the male modular connector  54  of the connector assembly  40  engages the female connector  26  of the same connector module  24 . The telephone wires connected at the wire mounting screws  28  remain undisturbed. However, the connector assembly  40  enables the monitored alarm system wires to be introduced in series into the electrical pathways between the internal telephone wires  34  and the external telephone wires  20 . The monitored alarm system wires  42  are therefore interconnected to the external telephone wires in a manner that enables the monitored alarm system to disable any of the internal telephone wires  34 . 
   Referring to  FIG. 4 , an alternate embodiment of the connector assembly  70  is shown. In this embodiment, the first cable lead  72  from the female connector port  74  and the second cable lead  76  from the male modular connector  78  join together with a third cable lead  80  at a splice junction  82 . The third cable lead  80  extends to the wire receptacle connector  84 . 
   Referring to  FIG. 5 , an alternate embodiment of a telephone network interface  100  is shown. In this embodiment, connector modules  102  are also used to interconnect internal customer-owned telephone wires (not shown) with external provider-owned telephone wires (not shown). However, in this model of telephone network interface  100 , no patch cords are used on the connector modules. Rather, interconnection are hard wired within the structure of the connector modules  102 . Accordingly, there is no means to directly interconnect the connection assembly of  FIG. 2 ,  FIG. 3  and  FIG. 4  to the telephone network interface. 
   The telephone network interface  100  shown in  FIG. 5  does have connector modules  102 . On each of the connector modules  102  is a test port  104 . The test port  104  provides a means for a technician to directly access the telephone lines at the point of the telephone network interface  100 . The leads contained within the test port are internally interconnected to the telephone lines. 
   An alternate embodiment of a connector assembly  110  is also shown. In this embodiment, the connector assembly  110  contains only one cable lead  112 . One end of the cable lead  112  is terminated in a male modular plug  114  that can engage the test port  104  on any of the connector modules  102 . The opposite end of the cable lead  112  is terminated in a wire receptacle connector  116 , such as previously described in regard to  FIG. 1 . 
   To install the connector assembly  102 , the monitored alarm system wires  120  are connected to the wire receptacle connector  116 . The male modular connector  114  is then inserted into the test port  104  on one of the modular connectors  102 . Once the male modular connector  114  is inserted into a test port  104 , the connector assembly  102  becomes electrically interconnected to the internal telephone wires and the external telephone wires that lead to that modular connector. The monitored alarm system wires  120  are therefore interconnected to the external telephone wires without disturbing the interconnection between the internal telephone wires and the external telephone wires. 
   It will be understood that the embodiments of the present invention device and method described and illustrated herein are merely exemplary and a person skilled in the art can make many variations to the embodiment shown without departing from the scope of the present invention. Elements from different embodiments can be mixed in manners not specifically described. All such variations, modifications and alternate embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.