Abstract:
A system for providing location ID services for telephone calls transfers location data describing the location of the calling device to the called device. Rather than or in addition to providing the name and telephone number as is done through the conventional caller ID service, the location of the calling device is displayed by the called device including the zip code, the longitude and latitude planar coordinates, or the street address. Existing advanced intelligent network infrastructure may be adapted to provide the location ID service, such as by providing location data queries from a signal switching point to a signal control point. The signal control point has access to a CNAM database containing location ID data fields in addition to conventional caller ID data.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
         [0001]    The present invention is related to providing information about a calling party to a called party through the telephone system. More specifically, the present invention relates to providing location data of the calling party to the called party.  
         BACKGROUND  
         [0002]    Caller ID services are provided by telephone companies to permit a called party to determine who is calling even before answering the call. Caller ID services generally provide a display of the calling party&#39;s name and/or telephone number. Called parties may use the caller ID service to screen calls and/or to review the names and numbers for missed calls. Thus, caller ID has become a valuable feature of telephone service.  
           [0003]    Often, it is also desirable for the location of a caller to be known by the called party. This is especially true in emergency situations. For this reason, automatic location provided to the 911 service being called. This enables the 911 service to dispatch assistance to the calling party&#39;s location without relying on the calling party to verbally provide the location information. However, the ALI database is accessible only by public safety answering points for 911 services and is inaccessible for non-911 telephone calls.  
           [0004]    Other called parties may also benefit from knowing the calling party&#39;s location without relying on verbal communication. For example, a poison control center may be called, rather than 911, by a parent in response to a child ingesting a harmful substance. The situation may warrant dispatching emergency personnel to assist the child, but the location of the child must be learned by the poison control center before emergency personnel can be dispatched.  
           [0005]    Therefore, there is a need for a location ID service that provides location information of a calling party to a called party for non-911 telephone calls.  
         SUMMARY  
         [0006]    Embodiments of the present invention address the problems discussed above and others by providing a location ID service that functions independently from the 911 ALI service. The location ID service provides the location of the device used by the calling party to the device used by the called party. This allows the called party to obtain the calling party&#39;s location without relying upon verbal communication. Typically, embodiments of the present invention are implemented using components of an advanced intelligent network (AIN).  
           [0007]    To provide the location information to the called party, a signal switching point (SSP) for the called party receives a call trigger emanating from the calling device. The call trigger may include an identifier of the calling party, such as the calling party&#39;s telephone number. The SSP for the called party generates a query containing the calling party&#39;s identifier and delivers it to a signal transfer point (STP). The STP then forwards the query to an appropriate signal control point (SCP). The appropriate SCP has access to a database containing location information for the calling party, which is indexed by the calling party&#39;s identifier. For example, the database may be the conventional CNAM database that has been adapted to contain location ID data in addition to the caller ID data.  
           [0008]    Once the SCP has found the calling party&#39;s location information in the database, the SCP delivers the location information to the STP. The STP forwards the location information to the SSP, and the SSP sends the location information to the called party&#39;s device. The query generated by the SSP and location data transmission between the devices of the AIN may employ out-of-band signaling such as signaling system seven (SS 7 ).  
           [0009]    The embodiments of the present invention may also provide detection of whether called parties have subscribed to location ID service. For example, the SSP of the called party may check service tables to determine whether the called party has location ID service prior to delivering the location ID data to the called party&#39;s device. Furthermore, a determination may be made as to whether the calling party prefers privacy, and if so, the location ID data is not retrieved or delivered.  
           [0010]    The various aspects of the present invention may be more clearly understood and appreciated from a review of the following detailed description of the disclosed embodiments and by reference to the drawings and claims. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]    [0011]FIG. 1 shows an exemplary telephone system for implementing an embodiment of location ID services.  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 2 is a first portion of an exemplary operational flow of the location ID services implemented by the telephone system of FIG. 1 in conjunction with conventional caller ID services.  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 3 is a second portion of the exemplary operational flow of the location ID services being implemented in conjunction with conventional caller ID services.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 4 is a third portion of the exemplary operational flow of the location ID services being implemented in conjunction with the conventional caller ID services.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 5 is an example of a service table referenced by a called party&#39;s service switching point.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 6 is an example of a CNAM database table adapted to provide location ID services in conjunction with caller ID services. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0017]    In FIG. 1, a telephone system is shown that employs an AIN  100 . The AIN  100  is a telecommunications switching network that utilizes the well-known SS 7  protocol to connect switching centers and other telecommunications resources to provide call routing and various other services. Essentially, the AIN  100  is a collection of telecommunications components and interconnections that support the generation of AIN messages known as triggers and enable the components to respond to generated triggers by generating responsive messages or by executing an associated instruction.  
         [0018]    A conventional voice line telephone  102  is connected to the AIN  100  through a telephone line  120 . Telephone line  120  leads to a Central Office  104  that maintains a switch known as an SSP  106 . The SSP  106  may have a plurality of subscriber lines connected to it, such as the telephone line  120  establishing wireline telephone service. Likewise, a voice line telephone or other voice line capable device such as a computer  118  may be linked to another central office  108  and SSP  110  through a telephone line  128 . The AIN can have an indefinite number of SSPs  106 ,  110 .  
         [0019]    The SSPs  106 ,  110  communicate with each other over an SS 7  protocol data communication link  122  which may be established through an STP, such as but not necessarily STP  112 , that routes the data packets between the two SSPs  106 ,  110 . AIN messages may be passed between SSPs  106 ,  110  through the communication link  122 , and these messages may include data such as the calling party&#39;s telephone number or other identifier. Voice connections between SSPs  106 ,  110  are established through a voice trunk  130  which carries the voice communication that occurs between the two end devices  102 ,  118 .  
         [0020]    A data communication link  124  is used to connect an SSP  110  to an STP  112 . The STP  112  selects an appropriate SCP  114  to route the message from the SSP  110 , such as in relation to the calling party&#39;s identifier. Messages are delivered from the STP  112  to an appropriate SCP  114  through a data communication link  126 . The SCP  114  then responds to the message from the SSP  110  with a responsive message. The responsive message travels back to the STP  112  and then back to the SSP  110 .  
         [0021]    Much of the intelligence of the AIN  100  used to switch calls and provide other telecommunications services resides in the SCP  114 . As is known to those skilled in the art, SCPs  114  were initially integrated into the AIN  100  to handle message translations and billing transactions for the implementation of 800-number services. An 800 number subscriber has at least one telephone number that can be called by a telephone user. Because there is no physical Central Office or geographic area that corresponds to the 800-area code, it is more economical to provide a few central locations at which a lookup of the directory number for an 800 call can be made. SCPs  114  may have associated databases for directory numbers corresponding to functional 800 numbers.  
         [0022]    SCPs  114  also may have databases that contain additional data for enhanced telecommunications services such as caller ID. For example, the CNAM database  116  contains the name corresponding to the telephone number of a calling party. This name can be provided to a called party from the CNAM database  116  when ringing the called party&#39;s telephone device  118 . Additionally, SCPs may be used to track the services to be provided to a particular subscriber line, such as whether or not a particular subscriber line has caller ID service.  
         [0023]    In summary, the AIN  100  is a complex, high-speed, high call volume, packet-switched messaging system that provides a great deal of versatility in the handling of telephone calls. The SSP  106 ,  110  can generate a message to the SCP  114  in response to the notification of an incoming call, or call trigger, and then wait for a response from the SCP  114  before proceeding with call processing. More detailed information regarding the AIN  100  can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,719, which is commonly assigned to BellSouth Intellectual Property Management Corporation and is incorporated herein by reference.  
         [0024]    In the example of FIG. 1, a user of the telephone  102  can ring another telephone or equivalent device  118  by dialing a directory number associated with the telephone  118 . A voice link can be created between the calling telephone  102  and the called telephone  118 , if the called telephone  118  answers in response to the ring. In addition to creating the voice link between the calling telephone  102  and called telephone  118 , the additional services such as caller ID may be provided, as may be embodiments of location ID service discussed herein.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 2 shows a first portion of an exemplary operational flow employed by the AIN  100  to provide the location ID service. As shown in FIGS.  2 - 4 , the location ID service may be employed by the AIN  100  in conjunction with conventional caller ID service and/or call privacy service, but one skilled in the art will recognize that location ID service may also be employed alone. The operational flow of this example begins by the calling device  102  placing a call over the telephone system at call operation  202 . The originating SSP  106  detects that the calling device  102  is placing a call to the called device  118  by dialing the telephone number of the called device  118 , with the dialed number becoming a call trigger. At transfer operation  204 , the originating SSP  106  communicates with the called party&#39;s SSP  110  by transmitting the call trigger to signal that a call to the called party device  118  has been placed. During the communication between the originating SSP  106  and the called party SSP  110 , the originating SSP  106  forwards the calling party&#39;s telephone number.  
         [0026]    The SSP  106  may also forward a privacy indicator to the SSP  110  if a privacy indicator is appropriate. At query operation  206 , the SSP  106  detects whether a privacy indicator is appropriate such as by referring to local service tables, or by querying an appropriate SCP with knowledge of the calling party&#39;s services. A privacy indicator is appropriate where the calling party has subscribed or otherwise initiated privacy service to block distribution of caller ID and location ID data. Calling parties may subscribe to a continually functioning privacy service or may initiate privacy service on a call-by-call basis using a star code, where an asterisk and specific numbers are dialed prior to dialing the number of the called party. FIG. 5 shows an example of a service table  500  residing at the originating SSP  106  or at the SCP  114  associated with the calling party and containing an indication  506  of privacy service in relation to the telephone number  502  for subscribers. At query operation  206  the telephone number  502  of the calling party is referenced to determine if the calling party has privacy service.  
         [0027]    If query operation  206  detects that a privacy indicator is present, then at call operation  208  the SSP  110  rings the called device  118  to allow the call to be answered. However, no caller ID or location ID data is transferred to the called device  118  when ringing the called device  118 . If at query operation  206  the SSP  110  detects that a privacy indicator is not present, then operational flow transitions to query operation  210 . At query operation  210 , SSP  110  and/or an SCP associated with the called party, which may or may not be SCP  114 , detects whether the called party has subscribed to location ID service by referring to its local service tables. With reference to FIG. 5, the telephone number  502  of the called party may be referenced against the ID services information  504  of a service table  500  for the called party&#39;s SSP  110  or SCP associated with the called party to determine whether the called party subscribes to location ID service.  
         [0028]    If at query operation  210  the SSP  110  finds that the called party has not subscribed to location ID service, then operational flow transitions to query operation  212 . At query operation  212 , the SSP  110  detects whether the called party has caller ID service. The called party&#39;s telephone number  502  is referenced against the ID services information  504  within the service table  500  of FIG. 5 maintained by the called party&#39;s SSP  110  or the SCP associated with the called party. If the called party does not have caller ID service, then SSP  110  rings the called device  118  at call operation  208 , but no caller ID or location ID data is delivered to the called device  118 . If query operation  212  detects that the called party has subscribed to caller ID service, then operational flow transitions to message operation  214  of FIG. 3.  
         [0029]    At message operation  214 , the SSP  110  generates a query for the caller ID data of the calling party and sends the query message to the STP  112 . The query contains the calling party&#39;s telephone number or other identifier that has been received from the originating SSP  106 . At transfer operation  216 , the STP  112  forwards the query to the appropriate SCP  114  that has access to a database containing the caller ID data for the calling party, such as CNAM database  116 . At look-up operation  218 , the SCP  114  references the calling party&#39;s number in the data table of database  116  to find the proper caller ID data. FIG. 6 shows an example of a data table  600  of database  116 , which contains the caller ID data  604  such as the name that is associated with the telephone number  602  of the calling party.  
         [0030]    Once the caller ID data has been obtained, the SCP  114  sends the caller ID data back to the STP  112  at send operation  220 . The STP  112  then provides the caller ID data to the SSP  110  at send operation  222 . After receiving the caller ID data from the STP  112 , the SSP  110  delivers the caller ID data to the called device  118  when ringing the called device  118  at call operation  224 . The called device  118  displays the caller ID information so that the called party can see who is calling prior to answering the call.  
         [0031]    If at query operation  210  the SSP  110  finds that the called party has subscribed to location ID service, then operational flow transitions to message operation  226  of FIG. 4. At message operation  226 , the SSP  110  generates a query for the location ID data for the calling party and sends it to the STP  112 . The query contains the calling party&#39;s telephone number or other identifier that has been received from the originating SSP  106 . At transfer operation  228 , the STP  112  forwards the query to the appropriate SCP  114  that has access to a database containing the location ID data for the calling party, such as CNAM database  116  that has been adapted to contain location ID data in addition to caller ID data. At look-up operation  230 , the SCP  114  references the calling party&#39;s number in the data table of database  116  to find the proper caller ID data. The data table  600  of FIG. 6 contains the location ID data  606  such as the 9-digit zip code, latitude and longitude coordinates, or street address data that is associated with the telephone number  602  of the calling party.  
         [0032]    Once the location ID data has been obtained, the SCP  114  sends the location ID data back to the STP  112  at send operation  232 . The STP  112  then provides the location ID data to the SSP  110  at send operation  234 . After receiving the location ID data from the STP  112 , the SSP  110  delivers the location ID data to the called device  118  when ringing the called device  118  at call operation  236 . The called device  118  displays the location ID information so that the called party can see where a party is calling from prior to answering the call.  
         [0033]    The called party may be employing a standard caller ID device to display the location ID information. In that case, 9-digit zip code location ID data or planar coordinate data may be delivered to the called party for display within the limited character spaces available as if it were caller ID data. However, the called party may employ a more sophisticated display device, such as a computer terminal that is capable of displaying many more characters than the standard caller ID display device. In that case, the full street address may be delivered to the calling party.  
         [0034]    Furthermore, the called party&#39;s computer terminal may employ geographic informational system (GIS) software or an equivalent to provide more detail about the location of the calling party. For example, the GIS software may operate upon the location information that is received through the location ID service to map the location of the calling party. Telephone ordering/delivery services, such as food delivery, can thereby determine the proper route to deliver the ordered goods without receiving verbal instruction from the caller. Likewise, emergency services other than 911, such as poison control centers, can dispatch assistance to the location of the calling party without verbal instruction from the caller.  
         [0035]    To facilitate data transmission of the location information beyond the called party&#39;s computer terminal, such as to GIS software that is externally provided, the location data in the CNAM database may be encoded in various formats. One example of encoding would be binary coded decimal (BCD), where each decimal number of the 9-digit zip code or planar coordinate is represented by a nibble (4 bits). Other encoding schemes are also applicable.  
         [0036]    Although the present invention has been described in connection with various exemplary embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that many modifications can be made thereto within the scope of the claims that follow. Accordingly, it is not intended that the scope of the invention in any way be limited by the above description, but instead be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow.